World’s 10 largest oilfield technology companies

What many people outside of the oil & gas industry don’t know however, is just how difficult getting to the precious black stuff can actually be. With many of the world’s largest oilfields maturing more and more technological wizardry is required to enable the oil producers to keep on churning out oil and gas for an ever-growing global market.

For this reason ArabianOilandGas.com decided to salute the companies who spend billions of dollars as well as millions of man hours on making the life of an average oil and gas worker productive, safer and easier.

What is interesting about the list is that the majority of the companies that are headquartered in Houston. It is obvious that developing innovative new technologies as well as manufacturing the more common garden oil & gas products is not something that any old Johnny-come-lately company can do. Most of these companies where around in various guises when Edwin Drake was drilling the first oilwell in the mid-1800s.

We used company revenues for 2008 as the criteria for the list and the information was sourced from each companies website and checked across news media where possible.

Of course as is always the case, if you agree with our top 10 or feel that another company was more worthy of a mention please leave a comment.

1. Schlumberger Limited
2. Halliburton
3. Baker Hughes
4. Smith International
5. National Oilwell Varco
6. Weatherford international
7. GE Oil and Gas
8. FMC Technologies
9. Cameron International Corp
10. Dresser Inc

1. Schlumberger Limited

As a general oilfield services company Schlumberger is quite easily the largest in the world (see the Worlds 10 largest oilfield services companies for more details). Although the company operates across so many different parts of the oil & gas it still takes the top spot as the largest technology provider.

Schlumberger generated $27.16 billion of revenues in 2008, is registered in the Dutch Antilles and headquartered in Paris, Houston and The Hague. The CEO of the company is Andrew Gould and the company employs 82,000 people who operate in around 80 countries worldwide.

The company provides a vast assortment of products for areas as diverse as drilling, cementing, completions, subsea, well testing seismic surveys, coiled tubing services as well as various software and IT solutions.

Schlumberger also has 25 research and engineering facilities worldwide and spent a colossal $818 million on research and development in 2008.

2. Halliburton

Halliburton is the first of a long line of US oilfield services companies that make up the list. The company serves the upstream oil and gas industry throughout the life cycle of the reservoir – from locating hydrocarbons and managing geological data, to drilling and formation evaluation, well construction and completion, and optimizing production through the life of the field.

Now headquartered in both Houston and Dubai Halliburton generated revenues of US$18.28 billion in 2008 and has 57,000 employees operating in around 70 countries.

Halliburton is split into two segments: Completion and Production and Drilling and Evaluation.

Completion and Production delivers cementing, stimulation, intervention, and completion services and consists of production enhancement services, completion tools and services, and cementing services. This segment consists of production enhancement services, completion tools and services, and cementing services.

Drilling and Evaluation provides field and reservoir modeling, drilling, evaluation, and precise well-bore placement solutions This segment consists of Baroid Fluid Services, Sperry Drilling Services, Security DBS Drill Bits, Wireline and Perforating Services, Landmark (software), and Project Management.

3. Baker Hughes

Baker Hughes is another company that offers oil producers a complete set of oilfield services. However, it is also one of the world’s leading technology providers and can boast of an excellent reputation from within the industry for its innovative products.

Headquartered in the ubiquitous Houston, Baker Hughes generated revenues of US$11.86 billion in 2008. The company has almost 40,000 employees that operate in over 90 countries. The chairman and CEO is Chadwick C Deaton and the companies shares are traded on the New York stock exchange.

Baker Hughes provides the oil & gas industry with a large number of products and services for drilling, formation evaluation, completion, production and reservoir consulting.

The company’s operations are split into seven product line groups: INTEQ (drilling), Baker Atlas (wireline logging), Baker Hughes Drilling Fluids, Hughes Christensen (drill bits, drill casing), Baker Oil Tools, Centrilift (lift systems, pumps) and Baker Petrolite (chemicals).

Baker Hughes has been in the news recently after making the largest acquisition of an oilfield services company in over a decade when it announced that it was to pay $5.5 billion for BJ Services.

4. Smith International

When the 20 year-old Herman Smith opened a blacksmith shop in 1902 in the sleepy town of Whittier in California, not even in his wildest dreams would he have imagined that it would grow to become a leading provider of technology to drilling, completion and production phases of the oil and gas industry with revenues of over US$10 billion.

Now headquartered in Houston, Smith International has around 20,000 employees and operates in over 80 countries worldwide.

Smith International is split into three sectors Smith Oilfield (oilfield products), M-I SWACO (a joint venture with Schlumberger dedicated to technology innovation), and Wilson (pipes and vales) and shares in the company are traded on the New York stock exchange. The chairman, CEO and president is John Yearwood.

