Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank AG, who gave a generally bullish presentation on the future of the oil business and oil prices, was asked whether international oil companies — who are increasingly being shut out of certain exploration places around the world by nationalistic regimes — would buy oil service companies, who are being hired by national, or state-owned, oil companies to do the work. He said it was a possibility, but he thought big oil companies were better off building them up internally.
"The need for oil service is huge, and international oil companies need to create a way to attract the markets," he said.
That was followed up with a question about whether national oil companies would buy international oil companies, and he said that will only happen with national oil companies that are more independent of their central government.
Tim Summers, chief operating officer of BP plc's Russian arm TNK-BP, said the company is consolidating its six drilling units into one and may spin it off next year. It would be a doozy: It would have a market capitalization of $1 billion to $2 billion.
And Chad Deaton, CEO of Baker Hughes Inc., which Halliburton Corp. has been rumored to be courting, said he expects more consolidation in oilfield services partly because companies will need heft to be able to spend capital on new technology for some big projects. He didn't mention any specific matchups, saying only, "We'll continue to look for acquisition candidates where we can meet some of those needs." — Claire Poole
