Halliburton warns offshore ban will hit full-year profits
Halliburton yesterday reported an 83 per cent jump in second-quarter profit thanks to strong US onshore drilling, but a ban on deepwater activity in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to hurt its full-year results.
The world’s second-largest oilfield services company, whose shares gained two per cent yesterday, said second-quarter net income rose to $480m (£315m), or 53 cents per share, compared with $262m, or 29 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.
Excluding a gain from discontinued operations, the company earned 52 cents per share. Analysts expected earnings of 37 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters, but it was not immediately clear whether the forecasts were comparable with the results. Revenue rose 15.8 per cent to $4.4bn. Analysts expected $4.1bn.
Halliburton, based in Houston and Dubai, expects a ban on deepwater drilling in the US to
trim 2010 earnings by 5 cents to 8 cents per share.
“The tragic incident that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico and the subsequent suspension of deepwater drilling, we believe, will usher in a new regulatory climate and will have a profound impact on how deepwater drilling is performed,” it said.