Schlumberger

Schlumberger is a supplier of technology, integrated project management, and information solutions. Schlumberger Limited is the world's largest oilfield services corporation operating in approximately 80 countries, with about 80,000 people of 140 nationalities. 

Schlumberger supplies a wide range of products and services from seismic acquisition and processing to formation evaluation, well testing and directional drilling, well-cementing and stimulation, artificial lift, well completions and consulting, and software and information management. Schlumberger also provides similar products and services for the groundwater industry. 

Schlumberger is also actively involved in research and development (R&D) activities, investing more than $1.6 billion in R&D activities in 2014. The company’s R&D efforts are focused on developing new technologies and expanding its product portfolio.

1926: Schlumberger was founded in 1926 by the French brothers called Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger as an Electric prospecting company.

1927: The new company sold electrical-measurement mapping services, and recorded the first-ever electrical resistivity well log in Merkwiller-Pechelbronn, France.

1929: The company starts to grow quickly and logged its first well in California, United States. The company quickly expanded, logging its first well in the United States, in Kern County, California.

1932: Successfully Expanded into United States Market.

1934: The brothers founded Schlumberger Well Surveying Corporation in Houston, Texas, to meet the growing demand for their services, and this United States division soon became the largest and most profitable of the parent company's worldwide business.

1935: The Schlumberger Well Surveying Corporation was founded in Houston, later evolving into Schlumberger Well Services, and finally Schlumberger Wireline and Testing.

1936: Also they logged their first electrical logging in Japan.

1939: De Ménil, the husband of Conrad Schlumberger’s daughter Dominique, was a banker who became head of Schlumberger’s financial affairs.

1940: When it was clear that France would soon fall and many thought that the Schlum-burgers would be ruined, Marcel Schlumberger was offered $10 million for his business by the head of rival Halliburton Oil.

1948: Schlumberger invested heavily in research, inaugurating the Schlumberger-Doll Research Center in Ridgefield, Connecticut, contributing to the development of a number of new logging tools.

1953: When Marcel Schlumberger died that year, the remaining Schlumberger were unable to decide on a successor.

1956: Other family members resisted the idea, fearing a loss of both control and quality, but Schlumberger Limited was formed in Curaç, Netherlands Antilles. Schlumberger Limited was incorporated as a holding company for all Schlumberger businesses, which by now included American testing and production company Johnston Testers.

1957: As oil drilling gradually fell from its 1957 peak, Pierre Schlumberger and his advisors thought it prudent to expand further into the electronics field.

1958: As the undisputed technology leader in the field, Schlumberger charged what it pleased, and when the initial financial statements were made public they showed a first-year profit of $12.2 million.

1959: Aside from a pair of French electronics firms, the company’s first significant purchase was the 1959 acquisition of Forages et Exploitations Pétrolières (Forex), a French oil drilling company.

1960: Dowell Schlumberger (50% Schlumberger, 50% Dow Chemical), which specialized in pumping services for the oil industry, was formed.

1961: Accordingly, the firm made a major acquisition when it swapped stock with Daystrom, a manufacturer of various electronic instruments primarily for military use.

1962: Schlumberger Limited appeared in the list on the New York Stock Exchange, the largest stock exchange in the world.

1964: Schlumberger purchased 50% of Forex and merged it with 50% of Languedocienne to create the Neptune Drilling Company.

1965: Promoted to his place was Jean Riboud, a longtime friend of the Schlumbergers, particularly Marcel.

1966: Most of the newcomers required years of work before paying dividends; in 1966, for example, 42 percent of Schlumberger’s $343 million in sales was generated by the electronics division, whose operating deficit held down overall corporate profit to $28 million.

1970: Riboud further diversified the Schlumberger portfolio with the $79 million purchase of Compagnie de Compteurs, an ageing French manufacturer of utility meters, which also took a few years to become profitable. The first computerized reservoir analysis, SARABAND, was introduced.

1971: That same year, Schlumberger purchased Daystrom, an electronic instruments manufacturer in South Boston, Virginia which was making furniture by the time the division was sold to Sperry & Hutchinson in 1971.

