By Tess Stynes
Halliburton Co.'s (HAL) on Monday said its second-quarter
earnings fell 7.9%, as weakness in North America offset growth in
the company's international operations.
The oilfield-services company said revenue fell 8.2% in its
North American operations, as operating income for the region
dropped 22%. In its international operations, revenue was up 14%
and operating income improved 6.9%, driven by growth in its Middle
East/Asia business--the company's fastest growing market.
Halliburton also reported revenue fell 2.2% in its completion
and production business, which includes its pressure-pumping
operations. Halliburton does the most pressure pumping of any
oil-services company,
Services companies sounded notes of cautious optimism at the end
of the first quarter that pressure-pumping prices had reached their
bottom and would begin recovering at some point this year, as more
oil production means work for fleets of fracking equipment that had
gone unused. But few expect a return to the early days of the shale
boom, when demand for fracking services outstripped the supply of
equipment available to do the work.
"For the third quarter, we anticipate the U.S. land rig count to
be flat. We are observing a continuing trend towards multi-well pad
activity among our customer base, which we believe will result in
higher service intensity," Chairman and Chief Executive Dave Lesar
said. "Ultimately, we believe this efficiency trend bodes very well
for us, as our scale and expertise allows us to lead the industry
in executing factory-type operations. We also expect North America
margins to continue to expand over the balance of the year. "
"We continue to be optimistic about Halliburton's performance
for the remainder of 2013, our ability to continue growing our
North America margins," he added.
Halliburton reported a profit of $679 million, or 73 cents a
share, down from $737 million, or 79 cents a share, a year earlier.
Revenue rose 1.1% to $7.3 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently projected
earnings of 72 cents a share on revenue of $7.25 billion.
Shares closed Friday at $45.83 and were up 87 cents to $46.70 in
recent premarket trading. The stock is up 32% this year.
Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@dowjones.com
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