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These Companies Should Be Afraid of Big Oil's Spending Freeze

By Tyler Crowe – Mar 15, 2014 at 7:00AM

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As Big Oil players like Total start to wind down capital investments, these oil services companies could get stung the most.

Big Oil is sick of being oil services companies' piggy bank, and the big names like Total (TTE -1.89%) are starting to wind down their spending in part because of the high prices companies like Schlumberger (SLB -4.05%) and Transocean (RIG -1.99%) are charging for their services. As these big spenders start to scale back their spending habits, both Schlumberger and Transocean should be especially nervous. 

With so much of its income reliant on oil exploration rather than development, Schlumberger is likely to suffer more in the near future than its competitors Halliburton (HAL -3.41%) and Baker Hughes (BHI). Find out how exploration and production companies have sent oil services companies soaring over the past couple years, and learn more about why Schlumberger and Transocean are likely to suffer more than their peers by tuning into the video below.

Tyler Crowe has no position in any stocks mentioned. You can follow him at Fool.com under the handle TMFDirtyBird, on Google+, or on Twitter, @TylerCroweFool.

The Motley Fool recommends Halliburton, Seadrill, and Total SA. (ADR). The Motley Fool owns shares of Seadrill and Transocean. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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