Oilfield services provider Schlumberger will focus on monetizing existing full-field production management contracts in the near to medium term and will not undertake new such deals in the meantime, chairman and chief executive officer Paal Kibsgaard said on Monday.
Schlumberger Production Management (SPM) is the full-field production management business model of the oilfield services provider, in which it has actively invested for several years.
Schlumberger, however, will not be taking new such projects until it executes and monetizes part of its existing portfolio of full-field production management, Kibsgaard said at a presentation at the Scotia Howard Weil 2019 Energy Conference in New Orleans on Monday.
"The SPM model represents our highest level of integration and continues to be a key part of our offering and our future growth potential. Following several years of active investments into our project portfolio, SPM was cashflow neutral in 2018 and will be a growing contributor to our overall free cash flow from 2019 onwards," Kibsgaard said.
"Our near- to-medium term focus for SPM is to execute out workplans and monetize part of our SPM project portfolio to clearly demonstrate the value of the SPM business model to our investors. In the meantime, we will not undertake any new SPM projects," the top manager added.
Referring to the different drilling markets around the world and their impact on Schlumberger's business this year, Kibsgaard said that the company expects high single-digit, year-over-year revenue growth in the international markets in 2019.
In North America's shale, Schlumberger's chief executive noted that this year's investment would likely depend on free cash flows.
"Conversely, in North America land, higher cost of capital, lower borrowing capacity, and investors looking for capital discipline and increased returns suggest that future E&P investments will likely be at levels dictated by free cash flow. Based on this, we expect E&P investment levels in North America land to be down more than 10% in 2019 versus 2018," Kibsgaard said.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More