Weatherford International PLC (WFRD) Business Profile

What it does

Weatherford International provides equipment and services used to drill, build, operate and eventually abandon oil and natural gas wells. Its customers include national oil companies, international and independent oil and gas companies, and companies working in new energy. Its principal executive offices are in Houston, Texas, and Girishchandra K. Saligram is president and chief executive officer.

A well passes through several stages before and after it produces oil or gas. Weatherford helps customers plan and drill wells, assess the rock and fluids underground, install equipment to prepare wells for production, and maintain or repair them. It also provides services to close wells when their productive lives end.

The company supplies both physical equipment and field services. For example, its managed pressure drilling systems help control pressure in the well during drilling. Its completions equipment helps operators prepare wells to produce, while artificial lift systems help bring fluids to the surface when reservoir pressure is insufficient. Software, monitoring and automation support decisions during drilling and production.

Weatherford organizes its operations into Drilling and Evaluation, Well Construction and Completions, and Production and Intervention. It operates in approximately 75 countries through facilities that include manufacturing, research and development, service, and training locations. Weatherford had approximately 16,700 employees globally as of December 31, 2025.

How it makes money

Weatherford earns revenue from product sales and services throughout the life of a well. Its work ranges from selling and deploying equipment to providing engineering, field crews, monitoring and intervention services. Competition for this work includes price, performance, safety, reliability and response time.

Drilling and Evaluation helps customers plan and drill wells and assess underground formations. It includes managed pressure drilling, directional drilling, wireline measurements, and drilling fluids. Wireline services use equipment lowered into a well on a cable to measure formations or carry out intervention work.

Well Construction and Completions supplies equipment and services that help establish well integrity and prepare wells to produce. Its offerings include tubular running services, cementation products, completion tools and liner hangers. Production and Intervention serves producing and aging wells with artificial lift, intervention, digital solutions and, in selected markets, pressure pumping. Its intervention work also includes re-entry and well abandonment.

Some activity follows the equipment already installed at customer sites. Weatherford says each managed pressure drilling system installed on a deepwater rig adds to a base that generates multiyear aftermarket parts and services revenue. Product deliveries can also be uneven between quarters; Weatherford typically sees higher product deliveries in the fourth quarter, including completions, liner hangers and cementing products.

Revenue was $4,918 million in 2025 and 1.143 billion dollars in the third quarter of 2026. Revenue decreased 11% in 2025 compared with 2024; in the third quarter of 2026, revenue grew 3% sequentially.

Customers and how it sells

Substantially all of Weatherford’s customers operate in the energy industry. They include national oil companies, international and independent oil and natural gas companies, and new energy companies. Weatherford sells equipment and delivers services through an international operating network that includes manufacturing, service, research and training facilities.

The U.S. accounted for 15% of revenue in 2025, with the rest generated outside the country. Russia accounted for approximately 7% of total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2025. Weatherford’s principal executive offices are in Houston, while its operations span approximately 75 countries.

Weatherford’s largest customer in Mexico is important to its collections. In the third quarter of 2026, the company said it had received regular payments from that customer for several consecutive quarters. The company also said the magnitude of remaining payments was still the largest variable affecting quarterly free cash flow.

Recent customer awards include an extension and a new offshore completions contract from Equinor for the Norwegian continental shelf, and a completions products and services contract from Seplat Energy for shallow-water operations in Nigeria. Weatherford also said it generated its first revenue in Venezuela in the third quarter of 2026.

Suppliers and costs

Weatherford purchases raw materials, parts and components from other parties and incorporates some of their products into the equipment and systems it sells or uses in services. Its operating locations include manufacturing facilities. The company evaluates and invests in its supply chain to address material constraints and inflationary pressures and to improve lead times.

Cost of products and services was $3.38 billion in 2025, or 69% of revenue, compared with 65% in 2024. The cost fell in 2025 as product sales declined and headcount reductions lowered personnel costs. The cost ratio rose because fixed costs decreased more slowly than revenue.

