National Oilwell Varco, Schlumberger Team Up (NOV, SLB, BP)

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Apr 28, 2:17AM EDT · Published Nov 20, 8:45AM EST

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Oil_well_logo_2 One oilfield services giant, Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB), and one large oilfield services and well manufacturing company, National Oilwell Varco (NYSE:NOV), have announced plans to form a joint venture focused on intelligent well-drilling. National will own 55% of the venture and be the operator. Schlumberger will own 45% and provide expertise in drilling technology.

The new JV uses National’s data-capturing downhole tools to providedrillers with "more accurate knowledge of the drilling environment andformation parameters." Drillers will better be able to determine theprobability for success for based on virtually real-time data on thegeology and the well’s position inside the reservoir.

This is all great, but cutbacks in exploration could doom the venturebefore it starts. For example, BP plc (NYSE:BP) announced yesterdaythat it was suspending work on a $120 million gas processing plant itwas building on the Alaskan North Slope. The company cited rising costsand falling crude prices for the delay.

Schlumberger’s share price dipped nearly 6% yesterday, while National’sprice fell about 10%. The joint venture is not likely to turn thatslide around.

Paul Ausick
November 20, 2008

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.