1979: Riboud paid $425 million to buy the leading American semiconductor manufacturer, Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation. Schlumberger: The First Years, New York: Schlumberger. Fairchild Camera and Instrument also joined Schlumberger Limited including Fairchild Semiconductor.

1980: It had made Schlumberger the largest meter manufacturer in the world and formed the heart of one of the company’s four divisions.

1981:  Schlumberger established the first international data links with e-mail.

1982: As the year drew to an end, however, a close observer would have noticed that Schlumberger’s quarterly profits were slipping, and they continued to do so as a world recession and greater oil conservation combined to put the brakes on oil exploration.

1983: Cambridge Research Center in Cambridge, England was inaugurated by Schlumberger and later on it was renamed as Schlumberger Gould Research Center after Andrew Gould, the former CEO of Schlumberger. In 1983, Schlumberger opened its Cambridge Research Center in Cambridge, England.

1984: The SEDCO drilling company and 50% of Dowell of North America were purchased.

1986: A 50 percent interest in the Norwegian firm GECO, one of the world's top seismic companies, was acquired; the remaining 50 percent was bought two years later.

1987: One of Schlumberger's least-known achievements was its development of smart cards, which grew out of technology that the company had developed for oil wells. It had been one of the first commercial users of the ARPAnet (the precursor to the Internet) and had presciently registered the domain name slb.com in 1987, years before the World Wide Web had achieved any sort of critical mass.

1989: Write-offs and retrenchment pared corporate sales to $4.7 billion, but with profit again hovering just under 10%, Schlumberger seems to have weathered the worst of the oil depression without serious damage.

1990: EB-Clean, introduced, was an additive used in a well bore to enlarge cracks.

1991: Schlumberger acquired PRAKLA-SEISMOS, and pioneered the use of geo-steering to plan the drill path in horizontal wells.

1993: The additive was developed by a joint venture with Dow Chemical called Dowell Schlumberger, which Schlumberger later owned outright when it bought Dow's half for $800 million in cash and warrants.

1994: Schlumberger formed a joint venture, Omnes, with Cable & Wireless plc to provide communications and information technology systems for oil, gas, and other companies with operations in remote areas.

1995: The seismic area proved to be highly competitive and not immediately profitable, but Schlumberger's focus on improvements to seismic technology had begun to pay off.

1997: The purchase of Houston-based Camco, which had 1997 revenues of $913.9 million, filled a hole in Schlumberger's array of services--the high-end of the oil well completions business, which centred around building wells and readying them for production.

1998: Santos, Karen, "Schlumberger Fills in Holes: Camco Sells for $3 Billion," Houston Chronicle, June 20. Even though revenues inched slightly higher, profits fell nearly 22 percent as the industry went into another tailspin. In the meantime, consolidation in the oil-services field was continuing apace, with Halliburton Company acquiring Dresser Industries, Inc. and Baker Hughes acquiring Western Atlas Inc., both that year.

1999: In December a federal judge found Schlumberger and Smith guilty of criminal contempt, assessing each a fine of $750,000 and five years of probation. Schlumberger next divested its offshore contract drilling business, Sedco Forex, in December. The corporation achieved just $366.7 million in net income on revenues of $8.39 billion.

2000: The Geco-Prakla division was merged with Western Geophysical to create the seismic data acquisition and processing contracting company WesternGeco, of which Schlumberger held a 70% stake, the remaining 30% belonging to competitor Baker Hughes. Sedco Forex was spun off and merged with Transocean Drilling company.

2001: Schlumberger bolstered its operations in this area in March by purchasing the smart-card unit of France's Groupe Bull S.A. for $313 million. Schlumberger acquired the IT consultancy company Sema plc for $5.2 billion.

2002: Additional charges of $587 million were also taken, most of which were tied to the restructurings of SchlumbergerSema and the WesternGeco joint venture. The charges resulted in a net loss of $2.32 billion on revenues of $13.47 billion that year.

