Schlumberger Earnings Meet Estimates, Sees Continued Slow Growth

Schlumberger (SLB) reported Friday morning its income from continuing operations, excluding charges, rose to $818 million, or 68 cents a share, from $613 million or 51 cents per share in the year-ago period. Earnings met Wall Street estimates.

Revenue rose 7% to $5.94 billion from $5.53, driven by a 10% increase in oilfield services. Analysts had expected revenues of $5.92 billion.

"Sequential revenue increases were recorded in all areas as were sequential margin improvements led by strong performances in North America and Latin America," Chairman and CEO Andrew Gould said in a statement.

Schlumberger said high activity in the U.S. offset weakness in Canadian operations. Business in Latin America, Mexico and Brazil led the revenue improvement. There was also a strong rebound in Russia and the North Sea, the company said, but that was somewhat offset by slow activity in North Africa and lower demand for exploration-related services in West and South Africa.

As for deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the company said it is not planning any resumption of drilling activity there this year.

"Looking forward to the remainder of the year, we see a continued slow build of activity in the second half in most parts of the world. In particular, U.S. Land, Brazil, North Sea and Russia will be GeoMarkets of continued strength. Meanwhile, we see continued growth across most of the Middle East & Asia GeoMarkets. This will be partially offset by reductions in IPM activity in Mexico in both Chicontepec and Burgos," Gould said.

"The recovery in world demand for oil has been reasonably robust," Gould added. "Overall, therefore, we see the current trend of a slow but sure recovery in activity as likely to continue without change until we have a clearer view of the sustainability of the recovery in the world economy."