Halliburton Beats Profit Forecasts -- WSJ

By Micah Maidenberg 

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (October 23, 2018).

Halliburton Co. was able to lift revenue and profit during the third quarter past expectations, but the oil-field services company said demand for some of its key operations came in weaker than anticipated.

Houston-based Halliburton said infrastructure constraints in North America and what it termed as customer "budget exhaustion" resulted in less demand for its completion services, which make wells ready for use.

The company is active in the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico, which has been the center of the U.S. shale boom. Drillers are pumping so much oil and gas in the region that pipeline infrastructure there has been overwhelmed, leading to bottlenecks.

Halliburton's completion-and-production segment is its biggest, providing oil and gas producers with the tools, services and chemicals they need. The segment booked sales of $4.17 billion in the third quarter, up 15% from the year-earlier quarter. But revenue from the unit was flat versus the second quarter. For North America, Halliburton said sales increased 18% from a year earlier, to $3.74 billion, but sales for the region declined slightly compared with the second quarter.

Chief executive Jeff Miller said Halliburton believes the demand issues in North American are temporary. A range of demand catalysts -- including higher commodity prices and expanding capacity -- are in place, he added.

Overall, sales rose 13% to $6.17 billion for the quarter, beating than the $6.11 billion analysts expected, according to FactSet.

Halliburton reported profit of $435 million, or 50 cents a share, in the third quarter, up 19% compared with the same period last year. Analysts surveyed by FactSet predicted profit of 49 cents a share.

Write to Micah Maidenberg at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 23, 2018 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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