ENERGY FOCUS OIL & GAS
SCHLUMBERGER
Second Time Lucky For
EDC Acquisition PRODUCTION: Timothy Reeder
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In what is a major landmark for the oil and gas industry, Schlumberger, the world’s largest oilfield services company, has announced that it will acquire a majority share in Eurasia Drilling Company. It is an agreement that extends an already successful long-term relationship in the conventional land drilling market, established by the two companies in 2011. Eurasia Drilling Company (EDC) is a leading onshore and offshore drilling and well services contractor, owning and operating one of the largest fleets of land drilling and workover units in the world, and
28 / www.emea-energy.net
is also the premier supplier of drilling services in the expanding Caspian Sea jack-up market. This transaction pairs it with the world’s leading provider of technology for reservoir characterisation, drilling, production and processing to the oil and gas industry. With a presence in more than 85 countries and employing approximately 100,000 people who represent over 140 nationalities, Schlumberger supplies the industry’s most comprehensive range of products and services, from exploration through production, reporting revenues of $27.81 billion in 2016. It comes as
Schlumberger’s second attempt to buy Russia’s biggest drilling company, less than two years after a similar plan was scuppered amid opposition from the nation’s regulators, and provides the first U.S. stake in Russia’s oil and gas sector since sanctions were imposed on Moscow after its 2014 annexation of Crimea. Schlumberger, based in Houston and Paris, had sought to buy 45.65% of EDC for $1.7 billion in 2015, with an option to acquire the rest at a later stage, a deal which fell through after Russian authorities delayed approval for almost eight months.
