Relative to the rest of the oil services industry, Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) is less focused on North America (where they believe barriers to entry are lower) and are more focused on international E&P clients, particularly national oil companies (NOC). Schlumberger’s portfolio of vertically integrated assets increasingly allows the Company to become more competitively entrenched with their NOC clients. Increasingly, the Company is managing entire oilfields in exchange for performance incentives that result from increased production—byproducts of the Company’s decades of M&A and industry-leading R&D.
Because skills and manpower are chronically scarce due to the boom-bust nature of the E&P industry, we think Schlumberger’s model of vertical integration will become more important to clients, helping drive value for them as well as shareholders.
From David Rolfe (Trades, Portfolio)'s Wedgewood Partners first-quarter 2017 shareholder letter.
