How Do I Win an Oil and Gas RFP Without Being the Cheapest Bid?

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.

Win it before it's written. A bid that beats a cheaper number is mostly won before the request for quote goes out: you're already set up as a vendor, the engineer already knows your lead times, and whoever scores the paper can look you up and find something real. On a locked spec for a commodity item, price still decides it.

Thirty-plus years. That's how long my mom has worked in oil and gas procurement, and a lot of what she taught me still holds, starting with treating everyone with respect. On a bid, everyone includes a person you may never meet, the one behind the portal who has to score your paper next to everybody else's. Make that person's job easy. A bid that answers in the order it was asked, in the words it was asked, with nothing left to chase, is what respect looks like on paper.

Get Set Up Before There's Anything to Quote

You can't win a bid you never receive. The front gate belongs to the operator: Ovintiv wants you registered in OpenInvoice, and ConocoPhillips issues every purchase order through its GEP portal (the whole gate is laid out in getting on an approved vendor list).

B-P Supply wrote vendor setup straight into a job description: its September 2026 business development posting in Monahans asks the hire to get the company approved and set up as a vendor and to win access to production engineers, facilities engineers, and procurement and supply chain managers (we take that posting apart in clearing the vendor gate with supply chain).

If you sell pipe, ask whether a program buy is priced against an index. Argus says supply chain and category managers at oil and gas companies use its OCTG price assessments when they negotiate program purchases, and that the largest players in the tubular market settle sales contracts on its Pipe Logix indexes.

Getting Into the Spec Early

The engineers on that B-P Supply list are a fair start for yours. Learn them by name. Answer their technical questions in writing before anyone is shopping, and give real lead times while they're still planning. An engineer who has asked your opinion is more likely to write a spec your product can meet. Doing great work and hoping somebody notices is a prayer with a logo on it.

The buyer research points the same way: 6sense's 2025 survey of B2B buyers found 94% of buying groups rank their shortlist before they engage a seller (more on what that does to your pipeline in where oil and gas sales leads come from).

If your line must be on an approved manufacturer list before it can be quoted, that's a separate job, and it has to be done before the bid. See getting known by the people behind an approved manufacturer list.

Who Reads the Bid You Never Meet

Your bid travels further than the person who sent the request. Forrester's 2025 Buyers' Journey Survey, across B2B, counted an average of 13 people inside the buyer's company and nine from outside involved in a purchase decision. In the 2025 Edelman and LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, 71% of hidden buyers, such as finance, legal, compliance, and procurement staff, said they have relatively little or no interaction with sales (more on what that means for your name in building a personal brand next to your company's).

So write for a stranger who will look you up. Put your vendor status and lead time up front, name any exceptions plainly, and make sure your name holds up when somebody in finance searches it. More in selling to an operator's buying committee.

What Moves Pipe and Casing Prices

This part moves fast, and none of it is legal, trade, or customs advice. (I came up in the Houston marketing team of Vallourec, the French maker of VAM premium connections, pulling apart international drilling marketing data, so weigh my read on pipe makers with that in mind.)

  • A proclamation dated June 3, 2025 raised the Section 232 tariff on imported steel articles and derivatives from 25% to 50%, effective June 4, 2025.
  • Proclamation 11021 reset the tiers from April 6, 2026: 50% on articles listed in Annex I-A, 25% on derivatives listed in Annex I-B, and lower rates for qualifying UK products and US-melted steel content. Confirm the rate for your HTS code with a licensed customs broker before you quote.
  • US OCTG producers filed antidumping and countervailing duty petitions on April 2, 2026 against OCTG from Austria, Taiwan, and the UAE.
  • Commerce made a preliminary affirmative countervailing duty determination on Austrian OCTG, applicable September 3, 2026.
  • Commerce moved the antidumping preliminaries for all three countries from September 9, 2026 to no later than October 29, 2026. None had appeared in the Federal Register as of our October 19, 2026 check.
  • Diamondback Energy's August 3, 2026 stockholder letter said it expects inflation on fixed costs such as casing through the rest of 2026 and into 2027.

On a bid, date the quote, say how long it holds, and state the duty assumptions inside it. More in Section 232 steel tariffs and OCTG: explain it once.

Competing on More Than Price

In the US International Trade Commission's May 2026 OCTG case record, one importer said factors other than price are frequently significant in OCTG sales: "product availability, lead times, customer qualification requirements, and familiarity with product sources." Use that as your checklist. Show what you have on the ground and where, a lead time you'll stand behind in writing, which of this customer's requirements you already meet, and where the product comes from.

That case lands best early, while the request is still being written. If you're the smaller shop on the list, see competing with bigger oilfield companies.

When Price Decides It Anyway

When the spec is locked and the item is a commodity, the lowest qualified price decides it. A good name won't rescue a high number there, and you shouldn't pay anyone, us included, expecting it to. Sharpen the pencil or walk.

Reputation work pays off before the request for quote, not during it. That's the job of The Warm Walk-In™: making sure the engineers and the supply chain desk already know your name when the spec gets written.

The founder we work with, a fourth-generation oilfield man with a service company in the Permian, started out with younger engineers who didn't know his company existed. LinkedIn's Social Selling Index ranks him in the top 1% of sales professionals in oil and gas. Read the full story.

Before the Next Request Lands

Find out what a bid scorer sees when your name comes up.

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

More on our page for equipment and supply reps and in OCTG and PVF sales in the Permian.

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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