3M announced the formation of its new Oil and Gas business - essentially a "company within a company," designed to cut across organizational lines in 3M to help customers more easily access the full range of 3M products and technologies relevant to their industry.

This global effort signals 3M's renewed commitment to supporting the oil and gas industry and represents a significant change in the way the company has traditionally approached this market.

"3M has always enjoyed a good reputation in the oil and gas industry," Lou Cristan, business director, 3M Energy Markets, said. "But many of our customers were only familiar with the 3M products they were already buying and were unaware of the full range of solutions from 3M available to them. Quite frankly, this was largely due to inefficiencies in our own internal structures that had built up over the years."

According to Cristan, organizing and supporting the multitude of 3M products used in oil and gas exploration, production, refining, transportation and marketing under a single structure will have far-reaching benefits for the customer.

"3M sells more than 10,000 products into the oil and gas industry, provided by scores of divisions, departments and subsidiaries," he said. "Bringing all of these offerings together will help the end user understand the full breadth of process solutions available from 3M, while simplifying purchasing and inventory management, and creating fewer headaches with resupply."

The scope of 3M's new Oil and Gas business goes far beyond simply putting together a special interest product catalog, explained Cristan. "For example, we are augmenting our channels of distribution to include companies that end users are used to dealing with, while eliminating layers that add costs without adding value. And we're moving tech service and salespeople closer to remote oil-producing sites, shortening the supply cycle and helping to resolve problems more quickly."

Most important of all, said Cristan, focusing attention and resources on the oil and gas industry will help 3M become even more expert at developing new products that truly meet customer needs.

"3M has developed a lot of innovative technology with some very interesting and useful properties. But much of that technology is not being utilized in this market, because we don't know enough about our oil and gas industry customers' needs in order to turn those technologies into practical products," he explained. "On the other hand, our customers know perfectly well what their needs are, but don't have the technology. Now, through the new 3M Oil and Gas business, we have a mechanism for bringing the two sides together for their mutual benefit."

For more information, visit: www.3m.com/oilandgas

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