Schlumberger

Website: www.slb.com
Industry: Oil & Gas, Consultation, Water Services
Address: 16th floor (West Wing), Rohas Perkasa Building
8 Jalan Perak
50450 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Tel: +60 3 2166 7788

Some pieces of information from a first hand.
On the contrary to many who were sacked by SLB (this happens cyclically with the barrel of oil price), I was lucky enough to decide and quit Schlumberger about 4 years ago already.

What can I say about SLB after more than 10 years working internationally for it (Americas, Asia, Middle-East, Europe).

First one is: Yes you ll have the opportunity to move around. At least I did. It sounds nice but you have to be ready to go anywhere. You can discuss/argue about a potential transfer once , twice, not much more than that. Then they show you the door.

There are 2 different types of people who can work for SLB: gradutates and non grauates.
For non-graduates, SLB is the best that can be... what other company can provide you with that much training, possible career development and money! The good ones have a chance to go high in SLB. But watch out, competeition is fierce internally. To push for internationalization and egality of chances, SLB pushes non-american and non-european mngrs. at least this is the way i have seen it. it is also a good move to have local mngrs for local clients.
You can notice that there is no american at all in the board of SLB.

Generally speaking most oilfield service companies provide good financial deals. Hard work but good money. For non-graduates i recommend to work on a 1 month on , one month off if possible. Drilling segments is their chance.

For graduates, one can wonder if this is a good idea or not.
Most graduates comes out of university without any oilfield degree but with a degree in mechanical or electronic etc. For the ones who have an oilfield dgree! Don t hesitate! go for an operator! you ll make more money in the long run and will have a better life. This advise also goes to geologist or mining engineers, who suits quite well the operators requirements.
I have been working in projects where operator employees were leaving at 5 to go sailing while we were working late on their requests for the next day. Choose your side...
For graduates with other than oilfield degree... you may not be very interesting for an operator at the first run so you have to make your time in a service company. Any service company will do. i have a tendency to believe that SLB moves people more quickly than other companies.

My advice to new-comers.
Whether you do 3 years max in the field, hard-working and putting money aside, whether you have to reach this 15 years level point to be eligible for the pension plan which is excellent i must say. I did not... But i haven t always been very smart in my life. i belive i was fed up to be told what to do all the time.
Danger is that, when you get to 40+ you are way to old to start on a new career and I believe SLB knows that. Then they start sending you again to not so nice locations because you re trapped in their net.

So, if you have been smart. After 3 years, you have enough 'knowledge' to try and force the door of an operator.
Certain service segments are much more interesting than others to enter in the future an operator office. This includes: anything related to reservoir or drilling, like CTD, stimulation, production enhancement etc. Face it! as a cementer or a drilling fluid guy you have little chance to be of interest for an operator.

When I left and came back to a normal life, I realized that Engineers having worked quietly in standard industry did as good as I did! tey benefited from the booming housing sector.
Gain?? we can wonder...

Whatever i have read from nostalgic who have spent 25 years in SLB on here... Some assignments are better than others. North-America is different from the rest of the world. It just take 3 years of sh... life in a sh... country to ruin your family balance. Because you re a nice guy you will not want to bring your family with you in a ****hole (that s of course ok with SLB as you will work harder) but that s not good for the family.

What about this fancy places where you can go sailing or execising or 'work hard! play hard!' advertising motto. I haven t found except in the USA. The future of SLB and the oilfield is not in those places. Look more at Angola, Nigeria, Saudi or Qatar for a 1st place... Nice places!!!! no?

What is sure, and I have read that many times on those bulletin-boards. When you will leave SLB you ll have to start from scratch again. Certainly you ll have a very good understanding of the oilfield. if you re lucky once again, you can use this to start a new career.

Good luck to the newcomers. I wish I had some insight when i engaged in this career quite some years ago.

Contributed by: Anonymous