Halliburton Beats Quarterly Profit Estimates as Pricing Improves

April 25 (Reuters) – Oilfield firm Halliburton Co (HAL.N) on Tuesday reported a first quarter profit that topped Wall Street estimates as a tight services and equipment market have helped drive demand and improve its pricing.

Global oil futures are currently trading around $82 a barrel, down about 20% from a year ago but still higher than the price most companies need to drill profitably. Markets have been choppy in the past month, falling to around $70 a barrel amid concerns of a banking crisis before rebounding on a surprise cut by OPEC+.

“Our customers are clearly motivated to produce more oil and gas and service capacity is tight,” CEO Jeff Miller said in a statement. Halliburton is the largest provider of U.S. hydraulic fracturing equipment.

Revenue in its North America business was up 44% year-over-year to $2.8 billion, while its international revenue increased by 23% to $2.9 billion over that period.

It reported operating margin of 17.2%, an increase of 530 basis points year-over-year.

Shares were down 1.36% in pre-market trading to $34, while global oil prices were off about 0.71% to $82.14 a barrel.

Houston-based Halliburton said net income attributable to the company stood at $651 million, or 72 cents per share, for the three months ended March 31, beating analysts’ forecast for earnings of 67 cents per share, according to data from Refinitiv. That’s up from earnings of $263 million, or 29 cents per share, a year earlier.

Market leader Schlumberger (SLB.N) and rival Baker Hughes Co (BKR.O) also topped Wall Street estimates for first-quarter profit last week. The upbeat results come as the average international rig count, an indication of future production, for the quarter stood at 915, 11% higher than the previous year, according to Baker Hughes data.