Halliburton Co News

U.S. crude oil futures collapsed below $0 on Monday for the first time in history, amid a coronavirus-induced supply glut, ending the day at a stunning minus $37.63 a barrel as desperate traders paid to get rid of oil.Brent crude, the international benchmark, also slumped, but that contract was nowhere near as weak because more storage is available worldwide.While U.S. oil prices are trading in negative territory for the first time ever, it is unclear whether that will trickle down to consumers…

General Electric Co said on Monday it would merge its oil and gas business with Baker Hughes Inc, creating the world's second-largest oilfield services provider as competition heats up to supply more-efficient products and services to the energy industry after several years of low crude prices. The deal to create a company with $32 billion in annual revenue will combine GE's strengths in making equipment long-prized by oil producers with Baker Hughes's expertise in drilling and fracking new wells. Shares of Baker Hughes were down nearly 7 percent, a drop that executives said likely was due to the deal's complicated structure. GE is already the world's largest oilfield equipment maker, supplying blowout preventers, pumps and compressors used in exploration and production.

U.S. drillers this week added oil rigs for a fifth consecutive week, Baker Hughes Inc said on Friday, but the oilfield services provider and some analysts cast doubts on a substantial recovery in drilling this year with crude prices heading for their biggest monthly loss in a year. Drillers added three oil rigs in the week to July 29, bringing the total rig count up to 374, compared with 664 a year ago, according to the closely followed Baker Hughes weekly report. U.S. crude futures have slipped below $41 a barrel for the first time since April, pressured by persistently high inventories. The market was on track for a monthly loss of about 15 percent, and is down about 20 percent from highs over $50 in early June when drillers started returning to the well pad.

Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA is in talks with oil services companies to turn unpaid bills into financial instruments, a process known as securitization, its president, Eulogio del Pino, said in a statement on Saturday. Several oil services companies suspended or slowed operations this year due to difficulties in obtaining payment from PDVSA, which is struggling because of low oil prices and a decaying socialist economy. Del Pino last month said PDVSA signed financing agreements with Weatherford International Plc and Halliburton Co and was close to a deal that would allow Schlumberger to boost its presence in the OPEC nation. "We trade commercial debt for financial debt…

Business is so tough for oilfield giants Schlumberger NV and Halliburton Co that they have come up with a new sales pitch for crude producers halting work in the worst downturn in years. The moves by the world's No. 1 and No. 2 oil services companies show how they are scrambling to book sales of new technologies to customers short of cash after a 60 percent slide in crude to $45 a barrel. In some cases, they are willing to take on the role of traditional lenders, like banks, which have grown reluctant to lend since the price drop that began last summer, or act like producers by taking what are essentially stakes in wells. When its second-quarter net profit tumbled by more than half a billion dollars to just $54 million…

The population of a U.S. oil boomtown that became a symbol of the fracking revolution is dropping fast because of the collapse in crude oil prices , according to an unusual metric: the amount of sewage produced. Williston, North Dakota, has seen its population drop about 6 percent since last summer, according to wastewater data relied upon heavily by city planning officials. They turned to measuring effluent because it was a much faster and more accurate way to track population than alternatives such as construction permits, school enrollment, tax receipts or airport boardings. U.S. Census Bureau figures are usually too old as a full-fledged population count only happens once a decade, with sporadic updates in between.

Oilfield services provider Halliburton Co's acquisition of smaller rival Baker Hughes Inc is facing resistance from U.S. regulators who are concerned that the deal could hurt competition, Bloomberg reported.   Justice Department lawyers reviewing the proposed $35 billion deal are worried that the oilfield services industry would become too concentrated post the merger, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.   "We are fully committed to our target of closing the pending Baker Hughes acquisition in late 2015," Halliburton spokeswoman Susie McMichael said in an email to Reuters.   Baker Hughes was not immediately available to comment.     (Reporting by Sneha Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Halliburton Co and Baker Hughes Inc have agreed with the U.S. Department of Justice to extend the date of the department's review of Halliburton's acquisition of Baker Hughes, a deal that would create an oilfield services behemoth. Halliburton has also proposed to "divest additional businesses of the companies" to get regulatory nod for the deal globally, the companies said on Friday. Several big deals, including Comcast Corp's $45 billion offer for Time Warner Cable Inc, have been scuttled in recent months amid indications that they would be blocked by antitrust regulators. Halliburton's $35-billion offer for Baker Hughes is being scrutinized by regulators in several countries as the companies have overlapping businesses in the United States, Asia and Europe.

