Earnings from Halliburton, the US oilfield services group, on Monday highlighted the wide variation in the impact of the oil price slump on industry activity around the world.
The company’s revenues in North America, which is its largest market, dropped 38% to $10.9bn for 2015, while sales from the Middle East and Asia fell only 6%, to $5.5bn.
Underlying operating profits from North America plunged 86% to $458mn, while earnings from the Middle East and Asia rose 9% to $1.2bn.
Halliburton disclosed the numbers as it reported a net loss of $666mn for 2015 from its continuing operations, compared with a profit of $3.4bn for 2014, and warned of ‘another challenging year’ ahead.
Revenues for 2015 were down by 28% at $23.6bn.
Halliburton’s earnings reflect how the slowdown in drilling and completing oil and gas wells has been much sharper in the US than in the Middle East.
Between September 2014 and the end of last year, the number of rigs drilling for oil and gas dropped 63% in the US to 714, but rose 8% in the Middle East to 422, according to Baker Hughes.
During Q4 2015, Halliburton pointed to a slowdown in Saudi Arabia and Iraq but increased activity in Kuwait and Oman.
Dave Lesar, Halliburton’s chief executive officer, said, “Ultimately, when this market recovers we believe North America will respond the quickest and offer the greatest upside, and that Halliburton will be positioned to outperform”.
The company’s full-year net loss included $2.2bn of charges that Halliburton identified as one-offs, including redundancy costs and asset write downs prompted by the weaker environment for the oil and gas industry since mid-2014.
Halliburton said in October it had cut about 18,000 jobs, or 21% of its workforce, since the downturn began.
For the fourth quarter, excluding restructuring costs and write downs, Hallburton’s net income from continuing operations came to $270mn, down 73% compared with the same period in 2014.
Halliburton also confirmed its commitment to completing the planned acquisition of Baker Hughes, a rival US oilfield services group, in spite of detailed scrutiny from competition regulators including the US Department of Justice and the European Commission.
The deal would bring together the world’s second and third-largest oilfield services providers.
Work on the Baker Hughes deal cost Halliburton $308mn during 2015, it said.
In December the two companies set a deadline of April 30 for concluding the takeover, after failing to reach agreement with the US authorities on competition remedies.
This month the European Commission said it was opening an in-depth probe into the deal, with a deadline of May 26.
