as nyse nbr industry oil & gas drilling & exploration founded 1968 headquarters hamilton bermuda incorporation houston texas operational key people anthony g. petrello president & ceo revenue 3.477 billion usd 2009 net income 85 million usd 2009 number of employees 26 912 2008 website http www.nabors.com nabors industries ltd. founded in 1968 as anglo energy ltd. former amex symbol ael and currently based in hamilton bermuda is an s & p 500 oil natural gas and geothermal drilling contractor operating on land throughout the americas the middle east the far east and africa . it also performs onshore well servicing in north america and provides rigs for offshore oil platform workover and also for offshore drilling rig servicing . the company provides many support services for both offshore and onshore oil drilling and for well servicing operations . the company has a charter fleet of 29 marine vessels for offshore operations . it also makes top drilling drives directional drilling systems equipment for rig instrumentation and for data collection equipment for drill pipe handling and software for rig reporting . as of 2006 the company owned 610 land workover and well servicing rigs in the united states and 190 rigs in canada as well as 48 oil platform rigs 19 jackup barge rigs and 5 barge rigs . 1 its former chief executive officer eugene m. isenberg graduated in 1950 from the university of massachusetts amherst and the school s isenberg school of management is named in his honor . contents 1 history 1.1 anglo energy 1.2 nabors industries 1.3 ethics committee investigation 1.4 golden coffin controversy 1.5 jet abuse investigation 2 corporate affairs 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit anglo energy edit anglo energy ltd. was founded in 1968 and publicly traded on the american stock exchange with class a shares under the ticker symbol ael.a 2 3 through the long secular bear market and economic malaise of the 1970s the company performed well leading up to the early 1980s recession when troubles began to surface . in 1981 earnings came in at us 36 million excluding an extraordinary charge of us 2 million . 2 however coming out of the recession by 1982 the company suffered a loss of us 4 million excluding extraordinary income of us 4.6 million . 2 by 1983 the company was in serious trouble . the loss that year had grown to us 53 million excluding an extradordinary charge of an additional us 50 million . 2 that year anglo energy filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in the u.s. district court for the southern district of new york . at that time the company had assets of us 694 million with sales revenue of us 310 million and 860 employees . 4 the stock was halted for trading by the amex on november 7 1983 although it continued to trade on the nasdaq otc exchange as it was then known . from its 1970s high the stock price had fallen by 97 % by the end of the year to a new all time low . 2 in 1984 with the company in bankruptcy the loss was less severe than it had been the prior year at only us 25 million excluding extraordinary income of us 6 million . however the stock price set a new all time low again that year and began trading as a penny stock under 1 down another 23 % from its 1983 low . 2 in 1985 the loss deepened yet again to nearly us 29 million . by then the company carried long term debt of us 154 million . the stock once again fell to its 1984 low but then recovered up almost threefold from that low during the year . however by the end of the year it had dropped yet again by half from that mid year high though it still traded 40 % above its all time low set in the prior two years . 2 in 1986 anglo energy emerged from its chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and refiled . 4 despite the reorganization relief that year which decreased the company s long term debt to only us 32 million the company s loss deepened yet again in 1986 to its largest since 1983 at us 30 million . the penny stock price fell that year by another 50 % from its previous 1984 1985 all time low to set what would become its final all time low in 1986 . also that year the company issued warrants traded on the amex through 1989 . 2 in 1987 anglo energy exited its chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and changed its name to anglo energy inc. it continued to trade on the amex under the ticker symbol ael . by mid year the stock price rose tenfold from its prior year all time low but then fell victim to the 1987 stock market crash . by the end of the year the stock price dropped from its earlier high that year by almost 90 % again nearly to the level of its 1986 all time penny stock low as the company s 1987 loss amounted to a record us 94 million . 2 3 nabors industries edit anglo energy subsequently changed its name to nabors industries ltd. which also traded on the amex under the new symbol nbr until its move to the new york stock exchange by the early 2000s . 2 3 eugene m. isenberg became chairman of the board and chief executive officer of nabors in the 1987 reorganization . from 1969 to 1982 he had been chairman and the principal shareholder of genimar inc. a steel trading and building products manufacturing company until its sale in 1982 . 3 by the early 1990s nabors industries survived its post bankruptcy financing troubles by diluting shareholder value with the issuance of an eightfold increase in the number of common shares outstanding . but consequently the company kept its debt under control at under us 60 million through the mid 1990s . 