Vessels are stacked as Gulf oil operators retrench and day rates fall. In the Gulf of Mexico, vessels serving offshore oil-and-gas exploration and production are being stacked or idled as the rig count there declines. Oil companies are retrenching while crude prices remain weak, with smaller operators and the shallow-water sector scaling back the most. As the situation unfolds, MarineNews asked David Barousse, general manager at Fleet Operators, Inc., a marine transportation firm in Morgan City, La., for his take on today’s predicament and what the future holds.

Talks that could lead to oilfield services provider Halliburton Co buying rival Baker Hughes Inc may herald increased deal-making in the energy business as companies bet on a protracted drop in oil prices, industry bankers said. Competing service companies including National Oilwell Varco Inc and Weatherford International may also be targets, bankers and lawyers said. In any deal, the incentives will be the same: consolidation would allow them to better weather the downturn and resist pressure from oil producers to slash prices. The Baker Hughes/Halliburton talks have stalled after the companies weren't able to agree on issues including price, people familiar with the matter said Friday. As oil prices fall, oil field service companies get squeezed, one industry lawyer said.

Some of the hedge fund industry's most respected firms made bigger bets on a wide swatch of energy companies during the third quarter only to watch the stocks get pummeled by falling crude oil prices. Robert Citrone's Discovery Capital Management raised its holding in Texas oil driller Diamondback Energy by 20 percent to own 1.4 million shares at the end of the third quarter, according to a regulatory filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Diamondback's stock price fell 16 percent over the quarter. The fund manager also raised its bet on oil and gas exploration and production company Cimarex Energy by 37 percent. The stock dropped 11 percent over the quarter.

A U.S. The decision by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans means BP could still face close to $18 billion of penalties for violating the federal Clean Water Act. It marks the latest setback in BP's effort to curb costs from the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, which led to 11 deaths and the largest U.S. offshore oil spill. The trial is expected to resume in January. Barbier had on Sept. 4 ruled that BP committed gross negligence and was 67 percent at fault for the spill. The gross negligence finding roughly quadrupled the maximum civil penalty that BP could face under the Clean Water Act. BP later argued that this ruling relied on inadmissible testimony from an expert for Halliburton Co, which provided cementing work at the spill site.

BP Plc was found "grossly negligent" on Thursday by a federal judge in connection with its role in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The decision by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans, who oversees litigation related to the disaster, is likely to boost the British oil company's costs emerging from the biggest offshore spill in U.S. history. April 20, 2010 Rig Explodes: An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig at the Macondo exploration well kills 11 workers and releases millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The well is capped in mid-July.

Halliburton Co said it reached a $1.1 billion settlement for a majority of claims against the company for its role in the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The settlement, which includes legal fees, is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. It will be paid into a trust until all appeals have been resolved in three installments over the next two years, the company said. (Reporting by Swetha Gopinath in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Venezuela's state-run oil firm PDVSA said on Saturday a $2 billion pre-payment from Russian oil producer Rosneft will be destined in part to develop its coveted Orinoco belt. State-run Rosneft earlier on Saturday announced a flurry of deals including a long-term contract with PDVSA for 1.6 million tonnes of oil and 7.5 million tonnes of oil products within five years. Venezuela is struggling with stagnant oil and natural gas production, and has its sights set on the vast southern Orinoco belt as a way to boost production. "We're focusing all our technological capacity to develop this oil province which will give us 150 years of production at a rate of 6 million barrels per day, (as per) our aim for 2019," PDVSA President and Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said in a statement.

Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA on Wednesday said it had been granted a total of $2 billion in credit lines by oilfield services companies Halliburton Co, Schlumberger NV and Weatherford International Ltd. "What we have signed is for the companies to increase activities in our country, in some cases doubling them," PDVSA President and Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said at a ceremony in the western city of Maracaibo. By giving credit lines to PDVSA, the companies will be able to increase their service contracts with OPEC member Venezuela. The deal may allow PDVSA, whose cash-flow problems are well known, to postpone payments of accumulated debts to its main service providers.

