Dresser Industries was a
multinational corporation
A multinational company (MNC), also referred to as a multinational enterprise (MNE), a transnational enterprise (TNE), a transnational corporation (TNC), an international corporation or a stateless corporation with subtle but contrasting senses, i ...
headquartered in
Dallas, Texas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, which provided a wide range of technology, products, and services used for developing energy and natural resources. In 1998, Dresser merged with its main rival
Halliburton
Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation responsible for most of the world's hydraulic fracturing operations. In 2009, it was the world's second largest oil field service company. It has operations in more than 70 countries ...
.
[ Halliburton sold many of former Dresser non "oil patch" divisions, retaining the M W Kellogg Engineering and Construction Company and the Dresser oil-patch products and services that complemented Halliburton's energy and natural resource businesses. In 2001 Halliburton sold five separate, but somewhat related former Dresser non "oil patch" divisions, to an investment banking firm. Those five operations later took the name "Dresser Inc." In October 2010, Dresser Inc., was acquired by ]General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...
. It is headquartered in Addison, Texas
Addison is an incorporated town in Dallas County, Texas, in the United States. Addison is situated to the immediate north of the city of Dallas, with a 2020 census population of 16,661. Addison and Flower Mound were the only two Texas municipali ...
.
History
Solomon Robert Dresser invented a "packer", using rubber for a tight fit, and after taking out a patent on May 11, 1880, he began advertising and selling his product, the ''Dresser Cap Packer'', from Bradford, Pennsylvania
Bradford is a city in McKean County, Pennsylvania. It is located close to the border with New York state and approximately south of Buffalo, New York. Bradford is the principal city in the Bradford, PA Micropolitan Statistical Area. The popul ...
, in the heart of the oilfields. Dresser's packer was one of many available on the market, and it was another invention that saw a substantial expansion of the company. A flexible coupling
A coupling is a device used to connect two shafts together at their ends for the purpose of transmitting power. The primary purpose of couplings is to join two pieces of rotating equipment while permitting some degree of misalignment or end mov ...
, the ''Dresser Joint'', that he built in 1885 to join pipes together in such a way that they would not leak natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
. This coupling also used rubber for a tight fit, and it was so successful that it permitted for the first time the long-range transmission of natural gas from the gas fields where it was extracted to the cities which were the main gas consumers.
As the natural gas industry prospered and expanded after 1900, Dresser's company grew as pipelines were built over great distances. By 1927 the company's annual sales had reached US$3.7 million and it was employing 400 workers.[
]
Public offering
Following Dresser's death, his descendants decided to sell it, and in 1928 the Wall Street investment-banking firm of W. A. Harriman and Company, Inc., converted the firm into a public company by issuing 300,000 shares of stock.
H. Neil Mallon was selected as president and chief executive officer; he held that position until his retirement in 1962. Under Mallon, Dresser began a program of acquisitions designed to help it survive the threat posed to its core business by the introduction of welding
Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. Welding is distinct from lower temperature techniques such as bra ...
for joining pipes together. Starting in 1930 Dresser began acquiring companies that manufactured valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
s, heaters, pumps, engine
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy.
Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...
s and compressors
A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor.
Compressors are similar to pumps: both increase the pressure on a fluid and both can trans ...
and the company diversified into such products as oil derricks, blowers, drill bits, refractories
In materials science, a refractory material or refractory is a material that is resistant to Thermal decomposition, decomposition by heat, pressure, or chemical attack, and retains strength and form at high temperatures. Refractories are polycr ...
, and drilling mud.[
]
Acquisitions and divestitures
In 1950, the company headquarters moved to Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
to be near the center of the nation's major oil and gas fields. It continued to purchase well-known companies involved in manufacturing such things as overhead cranes, gasoline-dispensing pumps, and heavy equipment for mining and construction. During the 1980s, as the oil industry began to decline, Dresser's chairman, John Murphy, began to streamline the organization of the company, eliminating its insurance, mining, and construction-equipment divisions.[
In 1968, the ]Wayne Oil Tank and Pump Company
Wayne may refer to:
People with the given name and surname
* Wayne (given name)
* Wayne (surname)
Geographical
Places with name ''Wayne'' may take their name from a person with that surname; the most famous such person was Gen. "Mad" Anthon ...
, established in 1891, merges with Dresser, becoming the Dresser-Wayne Company. Dresser Industries brought together Lane-Wells and the Pan Geo Atlas Corporation (PGAC) to form Dresser Atlas. PGAC's expertise in openhole logging and its international operations made it an ideal merger partner to form an integrated wireline services company. Since its inception, Lane-Wells had generated most of its income from perforating services, but log interpretation had narrowed down producing zones, resulting in fewer perforations and less revenue. Greatly expanded wireline logging capabilities helped the combined company continue to grow.
In 1974, the company acquired Galion Iron Works
Galion Iron Works is the original name of the company that built the ''Galion'' brand of construction equipment. Known for their graders, it also manufactured rollers, cranes, asphalt millers and even riding squeegees among other machines.
Ga ...
and the operating assets of the Jeffrey Manufacturing Company, Inc.
Jeffrey may refer to:
* Jeffrey (name), including a list of people with the name
* ''Jeffrey'' (1995 film), a 1995 film by Paul Rudnick, based on Rudnick's play of the same name
* ''Jeffrey'' (2016 film), a 2016 Dominican Republic documentary film
...
