The oil and gas industry is tethered until Covid-19 is a bitter memory, but the time is now to pursue more renewable opportunities in the oilfield services sector, NOV Inc. CEO Clay Williams said Friday.

Like its peers and exploration and production (E&P) customers, the downturn will continue in the energy industry “until the world gets past the wreckage of Covid,” Williams said during a conference call to discuss fourth quarter results.

The CEO, who often shares a blunt assessment each quarter with investors, did not shy away from laying out the positives and the negatives. There were many negatives on the earnings front in the fourth quarter, “particularly disappointing in view of the massive cost cut efforts the company enacted last year and throughout the last six...