Multinational oil field service firm Schlumberger on Wednesday announced it will acquire oilfield equipment maker Cameron International Corp of Houston, Texas.
The merger worth $14.8bn will be a cash and stock transaction.
Previously, in 2013, the firms had combined to form OneSubsea, a joint venture to manufacture and develop products, systems and services for the subsea oil and gas market.
In these times of prolonged oil price slump the merger offers the firms a chance to streamline costs and pass on savings to clients.
Schlumberger was founded in France in 1926 and now its principal offices are in Paris, Houston, London and The Hague. Its services range from surveying sites to drilling wells.
Cameron makes pressure control, processing, flow control and compression systems for the oil and gas industries. It made the blowout preventer that failed to stop the flow of oil from the Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 but, although it paid a $250m settlement, the company never admitted responsibility, blaming poor maintenance by the operators.
