Strong activity in North America saw Schlumberger reporting a quarterly that showed record highs, despite oil prices sliding nearly 20% since June due to oversupply, weak growth and shenanigans within OPEC.
The company’s quarterly revenue of $US12.6 billion ($A14.38 billion) beat the $12.1 billion from the previous quarter, and was a whole $1 billion up from the corresponding quarter last year.
Schlumberger CEO Paal Kibsgaard said strong activity in North America and robust growth internationally, led by Latin America and supported by Europe/Africa/Commonwealth of Independent States – despite international sanctions in Russia – drove third-quarter results to a new record high.
“At the same time, Middle East and Asia proved highly resilient in the face of significant headwinds in northern Iraq. All areas and all groups recorded growth, backed by new technology penetration and strong operational execution,” Kibsgaard said.
He told a post-earnings call on Friday that “the key to the overall oil market is that the global oil demand is currently set to increase by 1.1 million barrels per day in 2015, which will require growth in exploration and production investments”
He said oil demand was “largely unchanged” while supply was relatively “well balanced”
In a note, William Blair & Co analysts wrote that West Texas Intermediate oil at $80/bbl for a short time was unlikely to impact growth and margins for the services companies – “but $80 oil for more than a month or two certainly will”
The analysts expect the company to “wait and see” how $80 WTI would impact producers’ spending plans – though Schlumberger said it expected 2014 exploration spending to fall by 4-5% from a year ago, mainly due to a 20% fall in seismic expenditure.
The outlook for growth in global GDP softened during the quarter on weaker data from Europe and China, although the effect of this was partially offset by strength in the US.
“Given the strength of the US economy and the ongoing efforts to stimulate and manage growth in Europe and China, we continue to believe that the slow but steady recovery in the world economy is intact,” the company said.
“While market sentiments are currently driven by fear of short-term over-supply, and although the oil demand outlook has been revised slightly downwards, we see little reason at the present time to change our view that the challenges of maintaining non-OPEC supply outside North America, the lack of growth in OPEC sustainable production capacity maintaining tightness in OPEC spare capacity, and the continuing geopolitical risks in some key producing regions all lead to a supply-demand situation that is relatively well-balanced.”
As the overall market was affected by a mixed bag of “economic and geopolitical headwinds and tailwinds”, Schlumberger maintained the long-term hypothesis that it outlined in New York in June, believing in continued solid demand for its products, services and expertise.
“We also firmly believe that opportunities exist for differentiated growth through new technology and greater integration, and that the transformational impact of our initiatives in reliability and efficiency will further support and accelerate our financial outperformance,” it said.
Reservoir production recorded the strongest sequential growth for the company, led by well services pressure pumping activity in North America and artificial lift growing on revenue additions and further expansion.
Completions also contributed to the quarter with stronger product sales.
“Drilling Group Technologies benefited from higher rig activity in many areas, stronger IPM [integrated project management] work in Mexico and high-technology services being deployed in a number of geomarkets,” Schlumberger said.
“Testing services technologies led growth in the reservoir characterisation group, supported by stronger results for marine seismic services through the summer season although multi-client license sales fell. Overall, new technology from all groups saw further market penetration to drive effective pricing in a competitive environment for basic services.”
