A little more than 5 years after the Spindletop gusher blew out near Beaumont, Texas, on Jan. 10, 1901, and turned oil into big business, a predecessor of present-day Vetco Gray started operations.
Regan Forge and Engineering Co. started work in 1906 in San Pedro, Calif., making heavy-duty crown blocks and traveling blocks for an industry that already was digging deeper with heavier strings of drillpipe. The company later began making control heads and oil savers for onshore operations in California. By 1930, the company was well established and exported goods to Russia, South America, Europe and the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Gray Tool Co. went to work in Houston making fishing equipment. Its first product was a self-releasing spear designed to recover drillstring that had twisted off in the hole. It was called the Gray Tool.
By the time World War II started, the company had patents for a rotary swivel, a valve removal tool and a metal sealing "Boll Weevil" tubing hanger for completing wells through control equipment.
A third element, Ventura Tool Co., started with a tool used to inspect the bore of tubular goods.
Rector Well Equipment Co. invented the Rectorhead well head, which was widely used in the Midcontinent.
Through the 1940s, all of the companies expanded as World War II kicked demand higher to feed the war machine.
Following the war, Kerr-McGee Corp. drilled the first well out of sight of land in the Gulf of Mexico in 1947, and 8 years later, the Cuss I drilling barge moved the industry into deep water. The predecessor companies followed the industry move to offshore operations.
By 1968, oil and gas production was a global business, and the companies continued to expand with manufacturing operations in Western Europe, Singapore and South America. Oil exporting companies formed Opec, and the resulting higher prices made the hunt for oil more lucrative and more popular.
This was a period of change. Regan became Regan Offshore International in 1974 and acquired Hughes Tool Co. 2 years later. That evolved into Hughes Offshore with a merger with Hydrotech in 1980.
Ventura became Vetco Offshore Industries Inc. in 1970 and Vetco 6 years later. Gray Tool acquired Rector Well Equipment Co. in 1973. Combustion Engineering acquired Vetco in 1977 and Gray in 1978.
The combination renamed itself CE Vetco Gray Inc. in 1985. Two years later, Hughes Offshore joined the group to form Vetco Gray Hughes. Baker Oil Tools acquired Hughes Tool a short time later.
The Bain Investment Group bought Vetco Gray Hughes, and in 1991 ABB (Asea, Brown Bover) acquired Vetco Gray Inc.
During the 1990s, one company focus for its technology was high-pressure/high-temperature operations in the North Sea. As it concentrated on new products specifically geared to spars and tension-leg platforms, it landed the contract for subsea and surface wellhead systems on the Genesis field deepwater spar.
Between 1994 and 1996, it was the only supplier of 10,000 and 20,000 psi wellhead systems for Chevron's Norphlet play in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. It supplied the wellhead system package for Hibernia field offshore Newfoundland in 1995.
Meanwhile, the expansion continued into the 21st century. The company acquired Danco Products to expand its operations in Argentina and then FIP S.A. to expand in Mexico.
The latest change for Vetco Gray occurred in 2004 as Candover, 3I and J Morgan Partners bought part of ABB's oil and gas business to form Vetco Gray.
More changes are certain for the future, and the company's focus on high-pressure/high-temperature operations and offshore projects place it in the path of continued growth.

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