With locations in more than 75 countries around the world, M-I SWACO is a vital part of the world’s hydrocarbon exploration and production industry. We are the leading supplier of drilling fluid systems engineered to improve drilling performance by anticipating fluids-related problems, fluid systems and specialty tools designed to optimize wellbore productivity, production technology solutions to maximize production rates, and environmental solutions that safely manage waste volumes generated in both drilling and production operations. The Company is a joint venture, 60% owned by Smith International, Inc. (Smith), and affiliated companies, and 40% owned by Schlumberger Limited (Schlumberger) and affiliated companies. Today, M-I SWACO employs approximately 13,000 persons in over 400 service locations around the world.
The joint venture between Smith and Schlumberger consolidated more than 60 years of leadership and service to the global exploration and production industry, including the industry-defining contribution of two pioneers in the drilling fluids industry - Magcobar (a subsidiary of Dresser Industries) and Imco Services (a subsidiary of the Halliburton Company), coupled with the complementary technologies and services of Dresser Industries’ SWACO business unit, the industry leader in solids and pressure control equipment. In 1986, Dresser and Halliburton formed a joint venture between its two drilling fluid companies, known as M-I Drilling Fluids, LLC. Smith purchased the Dresser share of the M-I joint venture in 1994, and in 1999, Schlumberger contributed its non-U.S. Dowell drilling fluid operations to become the joint venture’s minority partner. Since that time, M-I SWACO has acquired the talents and capabilities of a number of companies to enhance and broaden its solutions offering across the drilling and production spectrum.
From its earliest roots, M-I SWACO recognized that it best served its clients, not by delivering drilling fluid products to the client’s location, but by anticipating and planning for how those products would behave in the downhole environment – both to optimize drilling performance and to minimize the risk associated with fluids-related problems. The Drilling Solutions offering – customized to a client’s specific application and location, involves a company expertise focused on fluids-related issues such as differential sticking, lost circulation, hole-cleaning, and well control. It also entails an overall understanding of how these issues contribute to the client’s goals to maximize rate-of-penetration, eliminate non-productive time (NPT), achieve QHSE performance objectives, and obtain quality data from the wellbore. This understanding is strengthened by providing regionally- and globally-based experts to support the application of M-I SWACO technology, and by developing new technology and process solutions to optimize client results.