2003: In February Baird resigned and was succeeded as chairman and CEO by Andrew Gould. Most importantly, the company announced in September that it had reached an agreement to sell most of SchlumbergerSema to Atos Origin SA for EUR 1.3 billion (US$1.5 billion) in cash and shares.

2004: The company was an Athens 2004 Summer Olympics partner, but Schlumberger's venture into IT consultancy did not pay off, and the divestiture of Sema to Atos Origin was completed that year for $1.5 billion. Schlumberger Business Consulting was launched and a decade later was acquired by Accenture.

2005: Waterloo Hydrogeologic was acquired by Schlumberger which was followed by a few other groundwater industry-related companies, for example, Westbay Instruments and Van Essen Instruments. In 2005, Schlumberger purchased Waterloo Hydrogeologic, which was followed by several other groundwater industry-related companies, such as Westbay Instruments, and Van Essen Instruments.

2006: Schlumberger purchased the remaining 30% of WesternGeco from Baker Hughes for US$2.4 billion.

2010: The sale price the 45.84-a-share price was 37.5 percent higher than Smith's closing price on 18 February. The merger was completed on August 27, 2010. The acquisition of Smith International in an all-stock deal valued at $11.3 billion was announced.

2012: Schlumberger is the world’s largest leading oilfield services provider and one the global market leader in its industry which brings many benefits to its company. For example, Schlumberger ranked in the top 50 of the Engineering category of “ The 2012 World’s Most Attractive Employers” that reflects all the students and professionals will try to seek job opportunities with the company.

2013: Schlumberger announces for the full year result of oil field services, land revenue declined 2% in the North America Area.

2014: Schlumberger announced the purchase of the remaining shares of SES Holdings Limited (“Saxon”), a Calgary-based provider of international land drilling services, from First Reserve and certain members of Saxon management.

2015: Schlumberger was indicted by the US Department of Justice for sanction violations of conducting business in Iran and Sudan; the company was fined $233 million, amounting to the largest fine for sanctions to date. In 2015, due to a downturn in the global oil and gas industry, Schlumberger announced 21,000 layoffs accounting for 15% of the company's total workforce. In 2015, Schlumberger agreed to acquire oilfield equipment manufacturer Cameron International for $14.8 billion.

2018: Schlumberger announced that WesternGeco would be exiting the seismic data acquisition business, both onshore and offshore while retaining its multiclient data processing and interpretation segments.

“Knowledge, technical innovation and teamwork are at the centre of who we are. For more than 8 years, we have focused on leveraging these assets to deliver solutions that improve customer performance.”

"In the early decades of the 20th century, Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger set out to understand the Earth s subsurface structure using geophysical measurements. Their pioneering spirit enabled them to grow Schlumberger into the world s first well logging company with a worldwide presence. That technology debut has built a 90-year legacy that still thrives on industry leadership and innovation a clearly defined identity based on dedicated people figuring it out." Our curiosity drives us to better understand what our customers do, how they do it, and what they need to help overcome their challenges. What s more, we re developing methods and processes using ever-less-invasive means minimizing environmental footprints while maximizing positive influence on the communities in which we live and work."

The company is revolutionising energy and decarbonisation through its products and services, innovative tech intersects with industry expertise.

Scalable methane solutions: The company provides a comprehensive long-term plan to manage methane emissions through connective software, hardware, and end-to-end solutions.

Flare Reduction: Schlumberger provides tech solutions to eliminate the need for flaring. It offers provides maximum combustion efficiency in the oilfields to minimise emissions where flares can’t be avoided.

Carbon capture, utilisation, and sequestration: The company manages the full-life cycle of the carbon emissions, and combines subsurface and surface expertise and technologies.

Innovation in Oil and Gas: Sub-surface characterisation, abandonment solutions, integrated services and consulting, 

Scaling new energy systems: Geoenergy, geothermal energy, energy storage, hydrogen, lithium.

Scaled digitalisation: AI solutions, data solutions, oil and gas cloud solutions and in-premise solutions, edge AI for IoT.