Schlumberger, Ltd. has closed its merger with Smith International, Inc. As previously announced, each Smith stockholder will receive 0.6966 share of Schlumberger common stock in exchange for each Smith share, with cash paid in lieu of any fractional shares of Schlumberger common stock. Schlumberger has issued approximately 176 million shares pursuant to the merger, representing a transaction value of approximately $11 billion. As a result, former Smith stockholders own approximately 12.9% of Schlumberger’s outstanding shares of common stock.

Schlumberger and Smith International announced that the European Commission has cleared the proposed merger without any conditions. The proposed merger remains subject to clearance by the U.S. Dept. of Justice, approval by Smith stockholders, and other conditions. Schlumberger and Smith expect that the merger will close in the third quarter of this year.

 

The International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) issued a statement saying the association applauds the leadership of three U.S. Senators: David Vitter (Louisiana), John Cornyn (Texas), and Roger Wicker (Mississippi), who are opposing the federal moratorium on offshore permitting and drilling activities announced on July 12 by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. The three Gulf Coast senators sponsored legislation (S. 3588) to lift the offshore drilling and permitting moratorium for companies that have complied with the new safety and inspection requirements issued by the Department of the Interior.

Cuming Corporation, a leader in the design and manufacture of technologically advanced syntactic foam flotation products and insulation materials for the offshore oil and gas industry, will be acquired by Houston-based Deep Down, Inc.

 

Baker Hughes, Inc. has closed its acquisition of BJ Services Company  Pursuant to the previously announced merger agreement, each BJ Services stockholder will receive 0.40035 shares of Baker Hughes common stock, par value $1.00 per share, and $2.69 in cash in return for each share of BJ Services common stock held.

 

Smith International, Inc. announced that the agreement to acquire @Balance, B.V. from Shell Technology Ventures Fund 1 B.V. closed on April 15. At Balance provides managed pressure drilling (MPD) services using its patented technology.

 

Argus Subsea, which manufactures subsea products for time-critical fields, announced the introduction of the AZ-15J subsea tree and wellhead system. Specially designed for jack-up mobile drilling units, the Argus AZ-15J is a purpose-built system that allows operators to drill and complete wells up to 15,000 PSI working pressure without special riser systems or temporary abandonments.

 

SensorTran, producer of an advanced distributed temperature sensing (DTS) system, is opening a sales and service support office in Houston. The new ...