How Do You Sell to Oil and Gas Companies?

answers

By Amanda Leon, founder of OilMoney.io. Houston-raised, came up in the Houston marketing team of Vallourec, and has run Unrth, a brand and growth studio for oil and gas and industrial companies, since 2017, with her boots on client locations in Midland and Odessa. Last reviewed October 20, 2026.

You sell to an oil and gas company by clearing two gates: the paperwork that gets your company approved, and the people who decide whether your name comes up when there's work. Get the paperwork done early, then spend the rest of your time on the people, because the shortlist can form before anybody calls you.

The people side is where it's easy to guess wrong, because the natural move is to ask buyers what they want. I studied neuromarketing, and what people say they want isn't what they actually want. We're irrational. We often don't know what we want, or how to say it. The best way to understand people is to watch what they do. That's ethnography. In the patch, that means noticing who the company man calls when something breaks, who forwards your sheet to supply chain, and whose name is already in the room before the RFQ goes out. Sell to what they do, and treat what they tell you over lunch as a starting point.

Who Buys: The Titles Behind an Operator's Purchase

More people touch an operator's purchase than you'll ever meet. Forrester's 2025 Buyers' Journey Survey, across industries, counted an average of 13 people inside the buyer's organization and nine from outside involved in a purchase decision. Three of them matter most to a field rep:

  • The company man. He's the operator's representative on location, and you meet him there, in person. Your profile backs up the handshake. More in selling to the company man.
  • The engineers. They design the work, and some of them sign for it. Oxy's Midland completions engineer posting from June 2026 has him approving invoices (more in selling to a completion engineer), and Permian Resources' Texas Delaware Basin production engineer posting from the same month has him writing AFEs for workovers.
  • Supply chain. B-P Supply's September 2026 posting for a business development rep in Monahans names procurement and supply chain managers among the people the hire has to reach. More in getting known by supply chain.

Above the company man sits the drilling superintendent, who usually works from a field office over several wells, per Penn State's petroleum engineering course; his role is laid out in selling to a drilling superintendent. When several of these people sit on one deal, read how to sell to a whole buying committee.

Where the Work Is: Permian Rigs and Permits

Baker Hughes counted 272 Permian rigs in the week ending October 16, 2026. In September 2026 the Railroad Commission of Texas issued 323 permits to drill new holes in District 8 (Midland), the most of any district in the state. That district covers the Midland side and the Texas side of the Delaware. Rigs tell you where crews were drilling that week. Permits tell you where operators plan to drill next. Spend your windshield time where both point. More in our Permian Basin field guides and oilfield service sales in the Permian.

Getting Approved: ISN Grades, Supplier Portals, and MSAs

None of those people can buy from you until your company clears the operator's gate. Each operator publishes its own rules, from Apache's ISNetworld grade for on-site contractors to Ovintiv's OpenInvoice registration and ConocoPhillips' GEP purchase orders, and the walk-through is in how to get on an approved vendor list.

Then comes the MSA. Foley and Lardner wrote in May 2026 that operators frequently present their standard MSA as non-negotiable, so read yours with your own lawyer and start with what an MSA is.

How the Shortlist Gets Made

Purchasing got more formal. People still pick the names. Back in 2012, Peter Purcell wrote for Houston consultancy Trenegy about a veteran oilfield services executive who felt centralized purchasing and supplier analysis had "trumped watering hole relationships." That's the formal half. The human half shows up in 6sense's 2025 research on B2B buyers across industries: most had ranked a shortlist before they talked to a seller, and most already knew a seller at the vendor that won (the numbers are in where to find oil and gas sales leads).

So the relationship has to be in place before the RFQ goes out. Doing great work and hoping somebody notices is a prayer with a logo on it.

The Permian founder we work with had exactly that problem: his customer base was aging out, and the younger engineers didn't know his company existed. We put what he knows from the field under his own name, in his voice, with his yes on every post, and his best post reached 58,666 impressions. Read the full story.

More in why operators stick with the names they know and how to win an RFP without being the cheapest bid.

Calls, Visits, Shows, and LinkedIn: How They Fit

  • Visits. The company man is on location, so that's where you meet him.
  • Calls. A call finds out whether there's work right now and who's deciding. It goes better when your name already means something. See how to cold call oil and gas buyers.
  • Shows. Good for seeing customers and meeting people who've heard of you. Slow from zero.
  • LinkedIn. Your profile is where the engineer and the supply chain manager check you out without calling. It keeps working while you're on location.

When the meeting finally lands, read I finally got the meeting with an operator. Now what?

From Call-Out to Signed Field Ticket

Winning the call-out is half the job. Getting paid is the other half. Aimsio, which sells field ticketing software, puts the wrong signer, work outside the PO's scope, and charges on the wrong PO or AFE among the common reasons operators reject tickets. Before your crew rolls:

  1. Get the PO number, and the AFE if the job runs on one.
  2. Ask who signs the ticket and whether his authority covers the amount.
  3. Ask whether a second signature kicks in above a set amount.
  4. Check that the scope on the PO matches the work.

For timing, see how long the sales cycle runs in oil and gas.

Where Formal Sales Training Fits

For structured selling skills, a classroom program goes deeper than any page. Tom Reilly Training charges $2,250 per participant for its two-day seminar on January 26 to 27, 2027, in Chesterfield, Missouri, capped at 15 participants, and its page doesn't mention travel costs (checked October 17, 2026).

Training sharpens what you say in the room. It won't put your name in front of the buyer before you get there. Sales directors can weigh the two in OilMoney vs sales training.

New to Oil and Gas? Start Here

Coming from another industry? Learn the location before the pitch: the company man, AFEs, ISNetworld grades, and field tickets. Then read New to Oil and Gas Sales? Start Here and our page for oilfield service reps.

New or twenty years in, getting known runs the same way. The Warm Walk-In™ turns one story dump a quarter into posts in your voice, each one approved by you, so the engineers and supply chain have seen your name before the shortlist forms.

Get Your Bison Walk-Around

Before the next shortlist forms, see your profile the way an engineer sees it.

Send us your LinkedIn. We'll send back the Bison Walk-Around: five minutes of plain English on what's costing you callbacks and what we'd build. No call. No invoice. We give first.

Get your Bison Walk-Around

Sources and As-Of Dates

The Warm Walk-In™ is an original method created by Amanda Leon and owned by The Valours Creative Innovation LLC.

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