Baker Hughes

Our employees deliver performance at the well site by applying their technical knowledge, practical experience, and dedication to quality service. Our people have built a high performance culture, based on our Core Values of Integrity, Teamwork, Performance and Learning. Baker Hughes has introduced programs to encourage, recognize and reward Flawless Execution at the rig site. We support field performance with a worldwide operations network organized around specific product lines to enable best-in-class planning, logistics, equipment repair and technical service. We believe that when customers "Measure and Compare" our performance to that of our competitors, they will choose Baker Hughes as their preferred supplier. Reuben C. "Carl" Baker develops the Baker Casing Shoe, a device to ensure the uninterrupted flow of oil through a well. Invention of the first rotary drill bit leads to the creation of Sharp-Hughes Tool Company, led by Howard Hughes, Sr., and Walter Sharp. Baker organizes Baker Casing Shoe Company to hold and license his patents. Upon Hughes's death, ownership of Hughes Tool passes to Howard Hughes, Jr., who over the next several decades uses the firm's steady inflow of cash to fund his various avocations. Having expanded into the manufacturing of his own tools, Baker changes the name of his company to Baker Oil Tools, Inc. Eastman Christensen Company, maker of directional and horizontal drilling equipment, is acquired. Company spins off its pumping service unit, BJ Services, to the public. Eastman Christensen is merged with Hughes Tool Company to form a new division, Hughes Christensen Company; Teleco Oilfield Services Inc. is acquired; Teleco and four other Baker Hughes drilling systems companies are combined into a new division, Baker Hughes INTEQ. Petrolite is acquired, augmenting the firm's specialty chemical division, which is renamed Baker Petrolite; Drilex International Inc., provider of directional drilling services, is purchased and merged into Baker Hughes INTEQ. Baker Hughes acquires Western Atlas Inc., resulting in the creation of two new divisions: Western Geophysical (seismic data services) and Baker Atlas (down-hole services). Baker Hughes contributes Western Geophysical to a joint venture with Schlumberger called Western GECO, 30 percent owned by Baker Hughes. Baker Hughes Incorporated is the product of the 1987 merger of two oilfield-services companies with surprisingly similar histories, Baker Oil Tools and Hughes Tool Company. Both were founded shortly before World War I by aggressive entrepreneurs who won valuable patents and earned gushing royalties on early oil-extraction devices. Both continued as domestic powerhouses until, at slightly different cues, they embarked on massive worldwide expansion and diversification projects. Baker and Hughes became public companies within ten years of each other as the influence of their founding families diminished. The two rivals experienced the fluctuations of an unpredictable world oil market jarred by political and economic events. Finally, the companies suffered financial slumps in the lean years of the 1980s, leading to their turbulent but successful consolidation. There were differences, however, between Baker Oil Tools--later Baker International Corporation--and Hughes Tool. Hughes became the neglected plaything of Howard Hughes, Jr., the founder's famous billionaire son, who used the oil company's constant wellspring of cash to finance ventures in airplanes, real estate, and motion pictures. Baker, on the other hand, built a reputation, through careful yet ambitious expansion, as one of the industry's best-run firms, largely on the efforts of E.H. Clark, an executive whose tenure spanned 40 years. In the early 2000s, Baker Hughes, the offspring, ranked as a leading provider of products and services to the world petroleum and continuous process industries. Its size and influence was not solely a result of the merger, but of a number of