Schlumberger Posts Another Loss But Looks Towards Growth
January 20 2017 - 8:16AM
Dow Jones News
By Austen Hufford
Schlumberger Ltd. posted a loss in its latest quarter on lower
revenue, but the company said energy prices and production were
both poised to increase.
Schlumberger and other companies in the oil-field-services
sector have been hurt by weak demand from oil and natural gas
producers for services such as drilling and completing oil-and-gas
wells due to a two-year decline in energy prices. During 2016,
though, energy prices rose and then stabilized.
Chief Executive Paal Kibsgaard said he expects a tightening of
the oil supply will balance with demand, supporting further price
increases and more exploration and production investment by its
customers. Mr. Kibsgaard said the company was once again pursuing
growth and improving returns instead of cost-cutting and workforce
reductions that it had done for nine quarters.
Schlumberger said Friday that it took a $536 million
restructuring charge as it refined and reduced its support
structure to reflect lower activity and current pricing levels. The
company also took $139 million in charges relating to its $12.7
billion purchase of rival Cameron International Corp. and a
currency devaluation in Egypt.
Shares fell 1.3% to $86.07 in premarket trading.
In all, Schlumberger reported a fourth-quarter loss of $204
million, or 15 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1.02
billion, or 81 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding items such
as acquisition-related charges, adjusted per-share earnings were 27
cents.
Revenue declined 8.2% to $7.11 billion. Analysts polled by
Thomson Reuters had expected adjusted per-share profit of 27 cents
and revenue of $7.07 billion.
For the year, Schlumberger expects $2.2 billion in capital
expenditures, compared with $2.1 billion last year.
In its production unit, its largest, revenue fell 17% to $2.18
billion. In its reservoir-characterization unit, revenue fell 23%
to $1.7 billion, and in its drilling unit revenue fell 32% to $2.01
billion.
Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 20, 2017 08:01 ET (13:01 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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