2 the company performed well through the 1990 1991 recession with earnings of us 23 million and us 37 million respectively . 2 on october 1 1991 anthony g. petrello was hired and became deputy chairman president and chief operating officer of nabors industries . since 1986 he had previously been managing partner of the new york office of the law firm baker & mckenzie until his resignation from that firm in 1991 . 3 in 1992 the earnings growth trend continued for nabors at us 44 million . by the end of 1992 the penny stock had risen tenfold again from its 1987 low and the revived company had been added to the s & p midcap 400 index . but by 1993 the earnings trend began to turn down again at only us 42 million . 2 in 1994 the economy slowed through the soft landing and nabors industries earnings also declined to only a marginal profit of less than a million dollars . the stock price floundered as well that year down 30 % from its earlier 1993 high . 2 in 1995 earnings fully recovered to almost us 49 million . the company continued to issue shares at a steady pace but the stock price doubled that year . by early 1996 the stock price rose another 50 % although at that time it was still trading at less than half the 1970s all time high price of its predecessor . however the positive trends in the company and in the overall stock market continued through the second half of the decade . 2 during the late 1990s nabors industries continued to grow and was added to the s & p 500 index of the largest publicly traded companies in the united states . the stock moved from the amex to the nyse . on july 20 2007 nabors industries sold its sea mar fleet for us 189 million in cash to hornbeck offshore services including 20 offshore supply vessels osvs . the deal closed in early august 2007 . 1 ethics committee investigation edit the house ethics committee voted on december 9 2008 to expand its investigation into representative charles b. rangel to examine his role in preserving a tax loophole for an oil drilling company whose chief executive eugene isenberg pledged 1 million to a city college of new york project that will bear the congressman s name . 5 at the annual shareholders meeting in houston texas on june 2 2009 peter flaherty president of the national legal and policy center an ethics watchdog group and a shareholder questioned isenberg about his 1 million pledge to the rangel center . isenberg denied any quid pro quo . isenberg was clearly annoyed at flaherty s line of inquiry . isenberg admitted he has paid 400 000 of the pledge and insisted he would pay the rest . isenberg called the new york times article full of malarkey and challenged the times account of a meeting that he had with rangel on the same day that the ways and means committee was marking up legislation affecting the loophole . 6 susan crabtree the hill writes that flaherty caught the whole exchange between himself and isenberg on tape . 7 golden coffin controversy edit also at the nabors annual shareholders june 2 2009 meeting a stockholder proposal calling for investor approval of executive death benefits at nabors industries was voted down . amalgamated bank s longview funds owns 80 194 shares in nabors sponsored the proposal . amalgamated proposed that nabors get shareholder approval for agreements that award unearned salary bonuses and other compensation to executives estates if they die . these arrangements are called golden coffins . nabors had urged its shareholders to vote against the proposal . in april nabors renegotiated new death benefit packages for ceo eugene isenberg and coo anthony petrello lowering the total collective payments by more than 200 million . 8 jet abuse investigation edit a june 19 2011 wall street journal story reviewing faa records reported that nabors had failed to provide a dollar figure for the cost of aircraft use by ceo eugene isenberg during 2009 and 2010 . according to the article nabors jet fleet often flew to resort destinations including palm beach and martha s vineyard per wsj estimates those flights alone would have cost over 704 000 . an amount that far exceeds the sec rules which require disclosure of the cost of any personal travel that exceeds 25 000 . corporate jet set leisure vs. business corporate affairs edit the houston office is located in greenspoint . 9 in march 2015 nabors said it plans to cut 3 500 jobs in response to falling upstream activity amid slumping oil prices . the company will cut 10 percent of its sales staff and 20 percent of its u.s. drilling workforce . 10 see also edit houston portal companies portal energy portal list of oilfield service companies references edit a b nabors industries ltd. nbr nyse company description business week a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o standard & poor s stock guide various issues a b c d e nabors industries ltd. sec schedule 14a notice of 2007 annual general meeting of shareholders may 4 2007 a b anglo energy limited . 1983 ucla bankruptcy research database by lynn m. lopucki kocieniewski david . house ethics panel expands rangel inquiry the new york times december 10 2008 accessed june 8 2009 see flaherty peter nabors chairman gets testy with flaherty about rangel center donation ; calls ny times full of malarkey 6 5 09 accessed 6 8 09 crabtree susan . ethics panel probes alleged rangel quid pro quo the hill june 11 2009 accessed june 12 2009 andrejczak matt nabors shareholders defeat golden coffin proposal . marketwatch 6 2 09 accessed