Posted on 05/08/2008 5:52:56 AM PDT by thackney
Oilfield services companies will need to join forces in the next few years to avoid a downturn of the sector's own making, the chief executive of French oil services company Technip SA (TKPPY) said Wednesday.
That could mean merging with each other or, for the first time in decades, with energy companies, Technip CEO Thierry Pilenko said.
During a panel at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Pilenko floated the idea of international oil companies acquiring service firms as a way to manage a growing labor shortage facing the entire energy industry.
International oil companies explore for and produce oil and gas, but separate service companies perform much of the technical work involved, including designing and building platforms and servicing wells. The workforce at most energy companies is aging, and the industry is struggling to cope with the expected wave of retirements.
National oil companies often operate their own service firms, though few can match the range of operations and technology offered by independent names such as Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) and Halliburton Co. (HAL).
Executives with international oil giants Chevron Corp. (CVX) and Total SA (TOT) were skeptical of Pilenko's idea. "You can't really buy the people," said Bobby Ryan, vice president for global exploration at Chevron.
Ryan noted that Chevron attempted to retain "every single technical employee" at Unocal when the two merged in 2005, but it found that many balked at working at such a large company. He predicted that the workforce at independent service firms would also bolt if acquired by a major oil company.
Patrick Pouyanne, a senior vice president with Total, said the French oil giant had a "good relationship" with oil-field services companies, so there is no need to bring those people in-house.
(Excerpt) Read more at rigzone.com ...
ping
So are they saying the service companies are short employees or the oil companies? Or are they saying due to the shortage of employees the fees from services companies are going up?
Schlumberger is located in an out in nowhere town of Graham, TX. Not a bad place to live.
My problem with big corporations is not the work, but the soulless bureaucratic policies set up by people who have nothing to do with the Operations of the company.
Individuals more concerned with THEIR job, than THE job.
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