Balancing Opportunities

On December 1, 1960, a new President took up the reins at Helmerich & Payne: Walter H. Helmerich, III.
It was an elevation without initial pomp or ceremony, Helmerich, III, recalls. "Dad walked in on December 1 and said, 'You're President. Good luck!'"
While the elder Helmerich continued to play a key role as Chairman of the Board, the new President became the primary architect of a new company strategy — a strategy from which today's Helmerich & Payne would emerge.
During the 1960s, a worldwide surplus of oil, stringent U.S. controls on production, and depressed prices forced drastic cuts in the Helmerich & Payne exploration budget and a change in the company's exploration strategy.
Instead of assuming all risks on a wildcat well, Helmerich & Payne began farming out most of its prospects so that outside partners could share in the risks and the payoff. The company also concentrated on secondary recovery on its many producing properties.
Increasingly, the main thrust for growth and financial stability would come from a new focus on diversification into other energy-related businesses.
The foundation had been laid in the late 1950s as innovative ideas brought in by the younger Helmerich's new team began to take shape and take hold within the company.
Diversification would be governed by the requirement that each new investment take advantage of management skills, personal associations and experience within the parent company.
Ngo
One important acquisition came in late 1960 when Helmerich & Payne purchased Natural Gas Odorizing, Inc., a Houston manufacturer of odorants which serve to facilitate the detection of natural gas. Without such additives, natural gas is odorless and tasteless. NGO was then owned by two New York investment groups, Henry Sears & Co. and Payson and Trask.
NGO's products are based on a group of chemical compounds called mercaptans. The smell of NGO mercaptans is so powerful that less than one part in five million is detectable. Normal use requires less than one pound of odorant in a million cubic feet of natural gas.
In 1965, Helmerich & Payne opened a new plant for NGO in Baytown, Texas, using for its feedstock a product which had been considered waste or surplus by the adjoining Humble refinery..