The Middle Eastern conglomerate, which has an oil & gasdivision, has pumped equity into Queensland-based Bothar Boring &Tunnelling to get a 49% share.

As a consequence the new company is to be called PetroservInternational and will focus on the oil & gas industry in the Asia-Pacificregion.

The parent Petroserv Group also has options to extend itsholding in the new venture.

Garry Ash, chairman of the newly-formed outfit, said: “Our focus will be on oil and gas field services,including engineering, construction and fabrication solutions as well as belowground infrastructure and micro-tunneling and we see a real market advantage ofbringing our innovation of technology to service this sector.

“We