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Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Loses 2 @ 621, M-U Stays Even @ 44

Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count lost two rigs after adding four rigs the week before. The count went from 623 active rigs two weeks ago to 621 last week. The national count has consistently stayed between 620-625 active rigs since last October. The Marcellus/Utica stayed even last week at 44 rigs after gaining two rigs the week before. The M-U is at the most active rigs we’ve had since last August!
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Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Adds 1 @ 620, M-U Adds 2 @ 42

The Baker Hughes rig count gained rigs for the first time in three weeks last week. The count went from 619 active rigs two weeks ago to 620 last week — up a single rig. Better than nothing! The Marcellus/Utica count gained two (both in Pennsylvania) to land at 42 active rigs overall. PA had 21 rigs, up from 19, while OH maintained 13 rigs, and WV maintained eight rigs.
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Baker Hughes U.S. Rig Count Loses 1 @ 621, M-U Even @ 40

The Baker Hughes rig count lost ground again last week, as it has in three of the last four weeks. The count went from 622 active rigs two weeks ago down to 621 last week. The Marcellus/Utica count was steady at 40 active rigs, broken down as 19 active rigs in Pennsylvania, 12 in Ohio, and 9 in West Virginia. The M-U’s chief rival (for money and resources), the Haynesville, lost one rig last week and now sports 43 active rigs.
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Halliburton, Baker Hughes See Shale Slowdown Coming This Year

Two of the world’s largest three oilfield services (OFS) companies, Halliburton and Baker Hughes, provided updates this week for their second-quarter performance and operations. Both companies said essentially the same thing. Drilling is slowing down in U.S. shale, but offshore drilling in other parts of the world is still going strong and makes up for the slowdown here at home.
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Baker Hughes CEO Says NatGas is the Destination, Not Just a Bridge

Lorenzo Simonelli

This week is CERAWeek all week long in Houston, Texas. CERAWeek is the world’s premier energy conference, attracting many of the world’s biggest energy companies and top government officials. Yesterday included a speech by Lurch (i.e. John F. Kerry), among many other speakers. We will bring you stories from CERAWeek as developments warrant. Today we have two posts on CERAWeek. This post is a summary of a speech delivered by the CEO of oilfield services giant Baker Hughes. Lorenzo Simonelli, chairman and CEO of BH, said natural gas is not only a “transitional source” of energy, it’s also “the destination” for the energy transition. Finally, someone who will speak the truth in public about natural gas!
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Biggest OFS Cos. See O&G Drilling on the Rise Intl, Less So in US

It’s earnings season, the time when publicly traded companies publish their latest quarterly (and in this case, annual) financial statements–for 4Q22 and all of 2022. Three of the biggest oilfield services (OFS) companies in the world–SLB (formerly Schlumberger), Halliburton, and Baker Hughes–have now issued their quarterly updates. And all three have a common theme: Expect more drilling internationally in 2023, especially in the Middle East and Latin America, but expect about the same amount of drilling (or less) in the U.S. this year.
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Baker Hughes Tests 10% Hydrogen Blend in Italian Compressor

From time to time, we bring you news about hydrogen (H2) because, for many, H2 is the next “big thing” in energy. Many on the left are dazzled by H2 energy, although some of the more extreme elements of the left oppose H2 energy because most H2 is produced by cracking methane (see Appalachian Leftwing Group Turns Against Hydrogen Power). It’s still an unanswered question as to whether or not H2 can be successfully mixed into the existing natural gas pipeline system and burned by existing appliances and equipment. We spotted news that is something of a breakthrough for H2–an experiment with Baker Hughes and an Italian energy infrastructure company called Snam S.p.A.
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Baker Hughes Predicts Big Growth Coming in NatGas, LNG

Baker Hughes, one of the biggest oilfield services companies on the planet, issued its second quarter earnings update yesterday. The company reported a net loss of $839 million during 2Q, but more than half that number is due to a write-off of its oilfield services business in Russia. What caught our attention was not the company’s financial performance, but the words of its top leaders in describing the near- and long-term future for natural gas. Baker Hughes is VERY bullish on natural gas and natural gas infrastructure (including LNG and pipelines).
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BH Invests in Gas-Fired Power Plants with Zero CO2 Emissions

Here’s an interesting twist. Baker Hughes (BH), one of the biggest oilfield services companies on the planet, is investing in a company that designs and builds natural gas-fired electric power plants. But not just any gas-fired power plants. These plants use new technology so that when the natural gas is burned (to produce heat to spin a turbine), there is no, as in zero, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Technology to lower or eliminate CO2 emissions has been available for sometime, but typically has been too expensive. This new tech BH is backing promises to be much lower cost.
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Oilfield Service Cos. Say Drilling is Now in Multi-Year Up-Cycle

