Understand any stock in simple English
Enter a ticker to learn what the company does and how it makes money.
Weatherford International plc
Weatherford sells the tools and services that oil and gas companies need to drill wells, run them, and keep them producing.
Weatherford is one of the big oilfield services companies. It does not own oil or gas and it does not drill wells itself. Instead, it makes and rents the equipment, runs the crews, and supplies the software that energy companies need to find oil underground, drill a well, finish it so oil can flow, and keep it pumping for years. Its customers are oil and gas producers around the world, including the giant state-owned oil companies and the big international operators.
The business splits into two main halves. One is drilling and evaluation, where Weatherford makes the metal hardware that goes into a well hole, runs the tools that measure what is underground, and sells the systems that steer a drill bit sideways through rock. The other is production and intervention, which handles what happens after the well is built: the pumps and pipe that lift oil to the surface, the chemicals that keep it flowing, and the specialist services that fix a well when it clogs, leaks, or slows down. Oil companies choose Weatherford because they need a partner that can do all of this across many countries, and because the work is technical and messy enough that they cannot easily do it in-house. Weatherford had a near-death experience. It went on a debt-fueled buying spree in the 2000s and 2010s, then got crushed by the 2014 oil price crash. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019 and came out with much lighter debt. Since then it has been slimming down: it sold off pieces like its land drilling rig business to focus on its core tools and services.
Its rivals are the other big service names, Halliburton, SLB, and Baker Hughes. Weatherford is smaller than those and plays more as a specialist in niche hardware and services than as a one-stop contractor. The upside is that its business swings hard with oil prices: when producers spend more on wells, Weatherford is busy, and when they cut budgets, its revenue falls fast. The company has been paying down debt and rebuilding from the bankruptcy, and its stock has become a bet on oilfield spending staying healthy.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026