Water Services

Practical consulting solutions to water management challenges through technical excellence

Schlumberger operates globally and provides expert consulting services and technologies for the exploration, development, management, and environmental protection of water resources. Leveraging our extensive oilfield industry experience and proprietary subsurface characterization technologies, our teams of water and geoscience professionals provide private and public sector clients with cost-effective solutions to address water supply and disposal challenges.

Corporate Profile

Knowledge, technical innovation and teamwork are at the center of who we are. For more than 80 years, we have focused on leveraging these assets to deliver solutions that improve customer performance.

Today, our real-time technology services and solutions enable customers to translate acquired data into useful information, then transform this information into knowledge for improved decision making-anytime, anywhere. Harnessing information technology in this way offers enormous opportunities to enhance efficiency and productivity. This is a quantum leap from providing traditional 'just-in-case' information to delivering 'just-in-time' knowledge that meets the changing needs of our customers.

International teamwork

Reflecting our belief that diversity spurs creativity, collaboration, and understanding of customers' needs, we employ approximately 108,000 people representing over 140 nationalities and working in more than 85 countries. Our employees are committed to working with our customers to create the highest level of added value. Knowledge communities and special interest groups with our organization enable teamwork and knowledge sharing unencumbered by geographic boundaries.

Technology innovation

With 125 research and engineering facilities worldwide, we place strong emphasis on developing innovative technology that adds value for our customers. In 2014, we invested $1.21 billion in R&E.
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Backgrounder

Schlumberger limited (NYSE:SLB) is the world’s leading supplier of technology, integrated project management and information solutions to customers working in the oil and gas industry worldwide.

Our History

1870s-1910s: An early passion 

Timeline:  1870-1910

The world’s first well logging company had its origins in the Alsace region on the French-German border, where Conrad Schlumberger (born 1878) and his brother Marcel (born 1884) grew up as part of a family of six children. Their father, Paul Schlumberger, was descended from a wealthy cotton-weaving family; their mother, Marguerite de Witt, was a political activist and campaigner for women’s rights.

Conrad and Marcel both wanted to be scientists and their father supported their ambition. The brothers were sent to Paris to further their education. Conrad became a physicist, graduating from the École Polytechnique in 1900, before studying at the École des Mines. Marcel became an engineer, graduating from the École Centrale Paris in 1907.

Conrad took an early interest in earth sciences and developed a particular interest in prospecting for metal ore. He realized that metal ores should be distinguishable from their surroundings by measuring their electrical conductivity, as ore-bearing rock would be more conductive than what was around it. If an electric field could be generated below ground, voltage measurements at the surface could be mapped to show lines of equal potential—equipotential curves—which could then be compared with what would be expected if no ore were present. Any differences could indicate the presence of mineral deposits.

Now, he needed to put the theory to the test.

In 1910, Conrad Schlumberger began teaching physics at the École des Mines, where, the following year, he started tests on what was to become known as wireline logging, first in the lab and then out in the field.

In 1912, using very basic equipment, he recorded the first map of equipotential curves at his estate near Caen in Normandy, before extending his surveys to iron mines in the area. The resulting mapping of equipotential curves not only confirmed the method’s ability to detect metal ores but also revealed features of the subsurface structure, such as bed boundaries and the direction of formation layer dips.

That Schlumberger’s technique could provide this extra information was highly significant, as it meant that it might be useful for locating subsurface structures that could form traps for minerals such as oil and gas.

However, progress was severely disrupted by World War I. Conrad served as an artillery officer from 1914-18, before returning to his research.

He received strong support for his work from his family. In 1919, his brother Marcel began working as a partner with Conrad, initially in Normandy.  Meanwhile, their father, Paul, provided them with fresh funds to take the research further—on the condition that scientific gains must take precedent over financial benefits.

However, Conrad had long been aware of the business potential of his research and had patented his discoveries in several countries, while studying how his electrical prospecting method could be turned into an industrial application.

The next decade saw that commercial potential starting to be realized. 

1878

• Conrad Schlumberger born in Alsace

1884

• Marcel Schlumberger born

1910

• Conrad Schlumberger begins teaching at the École des Mines, Paris

1912

• Conrad Schlumberger conceives the revolutionary idea of using electrical measurements to map subsurface rock bodies

1919

• Marcel Schlumberger begins working with his brother Conrad