Tag: FMC

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Cameron – Schlumberger JV Shifts Subsea Currents

Subsea Systems

Cameron and Schlumberger announced this morning the formation of OneSubsea, a 60/40 joint venture partnership that will focus on manufacturing and developing subsea products and services worldwide.

Cameron will contribute its existing subsea division and receive $600 million from Schlumberger. It will also act as operator. For its part, Schlumberger will contribute its Framo, Surveillance, Flow Assurance and Power and Controls businesses. Continue reading “Cameron – Schlumberger JV Shifts Subsea Currents”

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Gardner Denver’s Dance Card to Fill Up Fast

Dance Card

Late last week, Gardner Denver acknowledged it has engaged investment bankers at Goldman Sachs to help evaluate potential strategic alternatives, including sale of the company.

The company’s stock price jumped with the news. However, there’s reason to believe an eventual sale of Gardner Denver could be done at a price materially above current stock-price levels, especially since its shares seem to have been trading at a discount prior to the run-up. Continue reading “Gardner Denver’s Dance Card to Fill Up Fast”

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FMC Technologies Makes a Play in Shale

FMC Tank

With the impending purchase of Canada’s Pure Energy Services, Houston-based FMC Technologies adds frac flowback treatment and cleanup services to its portfolio of offerings. In doing so, the company enters the service-side of the fracking game more as waterboy than as athlete, more satisfied to clean up after the segment’s higher-profile stars than to challenge them at their own game. But why? Continue reading “FMC Technologies Makes a Play in Shale”

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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”

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Wellheads & Trees: Consistency a Virtue, Reliability a Requirement

Wellhead and Tree Image

The father of modern scientific method, Sir Francis Bacon, believed consistency to be “the foundation of virtue.” Dramatist and poet Oscar Wilde, on the other hand, saw consistency as the “last refuge of the unimaginative.”

While we do not wish in any way to diminish Wilde’s esteemed position in literary circles, we do suppose it’s a good thing he made his living with a pen and not with the drill bit. Why? Because this much we know: consistency matters in the oil and gas industry.  In fact, it matters a lot. Continue reading “Wellheads & Trees: Consistency a Virtue, Reliability a Requirement”

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A Sea of Discontent

A Sea of Discontent

The wisdom of the masses is a concept that contends information gathered from a group is generally more reliable than information gathered from any single individual within that group.  If so, what is the industry saying en masse about the products used to develop offshore wells—particularly those at greater depths—in light of the Deepwater Horizon incident?

In short, EnergyPoint’s data suggest customers are significantly less satisfied with the equipment and materials available for subsea and deepwater projects than for land- and surface-based applications.  In fact, since 2005, subsea products received the lowest overall customer ratings of all product segments tracked in our surveys. Continue reading “A Sea of Discontent”