Now entering its second year, The Energy Executive 360 Newsletter is evolving from industry analysis into direct mentorship. Each week, a global energy CEO, executive, or industry leader from our growing network shares their personal insights, career lessons, and leadership advice for the next generation shaping the future of the energy system.
How to Build a $2BN Energy Company?
Published 9 days ago • 7 min read
Inside Sherif Foda’s NESR $2B Empire Strategy: Challenging the Big Four
This Sunday, ahead of our live session next Wednesday (15th April) with Sherif Foda, we’re going back to where it all started.
On 22nd May 2025, I published a newsletter on LinkedIn breaking down the rise of National Energy Services Reunited (NESR) — its growth over seven years, and Sherif’s relentless leadership from the front to scale the business toward a $2 billion vision.
Three weeks later, Sherif liked and reposted the piece. Then NESR shared it...
A few months after that, I was in direct contact with him — and eventually, sitting across from him recording the podcast.
This is the newsletter that opened that door, and below, you’ll learn how NESR was built — the strategy, the execution, and the leadership mindset that took the company from zero to $1.2 billion.
On Wednesday, we take it one step further:
What did it really take to reach $2 billion?
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What does it take to build a billion-dollar energy services company from scratch—and challenge the global giants—in just seven years?
Sherif Foda , CEO of NESR , didn’t just defy the odds—he rewrote them. While most companies outsource innovation or tread carefully through regional politics, NESR has scaled with speed, purpose, and local power.
In this edition of The Energy Executive 360, we unpack how Foda turned NESR into MENA’s top local oilfield services player—and what future energy leaders like you can learn from his strategy to lead, grow, and win in today’s volatile landscape.
Why NESR’s Story Matters Now…
The energy landscape is shifting fast:
Governments are doubling down on nationalization and economic localization.
ESG and decarbonization are moving from compliance to business-critical.
Multinational service providers are pulling back or consolidating—creating room for agile challengers.
NESR’s rise is more than a regional success story. It’s a blueprint for how energy companies can scale fast, localize smart, innovate ahead of the curve, and build real advantage—even without a century of legacy behind them.
For any executive navigating complexity in a post-legacy energy world, NESR’s model demands attention—and emulation.
The Company & the Leader
Founded in 2017, National Energy Services Reunited (NESR) has grown into the largest MENA-based oilfield services provider, with operations across more than 15 countries and a workforce nearing 7,000. From directional drilling to well evaluation and production optimization, NESR delivers end-to-end services tailored to the region’s needs—with $1.1 billion in revenue and growing.
At the helm is Sherif Foda, a 25-year veteran of the energy services sector and a former senior executive at Schlumberger. Frustrated by the region’s dependence on foreign service providers, Foda launched NESR to build the region’s first integrated oilfield/ energy services provider, with the ultimate goal of constructing "The National Champion of MENA."
Foda’s goal is bold: create a globally competitive, MENA-born service provider with its own technology stack, ESG platform, and innovation engine, able to challenge the Big 4 global oilfield service providers (SLB, Baker Hughes, Halliburton and Weatherford). From listing NESR on the NASDAQ to launching NORI (an R&D hub) and NEDA (an ESG revenue unit), he has positioned NESR not just as a regional player—but as a global force.
Breaking Down Sherif Foda's NESR Playbook: 7 Strategy & Leadership Lessons for Energy Executives
1. Turn Vision into Velocity: Make Your Mission a Market Advantage
Sherif Foda didn’t just launch NESR to turn a profit—he built it to challenge the global perception of what Middle Eastern companies could achieve. NESR became the first MENA-born oilfield services company listed on NASDAQ, proving a local champion could meet and exceed international standards.
“There was no national services company operating across MENA at global standards,” Foda recalls. “I saw no reason we couldn’t build one from the region, for the region—and then compete globally.”
That mission helped NESR attract cross-border investment, inspire world-class talent, and scale fast. And when NESR was briefly delisted due to an audit delay, Foda personally led its rare return to the NASDAQ—proving mission and leadership are inseparable.
Executive Action: Lead with a mission bold enough to change perceptions. Make your purpose magnetic to capital, talent, and partners. In markets where stereotypes linger, operational excellence becomes your most strategic narrative.
2. Clone Success: Turn Wins Into Scalable Growth Engines
Sherif Foda didn’t build NESR’s growth on scattered wins—he built a machine. Their initial success in slickline services in Saudi Arabia became the springboard for the $200 million in repeatable contracts the company recently won across Kuwait and Oman this year.
This is NESR’s growth formula: prove it, systematize it, scale it. From drilling and evaluation to well testing, NESR turns validated models into region-wide expansion—without bloated overhead or constant reinvention.
Executive Action: Identify your top-performing services or client wins. Break them into playbooks—what tech, team, pricing, or positioning made them work? Then assign dedicated teams to scale that success across 2–3 adjacent markets. Growth is faster when you copy and adapt what already works to new markets.
