Colby Fuser, vice president, business development, MENA, Halliburton, explains how acquiring Ingrain and Summit ESP has boosted the company’s portfolio.
What was the rationale behind Halliburton’s recent acquisitions of Ingrain and Summit ESP, and when do you see the process completed?
The Ingrain acquisition gets us closer to the client to provide solutions. Our acquisition of Summit ESP is based on the idea that the number of mature fields in the Middle East is above 80%. We have markets like Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Kuwait that have a large dependence on mature fields, where ESPs are deployed.
The acquisition of Summit does two things for us. Summit is one of the newer businesses in the US, but they promise a high market growth share in the US. The reason for that is they have been able to take the customers towards enhanced well delivery, and they have combined that with the technology to manufacture the right solutions for artificial lift. So, whenever the unit goes down or there is an issue, we have a rapid response mechanism in place that allows us to solve [the problem more quickly] and in the right fashion.Â
The Summit ESP acquisition means a lot to us because we are now focussed on a large part of the market where our customers are focussed on. It allows us to deliver the full range of solutions from drilling the well to fracking the well, to managing that well.
What tempted Halliburton’s management to go after these as potential targets for acquisition?
We’ve had a smaller artificial lift business for a couple of years. The focus of that business got us to the entry point of this market The management’s decision was aligned to our value proposition. We want to be able to maximise the asset, which does not mean that we get to a certain point with that asset and then hand it over to another company. We need to manage it all the way through, because the asset needs to deliver increased production.
How do you think the acquisitions enhance Halliburton’s standing in the regional market?
With us being a leader in project management, we have now taken a stance that we deliver better production. If you are able to help the customer increase production at the lowest cost, then being able to fulfil that value chain is what allows us to take this acquisition and deliver it back to the customer. It’s the drilling projects, and the unconventional stimulation projects that we try to lead. Being able to do what we do requires us to listen to and understand the wells, to understand the challenges that force the wells to go off production, and to understand the non-productive phases, and quickly try to fix the problems. That’s what we do to deliver comprehensive project management.
