In Q3, Halliburton's revenue totaled $5.7 billion, which was below the analyst estimate of $5.83 billion. The report showed a stabilization in revenue growth despite some significant operational challenges such as cyber incidents and adverse weather conditions. The company recorded a net earnings per share (EPS) of $0.65, which fell short of the $0.75 forecast. Overall, the quarter was marked by technological advancements and strong international market performances, but the sequential decline in key segments and regions suggested caution moving forward.
Region-wise, North America saw a 4% decrease sequentially in revenue to $2.4 billion, influenced by reduced pressure pumping activities and storm disruptions. On the international front, revenue remained steady at $3.3 billion. The Middle East/Asia region witnessed a 3% revenue increase, spurred by enhanced pressure pumping operations in Saudi Arabia.
Note: Halliburton FY'23 ended on December 31, 2023. Q2 FY'24 referees to the quarter that ended on September 30, 2024.
Below are the key drivers of Halliburton's value that present opportunities for upside or downside to the current Trefis price estimate for Halliburton Company's stock:
For additional details, select a driver above or select a division from the interactive Trefis split for Halliburton at the top of the page.
Halliburton provides upstream drilling and exploration services to oil and gas production activities required by firms such as Exxon Mobil and National Oil Companies (NOCs) like Saudi Aramco to explore, develop, and service their oil resources. The company has extensive geographical coverage, conducts business in approximately 80 countries, and provides products and services for oil and gas exploration, drilling, and post-drilling services.
We believe the North American division of Halliburton is more valuable than the other geographical divisions primarily because of:
North America accounts for approximately 50% of the total rig count published by Baker Hughes. While the Revenue per Rig is the lowest in this region, the size of the market in terms of the number of rigs exceeds the combined size of the other three geographic divisions of Latin America, Europe / CIS / Africa, and the Middle East / Asia. Production growth in North America has been strong over the past few years.
The strong push toward exploiting unconventional sources of hydrocarbons such as shale gas, tar sands, and heavy oil in North America increases the potential for additional revenues to Halliburton as exploration for these sources requires complex technology and more intensive processes. The shift has also increased the service intensity of the rigs in North America, which should result in higher Revenue per Rig in the region. Tight oil plays accounted for 60% of all U.S. crude oil production and shale gas accounted for more than half of the proven reserves of U.S. natural gas.
In Q4 2023, the average production level in the U.S. amounted to 13.22 mb/d, according to the EIA report. Such a rapid increase in production is due to higher oil production per well, as well as the use of drilled but uncompleted wells (DUCs). EIA forecasts U.S. oil production to turn to steady growth in 2025 at a faster pace compared to the 2024 forecast.
A large portion of the Gulf of Mexico remains under-tapped. It could hold a total of around 48 billion barrels of oil compared to the 13 billion barrels of reserves estimated for onshore, as well as coastal oilfields. Since many of these untapped resources are located in deep and ultra-deep waters, they will call for a high level of technical expertise as well as a higher service intensity translating into more activity for oilfield services companies.
Oil prices started plummeting in mid-2014 due to the demand-supply mismatch in the global oil markets. This resulted in weaker oilfield service activity throughout 2015 and 2016, as oil and gas companies curtailed upstream spending due to falling cash flows. This severely hit the business of oilfield services companies till 2019. Then, The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic hammered the oil industry in 2020, as governments closed businesses and restricted travel. However, oil prices saw a rebound on the news of the planned rollout of multiple COVID-19 vaccines by the beginning of 2021.
Oil prices rose early in 2022 as a surprising economic rebound drove demand for oil after several months of lockdowns. Secondly, the supply was not able to respond to increased demand as OPEC was probably cautious not to oversupply the market again, and the fact that oil production has long investment cycles. Lastly, the oil prices also increased sharply due to the conflict in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia. In 2023, Crude oil picked on expectations of tighter supply ever since Saudi Arabia and Russia extended their voluntary output cuts of a combined 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) to the end of the year 2023 - in order to support prices. This pushed oil prices to highs seen in November 2022 in late September before macroeconomic concerns pulled them dramatically lower again. In the latest development, geo-political tension between the Islamist group Hamas and Israel poses one of the most significant risks to oil markets since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. While oil flows have not yet been affected, there could be major implications if the conflict escalates. There is a possibility that the U.S. could tighten or step up enforcement of sanctions on Iran, which could further strain an already undersupplied oil market.
Given the growing geopolitical uncertainty due to the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas war, energy prices are likely to remain elevated in the near term. Thus, demand for oil field services is likely to remain high for a couple of quarters.
Increasingly over the past few years, significant oil and gas finds have been in deepwater and other remote locations such as the CIS and Iraq. Exploiting these sources adds tremendous logistical and technical complexity to the exploration projects that translate into revenues for upstream products and services firms such as Halliburton.
The IEA estimates that non-OPEC oil production peaked in 2010. This means that future oil and gas finds will get increasingly rarer, and the size of the discoveries will decline, leading to higher exploration and drilling costs to maintain historical outputs of oil.
Natural gas prices remain suppressed because of the perceived high storage levels and the oversupply of gas in the market. The lagging demand will translate into lower investments in natural gas exploration in the short term.
Exploration for unconventional sources such as shale and tight gas are expected to pick up in Argentina, Mexico, Poland, China, and Saudi Arabia over the next 1-5 years resulting in higher revenues and operating profits for Halliburton in these regions.
Oil firms are investing in technology to help them reduce the decline rates seen in major fields over their lifetime. Pemex has been engaged in efforts to arrest the decline in its Canterall fields, while Saudi Aramco has also made it a priority to reduce the decline in its fields at 2-3% per annum.
Halliburton has been veering toward offering more fully integrated offerings, which include an entire suite of services for integrated well construction and intervention. Only SLB has a comparable offering among its competitors, giving Halliburton an edge in this area.
