Competition Employees Governmental Regulations 13 In recent years, increased concern has been raised over the protection of the environment. Legislation to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases has been introduced in the U.S. Congress, and there has been a wide- ranging policy debate, both nationally and internationally, regarding the impact of these gases and possible means for their regulation. In addition, efforts have been made and continue to be made in the international community toward the adoption of international treaties or protocols that would address global climate change issues, such as the annual United Nations Climate Change Conferences. In November 2014, the United States Many aspects of the Company’s operations are affected by political developments and are subject to both domestic and foreign governmental regulations, including those relating to oilfield operations, the discharge of materials into the environment from our manufacturing or other facilities, health and worker safety aspects of our operations, or otherwise relating to human health and environmental protection. In addition, the Company depends on the demand for its services from the oil and gas industry and, therefore, is affected by changing taxes, price controls and other laws and regulations relating to the oil and gas industry in general, including those specifically directed to offshore operations. The adoption of laws and regulations curtailing exploration and development drilling for oil and gas for economic or other policy reasons could adversely affect the Company’s operations by limiting demand for the Company’s products. See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Our operations and our customers’ operations are subject to a variety of governmental laws and regulations that may increase our costs, limit the demand for our products and services or restrict our operations.” The Company’s operations depend in part on its ability to attract quality employees. While the Company believes that its wage and salary rates are competitive and that its relationship with its labor force is good, a significant increase in the wages and salaries paid by competing employers could result in a reduction of the Company’s labor force, increases in the wage and salary rates paid by the Company or both. If either of these events were to occur, in the near-term, the profits realized by the Company from work in progress would be reduced and, in the long-term, the production capacity and profitability of the Company could be diminished and the growth potential of the Company could be impaired. See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—Loss of our key management or other personnel could adversely impact our business.” The total number of the Company’s employees as of December 31, 2014 was 2,720. Of these, 1,403 were located in the United States. Substantially all of the Company’s employees are not covered by collective bargaining agreements, and the Company considers its employee relations to be good. Because of their relative size and diversity of products, several of the Company’s competitors have the ability to provide “turnkey” services for offshore drilling and production applications, which enables them to use their own products to the exclusion of Dril-Quip’s products. See “Item 1A. Risk Factors—We may be unable to successfully compete with other manufacturers of drilling and production equipment.” The Company also competes to a lesser extent with a number of other companies in various products. The principal competitive factors in the petroleum drilling and production equipment markets are quality, reliability and reputation of the product, price, technology, service and timely delivery. Dril-Quip faces significant competition from other manufacturers and suppliers of exploration and production equipment. Several of its primary competitors are diversified multinational companies with substantially larger operating staffs and greater capital resources than those of the Company and which, in many instances, have been engaged in the manufacturing business for a much longer period of time than the Company. The Company competes principally with GE Oil and Gas (formerly Vetco Gray), and the petroleum production equipment segments of OneSubsea (a joint venture of Cameron International Corporation and Schlumberger, Ltd.), FMC Technologies, Inc. and Aker Solutions.