Halliburton Beats Street on North American Demand
Halliburton Co swung to a quarterly profit that handily beat analysts' expectations, boosted by higher demand for its equipments and services in North America.
Shares of the world's No.3 oilfield services provider, which supplies land drilling rigs, tubing and hydraulic fracturing services, rose 2.5 percent at $45.50 in premarket trading.
Revenue from North America surged 83 percent to $2.77 billion in the quarter, due to increased demand for pumping and well-construction services in the region.
U.S. oil producers added 94 rigs in the three months to June 30 as shale companies have been able to profitably pump oil even as crude prices hover below $50.
Last week, bigger rival Schlumberger Ltd said it would redeploy all of its pressure pumping fleet by early next quarter.
Net profit attributable to Halliburton was $28 million, or 3 cents per share, in the second quarter ended June 30, compared with a loss of $3.21 billion, or $3.73 per share, a year earlier.
The year-ago quarter included a $3.5 billion charge related to the termination of the Baker Hughes deal.
Halliburton said revenue rose to $4.96 billion from $3.84 billion, in the latest quarter.
Excluding items, the company earned 27 cents per share in the reported quarter, while analysts expected a profit of 18 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Yashaswini Swamynathan
