PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Customer-focused, solutions-driven branding sets M-I SWACO apart

Global petroleum industry relies on M-I SWACO for comprehensive production fluids and associated engineering and environmental services

Paula Easley

Q. When was the company founded, who founded it and what was its original name?

A. M-I SWACO was conceived in 1939 when Harry Brown and Williard Johnson sought new barite reserves in Magnet Cover, Ark., for use as a drilling fluid weighting agent. In 1940, they formed the Magnet Cove Barium Corp., which was shortened to Magcobar when Dresser Industries purchased the company in 1949. Meanwhile, in 1962 International Minerals and Chemicals Co. was formed and the next year became IMC Drilling Mud.

Dresser acquired SWACO in 1967, while Halliburton acquired IMC in 1969 and shortened the name to IMCO. In 1986, Halliburton and Dresser merged the two companies under the name M-I Drilling Fluids. In 1990, SWACO became a division of M-I Drilling Fluids, which Smith International acquired in 1994. In 1999, Smith and Schlumberger formed the joint venture that today operates what is now M-I SWACO.

Q. Where is M-I SWACO located?

A. M-I SWACO is based in Houston, Texas, but has a presence in more than 300 locations in 75 countries.

Q. Who heads up the company and who is on its senior management team?

A. Heading up the global operations of M-I SWACO is President and CEO Don McKenzie. The senior management team comprises:

Chris Rivers, executive vice president of product segments;

Frank Richter, vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer;

Lee Turner, vice president of QHSE;

Ida Ashley, vice president of human resources;

James Webster, vice president, general counsel and secretary;

Jim Bruton, vice president, research and engineering;

John Kelly, senior vice president, production technologies;

Larry Barker, senior vice president, strategic development;

Joe Bacho, senior vice president, North America;

Dave Chilton, senior vice president South America;

Emad Kelada, senior vice president, Eastern Hemisphere south; and

Curtis Bordelon, senior vice president, Eastern Hemisphere north.

Q. What is your primary business sector and specialized services?

A. The company’s primary offerings are drilling, reservoir drill-in and completion fluids and a wide array of drilling waste management equipment and services. The specific services the company provides include wellsite engineering, rig evaluations, production waste management services, environmental solutions, wellbore clean-up tools and associated services, produced water treatment, H2 S remediation, waste injection, dewatering equipment and services and managed pressure drilling, among others.

Q. Who are your company’s main clients?

A. All major and independent oil and gas operating companies and drilling contractors worldwide.

Q. How many employees does M-I SWACO have?

A. M-I SWACO has more than 10,000 employees in 75 countries. The global employee base includes some 5,700 on-site drilling fluid and environmental solutions engineers and service technicians.

Q. Does your company have subsidiaries?

A. M-I SWACO has a number of business units and affiliated companies that offer both oilfield and non-oilfield equipment and services.

Q. Describe your equipment in general terms. Purchases planned?

A. From an equipment standpoint, most of the M-I SWACO offerings focus on solids control and drilling waste management, including shale shakers and centrifuges. In addition, the company provides filtration units and a wide range of specialized downhole tools for fishing and milling operations, displacements and cleanups, solids and debris removal and post-perforation cleanup. The company also offers pressure control equipment, including Assisted Well Control System and the Pressure and Fluid Management System.

Q. What is your company’s main strength, i.e. its edge over the competition?

A. M-I SWACO is an industry leading company with the dedicated resources to provide clients one-stop solutions for all their drilling, production and environmental needs. From the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of drilling, reservoir drill-in and completion fluids, to wellsite and project engineering incorporating the industry’s most sophisticated proprietary software, to produced water, production waste and pit management to a wide range of environmental solutions, including cuttings collection and disposal, dewatering and site remediation, we have products and services under one roof that no competitor can match. With the industry’s most all-inclusive training and development program, M-I SWACO provides customers the industry’s most qualified and knowledgeable technical personnel.

Q. What new markets, clients and/or projects did you attract in the last year?

A. We recently entered into two new business sectors. One is the management of production waste with major projects in Asia and elsewhere. In addition, we’re also involved with produced water treatment and have high-profile projects in the North Sea and elsewhere.

Q. Has the company invested in any new technology in the last two years?

A. As mentioned, M-I SWACO is the industry leader in dedicating resources to develop new technologies. The result of that investment has been a number of widely accepted new technologies over the past two years, including, but not limited to:

WARP* Fluid Technology, which employs micronized weighting agents for use in both drilling and completion fluids and overcomes a host of technical problems that have beset the drilling fluids industry over the four decades since barite was introduced as a weighting agent.

FloThru* reservoir drill-in fluid, which employs hydrophobic components that produce organophillic channels through the filter cake. These channels control the influx of water filtrate during the drilling and completion operations while providing a clear avenue for the production of hydrocarbons.

Reclaim* Technology, an environmental solutions technology that extends the useful life of oil and synthetic-base drilling fluids, while reducing disposal and environmental costs.

*mark of M-I L.L.C.

Q. What is the most challenging job the company has undertaken?

A. As a leader in the deepwater, HTHP and other harsh environments, M-I SWACO has successfully undertaken a number of challenging, high-profile projects throughout the world. In Alaska, where M-I SWACO is the undisputed go-to source for both fluids and environmental solutions, the company has applied its technological excellence to a major ongoing project on the North Slope. Since its inception, the ALPINE grind and injection project has processed more than one million bbl of drilled cuttings and has operated more than five years without a recordable accident. What’s more, during its operation M-I SWACO also has mixed nearly 800,000 bbl of drilling fluid and handled nearly 16 million lbs. of bulk product.

Q. What do you see as the company’s biggest challenge in the next five years?

A. One of the biggest challenges M-I SWACO will face in next five years will be providing our clients with the world-class level of service and technological innovations that they have enjoyed over the past 10 years. That success is dependent upon continuing to achieve high rates of employee and customer satisfaction and ensuring that HSE issues remain the predominant focus in all the company’s global locations.

Q. What do you see as future trends or opportunities for your company, say, political events or long-term weather fluctuations?

A. The ever-growing importance of state-owned oil and gas companies to the international petroleum mix obviously shines increased light on political issues. However, M-I SWACO believes increasing emphasis on environmental issues will provide opportunities for innovation and value-added solutions for the petroleum service sector in coming years.

Q. What is the average length of time employees work for the company? Are you hiring for any positions?

A. While it is difficult to determine the average length of service for the entire employee base, M-I SWACO has employees who have served with the company for as many as 50 years. Like every company in the oilfield, shortages of skilled personnel have prompted M-I SWACO to engage in a wide-ranging program to attract, train and retain qualified employees.

Q. What is your company’s safety record?

A. Owing to the company’s world class HSE management program, recordable incidents are down across-the-board.

Q. Does your company or its partners or subsidiaries maintain Web sites?

A. The M-I SWACO global Internet site can be accessed at www.miswaco.com.