Schlumberger Shanghai office upgraded to China headquarter

Schlumberger Oilfield Equipments (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., which is located in the Qingpu District of east China's Shanghai City, was recently granted certification as a regional headquarter of its parent company Schlumberger, reported Shanghai Securities News on Tuesday.

The company represents the first headquarter of foreign-funded enterprise in the Qingpu comprehensive bonded area, which was founded in 2019.

Schlumberger is a multinational oilfield services company which provides products and services globally from oil exploration to production. Its Shanghai office was established in Qingpu industrial park in 2005 with a registered capital of 60.74 million U.S. dollars.

In order to tackle difficulties faced with the company, Qingpu introduced an innovative mode of the combination of headquarter economy and the general taxpayer status of value-added tax (VAT)  pilot.

With this mode, Schlumberger set up Cameron Systems Shanghai Co., Ltd., an enterprise with general taxpayer status of VAT, to deal with domestic business. "This move has saved comprehensive cost by about five percent every year," said Xu Zhiyu, general manager of Schlumberger Shanghai Office.

With a series of supportive measures, Schlumberger Shanghai Office has seen remarkable growth, with value of imports and exports up 51 percent year on year in 2022. Eyeing promising future, the company also plans to establish two or three new assembly lines and build a new factory in 2023.

In Shanghai, where over 60,000 foreign-invested enterprises contribute about one-third of the city's tax revenue, a quarter of its GDP, and two-thirds of its foreign trade, promising investment prospects, high-level opening up and the favorable business environment have made the metropolis still an attractive destination for foreign investors.

As of the end of 2022, Shanghai was home to 891 regional headquarters of multinational corporations, and 531 foreign-funded research and development (R&D) centers, according to the municipal commission of commerce.