3. Engineer Your Advantage: Turn R&D Into Your Growth Budget
Sherif Foda didn’t wait for innovation—he engineered it. NESR turned research and development into a front-line strategy. From building its own directional drilling tech (Roya) to investing in Salttech and Von Gonten Engineering, NESR is aggressively expanding its proprietary edge.
At the center is NORI, the company’s Saudi-based innovation hub. More than a lab, it’s a growth asset—creating region-specific tools, reducing dependence on third-party vendors, and unlocking new markets. More recently, NESR’s inclusion in Kuwait’s Ahmadi Innovation Valley places it shoulder-to-shoulder with the global Big Four—solidifying its status as a true regional technology leader
Foda’s goal? Double NESR’s size in five years—not through cost-cutting, but by leading MENA’s energy services innovation wave.
Executive Action: Build innovation into your growth model. Identify 1–2 areas where you're over-reliant on external tech, then invest in building, partnering, or acquiring your own IP. R&D is no longer optional—it’s how you protect margins and create new revenue.
4. Empower Locally, Execute Globally: Scale with Standards
NESR operates in over 15 countries with local speed—but global consistency. Sherif Foda created an operating system that gives regions the autonomy to move fast while unifying all teams under strict performance and compliance standards.
From U.S. GAAP to internal KPIs, NESR runs on non-negotiables. And that discipline starts at the top: “I measure myself by what the company achieves,” Foda says. “If we didn’t deliver, I didn’t deliver.”
Executive Action: Give local teams autonomy, but unify execution under one operating playbook. Set performance standards that apply across every region, team, and role. Speed means little if it isn’t delivering measurable, repeatable results.
5. Monetize ESG: Build a Sustainability Engine That Prints Revenue
At NESR, ESG isn’t window dressing—it’s a revenue generator. Foda launched NEDA, a business unit focused on monetizing sustainability through flare gas recovery, geothermal energy, and produced water treatment.
For example, NESR is now transforming 6–7 barrels of unusable water (produced per barrel of oil) into usable resources—cutting costs and creating value. Foda’s goal? Make NESR’s decarbonization business, the company's largest business line by 2030.
Executive Action: Shift ESG from compliance to opportunity. Audit your operations for emissions, waste, or inefficiencies that can be turned into revenue, savings, or IP. The companies that lead on decarbonization and profitability will dominate the energy transition.
6. Local Talent Is a Competitive Advantage—Not a Compliance Task
In Iraq, Egypt, and Algeria, NESR’s workforce is fully nationalized; in Oman, it’s over 80%. These numbers aren’t about policy—they’re about positioning. Local talent builds client trust, reduces cost, and strengthens operational resilience.
Foda doesn’t see localization as a tradeoff. NESR invests in developing future-ready engineers and operators who meet global standards—turning local hires into long-term assets, not check-the-box staff.
Executive Action: Turn workforce localization into a core business advantage. Identify dependency on expat labor, build local pipelines with technical partners, and invest in upskilling. Talent built locally wins globally—and keeps you aligned with national agendas.
7. Supply Chain Resilience Is a Strategic Weapon—Not a Contingency Plan
While COVID-19 froze global supply chains, NESR kept operating, even achieving an impressive revenue growth of 27% in 2020. Why? Because Sherif Foda had already built a tiered supplier strategy—with A, B, and C-level options ready for every critical category.
More than just backup plans, NESR’s vendor relationships are performance-driven and built around long-term collaboration. That foresight gives NESR first access to critical tools—and a buffer against volatility that competitors envy.
Executive Action: Build resilience before you need it. Tier your suppliers by criticality, stress-test your top 10, and secure loyalty with strategic partners. In a crisis, the front of the line isn’t for the biggest—it’s for the most trusted.
Conclusion: This Is More Than Growth—It’s a New Standard
Sherif Foda didn’t wait for permission to lead—he built the company the region needed and proved it could challenge the industry’s global elite. NESR didn’t grow by copying the Big Four; it grew by doing what they couldn’t—embedding local insight, owning innovation, and aligning with the future of energy in the Middle East and beyond. From workforce nationalization to monetizing ESG, Foda’s execution offers a roadmap for building high-performance energy businesses in emerging markets—and doing it at scale.
For energy executives navigating volatility, rising stakeholder pressure, and the shift toward regional self-reliance, NESR’s story is more than impressive—it’s instructive. The path forward is clear: lead with bold, regionally rooted purpose; scale systems, not silos; turn R&D and sustainability into profit centers; and use local talent as a competitive moat.
As NESR continues its rise—it will continue to rewrite and redefine the rules.
The question now is: what rules will you rewrite to lead the next decade of energy?
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Now entering its second year, The Energy Executive 360 Newsletter is evolving from industry analysis into direct mentorship. Each week, a global energy CEO, executive, or industry leader from our growing network shares their personal insights, career lessons, and leadership advice for the next generation shaping the future of the energy system.
