Duke Offshore was promoted by George A Duke, Komal G Duke and Avik G Duke as a private limited company in Dec.'85 and was converted into a public limited company in Sep.'94. The company started as a diving and underwater engineering company offering specialised underwater inspection services to the offshore oil industry. It expanded its operations into hook-up and commissioning of offshore oil fields installations, construction and fabrication of small offshore structures. It has its workshop at Tarapur, Maharashtra. The company has entered into an agreement with Merpro Process Technology, UK, a hi-tech process company, to jointly market and manufacture its products in India and abroad. In 1995-96, the company proposed to expand its activities through a major expansion programme. The company which was hiring equipments from outside sources till then, proposed to own the equipments and machinery to reduce the cost of operations. To part-finance its expansion and modernisation programme, it came out with a public issue in Dec.'95. Reputed client list includes ONGC, Mazagaon Dock, Bombay Port Trust, Shipping Corporation of India, BPCL Refinery, HPCL, Essar Oil, Tata Power House, NKK Japan, Hyundai Corporation, South Korea, etc.