Schlumberger is an international oilfield services company with facilities in many countries worldwide. Founded in 1926 in Paris, France, by brothers Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger, it is currently the world's largest offshore drilling company and the most significant offshore drilling contractor in revenue. Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) was incorporated in 1956 as a holding company and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1962.
Schlumberger is a Fortune Global 500 company, listed in Forbes Global 2000, and has a 33-acre campus in Sugar Land, Texas. In 1981, Schlumberger became the first international company to link computers with email, and in 1983, the company opened its Cambridge Research Center in Cambridge, England.
In 2005, Schlumberger purchased Waterloo Hydrogeologic and relocated its U.S. corporate office from New York to Houston. It has since made numerous acquisitions, including Smith International in 2010, a deal valued at $11.3 billion. In 2010, Schlumberger acquired Geoservices in a deal valued at $1.1 billion. In 2014, Schlumberger purchased the remaining shares of SES Holdings Limited (Saxon). Schlumberger agreed to acquire oilfield equipment manufacturer Cameron International in 2015 for $14.8 billion.
As a global provider of technology, integrated project management and information solutions, Schlumberger supplies the petroleum industry with services such as formation evaluation, seismic data processing, well cementing and stimulation, well testing and directional drilling, artificial lift, low assurance and consulting, well completions and software and information management. Schlumberger is at the forefront of the industry with its carbon capture and storage industries and its continued investment in geothermal and hydrogen power.
Schlumberger has had environmental and legal issues, including a radioactive canister recovered in the Western Australian outback in 2006. Schlumberger was also a contractor on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Despite these issues, Newsweek ranked Schlumberger 118 out of 500 in 2009.
In 2021, Schlumberger made news with the announcement of pilot project agreements between critical industry leaders and the French state. They also made news headlines due to a report of 21,000 layoffs, accounting for 15% of the company's workforce due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
As an established player in the oilfield services industry, Schlumberger looks poised to continue to expand its presence in the industry and further its mission of providing innovative solutions to the world's energy challenges.
