ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATION General Overview 17 Core Laboratories N.V. is a Netherlands limited liability company. We were established in 1936 and are one of the world’s leading  providers of proprietary and patented reservoir description, production enhancement and reservoir management services and products to  the oil and gas industry, primarily through client relationships with many of the world’s major, national and independent oil companies. Our business units have been aggregated into three complementary segments: We provide services and design and produce products which enable our clients to evaluate reservoir performance and increase oil and  gas recovery from new and existing fields. These services and products are generally in higher demand when our clients are investing  capital in their field development programs that are designed to increase productivity from existing fields or when exploring for new  fields. Our clients’ investment in capital expenditure programs tends to correlate over the longer term to oil and natural gas commodity  prices. During periods of higher, stable prices, our clients generally invest more in capital expenditures and, during periods of lower or  volatile commodity prices, they tend to invest less. Consequently, the level of capital expenditures by our clients impacts the demand  for our services and products. Average prices for West Texas Intermediate (“WTI”) crude oil and natural gas increased during 2013 while the average Brent crude oil  price per barrel and the average rig count both in North America and worldwide decreased during 2013. The following table summarizes the average worldwide and U.S. rig counts for the years ended December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011,  as well as the annual average spot price of a barrel of WTI crude, Europe Brent crude and an MMBtu of natural gas: (1)  Twelve month average rig count as reported by Baker Hughes Incorporated - Worldwide Rig Count. (2)  Y ear-end rig count as reported by Baker Hughes Incorporated - Worldwide Rig Count. (3)  Average daily West Texas Intermediate crude spot price as reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. (4)  Average daily Europe Brent crude spot price as reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. (5)  Average daily Henry Hub natural gas spot price as reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. 2013 2012 2011 Baker Hughes Worldwide Average Rig Count (1) 3,412 3,518 3,465 Baker Hughes U.S. Average Rig Count (1) 1,761 1,919 1,875 Baker Hughes Worldwide Year-End Rig Count (2) 3,478 3,390 3,612  Baker Hughes U.S. Year-End Rig Count  (2) 1,771 1,784 2,003  Average Crude Oil Price per Barrel WTI  (3)  $  97.98  $  94.05  $  94.87 Average Crude Oil Price per Barrel Brent (4)  $  108.56  $  111.63  $  111.26 Average Natural Gas Price per MMBtu (5)  $  3.73  $  2.75  $  4.00 • Reservoir Management:  Combines and integrates information from reservoir description and production enhancement services to increase production and improve recovery of oil and gas from our clients’ reservoirs. • Production Enhancement:  Includes services and products relating to reservoir well completions, perforations, stimulations and  production. We provide integrated services to evaluate the effectiveness of well completions and to develop solutions aimed at  increasing the effectiveness of enhanced oil recovery projects. • Reservoir Description:  Encompasses the characterization of petroleum reservoir rock, fluid and gas samples. We provide analytical and field services to characterize properties of crude oil and petroleum products to the oil and gas industry.