News late last week that Chevron is acquiring Anadarko – the next of several scale-building E&P deals as big gets bigger.

Merger/acquisition success depends a lot on culture and fit.  Clearly the two companies do the same thing and are in the same geographies, but how differently do these companies behave in the field?

A LOT differently.

We asked our sister company, Oilfield Logix, to run a report on the service companies that each uses on land in the US.  The time frame was last 12 months and the four services are land contract drillers, directional drillers, cementers, and frac service companies.

In summary, Chevron prefers to use the major oilfield service companies, and Anadarko prefers the specialty independent service companies.  On the first day of this marriage, nothing will change; but on the one year anniversary, who will become more like the other? We think it will be hard for Chevron to change the way it operates and who it prefers to use.

Here below is a list of the service companies each used in the last year.  What do you think will be the situation at this time next year?

LAND CONTRACT DRILLERS:

APC:  Precision

CVX:  Nabors and Patterson

DIRECTIONAL DRILLERS:

APC:  Premier, MS/Patterson, Scientific Drilling, AIM, Schlumberger

CVX:  Baker Hughes and Phoenix

CEMENTERS:

APC:  BJ, Crest, Universal/Patterson

CVX:  Halliburton and Schlumberger

FRAC:

APC:  Pumpco/SPN, FTSI, BJ, Halliburton

CVX:  Halliburton, Keane