A Halliburton employee work near rows of hydraulic fracturing pumping units at a three pad site Monday, June 26, 2017, in Midland. ( Steve Gonzales / Houston Chronicle )
Houston’s Halliburton posted growing profits and revenues Monday as it attempts to hold onto its longstanding position as the world’s second-largest oilfield services company after Schlumberger.
Driven by a booming but now slowing U.S. shale market, Halliburton touted a $365 million quarterly profit, or 42 cents a share, that’s up from just $7 million this time last year. The U.S. hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, leader said its $5.44 billion in quarterly revenues jumped 42 percent from last year, and are up 10 percent from the second quarter of 2017
Nearly 60 percent of those revenues came just from the North American market, said Halliburton CEO Jeff Miller, who recently finished his first full quarter as Halliburton’s chief executive.
«Our North American business is hitting on all cylinders and our international business proved resilient in a challenging environment,» Miller said. «We outgrew our peers on a global basis demonstrating that we are taking market share globally, and we generated industry leading returns.»
Longtime No. 3 services player, Baker Hughes, surpassed Halliburton in sheer size this summer when it merged into the General Electric family of companies with more than 10,000 additional employees than Halliburton.
But Halliburton’s revenues sightly outpaced Baker Hughes’ $5.38 billion, and Baker Hughes also posted a quarterly loss as it continues the merger integration process.
Likewise, as the U.S. shale sector slows in drilling and oil rig counts, Halliburton is able to keep growing a bit longer because many of those drilled wells must still be fracked, which is Halliburton’s specialty.
Halliburton said its North America revenue of $3.2 billion jumped 14 from the second quarter, while the U.S. rig count only grew 6 percent during that timeframe.
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