Halliburton’s estimate for international offshore oil and gas spending this year exceeds the single-digit estimate for total international exploration and production spending (including onshore) of its competitor Schlumberger.
“Our view of the international markets is consistent with recent third-party spending surveys, suggesting that E&P investments will increase by 7 to 8% in 2019, supported by a higher rig count and a rise in the number of customer project FIDs,” Schlumberger said in its Q1 results release last week while also flagging slowing shale oil production growth in North America.
“In line with this, offshore development activity plans continue to strengthen, with subsea tree awards reaching their highest level since 2013 last year. We are also seeing the start of a return to exploration activity on renewed interest in reserves replacement,” Schlumberger said.
Halliburton, for its part, said today that its international revenue rose by 11 percent annually in Q1 2019, a first step to high single-digit international growth for the whole of the year.
“Broad-based recovery continues across all regions, and we expect this momentum to build going into 2020,” said chairman, president and CEO Jeff Miller. Referring to North America, Miller said that “the worst in the pricing deterioration is now behind us. For the next couple of quarters, I see demand for our services progressing modestly.”
According to Rystad Energy, while many shale drillers are cutting spending to focus on cash flows, internationally focused companies are expected to boost investments.
“We anticipate a return of offshore investments as project sanctioning activity has picked up considerably over the past couple of years, and numerous projects will soon enter the development stage,” Rystad Energy said.
Source: Oilprice.com
