SLB Schlumberger Ltd

With oil prices down significantly over the last quarter and high levels of uncertainty over the health of global markets, companies in the Oil and Gas Equipment and Services industry have been on the downswing. On the upside, the massive increase in shale exploration has put added emphasis on oil field services and equipment companies, while the resurrection of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico has also helped boost demand. The Bedford Report examines the outlook for companies in the Oil & Gas Equipment & Services industry and provides equity research on Schlumberger Limited (NYSE: SLB) and Weatherford International Ltd. (NYSE: WFT). Access to the full company reports can be found at:

www.bedfordreport.com/SLB

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While demand is strong at the moment, companies warn of an impending slowdown. Schlumberger expressed caution about future growth in the American land market because of the plateauing price of their pressure pumping services, a component of the hydraulic fracturing process used to extract natural gas from shale basins.

"We see a higher level of uncertainty around North America," said Chief Executive Officer Paal Kibsgaard. "During the quarter, pressure pumping pricing began flattening in the liquid-rich basins while we saw modest downward pricing pressure in the gas basins."

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The International Energy Agency joined OPEC in trimming its demand forecasts for this year and 2012. The Paris-based IEA still expects world demand to hit a record this year, but more slowly than previously expected. The market currently remains "tightened" with the loss of a large portion of production from Libya and owing to lower than forecast production in non-OPEC countries, the IEA said.

World oil markets have been tightening by between 500,000 b/d and 1 million b/d over the past 18 months, the IEA said, pointing to production outages of some 600,000 b/d in non-OPEC areas such as the North Sea and Canada in the second and third quarters of this year.

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