The world’s (and North America’s) largest oilfield services companies, including Schlumberger, Halliburton, and Baker Hughes, are all saying the same thing: Drillers are getting ready to drill more this year. Some sub-sectors of the drilling market, like completions, are already “sold out” according to Halliburton. Good luck to drillers who want to add more completions crews right now. Prices are going up for fracking fleets and other services offered by OFS companies.
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GE Announces 3-Yr Plan to Fully Divest from Baker Hughes

Less than one year after buying Baker Hughes, GE decided it didn’t want its bright shiny new toy anymore and would divest itself of Baker Hughes (see GE Dumping Baker Hughes in Bid to Boost Stock Price). Baker Huges separated from GE last October and has been its own company since that time. However, GE still owns 37% of Baker Hughes (BKR) stock. Yesterday, as part of GE’s 2Q20 update, the company announced it will liquidate all of its remaining BKR stock over the next three years.
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GE Begins Divesting from Baker Hughes Early

Less than one year after buying Baker Hughes (in July 2017), GE decided in June of this year it didn’t want its bright shiny new toy any more and would, over the next 2-3 years, divest itself of Baker Hughes (see GE Dumping Baker Hughes in Bid to Boost Stock Price). We figured GE would look for a new buyer and sell the whole thing all at once. But that’s not how it works in the world of high finance. GE owns 62.5% of all Baker Hughes stock (BH is, on paper, a separate company). Instead of waiting 2-3 years, GE is moving ahead now, beginning to sell some of its BH stock. Ever so gradually (don’t want to flood the market all at once). The plan, being called “mutually beneficial for both companies” by GE CEO Larry Culp, will draw down GE’s ownership to just over 50%, with an eye to completing the breakup sometime in late 2019.
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Moody’s Says Smaller Oilfield Services Cos. in Trouble from Debt

Moody’s Investor Service is sounding the alarm with respect to oilfield services (OFS) companies and debt. In a publication for Moody’s clients issued earlier this week, analysts said OFS companies don’t have the means to pay back towering debt in the short term, and “limited options” when it comes to raising equity to improve liquidity. What it means is this: Companies like Schlumberger, Halliburton, and Baker Hughes a GE Company are heading for rough waters. However, the biggies, like the three we’ve mentioned, will probably be OK. But their smaller competitors, according to Moody’s, may not be OK.
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Oilfield Serv. Co. Relocating Office & 200 People from WV to PA

In early 2017, Baker Hughes (prior to GE buying them) spun off its North American shale fracking business (“pressure pumping”) into a new, standalone company called BJ Services (see 3 Parents Give Birth to New Fracking Co: BJ Services). The “new” company involved investments and assets contributed from both Goldman Sachs and CSL Capital Management, in addition to BH. BJ Services used to exist as a standalone company before it was purchased by, and merged into, Baker Hughes in 2009–for $5.5 billion. BJ remained its own separate division within BH, but then got spun out again, back into its own company. We know, a bit confusing. Here’s what you need to know. In March 2016, BH closed its BJ operation in Mill Hall (Clinton County), PA and moved it to Clarksburg (Harrison County), WV. Now the reverse is happening. BJ, the standalone company, announced it is closing the Clarksburg operation and relocating it back to Mill Hall, along with some 200 people…
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GE Dumping Baker Hughes in Bid to Boost Stock Price

Looks like “Baker Hughes, a GE Company” will soon become just plain old “Baker Hughes” once again. This morning GE released the results of a year-long internal review. GE has its fingers in a lot of pies and wants to pull its fingers out of some of those pies. The results of the review recommend GE dump Baker Hughes (over the next 2-3 years), and also dump its healthcare division. The company will concentrate on three “complimentary” areas: aviation, power and renewable energy. The hope is that by focusing and shedding peripheral business units, the company’s financial performance, and stock price, will improve. Just last week GE was booted from the Dow Jones Industrial Average after being a component of that average for over 100 years. The company’s stock was replaced on the DJIA by Walgreens. Truly humiliating. You may recall Halliburton originally wanted to buy Baker Hughes but the Obama Justice Department blocked the deal (see Obama DOJ Kills Halliburton/Baker Hughes Merger, Deal “Terminated”). Then GE came sniffing around and ended up buying BH in July last year, combining BH with GE Oil & Gas (see Baker Hughes and GE Complete Merger, World’s 1st Fullstream Co.). The resulting merged company was billed as a “fullstream” company–ticking all of the boxes in the oil and gas sector: upstream, midstream and downstream. But just four months after the merger there were signs of marriage problems (see 4 Months After Buying Baker Hughes, GE Wants to Sell It). And now it’s official. The two will be splitsville…
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