Category: Industry Suppliers

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Top 10 Highest Rated Industry Suppliers

Top-rated Oilfield Suppliers - Featured Image

EnergyPoint publishes its independent customer satisfaction ratings and rankings of oilfield suppliers on an annual basis. These announcements reflect the best and most current information available for tracking the performance of oil and gas industry suppliers.

While each year offers its own surprises as companies move up and down ranks, there is a small group of companies that have consistently remained at the top over the years. These are the industry’s superstars.  For them, customer Continue reading “Top 10 Highest Rated Industry Suppliers”

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Schlumberger’s Quiet Moonshot

Schlumberger's Ambitious Moonshot

Schlumberger’s bid for Cameron Int’l is big news in a flinching industry.  The vision behind the deal is ambitious — even a bit brash.  It’s more than just the consolidation of two large oilfield suppliers. The technical aspects of the plan could unleash industry ripples for decades to come.

Cameron’s long-time focus has been on the “heavy iron” used in the oil patch.  Schlumberger hopes to expand on that role by creating fully integrated drilling and production systems around its various products. The idea amounts to an operating system that efficiently manages processes from downhole to delivery.

It’s an alluring concept, one that cuts across much of the upstream Continue reading “Schlumberger’s Quiet Moonshot”

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Schlumberger Angles for Growth with Bid for Cameron

Business Growth

Changes in the outlook for the upstream oil and gas industry have led Schlumberger to launch a convincing bid for Houston-based oilfield equipment supplier and current joint-venture partner Cameron Int’l. The richly valued deal implies a price for Cameron’s stock of just over $66 per share, a 56% premium over its pre-announcement close.  With the assumption of $1.1 billion of Cameron debt, the deal’s total price approaches $15 billion.

This is not the first time in recent memory Schlumberger has sought to acquire an existing partner.  In 2010, it purchased Smith Int’l to gain needed Continue reading “Schlumberger Angles for Growth with Bid for Cameron”

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Can a Struggling Transocean Reclaim Its Edge?

EnergyPoint Research

For many, the misfortune and missteps that have befallen Transocean in recent years have been painful to watch.  The bludgeoning began with fallout from the company’s role in the Macondo disaster.  Since then, the formerly top-rated offshore driller in EnergyPoint’s surveys has been waylaid by internal and external setbacks — poorly timed investments, credit downgrades, agitation from activist investors, low employee morale — leaving a battered operation to withstand the current downturn.

In an effort to right the ship, the company is aggressively scrapping older rigs and reducing expenses.  Plans for future capex have been cut, as have dividends.  Leadership changes have been made as well. Continue reading “Can a Struggling Transocean Reclaim Its Edge?”

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Halliburton & Baker Hughes: The Devil’s in the Details

It's Complicated

If the devil lies in the details when it comes to Halliburton making its acquisition of Baker Hughes work for stakeholders, so might the opportunity.

We’ve pointed out in the past the convergence of performance as seen by customers among the industry’s largest suppliers.  We see elements of this same effect in the latest customer satisfaction scores for Halliburton, Baker Hughes and Schlumberger.  With the exception of Schlumberger’s marks in engineering and technology, there’s generally little difference in the three companies’ ratings across several key performance and organizational attributes. Continue reading “Halliburton & Baker Hughes: The Devil’s in the Details”

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Halliburton’s Risky Bet on Consolidation

Risky Bet

The pending merger between Halliburton and Baker Hughes promises to be one of the most highly scrutinized corporate combinations in the history of the oil and gas industry.  Not only will the deal create, by some metrics, the largest provider of oilfield products and services in the world, it will irrevocably alter the balance of power for a customer base accustomed to long-standing rivalry among its largest suppliers.

Notwithstanding Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar’s contention that initial customer feedback regarding the deal was unanimously positive, customers have a right to be concerned any time two competitors of this size merge. Transformational transactions tend be troublesome for both shareholders and customers, and we suspect this deal could present its fair share of challenges. Continue reading “Halliburton’s Risky Bet on Consolidation”

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The Reluctant Rockstar

Rockstar

Until recently, if one were to side-click their way to the website of onshore drilling contractor Helmerich & Payne (H&P), they could be forgiven for assuming the company was just another run-of-the-mill driller.  Framed mostly in nondescript grey and blue, the site seemed an unfinished afterthought of a organization with better things to do.

In truth, that’s probably not too far off.  H&P has traditionally avoided heavily marketing itself, leaving the trumpeting of its success to customers and industry analysts.  Nonetheless, when you’ve earned the kind of respect the Tulsa-based company has over the years, taking pride in the presentation of your story is only Continue reading “The Reluctant Rockstar”

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FMC Technologies An Oil Equipment Company To Watch

telescope

FMC Technologies, a leading oil equipment company, consistently outranks its peer-group average in EnergyPoint Research’s customer satisfaction surveys. The company has grown into a dominant player over the years partly on the strength of a vigorous research and development program that began bearing fruit in time for today’s exuberant revival of subsea drilling and development.

Not a pure customer satisfaction winner, though, FMC’s ratings fall more in line with its oil equipment company cohorts in the subsea segment. Like many of its peers, the company draws lower ratings from some customers for both organizational and equipment performance. And in what might come as a surprise to some, the company rates lower in shelf and deepwater wells, which account for about two-thirds of its business, than for onshore applications. Continue reading “FMC Technologies An Oil Equipment Company To Watch”

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The Low-down on Sizing Up Suppliers

Big vs. Small Suppliers

Malcolm Gladwell’s book David and Goliath offers interesting perspective on how those possessing seemingly little in the way of resources can successfully take on more established players using their size and ingenuity to their advantage.

The promise of the little guy is certainly germane to the oil and gas industry. If a company or individual has an idea they believe has merit, there’s little to keep them from pursuing their idea in the oilfield. And if their products or services are good enough, customers will eventually beat a path to their door. Continue reading “The Low-down on Sizing Up Suppliers”

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NOV Closes the One-stop Shop

Separate Directions

National Oilwell Varco (NOV) operates just about everywhere oil and gas is extracted, enjoying a hearty share of the market for integrated oilfield equipment. Yet global reach and a wide-ranging portfolio of products do not necessarily translate to a better customer experience—for NOV or its competitors.

EnergyPoint’s most recent survey data suggest NOV’s customer satisfaction ratings, while certainly competitive within its peer group, have slowly trended down as the company logged lower scores in various segments. To be fair, ratings for manufacturers of capital drilling equipment remain below average industry-wide. However, NOV has been sliding from its previous perch. Continue reading “NOV Closes the One-stop Shop”