Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
upside from higher oil prices. They are just service providers. The attrac-
tion is mutual. Ashok Belani, Schlumberger's chief technology officer, had
the following to say on the subject: “national oil companies can be easier
[than IOCs] for us to deal on their home terrain because they obviously
know it better than anyone”. So a company like Schlumberger, which 20
years ago used to derive 35-40 percent of its revenue from working for the
top seven Western oil majors, now draws only 20 percent of its total busi-
ness from these companies. The vast bulk of oil service company work is
now with the NOCs.
Probably only one oil service company, Halliburton of the US, is known
outside the industry, and that is largely for non-oil-related reasons.
Halliburton was headed by Dick Cheney before he became vice president
to George W. Bush, and Halliburton also did a lot of contracting for the
US military in Iraq (for which it was accused of overcharging). The com-
pany also built the special prison camp at Guantanamo.
Many of the bigger service companies are also US, such as Baker
Hughes, which is the third largest behind Halliburton (second) and
Schlumberger (the largest), which is a French-American company based
in Houston and Paris and stock-listed on both sides of the Atlantic. But
some Scottish companies have grown alongside the North Sea oil indus-
try, such as the Aberdeen-based Wood Group, which evolved from a
fishing business to an international oil service company, while the other
side of the North Sea has produced some major Norwegian oil service
companies, such as Petroleum Geo-Services and Aker Solutions.
These Western oil service companies face few rivals from most oil-
producing countries, which is why those countries' NOCs have such
need of the service companies. Eventually, however, the major Western
service-providers will face competition from China as the emerging
Eastern superpower, in the form of companies such as the Great Wall
Drilling Company.
