IHS Energy buys CERA

The Associated Press

IHS Energy, a provider of oil and gas information, has purchased Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a consulting firm founded by Pulitzer Prize-winner Daniel Yergin.

IHS Energy paid an undisclosed sum Sept. 1 to buy Yergin’s company, which employs about 200 people and provides analysis of economic and policy issues of the oil, gas and electricity industries. IHS Energy, part of IHS Group, has 1,100 workers.

Yergin said he would remain as chairman of Cambridge, Mass.-based CERA and there would be no layoffs at the firm, which has 11 offices around the world. IHS Energy president and chief operating officer Ron Mobed said there isn’t much overlap between the services offered by his company and CERA.

“This merger will ensure that there is high quality of data and knowledge underpinning the opinion of researchers and analysts,” Mobed said. “And the energy industry is seeking that reassurance from the experts.”

Yergin is the author of “The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power,” which won a Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1992.

He said energy service companies need to expand because of recent mergers in the energy industry.