Smith International, Inc. provides products and services to the oil and gas exploration and production industry worldwide. Our Oilfield segment offers products and engineering services, including drilling and completion fluid systems, solids-control and separation equipment, waste-management services, and oilfield production chemicals through Mi Swaco; three-cone drill bits, diamond drill bits, and turbine products through Smith Technologies; tubulars, fishing services, drilling tools, underreamers, casing exit and multilateral systems, packers, and liner hangers for drilling, workover, well completion, well re-entry operations through Smith Services. Smith International was founded in was founded in 1902 in Whitier, California and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Smith has a global presence and is operational in every oil field around the world.

Smith currently provides Rotating Control Devices for Managed Pressure Drilling projects in its Smith Services division as well as Super Auto Chokes through M-I SWACO for pressure control on MPD projects. At Balance gives Smith the opportunity to participate in the comprehensive MPD solution that includes the service as well as the software technology. Together At Balance’s award winning Dynamic Annular Pressure Control system, Smith’s line of HOLD rotating control devices, and M-I Swaco’s line of Super AutoChoke technology will offer the most complete and most advanced automated MPD system for controlling pressure while drilling.

We see At Balance as the leader in MPD and we believe a partnership with a market leader in a growing market that Smith through Smith Services and M-I SWACO already plays in will provide even more value to our customers and our shareholders.

Operators seeking to extend the life of their mature reservoirs and develop new fields with hazardous pressure conditions are turning to Managed Pressure Drilling as a solution. At Balance and Smith’s complementary MPD technology that enable operators to overcome conventional drilling limitations in challenging and difficult to drill fields.

By combining our technologies and services to dynamically control bottomhole pressure throughout the drilling process we can offer a more complete package to our customers to expand their drilling capabilities by eliminating potentially critical well control events that cause lost circulation, wellbore instability, stuck pipe and formation damage.

At Balance and Smith have separately and together established a solid record of success in the DW GOM – an important market for Smith’s pressure control technology and fluid products.

As John mentioned earlier, Smith and At Balance have had our best technologists working together for a year at Louisiana State University, and their accomplishments can be partially seen in the At Balance exhibit in the Conference Center. I hope all of you visit the booth, located next to Smith and Mi Swaco in the center of the hall.

With the acquisition of a minority position in At Balance, we are now ready to work together operationally worldwide to deliver these services. Smith’s international presence, strong customer loyalty and trust, should allow for growth in this important new field. We very much look forward to building this business with our new partner.

Read comments made at joint press conference by John Samuell, President and CEO of At Balance