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North America helped drive revenue for Halliburton

Service company's 14 percent growth announcement came days after a downturn in reported rig activity.

By Daniel J. Graeber
Drilling services company Halliburton reports good figures for the third quarter, driven largely by gains in North America. File photo by Gary C. Caskey/UPI
Drilling services company Halliburton reports good figures for the third quarter, driven largely by gains in North America. File photo by Gary C. Caskey/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Improved market conditions in North America helped drive strong revenue growth during the third quarter, drilling services company Halliburton said Monday.

"We had a strong quarter and I am very pleased with our results," President and CEO Jeff Miller said in a statement. "Our North American business is hitting on all cylinders and our international business proved resilient in a challenging environment."

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The sentiment on North America is an about-face of sorts for the company. Second quarter revenue was $5 billion, a 16 percent increase from the first quarter, and the company said most of that increase came from a rebound in activity in the North Sea and Russia.

International revenue for Halliburton was $2.3 billion, a 4 percent increase from the second quarter. North American revenue for the third quarter was $3.2 billion, a 14 percent increase sequentially.

Halliburton said third quarter revenue growth in North America coincided with a 6 percent increase in the rig count in the United States. Improvements elsewhere in the region were associated with higher well completions in Canada.

The accolades for North America, however, came amid an apparent slowdown in exploration and production activity in the region. Rival services company Baker Hughes last week showed activity, reported as rig counts, declined in the United States and Canada for the week ending Oct. 20, though rig counts in both regions are up considerably from last year.

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It's been a strong quarter so far for companies catering to the exploration and production side of the industry. Revenue for Schlumberger, the largest company of its kind in the world, jumped 18 percent, with most of the gains coming from shale basins in the United States. The company over the last six months doubled the number of fleets deployed in U.S. shale.

While touting growth in North America, Halliburton's Miller said his was a global company.

"We outgrew our peers on a global basis demonstrating that we are taking market share globally, and we generated industry leading returns," he said.

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