Smith provides the hydrocarbons sector with a dizzying array of products including drilling tools, casing hardware, wireline services, roller cones, liner hangers, milling tools and supplies and drilling system analysis systems. Smith has won several awards for technological innovation regarding its products, the most recent being an award for its IDEAS design analysis process.

The company operates offices right across the MENA region.

5. National Oilwell Varco (NOV)

NOV has been involved in the oil industry, through various predecessors, since way back in 1841. The company is now the world’s leading oil well drilling services company ahead of Schlumberger and Baker Hughes.

The multi-national giant is headquartered in Houston, boasted 2008 revenues of US$9.79 billion and employs over 40,000 people in 700 facilities worldwide. Pete Miller is the company chairman, CEO and president and its shares are traded on the New York stock exchange.

The company provides major mechanical components for land and offshore drilling rigs, complete land drilling and well servicing rigs, tubular inspection and internal tubular coatings, drill string equipment, extensive lifting and handling equipment, and a broad offering of downhole drilling motors, bits and tools.

6. Weatherford International

Weatherford is a global provider of products and services that span the drilling, evaluation, completion, production and intervention cycles of oil and natural gas wells.

Headquartered in Houston the company generated revenues of US$9.6 billion during 2008. Weatherford employs around 46,700 employees worldwide and operates in over 100 countries with 125 manufacturing facilities supporting 800 service bases and 16 technology development and training centres.

Last year was a busy one for Weatherford as the company made 38 acquisitions, the largest being Logging Inc and signed nine technology license and development agreements.

The company also enjoyed success with its directional drilling technology with revenues crossing the billion dollar mark in 2008. Artificial lift was displaced by Weatherford’s Controlled Pressure Drilling as the company’s largest product line measured by revenues last year.

7. GE Oil and Gas

GE Oil & Gas may well be the company on this list with the most diverse product range. From surface and subsea drilling technologies to industrial power generation it seems that the only product the company doesn’t make is kitchen sinks.

GE Oil & Gas wins extra points for having the most unusual location of headquarters – Florence in Italy. The company generated revenues of $7.4 billion in 2008 and employs 12,000 people in over 70 countries worldwide. Claudi Santiago is both chairman and CEO.

The company’s main product lines includes subsea drilling systems, centrifugal pumps, turboexpanders, air-cooled heat exchangers and turbines.

GE Oil & Gas has also made a couple of recent acquisitions, VetcoGray and Hydril Pressure Control, which gives it boasts one of the most comprehensive range of products, systems and services for onshore, offshore and subsea applications.

8. FMC Technologies

Not to be confused with FMC Corp, FMC Technologies began life in 1884 as the Bean Spray Pump Company. The company has had a successful last few years, particularly within the global subsea industry and enjoyed record revenues of US$4.6 billion in 2008.

Predictably the company is headquartered in Houston, has 9,800 and operates 19 manufacturing facilities in 14 countries. Peter Kinnear is the company chairman, president and CEO.

The company is split into two different departments Energy Production Systems and Energy Processing Systems. Energy Production Systems is the department we are most interested in here and includes FMC’s subsea and surface businesses that design, manufacture and integrate the equipment and systems used to produce oil and gas from land and offshore. Revenues for this department hit $3.7 billion in 2008.

FMC Technologies also has the distinction of being named America’s Most Admired Oil and Gas Equipment, Service Company in three of the last four years by Fortune Magazine.

9. Cameron International Corp

Cameron, previously known as Cooper Cameron, first opened for business way back in 1833 when Charles and Elias Cooper established a foundry in Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Now the company has grown somewhat and is a global provider of pressure control, processing, flow control and compression systems for the oil & gas industry.

Headquartered in Houston , Cameron generated revenues of US$3.74 billion in 2008. The company has around 15,000 employees based at 250 different locations around the world. The CEO, president and chairman is Jack Moore.

Cameron is organised into five divisions: Drilling & Production Systems, Valves & Measurement, Measurement Systems, Petreco Process Systems and Compression Systems.

10. Dresser Inc

Another company on the list that is a fully paid up member of the oil & gas old school,
Dresser Inc was founded by the mercurial Solomon Robert Dresser who provided the industry with a product he invented that kept oil and water separated underground.

Dresser Inc generated revenues of US$2.2 billion in 2008 and has its headquarters in Dallas. It employs around 6400 people worldwide and operates in over 60 countries.

Between 1998 and 2001 Dresser was briefly owned by Halliburton but is now under the ownership of the US-based investment firm First Reserve Corporation.

The company operates under four different business segments: Measurement and Distribution Systems, Flow Technologies, Infrastructure Solutions, and Power and Compression Systems.

The products it sells includes actuators, valves, meters, instruments, regulators, switches, natural gas fueled engines, piping specialties, retail and fleet fuel dispensers, blowers, and outdoor payment and point-of-sale systems.