The world’s largest drilling concern, which had reported revenues of $US35.47 billion in 2015, announced this week it was continuing its pursuit of advancing overall drilling and well intervention efficiency through technology integration, even while its clients are cutting back on costs.
The service giant’s chairman and CEO Paal Kibsgaard said in the company’s quarterly this week that the decline in global activity and the rate of activity disruption reached “unprecedented levels”
He said the industry displayed “clear signs of operating in a full-scale cash crisis” as budgeted exploration and production spend fell again and substantially affected its operating results.
“This environment is expected to continue deteriorating over the coming quarter given the magnitude and erratic nature of the disruptions in activity,” he said.
Schlumberger’s production group president Sherif Foda said the new acquisition should help the service giant’s customers improve production at a lower cost per barrel, providing a “step change” in operational performance.
“The purchase of Xtreme's industry leading, advanced AC-electric coiled tubing technology validates our long-term vision to develop the most automated and advanced coiled tubing system in the world,” Xtreme CEO Tom Wood said.
“This complements Schlumberger’s focus on operational efficiency and market expansion through automation and integration.”
Schlumberger says its technology integration approach is evolving engineering of the drilling system from a simple combination of discrete services to optimised systems that are customised through extensive design and modelling capabilities for specific customer requirements.
The addition of Xtreme’s coiled tubing technology to the Schlumberger portfolio will be a “key enabler” for further advances in drilling efficiency, especially in challenging land-based environments, he said.
Xtreme, established in 2005, designs, builds, owns and operates a fleet of high specification drilling rigs and coiled tubing well service units featuring proprietary technology.
These include AC high-capacity coil injectors, deep re-entry drilling capability, modular transportation systems and continuous integration of in-house advances in methodologies.
The company has contracts with oil and natural gas exploration and production companies, and integrated oil field service providers in Canada, the US, Saudi Arabia, India and further afield internationally.
