The story
Founded by Schlumberger brothers in 1926.1
SLB was founded in 1926 in Paris as the Electric Prospecting Company (French: Société de prospection électrique) by two brothers Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger from Alsace. SLB supplies the petroleum industry with services such as seismic data processing, formation evaluation, well testing and directional drilling, well cementing and stimulation, artificial lift, well completions, flow assurance and consulting, and software and information management. The company is also involved in the groundwater extraction and carbon capture and storage industries.
The Schlumberger brothers had experience conducting geophysical surveys in countries such as Romania, Canada, Serbia, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the United States. The new company sold electrical-measurement mapping services, and recorded the first-ever electrical resistivity well log in Merkwiller-Pechelbronn, France, in 1927. The company quickly expanded, logging its first well in the U.S. in 1929 in Kern County, California. In 1934, the Schlumberger Well Surveying Corporation was founded in Houston, later evolving into Schlumberger Well Services, and finally Schlumberger Wireline and Testing. Schlumberger invested heavily in research, inaugurating the Schlumberger-Doll Research Center in Ridgefield, Connecticut, in 1948, contributing to the development of a number of new logging tools.
Over the years, Schlumberger continued to expand its operations and acquisitions. In 1960, Dowell Schlumberger (50% Schlumberger, 50% Dow Chemical), which specialized in pumping services for the oil industry, was formed. On February 2, 1962, Schlumberger Limited became listed on the New York Stock Exchange. That same year, Schlumberger purchased Daystrom, an electronic instruments manufacturer in South Boston, Virginia, which was making furniture by the time the division was sold to Sperry & Hutchinson in 1971. The Daystrom acquisition also brought Heathkit, the only consumer business at Schlumberger until Zenith Radio bought Heathkit in 1979. Schlumberger purchased 50% of Forex in 1964 and merged it with 50% of Languedocienne to create the Neptune Drilling Company. The first computerized reservoir analysis, SARABAND, was introduced in 1970. The remaining 50% of Forex was acquired the following year; Neptune was renamed Forex Neptune Drilling Company. In 1979, Fairchild Camera and Instrument (including Fairchild Semiconductor) became a subsidiary of Schlumberger Limited.
In 1981, Schlumberger established the first international data links with e-mail. In 1983, Schlumberger opened its Cambridge Research Center in Cambridge, England.
In 1984, the SEDCO drilling rig company and half of Dowell of North America were acquired, resulting in the creation of the Anadrill drilling segment, a combination of Dowell and The Analysts' drilling segments. Forex Neptune was merged with SEDCO to create the Sedco Forex Drilling Company the following year, when Schlumberger purchased Merlin and 50% of GECO.
In 1987, Schlumberger completed its purchases of Neptune (North America), Bosco and Cori (Italy), and Allmess (Germany). That same year, National Semiconductor acquired Fairchild Semiconductor from Schlumberger for $122 million.
In 1991, Schlumberger acquired PRAKLA-SEISMOS, and pioneered the use of geosteering to plan the drill path in horizontal wells. In 1992, Schlumberger acquired software company GeoQuest Systems. With the purchase came the conversion of SINet to TCP/IP and thus internet capable. In the 1990s, Schlumberger bought out the petroleum division, AEG meter, and ECLIPSE reservoir study team Intera Technologies Corp. A joint venture between Schlumberger and Cable & Wireless resulted with the creation of Omnes, which then handled all of the company's internal IT business. Oilphase and Camco International were also purchased.
In 1999, Schlumberger and Smith International created a joint venture, M-I L.L.C., the world's largest drilling fluids (mud) company. The company consists of 60% Smith International, and 40% by Schlumberger. Since the joint venture was prohibited by a 1994 antitrust consent decree barring Smith from selling or combining their fluids business with certain other companies, including Schlumberger, the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., found Smith International Inc. and Schlumberger Ltd. guilty of criminal contempt and fined each company $750,000 and placed each company on five years probation. Both companies also agreed to pay a total of $13.1 million, representing a full disgorgement of all of the joint venture's profits during the time the companies were in contempt.
