Halliburton Beats Profit Estimates Despite “Challenging” North America Market

Oilfield services provider Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) on Monday beat analyst estimates in its Q2 earnings, thanks to growth in international markets that offset lagging activity in North America, the company’s largest market.

Halliburton, one of the world’s largest oilfield services companies, reported today adjusted net income of US$303 million, or US$0.35 per diluted share, for Q2 2019, excluding impairments and other charges.

The earnings per share exceeded the US$0.30 analyst consensus estimate in the Wall Street Journal.

The Q2 profit beat sent Halliburton’s stock surging more than 7 percent on the NYSE at 10:40 EDT, and 8 percent by 1:45pm EDT.

International revenues rose by 6 percent quarter on quarter, while North America revenue increased by 2 percent, to US$3.3 billion. Halliburton’s North American revenue was driven by higher stimulation, artificial lift and wireline activity onshore, and higher drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico.  

“We continue to build on the growth momentum internationally and successfully manage the market dynamics in North America,” Jeff Miller, Chairman, President and CEO at Halliburton said, commenting on the Q2 results.

Again referring to North America, Miller noted:

“We are successfully executing our strategy of controlling what we can control and managing our business to perform well in any market conditions.”

In April this year, Halliburton expected total global offshore spending to jump 14 percent this year. Reporting the Q1 figures back then, Miller said, referring to North America, “the worst in the pricing deterioration is now behind us. For the next couple of quarters, I see demand for our services progressing modestly.”

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On Friday, Halliburton’s competitor Schlumberger said that its first-half international revenue increased by 8 percent on the year, while North America land revenue declined 12 percent.

“These results reflect the normalization in global E&P spend that we were anticipating as international investment increases in response to the accelerating decline in the mature production base, and North America land investment decreases due to E&P operator cash flow constraints,” Schlumberger said.

Schlumberger’s chief operating officer Olivier Le Peuch—who was appointed to become chief executive officer effective August 1—said in prepared remarks on the Q2 results:

“North America land remains a challenging environment. Indeed, E&P operator focus on cash flow has capped activity and continued efficiency improvements have also reduced the number of active rigs and frac fleets—so far without major impact on oil production.”

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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