FINAL TRANSCRIPT Dec. 17. 2007 / 10:00AM ET, NOV — National Oilwell Varco Agrees to Acquire Grant Prideco for Combination of Stock and CashOle Slorer, Morgan Stanley.Ole Slorer- Morgan Stanley — AnalystThanks for letting me in on the call here, congratulations on getting this deal done. Pete, were there any particular aspects of Grant Prideco’s business that you find more or less strategic in terms of deciding to do this acquisition?Pete Miller- National Oilwell Varco - CEOOh, no. I think, Ole, as you look at the Company, I think all major elements are very strategic to us. I have always been a guy that has been on record as liking drill bits, and I think that ReedHycalog is probably in my mind the technological leader on drill bits. I won’t say I like it any more than drill pipe, but I do believe it really is I think a very compelling product that they have. I think it really has an opportunity. When you look at the fixed cutter bits today, you think about the efficiencies that we’ve created in the drilling business. Quite frankly, fixed cutter bits is really number one in being able to create those efficiencies. I can show you bit records from 1980 where you have 20 trips on a 10,000-foot well change in bits, and today you might do that in about one or two bits. So I think that’s really kind of a neat product to add, or a neat arrow to put in our quiver. But at the same time, I do believe that when you look at the engineered side of a lot of this drill pipe today, whether you’re talking about high torque, all of the different things that are associated with it, I think it’s very compelling too. So I just think the entire company is a great fit, Ole.Ole Slorer- Morgan Stanley — AnalystThat’s good. So as a follow-up question, I think there is a noncompete between Grant Prideco and Tenaris on drill and that a change of control in Grant Prideco will remove that noncompete. Have you considered that?Michael McShane- Grant Prideco — Chairman, CEOI think the, as you refer to, noncompete, is really embedded in a long-standing I believe very strong business relationship between Grant Prideco and Tenaris in how we go about in a cooperative manner producing drill pipe in Mexico. I don’t think that this combination is going to impact their position on that whatsoever.Ole Slorer- Morgan Stanley — AnalystOkay, thank you very much.OperatorThat concludes our question-and-answer session. At this time, I will turn the call back over to Mr. Miller for any closing remarks.Pete Miller- National Oilwell Varco — CEOThanks, Mycea, and I appreciate everybody calling and our listening today. As time goes by, we’ll keep you posted on the progress that we’re making. But let me just reiterate our excitement about this merger and the fact that we’re going to make this very successful as we go to the future. Thank you for calling in today.OperatorThank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the National Oilwell Varco and Grant Prideco merger conference call. If you would like to listen to a replay of today’s conference, please dial 303-590-3000 and enter access code 1104827 followed by the pound sign. We thank you for your participation today, and you may now disconnect. HOU:2759779.2Thomson StreetEventswww.streetevents.com Contact Us 9© 2007 Thomson Financial. Republished with permission. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial. |