Based in Houston, Newpark Drilling Fluids (NDF) is the largest of the Newpark Resources companies, and has expanded rapidly since its formation in 1997. Newpark has provided drilling fluids product and service excellence to thousands of wells on four continents. A leading provider in the U.S. and Canada, the company credits its rapid growth to its unique approach to customer service and efficiency improvement programs, fostered by a professional staff carefully chosen to mesh with the company’s business strategy.

Newpark's U.S. service activity averages several hundred rigs, with supply managed through a mature network of dozens of distribution centers. The company is active in the offshore GOM market, including deepwater locations, and in most U.S. areas of drilling activity, including onshore Texas and Louisiana, the Mid-Continent, Rocky Mountains and in the many burgeoning unconventional shale gas plays of North America.

NDF is active in the offshore GOM market, including deepwater locations, and is a technological leader in unconventional shale drilling. The company’s broad presence includes onshore Texas and Louisiana, the Mid-Continent, the Rocky Mountains, Canada and the Marcellus.

Barite grinding capacity is 800,000 mt/year, with nine mills located along the Gulf Coast. The company provides a full drilling fluids product line, including WBM, OBM and drill-in fluids.

Newpark Drilling Fluids has continued expanding its global reach through the 2011 acquisition of Australian-based Rheochem PLC’s drilling fluids and engineering services business. The acquisition provides Newpark a presence in the growing Asia Pacific region, where it will retain the established Rheochem brand, and will benefit from the acquired company’s expertise in geothermal drilling fluids.

This acquisition is the latest step in Newpark Drilling Fluids’ strategic global growth program, initiated in 2002, to expand the company’s footprint beyond North America. In that year, NDF acquired Ava Drilling Fluids, a respected, privately-owned drilling fluids company headquartered in Rome, Italy, significantly expanding NDF’s geographic scope to Eastern Europe, Northern Africa and the Mediterranean.

NDF do Brazil was established late in 2005 to expand company operations into that significant and dynamic offshore drilling basin.

NDF’s Performance Services unit provides operators with a bundle of services from a single-source supplier including integrated management of waste minimization, drilling fluids administration and solids control from build to closure.

Our ongoing history of global technological breakthroughs and on-the-ground expertise continues to drive customer success around the world. Our innovations have given us strong footholds in international markets, including Canada, Brazil, Italy and Africa.

Applied and formulated by professional Newpark project supervision and team members, and supported by some of the industry’s most powerful engineering and management tools, Newpark technology is fostering a cleaner energy future.

Our water-based drilling fluid R&D has produced the industry’s most innovative new technology since 1997:
And we’re still going strong in 2010. On August 19th we’ll unveil our new high-performance water-based drilling fluid, the most innovative new water-based technology to hit the industry in decades. Designed specifically for unconventional shale horizontal drilling, it promises to permanently displace environmentally archaic oil-based fluids from the landscape.