Third quarter earning reports from oil-services giant Halliburton doubled as the US markets continued to gather momentum.
While earnings were very good, they were not quite as high as analysts were expecting, and so shares dropped by 2.7 percent in premarket trading. However on close of trade Friday, Halliburton’s stock was up by 19 percent for the year.
The industry has been posting new profits on the back of a rebound in the US oil-drilling sector and this, coupled with a surge by energy producers to get in on shale-gas projects has increased the rate of oilfield services companies, like Halliburton seeking acquisitions to gain from the increased activity.
Despite the rebound, the outlook in the industry is not yet considered stable, given the potential fallout from weak gas prices, uncertainty in the economy, and who can forget the Deepwater Horizon tragedy.
Halliburton said in a statement Monday that the increase in activity in oil and gas fields in the US has offset profit declines resulting from the ban on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which came to an end only last week.
Halliburton expects, according to CE David Lesar "the shift to oil and liquids-rich basins" will more than compensate for reduced activity in the dry gas sector and will remain a factor in "sustaining the growth opportunity" across North America.
Postings for the company’s international activities remained uneven across several world regions.
Halliburton is the first of the world’s large oil service companies to release its third quarterly earnings, with more expected to do so Friday.
