Oil services giant Schlumberger has reported a healthy increase in pretax profit for Q3 2018.
The US-headquartered firm announced a growth in profit of £116 million, up from £519m in Q3 2017 to £603m in 2018.
Total revenue for the firm also jumped from £6bn in 2017 to £6.5bn in 2018.
Chairman and CEO Paal Kibsgaard said: “Looking at pricing and contracts, we continued to see improvements in terms and conditions and basic rates for selected contracts in the international markets. However, this has yet to make a significant impact on our results.
“Still, we expect to fully deploy our remaining excess international equipment capacity by the end of the year. As a result, we anticipate pricing discussions to accelerate in the coming quarters as the certainty of products and services supply will become more important for our customers.
“With the outlook for global economic growth and oil demand remaining solid, we continue to see a need for a multiyear increase in international E&P investment, which is very good news for Schlumberger.
“Through the work we have done over the past four years to expand our external offering and modernize our internal execution platform, we are very well positioned to outgrow the market in the coming upcycle and to generate superior operating margins and cash returns for the benefit of our shareholders.”