Businessweek

National Oilwell Varco, Inc. provides equipment and components used in oil and gas drilling and production operations, oilfield services, and supply chain integration services to the upstream oil and gas industry. The company conducts operations in approximately 1,160 locations across 6 continents. Segments The company operates through three segments: Rig Technology; Petroleum Services & Supplies; and Distribution & Transmission. RIG TECHNOLOGY This segment designs, manufactures, sells, and services systems for the drilling, completion, and servicing of oil and gas wells. This segment offers a line of equipment that automates well construction and management operations, such as offshore and onshore drilling rigs; derricks; pipe lifting, racking, rotating, and assembly systems; rig instrumentation systems; blowout preventers (BOPs); coiled tubing equipment and pressure pumping units; well workover rigs; wireline winches; wireline trucks; cranes; flexible pipe for offshore production applications; and turret mooring systems and other products for floating production, storage, and offloading vessels (FPSOs) and other offshore vessels and terminals. The company has additional operations in the United States, Canada, Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Brazil, China, Belarus, India, Russia, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, South Africa, and Angola. This segment designs, manufactures, and sells various top drives, automated pipe handling systems, motion compensation systems, rig controls, handling tools, drawworks, risers, rotary tables, mud pumps, drilling motors, and other products for FPSOs and other offshore vessels and terminals, and other drilling equipment for both the onshore and offshore markets. This segment also manufactures entire rig packages, both drilling and workover, in addition to well servicing equipment, such as coiled tubing units, pressure pumping equipment, and wireline winches. This segment rents and sells proprietary drilling rig instrumentation packages and control systems, which monitor various processes throughout the drilling operation, under the name MD/Totco (Instrumentation). Land Rig Packages. The company designs, manufactures, assembles, upgrades, and supplies equipment sets to various land drilling rigs, including those primarily designed to operate in harsh environments, such as the Arctic Circle and the desert. Its primary land rig product names include the Drake Rig, Ideal Rig, and Rapid Rig. Top Drives: The Top Drive Drilling System (TDS) rotates the drill stem from its top. Components of the TDS also are used to connect additional joints of drill pipe to the drill stem during drilling operations. Additionally, the TDS facilitates horizontal and extended reach drilling. Electric Rig Motors: The company buys motors from third parties and builds them in its own facilities and is further developing motor technology, including the introduction of permanent magnet motor technology to the industry. These permanent magnet motors are being used in top drives, cranes, mud pumps, winches, and drawworks. Rotary Equipment: Rig Technology produces rotary tables, and kelly bushings and master bushings for various sizes of kellys and makes of rotary tables. It offers the Rotary Support Table for use on rigs with a TDS. The Rotary Support Table is used in concert with the TDS to eliminate the need for the conventional rotary table. Pipe Handling Systems: Pipe racking systems are used to handle drill pipe, casing, and tubing on a drilling rig. Vertical pipe racking systems move drill pipe and casing between the well and a storage (racking) area on the rig floor. Horizontal racking systems are used to handle tubulars while stored horizontally (on the pipe deck of an offshore rig) and transport tubulars up to the rig floor and into a vertical position for use in the drilling process. Vertical pipe racking systems are used primarily on offshore rigs and are found on various floating rigs. Pipe racking systems provide an automated mechanism for handling and racking drill pipe during drilling and tripping operations, spinning and torquing drill pipe, and automatic hoist