Nature of Operations

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2011

Nature of Operations [Abstract]

Nature of Operations

Note 1   Nature of Operations

Nabors is the largest land drilling contractor in the world and one of the largest land well-servicing and workover contractors in the United States and Canada:

•  We actively market approximately 551 land drilling rigs for oil and gas land drilling operations in the U.S. Lower 48 states, Alaska, Canada, South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Middle East, the Far East, Russia and Africa.

•  We actively market approximately 574 rigs for land well-servicing and workover work in the United States and approximately 174 rigs for land well-servicing and workover work in Canada.

We are also a leading provider of offshore platform workover and drilling rigs, and actively market 40 platform, 13 jackup and four barge rigs in the United States, including the Gulf of Mexico, and multiple international markets.

In addition to the foregoing services:

•  We provide pressure pumping services with over 616,000 hydraulic horsepower in key basins throughout the United States.

•  We offer a wide range of ancillary well-site services, including engineering, transportation and disposal, construction, maintenance, well logging, directional drilling, rig instrumentation, data collection and other support services in select U.S. and international markets.

•  We manufacture and lease or sell top drives for a broad range of drilling applications, directional drilling systems, rig instrumentation and data collection equipment, pipeline handling equipment and rig reporting software.

•  We invest in oil and gas exploration, development and production activities in the United States, Canada and Colombia through both our wholly owned subsidiaries and our oil and gas joint ventures in which we hold 49-50% ownership interests.

•  We have a 51% ownership interest in a joint venture in Saudi Arabia, which owns and actively markets nine rigs in addition to the rigs we lease to the joint venture.

•  We also provide logistics services for onshore drilling in Canada using helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.

The majority of our business is conducted through our various Contract Drilling operating segments, which include our drilling, well-servicing, fluid logistics and workover operations, on land and offshore. Our hydraulic fracturing and downhole surveying services are included in our Pressure Pumping operating segment. Our oil and gas exploration, development and production operations are included in our Oil and Gas operating segment. Our operating segments engaged in drilling technology and top drive manufacturing, directional drilling, rig instrumentation and software, and construction and logistics operations are aggregated in our Other Operating Segments.

On September 10, 2010, we acquired Superior Well Services, Inc. (“Superior”). The effects of the Superior acquisition and the related operating results are included in the accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements beginning on the acquisition date, and are reflected in the operating segment titled “Pressure Pumping.”

Unless the context requires otherwise, references in this report to “we,” “us,” “our,” or “Nabors” mean Nabors Industries Ltd., together with our subsidiaries where the context requires, including Nabors Industries, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Nabors Delaware”).