Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) on Friday said fourth-quarter earnings rose 36%, beating Wall Street expectations as a global drilling frenzy continued despite fears about the global economy.

The world's largest oilfield services company posted a profit of $1.41 billion, or $1.05 a share, up from $1.04 billion, or 76 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding merger and integration costs and the write-off of assets in Libya, earnings from continuing operations rose to $1.11 a share from 85 cents a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of $1.09 a share.

The results indicate strong oil-related activity in areas like the deep-water U.S. Gulf of Mexico and Latin America, and also reflect continued drilling in onshore North America, as producers shift from low-profit natural-gas-producing wells toward unconventional oil plays. Schlumberger's earnings prove that the North American oilpatch is "showing resilience" despite cratering prices for natural gas, and "should have positive read-throughs" for Schlumberger's peers, said Nigel Browne, an analyst with Macquarie. Schlumberger's rivals Halliburton (HAL) and Baker Hughes Inc (BHI), which report Monday and Tuesday, respectively, have played a large role in the resurgence of the North American oilpatch thanks to the implementation of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques.

Schlumberger executives said oil consumption and oil field activity will continue to grow through 2012, driven by relatively high energy prices and large oil companies' need to expand their reserves, despite uncertainty surrounding economic recovery in the U.S. and Europe. "Absent a global recession, we do not expect [oil] prices to weaken significantly," Chief Executive Paal Kibsgaard said in a conference call.

But natural gas prices, which have fallen to 10-year lows around $2.322 a million British thermal units thanks to a combination of oversupply and lackluster demand, are making prices for gas-directed pressure pumping services weaken, Schlumberger executives said. Schlumberger said it was "building the required flexibility" in its spending plans, but that it expects any reductions in global oilfield activity due to global economic concerns to be "short-lived."

The company is budgeting $4.5 billion in capital expenditures for 2012, up from $4 billion in 2011.

Schlumberger's North American revenue more than doubled from a year earlier, led by high-technology services in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico, where activity has resumed.

But the company's international performance also has been improving. Schlumberger resumed operating in Libya during the fourth quarter, since the country's civil war succeeded in toppling Moammar Gadhafi as its leader. However, it took a $60 million charge from assets lost during the strife, Chief Financial Officer Simon Ayat said in a conference call.

The company also continues to sell services in Mexico and to provide technology for shale rock formation drilling in Argentina.

Shares recently were up 1% to $73.58.

Schlumberger has headquarters in Paris, Houston, and The Hague.

-By Angel Gonzalez, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9214; angel.gonzalez@dowjones.com

--Nathalie Tadena contributed to this article.

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