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc, one of the world's top five offshore rig contractors, reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as it cut drilling costs and hiked prices, sending its shares up as much as 10.5 percent. The company - owned 50.4 percent by hotel, energy and financial services conglomerate Loews Corp - also said it would pay a special cash dividend of 75 cents per share on top of its regular quarterly dividend of 13 cents. Diamond Offshore, which has one of the oldest fleet of rigs…

Transocean Sedco Forex Inc., already the world's biggest offshore oil-drilling contractor, agreed to buy R&B Falcon Corp. in a $5.3 billion stock deal that will make it the dominant deepwater driller. Under the agreement, approved by the boards of both companies, R&B Falcon stockholders will receive 0.5 shares of newly issued Transocean Sedco shares for each R&B Falcon share. Transocean will also assume approximately $3 billion in R&B Falcon debt, putting a total value on the deal of some $8.3 billion. The combined company would have a market capitalization of about $16.5 billion, almost three times as much as its biggest competitors, and would rank only beneath diversified oilfield services giants Schlumberger Ltd. and Halliburton Co. as a contractor to the global oil and gas industry.

Offshore oilfield service stocks, to put it mildly, have endured a wild ride for much of 1999. The once high-flying sector actually hit the skids in concert with the late 1997 Asian financial crisis, and resultant plummet in oil prices. Despite a raging rally in oil pricing for much of the year, investors have cautiously approached the stocks. One reason for the caution is purely psychological, as too many investors have been burned too many times on the cyclical stocks. Another is political, as OPEC’s current production restraints are eyed warily. Nevertheless, last Wednesday proved a boon to these companies collectively, as a bullish market for crude oil and refined oil products fueled strong gains for U.S. oilfield service and drilling stocks.

A recent report from Lehman Brothers found that global offshore drilling budgets are set to grow more than 10 percent in the coming year. The survey, which utilized the opinion of 320 oil companies, indicated that primary drivers for growth will be the North American offshore drilling market, with the U.S. and Canada expected to spend 15.7% and 28% more respectively. Spending outside of North America is not expected to expand so rapidly. The findings have sparked a mini rally among the offshore oilfield services stocks, a volatile group which has enjoyed a healthy 1999 nonetheless. Crude oil, gasoline and heating oil all posted big gains on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday after industry data showed a huge decline in oil and refined products stored in the U.

The Bush administration's plan to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling was approved by the House of Representatives early on Thursday, but it faces a tougher fight in the Senate, which wants U.S. energy policy to focus on conservation. The key issue in the debate over a broad national energy policy is the fate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), home to polar bears, caribou and 160 kinds of migratory birds. While green groups and many Democrats view the remote and pristine refuge as an American Serengetti, drilling proponents contend oil and gas could be safely extracted from a tiny area. Republican-led House passed, on a 240 to 189 vote, a comprehensive energy bill that included drilling in ANWR.

Iran attacked and seized control of a Romanian oil rig working in its Persian Gulf waters this morning one week after the Iranian government accused the European drilling company of hijacking another rig. An Iranian naval vessel fired on the rig owned by Romania's Grup Servicii Petroliere (GSP) in the Salman field and took control of its radio room, a Grup's representative in the United Arab Emirates said. Iran, which holds the world's second-largest oil and gas reserves, is due to respond to a European Union-led offer of incentives aimed at persuading it to halt uranium enrichment activities that are crucial to its nuclear program. Neither the press office of Iran's oil ministry nor the one of Iran's revolutionary guards could be reached for comment when called.

U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., said that lawmakers will try to add extra ships to the Navy budget, in addition to whatever the Pentagon requests, The Marketplace reported. Taylor said that President George W. Bush isn't fully focused on military needs as the White House prepares its 2008 budget proposal. As a result, Congress ought to use earmarks or other tools to step in, he said. Taylor is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and leads its subcomittee in charge of shipbuilding. Democrats have renamed this panel the Seapower and Expeditionary Forces Subcommittee, replacing its Republican-era moniker as the "Projection Forces" panel. Congress will hold hearings to decide what types of ships the Navy needs, Taylor said.