Schlumberger Nv News

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday that companies can recover profits lost because of the unauthorized use of their patented technology abroad in a victory for Schlumberger NV, the world's largest oilfield services provider.The 7-2 decision overturned a lower court's ruling that had enforced limits on applying U.S. patent law overseas and reduced by $93.4 million the damages sum that rival ION Geophysical Corp had to pay for infringing Schlumberger technology that helps find oil and gas beneath the ocean floor.

Chevron Corp is considering taking part in an oil auction next month in Brazil as part of a consortium of companies, Brazilian oil regulator ANP said on Tuesday on its website. The auction, slated for March 29, will offer 70 blocks in the offshore Ceará, Potiguar, Sergipe-Alagoas, Campos and Santos basins and on-shore basins of Parnaíba and Paraná. The deadline to register for the auction is Wednesday. Chevron did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chevron did not bid in an October auction that opened Brazil's offshore pre-salt play to foreign operators and was dominated by Royal Dutch Shell Plc. However, Chevron is seeking to ramp up its production in Brazil.

Russia's Eurasia Drilling Company (EDC) said on Thursday it would sell a 51 percent stake in the company to the oilfield services provider, U.S.-based Schlumberger NV.   The agreement is subject to approval by the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS), the company said. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed since it is subject to approval.   The agreement, if approved, would extend a strategic alliance with Schlumberger that dates to 2011, Eurasia added.   EDC is an onshore and offshore drilling and well services contractor. EDC owns and operates one of the largest fleets of land drilling and workover units in the world.   Schlumberger provides technology for reservoir characterization, drilling, production, and processing to the oil and gas industry.

General Electric Co said on Monday it would merge its oil and gas business with Baker Hughes Inc, creating the world's second-largest oilfield services provider as competition heats up to supply more-efficient products and services to the energy industry after several years of low crude prices. The deal to create a company with $32 billion in annual revenue will combine GE's strengths in making equipment long-prized by oil producers with Baker Hughes's expertise in drilling and fracking new wells. Shares of Baker Hughes were down nearly 7 percent, a drop that executives said likely was due to the deal's complicated structure. GE is already the world's largest oilfield equipment maker, supplying blowout preventers, pumps and compressors used in exploration and production.

Business is so tough for oilfield giants Schlumberger NV and Halliburton Co that they have come up with a new sales pitch for crude producers halting work in the worst downturn in years. The moves by the world's No. 1 and No. 2 oil services companies show how they are scrambling to book sales of new technologies to customers short of cash after a 60 percent slide in crude to $45 a barrel. In some cases, they are willing to take on the role of traditional lenders, like banks, which have grown reluctant to lend since the price drop that began last summer, or act like producers by taking what are essentially stakes in wells. When its second-quarter net profit tumbled by more than half a billion dollars to just $54 million…

The population of a U.S. oil boomtown that became a symbol of the fracking revolution is dropping fast because of the collapse in crude oil prices , according to an unusual metric: the amount of sewage produced. Williston, North Dakota, has seen its population drop about 6 percent since last summer, according to wastewater data relied upon heavily by city planning officials. They turned to measuring effluent because it was a much faster and more accurate way to track population than alternatives such as construction permits, school enrollment, tax receipts or airport boardings. U.S. Census Bureau figures are usually too old as a full-fledged population count only happens once a decade, with sporadic updates in between.

Halliburton Co and Baker Hughes Inc have agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice to extend the date of the department's review of Halliburton's acquisition of Baker Hughes, a deal that would create an oilfield services behemoth. Halliburton has also proposed to "divest additional businesses of the companies" to get regulatory nod for the deal globally, the companies said on Friday. Several big deals, including Comcast Corp's $45 billion offer for Time Warner Cable Inc, have been scuttled in recent months amid indications that they would be blocked by antitrust regulators. Halliburton's $35-billion offer for Baker Hughes is being scrutinized by regulators in several countries as the companies have overlapping businesses in the United States, Asia and Europe.

Creditors of Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's Oleo e Gas Participacoes SA approved a restructuring plan for the oil company that could lead to a quick resolution of the largest bankruptcy in Latin America's history, lawyers said on Tuesday. The plan was approved by creditors holding 90 percent of the Rio de Janeiro-based company's nearly 12 billion reais ($5 billion) of unpaid obligations. If a judge approves, creditors will swap debts for about 90 percent of Oleo e Gas stock, said Ricardo Knoepfelmacher of Angra Partners, the consultancy that handled talks with creditors. The judge's approval is expected within days, he said. Creditors include Newport Beach…

Venezuela's state-run oil firm PDVSA said on Saturday a $2 billion pre-payment from Russian oil producer Rosneft will be destined in part to develop its coveted Orinoco belt. State-run Rosneft earlier on Saturday announced a flurry of deals including a long-term contract with PDVSA for 1.6 million tonnes of oil and 7.5 million tonnes of oil products within five years. Venezuela is struggling with stagnant oil and natural gas production, and has its sights set on the vast southern Orinoco belt as a way to boost production. "We're focusing all our technological capacity to develop this oil province which will give us 150 years of production at a rate of 6 million barrels per day, (as per) our aim for 2019," PDVSA President and Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said in a statement.

Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA on Wednesday said it had been granted a total of $2 billion in credit lines by oilfield services companies Halliburton Co, Schlumberger NV and Weatherford International Ltd. "What we have signed is for the companies to increase activities in our country, in some cases doubling them," PDVSA President and Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said at a ceremony in the western city of Maracaibo. By giving credit lines to PDVSA, the companies will be able to increase their service contracts with OPEC member Venezuela. The deal may allow PDVSA, whose cash-flow problems are well known, to postpone payments of accumulated debts to its main service providers.

Eike Batista, who was Brazil's richest man for most of the past decade, is under investigation for allegedly engaging in insider trading while he chaired his now-bankrupt oil-producing and shipbuilding firms, securities industry watchdog CVM said on Friday. In a statement sent to Reuters, Rio de Janeiro-based CVM confirmed that Batista is a respondent in six of nine probes that executives of his Grupo EBX conglomerate are facing for breaching securities rules. In two of them, regulators are examining whether Batista allegedly took advantage of his access to privileged information.