In 1982, the company acquired International Harvester
The International Harvester Company (often abbreviated by IHC, IH, or simply International ( colloq.)) was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household e ...
's construction equipment business.
In 1984 the company acquired the earthmoving and mining product lines from American Standard's WABCO division, for a bargain price of $66.3 million.
On January 1, 1987, Dresser Industries and Ingersoll-Rand merged their common businesses to form Dresser-Rand Group
Dresser-Rand is an American engineering and manufacturing company owned by Siemens Energy. The company designs, manufactures, and services equipment used in the extraction of petroleum and natural gas. The company was formed in 1986 as a joint v ...
with headquarters in Corning, New York
Corning is a city in Steuben County, New York, United States, on the Chemung River. The population was 10,551 at the 2020 census. It is named for Erastus Corning, an Albany financier and railroad executive who was an investor in the company t ...
. The newly formed company had 10 manufacturing and testing facilities, 70 sales offices, 30 service centers and more than 7,300 employees. The partnership started as a 50-50 relationship, but later Dresser took a 51% share of the assets while Ingersoll-Rand had 49%.
Komatsu Limited
or () is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures construction, mining, forestry and military equipment, as well as diesel engines and industrial equipment like press machines, lasers and thermoelectric generators. Its headquart ...
and Dresser Industries established Komatsu Dresser to make mining tractors, construction equipment and related equipment.[Will, Oscar H. (2007) ''Payline: International Harvester's Construction Equipment Division'' MBI, St. Paul, Minnesota]
page 144
This 50-50 ownership lasted from September 1988 to August 1994, when Komatsu bought out Dresser's share.
By 1993, it generated sales of more than US$4 billion
Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions:
*1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is its only current meaning in English.
* 1,000,000,000,000, i. ...
, and employed 31,800 people in fifty countries. The company had three major divisions: Oil Field Products and Services, Industrial Operations, and Energy Processing and Conversion Equipment. It spun off some of its manufacturing divisions, but crucially agreed to retain asbestos claims filed before the spinoff.[
In 1994, the company expanded through acquisitions of Wheatley TXT (a manufacturer of pumps, valves, and metering equipment) and the Baroid Corporation (an oil-services firm in ]Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
that had been a direct competitor). To comply with federal antitrust regulations, Dresser sold off its interest in M-I Drilling Fluids Company and Western Atlas
Western Atlas was an oilfield services company formed in 1987 through the merger of Western Geophysical (owned by Litton Industries) and Dresser Atlas. The resulting company was a joint venture of Litton and Dresser Industries until it was spu ...
International. Upon completion of the Baroid merger, Dresser became the third-largest oil-services company in the world.[
]
Merger with Halliburton
In 1998, Dresser merged with its main rival Halliburton
Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation responsible for most of the world's hydraulic fracturing operations. In 2009, it was the world's second largest oil field service company. It has operations in more than 70 countries ...
and became known as Halliburton Company. Dick Cheney negotiated the US$7.7 billion deal, reportedly having done so during a weekend of quail
Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy.
Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New ...
-hunting. In 2001, Halliburton was forced to settle the asbestos lawsuits that it acquired including the landmark case Bell v. Dresser Industries as a result of purchasing Dresser, causing the company's stock price to fall by eighty percent in just over a year.
The "New" Dresser
In April 2001, the Dresser division (excluding the former Kellogg division) entered an agreement to separate itself once again from Halliburton
Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation responsible for most of the world's hydraulic fracturing operations. In 2009, it was the world's second largest oil field service company. It has operations in more than 70 countries ...
by management purchasing its equity, the new company to be called Dresser, Inc. Dresser, Inc. was a leading global multi-national owned by First Reserve Corporation
First Reserve Corporation is a private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts and growth capital investments in the energy sector. First Reserve was founded in 1984 and is the oldest and largest private equity fund dedicated to investments ...
and company management.
In February 2011, General Electric Co. agreed to buy oil-field equipment maker Dresser Inc. for $3 billion, expanding its biggest industrial unit. GE acquired Dresser from funds managed by Riverstone Holdings LLC and First Reserve Corporation. The move significantly expanded GE's offerings for energy and industrial customers worldwide and is the latest in a series of acquisitions over the last 10 years that have transformed GE's global energy portfolio.
The Dresser brand sells, services, and supports products that include: actuators, valves, meters, instruments, regulators, switches, natural gas-fueled engines, piping specialties, retail and fleet fuel dispensers, blowers, and point-of-sale systems.
The Dresser brand operates in more than 60 countries with four principal business segments: Measurement and Distribution Systems, Flow Technologies, Infrastructure Solutions, and Power and Compression Systems. It retains trade names of Masoneilan, Consolidated, Becker, Mooney, ROOTS, and Wayne fuel pumps.
See also
* List of oilfield service companies
This is a list of oilfield service companies – notable companies that provide services to the petroleum exploration and production industry but do not typically produce petroleum. In the list, notable subsidiary companies and divisions are list ...
* Dresser Atlas
References
External links
Official website
{{Authority control
Multinational companies
Oilfield services companies
2011 mergers and acquisitions
Halliburton
Engineering companies of the United States