Oilfield

Billing itself as “the world’s first and only fullstream oil and gas company,” Baker Hughes Inc. and GE Oil & Gas announced Monday that their mega-merger — estimated at $32 billion — is complete.

Houston’s Kirby Corp. and Stewart & Stevenson LLC (S&S), whose manufacturing and services offerings are expanding rapidly in the Permian Basin, Eagle Ford Shale and in Oklahoma, agreed late Tuesday to combine in a deal estimated to be worth close to $710 million.

Calgary-based operators Precision Drilling Corp. and Essential Energy Services Ltd. have agreed to swap some oilfield service assets, which would expand Precision’s rig operations and workforce in Canada while Essential would add coil tubing and pumping services.

The oilfield services industry has been mangled, chewed up and spit out since commodity prices began tumbling in late 2014. Like a champ, operators picked themselves up and fought back by revamping customer contracts, improving efficiencies and costs, and as they have always done, delivering ever-better technology.

Contrary to the optimism some oilfield services companies have expressed about finding a solid labor pool once the oil and gas upturn begins, many former employees have no intention of ever returning, according to a survey by Evercore ISI.

Raymond James & Associates Inc. analysts are standing by their call for West Texas Intermediate oil prices to reach $50/bbl later this year in the face of a futures strip that is “simply unsustainable,” but until the price cavalry arrives, the U.S. rig count is going to be hacked even more as producers cut back their spending.

Under increasing criticism for being too soft on oil and natural gas operators, California regulators on Monday ordered the exploration unit of Freeport-McMoRan Corp. to provide additional data on the Inglewood Oilfield in the greater Los Angeles area.

Global operator Archer Ltd. is buying a major stake and contributing well services entities to Houston’s Quintana Energy Services LP (QES) to create a North American onshore-focused oilfield services business.

Spending for oilfield equipment (OFE) has fallen sharply over the past year, mostly impacting the U.S. onshore, but recovery should begin by 2017 and accelerate thereafter, according to new research by UK-based Douglas-Westwood Ltd. (DW).