How are the oil services companies doing? Baker Hughes, Weatherford, Helmerich and Payne, etc? (Howe: buying)

[Zhang Fei]

Are happy days here again, with WTI at $60? Is hiring about to go through the roof?

[lipbalm]

Surface is doing great but hear that they learned to do more with less workers (typical ). Subsea is not doing so hot still.

[Meyerland]

There are jobs out there, especially as people are starting to retire. However, it's more reshuffling the people that are already experienced in oil and gas. People are not getting much in the way of raises and bonuses, as it's still lean times.

[marksmu]

The service companies continue to shoot themselves in the foot. They are maintaining steep price discounts to buy market share rather than allowing the price of their services to stabilize. Its a fools errand. Prices of crude have risen, demand is steadily rising, and the service companies continue to act like the world is ending.

Until their leaders step up and confront the inflation problem they are facing, and return to market pricing things are not going to improve. That means wage will be somewhat stagnant...only rising with market inflation, and technology investments will be small.

Also, important to note - Weatherford is all but bankrupt. They only have cash on hand for about 2.5 months at the rate of spending reported on their last filing. Baker/GE are also rapidly becoming insolvent. I would not be at all surprised to see GE spin Baker Hughes back off, as GE is a dying company, and its insolvency will take Baker down. Meanwhile Schlumberger has positioned itself as the Rolls Royce of service companies, in a market where everyone is buying a civic.

Of the service companies Halliburton stands out as most likely to succeed. Their assets are well suited to cheaper oil, and they are lean enough to navigate the current environment.

[Dopo]

I'm sure hiring is going to start sometime soon,
but for now, as anybody can imagine, they are going to milk all employees as long as possible without hiring anybody.

Just be careful, because there's a lot of emphasis on getting things done quick and cheap and little on quality.

[mikeyyc]

Don't forget, a lot of those services are still under contract. Believe me, price increases are coming as fast as they can be implemented.