Baker Hughes

Baker Hughes Company is an American global energy technology company co-headquartered in Houston, Texas and London, UK. As one of the world's largest oil field services, industrial and energy technology companies, it provides products and services to the oil and gas industry for exploration and production, as well as other energy and industrial applications.  It operates in over 120 countries, with facilities in Australia, Brazil, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Baker Hughes manufactures equipment which can also be used for industrial applications such as hydrogen production, geothermal energy resources and carbon capture utilization and storage, as part of the energy transition.

The company divides its organization into the following segments:

The company has acquired many legacy brands and businesses over the years, including Bently Nevada.

Baker Hughes traces its roots to the 1987 merger of Hughes Tool Company and Baker Oil Tool Company and the company has subsequently grown via acquisitions.

The Hughes Tool Company was founded in 1908 by business partners Walter Benona Sharp and Howard R. Hughes, Sr., father of Howard Hughes, Jr. That year, Hughes, Sr. and Sharp developed the first two-cone drill bit, designed to enable rotary drilling in harder, deeper formations than was possible with earlier fishtail bits. They conducted two secret tests on a drilling rig in Goose Creek, Texas. Each time, Hughes asked the drilling crew to leave the rig floor, pulled the bit from a locked wooden box, and then his associates ran the bit into the hole. The drill pipe twisted off on the first test, but the second was extremely successful. Following these successful drill bit tests, the partners founded the Sharp-Hughes Tool Company in 1909. The first shop to manufacture the bit occupied a 20-foot by 40-foot rented space. On August 10, 1909, the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted a patent to Hughes.

After Walter Sharp died in 1912, Hughes purchased Sharp's half of the business. The company was renamed Hughes Tool Company in 1915, and Hughes, Jr. inherited it after his father's death in 1924. In 1933, the company introduced the Tricone drill bit. Through the 1950s and 1960s, Hughes Tool Company remained a private enterprise, owned by Hughes. While Hughes was engaged in his Hollywood and aviation enterprises, managers in Houston, such as Fred W. Ayers and Maynard Ellsworth Montrose, kept the tool company growing through technical innovation and international expansion. In 1958, the Engineering and Research Laboratory was enlarged to accommodate six laboratory sections that housed specialized instruments, such as a direct reading spectrometer and x-ray diffractometer. In 1959, Hughes introduced self-lubricating, sealed bearing rock bits. After collecting data from thousands of bit runs, Hughes introduced the first comprehensive guides to efficient drilling practices in 1960; in 1964, X-Line rock bits were introduced, combining new cutting structure designs and hydraulic jets.

Hughes Tool Company acquired Brown Oil Tools in 1978. Brown Oil Tools was founded by Cicero C. Brown in 1929 in Houston and patented the first liner hanger in 1937. Liner hangers enable drillers to lengthen their casing strings without having the liner pipe extend all the way to the surface. This saves capital cost and reduces weight borne by offshore platforms.