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In 2000, the Geco-Prakla division was merged with Western Geophysical to create the seismic data acquisition and processing contracting company WesternGeco, of which Schlumberger held a 70% stake, the remaining 30% belonging to competitor Baker Hughes. In 2001, Schlumberger acquired the IT consultancy company Sema plc for $5.2 billion. The company was an Athens 2004 Summer Olympics partner, but the venture into IT consultancy did not pay off, and divestiture of Sema to Atos Origin was completed that year for $1.5 billion. The cards division was divested through an IPO to form Axalto, which later merged with Gemplus to form Gemalto, and the Messaging Solutions unit was spun off and merged with Taral Networks to form Airwide Solutions. In 2003, the Automated Test Equipment group, part of the 1979 Fairchild Semiconductor acquisition, was spun off to NPTest Holding, which was sold it to Credence in February 2004.
In 2004, Schlumberger Business Consulting was launched and a decade later was acquired by Accenture. In 2005, Schlumberger purchased Waterloo Hydrogeologic, which was followed by several other groundwater industry related companies, such as Westbay Instruments, and Van Essen Instruments. Also that year, Schlumberger relocated its U.S. corporate offices from New York to Houston.
In 2006, Schlumberger purchased the remaining 30% of WesternGeco from Baker Hughes for US$2.4 billion. Also that year, the Schlumberger-Doll Research Center was relocated to a newly built research facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to replace the Ridgefield, Connecticut, research center. The facility joins the other research centers operated by the company in Cambridge, England; Moscow, Russia; Stavanger, Norway; and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. In March 2022, Schlumberger stopped investing in its projects in Russia because of International sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War.
In 2009, Schlumberger acquired Techsia SA, a software company based in Montpellier, France with a product widely used in the oil industry called Techlog. In 2010, the acquisition of Smith International in an all-stock deal valued at $11.3 billion was announced. The sale price is 45.84-a-share price was 37.5 percent higher than Smith closing price on February 18, 2010. The deal was the biggest acquisition in Schlumberger history until their acquisition of Cameron International. The merger was completed on August 27, 2010. Also announced in 2010 were Schlumberger plans to acquire Geoservices, a French-based company specializing in energy services, in a deal valued at $1.1 billion, including debt.
In 2014, Schlumberger announced the purchase of the remaining shares of SES Holdings Limited ("Saxon"), a Calgary-based provider of international land drilling services, from First Reserve and certain members of Saxon management. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals. Schlumberger had a minority share in Saxon previously.
In 2015, Schlumberger was indicted by the US Department of Justice for sanction violations of conducting business in Iran and Sudan; the company was fined $233 million, amounting to the largest fine for sanctions to date. In 2015, due to a downturn in the global oil and gas industry, Schlumberger announced 21,000 layoffs accounting for 15% of the company's total workforce. In 2015, Schlumberger agreed to acquire oilfield equipment manufacturer Cameron International for $14.8 billion. In 2018, Schlumberger announced that WesternGeco would be exiting the seismic data acquisition business, both onshore and offshore, while retaining its multiclient data processing and interpretation segments. This decision followed the bankruptcy filings of several competitors in the seismic services sector. In 2020, Schlumberger cut more than 21,000 jobs during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2021, Schlumberger New Energy announced the signature of pilot project agreements between the French state, Genvia and critical-industry leaders on the pathway to net zero in the cement and steel industries. Through these agreements, the goal is to scale up the next generation of electrolyzer technology, developed over the last two decades, to produce clean hydrogen without CO2 emissions, accelerating the decarbonization of multiple industrial sectors.
In 2022, Schlumberger rebranded to be known as SLB. According to media statements, the company's CEO said the corporate rebranding is not a shift away from fossil fuels. The rebrand concluded on October 7, 2025, with SLB legally renaming from Schlumberger to SLB. In August 2022, SLB announced that SLB OneSubsea was going into a joint venture with AkerSolutions and Subsea7. The ownership of SLB OneSubsea is 70% with Schlumberger, 20% with AkerSolutions and Subsea7 owning the last 10% In February 2023, SLB announced it had completed the acquisition of the Houston-headquartered gyroscopic wellbore positioning and survey technology company, Gyrodata Incorporated. In April 2024, SLB announced its intention to acquire smaller rival ChampionX, in an all-stock deal valued at $7.75 billion, its largest purchase since Cameron International. The deal closed in July 2025.
From Wikipedia’s article on SLB, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.9