The world’s three largest oil field services companies reported mixed financial results for the second quarter despite soaring demand for their products and an ongoing war in Ukraine that is lifting prices for oil and natural gas.
Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes, each with headquarters in Houston and thousands of local employees, will nevertheless survive the volatility — which now includes a potential recession on the horizon — experts say.
“I'm confident that it's a short term disruption in the margins of these companies,” said Leah Hartman, chair of finance, accounting and marketing at the University of New Haven.
Hartman said that she expects current supply chain issues to persist, but that the desire of producers to rapidly bring more oil and gas production online to replace lost Russian supply will benefit the services sector, which provides material and labor for the drilling companies.
“All that should bode well for these companies,” she said. “It’s just going to be a bumpy ride.”
Paris-based Schlumberger ended the week reporting a $959 million profit, more than double what it made in the same period last year. Revenue surged 20 percent to $6.8 billion, compared with $5.6 billion in the second quarter of 2021.
Of the trio, Baker Hughes had the roughest second quarter, posting an $839 million loss compared with a $68 million loss during the same period in 2021. The company's $5 billion in quarterly revenue was nearly flat compared with $5.1 billion a year earlier.
With fewer orders for offshore drilling equipment, revenue from Baker Hughes’ oil field equipment business declined by 2 percent from the first three-month period of 2022.
“We remain disappointed with the overall level of profitability of the business and are executing on further actions to drive additional cost out and improve operations across the portfolio,” Baker Hughes CEO Lorenzo Simonelli told investors this week, adding that deepwater drilling opportunities are expected to develop in “key markets.”