Halliburton profit jumps but ban to hurt results
Halliburton Co reported an 83 percent jump in second-quarter profit on Monday, on strong U.S. onshore drilling, but a ban on deepwater activity in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to hurt full year results.
The world's second-largest oilfield services company, whose shares were up 2 percent in premarket trading, said second-quarter net income rose to $480 million, or 53 cents per share, compared with $262 million, or 29 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.
Excluding a gain from discontinued operations, the company earned 52 cents per share.
Analysts expected earnings of 37 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, but it was not immediately clear whether the forecasts were comparable with the results.
Revenue rose 15.8 percent to $4.4 billion. Analysts expected $4.1 billion.
Halliburton, based in Houston and Dubai, expects a ban on deepwater drilling in the United States to trim 2010 earnings by 5 cents to 8 cents per share.
The tragic incident that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico and the subsequent suspension of deepwater drilling, we believe, will usher in a new regulatory climate and will have a profound impact on how deepwater drilling is performed, the company said in a statement.
The company, which did cementing work on the blown-out BP Plc well that spewed oil into the Gulf of Mexico for three months, says it is indemnified under its contract with BP.
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