Their non-incorporated alliance also follows a similar move by Cameron and Schlumberger, two of the world’s biggest subsea players, which teamed up in 2012 to create joint-venture OneSubsea.

The oil and gas sector has experienced a big rise in costs over the past decade as energy companies ramped up capital spending, pushing up costs ranging from labor to equipment.

But now energy firms are having to rein in spending plans because oil prices have leveled out and the International Energy Agency expects them to fall in 2014 and 2015.

The alliance, to be based in Houston, aims to increase recovery rates in deepsea fields and work on a subsea processing plant, an innovative technology that could eventually shift oil and gas production equipment from platforms to the bottom of the sea, saving on costs and increasing recovery.

Aker Solutions shares surged on the agreement and were 4.5 percent higher by 1221 GMT, ahead of a 0.5 percent rise in the European oil and gas index .SXEP.

The alliance will combine Aker Solutions’ strengths in subsea production and processing systems with Baker Hughes’ expertise in well completions and artificial-lift technology, the two firms said in a joint statement.

“Deepwater subsea fields have so far been characterized by low recovery rates, and new discoveries in deeper and more hostile environments are making these fields even more costly to develop,” Baker Hughes’ CEO Martin Craighead said.

“The single-digit recovery rates currently being achieved at many of these fields don’t support a sustainable business model,” he said.

Although the two firms will stay separate, they will work on joint solutions and may bid for projects jointly.

The Stavanger-based company last year said it planned to build a new drilling and processing platform at the North Sea’s Snorre field to extract an extra 300 million barrels of oil and extend output until about 2040.

“We have to revisit the project, to look at concepts and make a new evaluation,” Chief Financial Officer Torgrim Reitan told reporters in Oslo today. “It’s too early to say” if an investment decision will be made in 2015 as planned, he said, declining to comment further.

Statoil last year postponed its Johan Castberg oil project in the Barents Sea, citing among other reasons a tax change by Norway’s previous Labor-led government that limited the deductions companies can make. Statoil then cut planned spending by 8 percent for the next three years and signaled it will be more selective about which projects to invest in.

The spending-plan cuts have resulted in warnings from authorities that Statoil must maintain its project plans.

Petoro AS, which manages the state’s direct ownership in oil and gas fields and is a partner at Snorre, said last month that the cuts, coupled with rising industry costs, will create delays and may endanger projects. Increased-recovery projects like Snorre 2040 are particularly at risk, Petoro Chief Executive Officer Grethe Moen said at the time.

Statoil has a 33.3 percent stake in the Snorre field, according to data on the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s website. Petoro holds 30 percent, Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) 17.4 percent, Idemitsu Kosan Co. 9.6 percent and RWE Dea AG 8.6 percent. Core Energy AS has 1.1 percent.

DNV GL has had a long history on the Beryl Alpha and Bravo installations, which have been operated by Apache since January 2012, delivering both the Safety Case and the former Certificate of Fitness regimes.

With the new contract in place, DNV GL offers a range of verification services to Apache, including Risk-based verification (RBV) with the ultimate aim to ensure that field developments are designed, constructed and installed in accordance with project objectives. RBV is a structured, systematic process using risk and cost-benefit analysis to strike a balance both between technical and operational issues and between safety and cost.  This provides the ability to focus the verification effort where the contribution is most cost-effective and provides the required assurance towards stakeholders and regulatory authorities that projects are implemented right the first time.

Mark Richardson, Projects Group Manager with Apache North Sea said: “Safety, compliance and production in that order, are the priorities for the delivery of operations and projects in Apache North Sea.  Having the right verification body to work with is key to making our activities a success, and we look forward to working with DNV GL.”

“For the first time in generations, the United States is an energy superpower,” said Milito. “And the world—especially Europe and countries like Russia, China, and India—is watching closely to see if American policymakers are ready to harness that power on the international stage.

“Now is the time to build our energy infrastructure, expand exports, and lock in the economic and geopolitical opportunities that our energy revolution has created. To do that, we need continued support from policymakers in Washington to build LNG export terminals.

“Our allies know U.S. exports will undoubtedly have an impact long before the first tanker leaves our shores, and they are eager to diversify their energy supplies with reliable, steady supplies from the United States.

“By accelerating exports, we can strengthen the global energy market against future disruptions and send a signal to the world that the United States is ready to lead. Our growth as a major exporter would bring competition into the market and help ease the ties that bind our allies to any single supplier.

“The U.S. Department of Energy commissioned a study by NERA, which concluded that LNG exports would yield net economic benefits across all scenarios. The study also showed that concerns about domestic natural gas prices were unfounded.

“The only thing standing between America and a steady flow of jobs and capital are self-imposed bureaucratic restrictions.”