Halliburton has seen a 93% drop in its quarterly profits following the decline in oil prices since last year. The oilfield services provider said it had incurred about $400million in charges as companies have reduced drilling activity. The company’s net profit fell to $53million – six cents a share – in the second quarter of 2015.
Baker Hughes and Halliburton have entered into a timing agreement with the antitrust division of the US DOJ (Department of Justice). It means the period for the DOJ’s review of the takeover will now be completed at the end of November, 90 days after both companies have certified compliance. A deal has also been reached between Baker Hughes and Halliburton to extend the time period for closing the acquisition to no later than December.
Baker Hughes has posted a quarterly loss after incurring a $772million charge in relation to restructuring and other items. The company, which is in the process of being acquired by Halliburton, also said it would reduce its global workforce by 17%. It brings the total headcount reductions to 10,500 - up from the 7,000 previously announced.
Oil giant Halliburton has posted a better than anticipated quarterly profit which was boosted by revenue from regions including Latin America and Asia. The company, which agreed to buy its smaller rival Baker Hughes last year, said some revenues had been affected in other regions by the oil price decline.
The Halliburton and Baker Hughes merger has been approved by shareholders. The merger was triggered by the decline in oil prices last year. Halliburton investors voted in favour of issuing shares to allow the multi-billion transaction to go forward.
The most read story this week on the Energy Voice website was on a call made by the boss of one of the world's largest energy services firms for the oil and gas sector to "reinvent" itself.
Energy service giant Halliburton is still refusing to say how many jobs are on the line in Aberdeen – or any other location in operations in more than 80 countries. The job reduction move was announced earlier this month but only in worldwide percentage terms. The firm will give no more details about the redundancies, which leaves an estimated 2,700-plus workers in the UK, including at least 1,600 in the Aberdeen area, fearing the worst.
Halliburton will cut 1,000 jobs in its eastern hemisphere offices as a result of falling oil prices. The oil services company, which recently announced a $34.6billion merger with Baker Hughes, said the losses will be made in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Middle East. A spokesman for Halliburton said the decision was not an easy one, but “necessary”.
Halliburton has appointed its chief financial officer (CFO) as chief integration officer to lead its merger with Baker Hughes. Mark McCollum will serve as head of the joint integration team the two companies are assembling. It comes after they revealed plans to merge last month in a $34.6billion deal.
After a bitter two days, Dave Lesar drove out to Martin Craighead’s headquarters Sunday, taking the final play in a tense merger negotiation straight to his counterpart. It was cold and windy in Houston as the two chief executive officers entered the last stages of a bid that had almost led to a fight for board nominations. Lesar, 61, the 14-year leader of Halliburton Inc, and Craighead, 54, a Baker Hughes veteran in his first year at the helm, sat down over a coke and a coffee to seal the $35 billion deal, the two men said yesterday. For Lesar, the meeting culminated a campaign that began almost a decade earlier when executives from the companies first broached a possible merger. A month ago, he took advantage of a 32% drop in Baker Hughes stock since July in the wake of falling oil prices.
Almost in line with falling global oil prices share value of oilfield service companies have slumped by around 25% over the past four months. These are the same companies that have benefited greatly from the US fracking boom that transformed the standing of the US as an oil and gas producer; its position as number one oil consumer has never been at risk. But the halcyon days of unfettered profits for US frackers and service companies look to be over.
Halliburton is in talks to buy Baker Hughes Inc in a deal that would combine two of the largest and oldest names in the energy business as plunging oil prices send the industry into a downturn. By eliminating a competitor, Halliburton, already the world’s second-biggest provider of oilfield services, would gain market clout that would help insulate it from a sustained market decline. A combination of Halliburton with No. 3 Baker Hughes would be a little more than half the size of larger rival Schlumberger Ltd.
Energy giant Halliburton has signed a long-term contract with Ecuador’s state-run oil company Petroamazonas to provide field development and project management across nine mature fields. The contracts, for fields including the Palo Azul, Lago Agrio, and Victor Hugo Ruales, are 15 years long with the potential for a further five-year extension.
Halliburton has agreed to pay $1.1billion to settle a string of lawsuits filed against the firm in relation to its role in one of the most devastating offshore oil spills in US history.