A private-equity consortium headed up by Candover Partners Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Candover Investments PLC, and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) has boosted its initial bid for U.K.-based Expro International Group PLC (PINK: EXPRF) by 8%, just narrowly beating out Halliburton Company’s (HAL) $3.4 billion (1.71 billion pounds) cash offer.

Exactly 12 months ago, West Texas Intermediate crude oil was trading at just under $63 a barrel.