Selling, general, administrative and research and development costs were $772 million in 2025. They declined primarily because of lower amortization expense and personnel costs following headcount reductions. Weatherford also incurred restructuring charges as it reduced its facility footprint and headcount in response to softer market conditions.

Following the NCS Multistage acquisition, Weatherford said integration workstreams were tracking toward at least $15 million in committed cost synergies within 18 months of closing.

Competitive position

Weatherford competes worldwide with global and regional energy-services providers. It names SLB, Halliburton, Baker Hughes and Expro Group Holdings as principal competitors. Other suppliers compete in narrower portions of its product portfolio, either locally, regionally or globally. Customers consider performance, safety, quality, reliability, service, price, response time and, in some cases, the depth and breadth of a supplier’s products.

Weatherford develops technologies in drilling, well integrity and reservoir productivity, and protects commercially significant products and methods through patents and trade secrets. It also offers equipment and services across several stages of a well’s life, supported by its international facilities and field operations.

Our reading: Proprietary technology and know-how can support differentiation, but their strength is limited by competition on several factors, including price, and Weatherford does not expect any single patent expiration to materially harm its business.

Our reading: The breadth of Weatherford’s services and geographic footprint can help it serve customers across projects and well stages, though other global providers also compete in the market.

Our reading: Installed managed pressure drilling systems offer a potential source of continuing customer relationships through aftermarket parts and services, but equipment sales can be uneven and the available evidence does not establish a market-share advantage.

Growth opportunities

Weatherford’s growth plans include developing technology for existing oil and gas customers and new energy markets. It continues to expand offerings across the well cycle, including remote monitoring and predictive analytics for well construction and completions. Customers seeking higher production and lower drilling and operating costs are a focus of its technology development.

Offshore work is another area of focus. Weatherford expects its managed pressure drilling business to grow above double digits in 2026, with further growth in 2027. The company estimates that around 70% of drillships currently have or are installing a managed pressure drilling system. It also identifies aftermarket work on installed systems as an opportunity. Weatherford says completions is now its largest product line and has won offshore completions work in Norway and Nigeria.

The acquisition of NCS Multistage added completions technology to Weatherford’s portfolio. The company is qualifying opportunities to sell that technology through its international network in Argentina, the Middle East and the North Sea. It has also signed agreements to divest several small non-core product lines.

In Latin America, Weatherford generated its first revenue in Venezuela in the third quarter of 2026 and said it had received purchase orders. The company expects further activity there, while noting that starting operations entails costs, including hiring and facility refurbishment. Its expectations for activity remain subject to conditions in the markets where it operates.

Structural risks

• Customer spending: Weatherford depends on customers’ capital spending, which is affected by oil and natural gas prices and the availability and cost of capital. Lower spending has adversely affected the business and could continue to do so.
• International operations: Operating outside the U.S. exposes Weatherford to political and economic disruption, currency movements, sanctions, changing regulations, potential expropriation and restrictions on moving income or capital between countries.
• Russia: Weatherford continues to evaluate its Russian business as international laws and sanctions change. Its options include curtailing operations, divesting assets or businesses, and the potential nationalization of the business.
• Competition and costs: The energy-services market is highly competitive. Weatherford competes on price as well as service and technology, and its fixed costs decreased more slowly than revenue in 2025, raising its cost of products and services as a share of revenue.
• Collections and activity: Remaining payments from Weatherford’s largest Mexican customer are a variable in quarterly free cash flow. The company also says Middle East upstream activity has not fully recovered and that tender cycles have slipped.
• Systems: A failure of information systems, including the implementation of a new enterprise resource planning system, could adversely affect operations, cash flows and internal control over financial reporting.

Bottom line

Our reading

Weatherford combines equipment sales with field services across the life of oil and gas wells, including aftermarket work on installed systems. Our reading: Its technology portfolio and international reach provide several ways to serve customers, but demand remains tied to energy-company spending and competition. Its exposure to international operating conditions, customer collections and costs that cannot fall as quickly as revenue can also affect results.