When SAR first started operations back in 1987, our range and scope were limited. Approximately 30 years later, our recycling and recovery specialists now offer a full range of services, trademarked under our Waste Chain Management (WCM®) brand. We focus primarily on hazardous waste fractions and drilling waste from the petroleum industry, and our extensive presence and experience enables us to offer counselling, handling and processing at our own facilities.
Our story begins with the aptly named Septik Tank Co, founded in Tananger by Mr Peder Jåsund in the late 1960s. In 1987, the specialised waste firm Spesialavfall Rogaland AS was founded and was among the first in Norway to receive a transport and depot licence for the fractions which we now call hazardous waste.
Although the two firms were run in parallel, septic tanks became less relevant and the business was eventually completely merged with Spesialavfall Rogaland. In 1997 the latter was sold to three local investors, becoming a subsidiary of Westco AS.
SAR Offshore AS which was established in 2002 quickly became an important contractor for the cleaning of piping systems and tanks on supply boats and offshore. The company shared office space with SAR Group in Tananger until 2004, when the offshore business became fully integrated within SAR AS.
The year 2002,was the year water purification specialists SAR Treatment AS was established, owned jointly by SAR AS (60%) and Nature Technology Solution AS (40%) until June 2013. SAR Treatment AS was later fully integrated into SAR AS and now holds Norway’s largest water treatment plant at Mongstad.
For many years, Kristiansand in the south of Norway, was our only facility outside Rogaland. When Equinor (former Statoil) awarded its nation-wide remediation contract in 2002, the time had come to establish departments in Florø and Kristiansund, in the western and north-western Norway respectively.
In connection with Equinor’s gas field development project and processing plant on Melkøya, a new SAR department was established in Hammerfest in 2003.
Soil remediation specialist SAR Deconterra AS were acquired jointly by SAR AS (60%) and Risa AS (40%), becoming a sole owned subsidiary of SAR AS in 2006 and the starting point for what later became SAR Averøy.
In 2006, a special division for Oil-Based Mud at Averøy near Kristiansund was established, which later was fully integrated into SAR AS.
Spesialtjenester AS in Bergen was acquired by SAR in 2009, and fully integrated with SAR AS.
SAR Metall AS was formed in 2009 to offer professional harvesting and recycling of metal scrap. The original owners, SAR AS, Ranyard Maritime AS and Hellik Teigen Group each owned 33.3 per cent. In June 2013 our share was sold to Hellik Teigen Group.
Due to an emerging oil and gas market in northern Norway, yet another acquisition was made in 2010. The recycling facilities of NordMiljø AS, whose main office is in Mo i Rana and affiliate depots in Sandnessjøen and Mosjøen secured a sound strategic foothold for SAR in this region as well.
All SAR departments are strategically located close to offshore Supply Bases along the entire coast from Stavanger in the south to Hammerfest in the north, and we work closely with trusted contractors at many locations.
Many years of development and experience have resulted in Waste Chain Management contracts between SAR and most of the major international oil companies present on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. In recent years these activities have also been expanded to embrace the rest of the world.
The international expansion started in Kuwait, together with SAR’s agent Canar Trading and Contracting W.L.L, and in India with our, at the time, subsidiary SAS Corre-MENA. We have also had operations in Jordan and Kuwait.
In April 2012 SAR was sold to the UK investment company Stirling Square Capital Partners. This was Stirling Square's first investment in Norway, and an important milestone for SAR’s international growth ambitions.
