Arturius International is logistics company based in Wiltshire which was formed in 2013 by planners and project managers from the British, French and US Armed Forces. The company claims to have “specialist skills in planning, reconnaissance and designing deliverable, robust solutions in hostile and unforgiving locations” and offers “integrated operational support to conventional and unconventional oil and gas, mining, defence and critical infrastructure sectors”. The company appears to employ mostly ex-service personnel and has close links with various NATO armed forces. Arturius’ chairman is Lord David Richards, former Chief of the Defence Staff, who has also worked as an advisor to the government of the United Arab Emirates and US-based arms company DynCorp.
Arturius International Advert For Seismic Survey Crews (Click To Enlarge)
In March 2015 Arturius announced that it had signed a long term contract with United Oilfield Services (UOS) to provide operational support services for all its UK projects. Since UOS is company setup in Poland to provide well stimulation, well testing, drilling, and seismic data acquisition services to the fracking industry there. While Arturius do not mention the ultimate client for this work, this was the same month that Ineos signed a £30m deal with IGas, massively expanding its interests in fracking licence areas. At the same time Alex Preston joined the directorship bringing investment from his German utility company Verivox.
In recent months Arturius have been placing advertisements in various places for ex-service personnel to work as seismic survey crews in the Chesterfield, Mansfield and Worksop areas. The adverts mention an initial 6 month contract starting soon, but also that it is the first of a series covering Northern England, and that the next 6 month contract (presumably in a different area) will begin as soon as the first finished. Given that Ineos has 1.2 million acres of licences in the UK, much of it recently acquired in the 14th onshore licencing round, Arturius may be heavily involved in plans for a series of surveys across Ineos’s licence areas.
Note: Arturius International have restricted access to their website but you can view it here on the internet archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20160109084158/http://www.arturius.net/