Boart Longyear's large Environmental and Infrastructure drilling operations in the US had been acquired by Cascade Drilling, L.P.

The deal will allow Cascade Drilling to combine its existing strengths with those of the newly acquired E&I drilling business. Cascade Drilling will now be able to create the biggest and most technically equipped geotechnical and environmental drilling enterprise in the United States. A private equity firm, Emigrant Capital Corp., led the financing for the transaction. The financial details of the acquisition, however, were not revealed.

"The acquisition of E&I more than doubles the size of Cascade and combines two organizations with shared values of safety, client service and technical excellence. Adding the E&I business gives us the ability to better serve our clients on a national level. E&I is known throughout the industry for its expertise in sonic drilling, and for its dedicated crews and operations managers. The combined company will have unmatched capabilities to provide sonic, rotary, auger, rock coring and direct push drilling services nationwide," said Cascade chief executive, Timothy Smith explained.