What Does NOV Get in Robbins & Myers?

Secret Box

In retrospect, the recent announcement by National Oilwell Varco that it will acquire Robbins & Myers really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The surprise, rather, might be that the deal didn’t come any sooner than it did. Maybe NOV decided it would have been poor form to have moved earlier given that R&M only completed its transformational acquisition of T3 Energy Services a little more than 18 months ago.

Regardless of the factors behind the deal’s timing, NOV picks up in R&M a number of products and services that fit well with NOV’s already expansive set of offerings. But it’s R&M’s BOPs (and related pressure control products and services), along its artificial-lift/tubulars line up, that seem to us at the heart of the deal. Continue reading “What Does NOV Get in Robbins & Myers?”

Suppliers’ Lockstep Strategies Not the Answer

Marching

Within the upstream oil and gas industry, there’s a limited number of oilfield suppliers possessing the size and scope to be considered fully integrated and/or global in nature. On the services side, the roll (listed alphabetically) includes Baker Hughes, Halliburton, Schlumberger and Weatherford International. For capital equipment, it’s Aker Solutions, Cameron International, FMC Technologies, GE Oil & Gas and National Oilwell Varco.

On a combined basis, these nine super suppliers (did we just coin a new term?) currently represent about a quarter of all supplier-segment sales to the global upstream. Yet, none of these companies currently enjoy above-average ratings in EnergyPoint Research’s independent customer satisfaction surveys. And the latest trends don’t suggest the situation will significantly change anytime soon.

Continue reading “Suppliers’ Lockstep Strategies Not the Answer”

Why Concerns Over Guar Are Overblown

Guar Beans

The shortage of guar gum and its potential impact on the ability of oilfield suppliers to meet hydraulic fracturing demand has been a hot topic as of late. While we acknowledge the issue is intriguing (i.e., an unforeseen shortage of a strange plant product no one had really even heard of a year ago, hoarding of inventories by the globe’s number one producer, etc.), it’s our opinion that concerns are overblown for the following reasons: Continue reading “Why Concerns Over Guar Are Overblown”