Schlumberger Ltd., the world’s largest oilfield services provider, said falling crude prices won’t have a significant impact on the business.
“Our view of the overall market continues to include a mix of economic and geopolitical headwinds and tailwinds,” Paal Kibsgaard, chief executive officer of the Houston- and Paris-based company, said in a statement. Despite fears of “short-term over-supply” and a downward oil-demand revision, the company still expects a relatively balanced crude market, he said.
Energy companies may cut spending on exploration and production services, like well drilling and hydraulic fracturing, as prices fall. Brent crude, the global benchmark, reached an almost four-year low of $82.60 a barrel Oct. 16 amid International Energy Agency forecasts of slowing demand and added supplies from U.S. shale formations. Futures prices averaged $103.46 a barrel during the third quarter.
The company’s view “will be taken with a little bit of skepticism,” Edward Muztafago, an analyst at Societe Generale in New York, who rates the shares a buy and owns none, said in a phone interview. “The fear right now over what’s going on in the market will probably trump the commentary.”
Kibsgaard said in June the company was forecasting earnings would be almost double last year’s level by 2017, based on oil prices of about $100 a barrel.
Schlumberger earned $1.49 a share in the third quarter, beating the $1.46 average of 31 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The results continue the company’s streak of exceeding estimates every quarter since the end of 2011.
If U.S. oil prices stay below $80 for a quarter, “I think the E&P boys are going to sober up,” T. Boone Pickens, chairman and CEO of BP Capital LLC, said in an Oct. 9 interview. “It’s getting their attention.”
The earnings statement was released after the close of regular trading in New York on Oct. 16. Schlumberger, which has 37 buy and three hold recommendations from analysts, rose 1% to $91.55 at 5:16 p.m. in New York. The shares have climbed 0.6% this year.
Schlumberger provides services including drilling wells, hydraulic fracturing and mapping underground oil pockets for energy producers.
Given oil price declines, investors are looking for less risky propositions, Kurt Hallead, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Austin, said in an interview before the results were released.
“Historically Schlumberger has been that place,” said Hallead, who rates the shares the equivalent of a buy and doesn’t own them. “Investors are going to be looking for some indication as to whether or not that’s still a fact.”
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