International performance helped soften the impact of activity declines and pricing pressure in North America for Halliburton Co in what company executives called a challenging third quarter.

“Activity levels and pricing took another hit across the globe as our customers responded to the impact of reduced commodity prices and the pressure that their own shareholders are putting on them,” Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar said on a conference call. “Considering the difficult headwinds that we are working against I’m actually very pleased with our overall financial results for the third quarter, especially for our Eastern Hemisphere operations.”

The company brought in US$5.6 billion in revenue for third-quarter (Q3) 2015, down from US$8.7 billion from Q3 2014 and down 6 per cent sequentially, as lower commodity prices prompted oil and gas companies to cut back on drilling activity and trim capex spending. In turn, oilfield service companies—including Halliburton—lowered their prices to keep customers from looking elsewhere and cut jobs.

“Now these are always tough decisions affecting great people. But they are simply decisions that we have to make,” Halliburton President Jeff Miller.

Halliburton has reduced its global workforce by more than 21 per cent this year, including the elimination of an entire level of management in North America during Q3.

“In my view this is not a one-time initiative,” Miller said. “By clarifying and controlling how we execute we can retain this efficiency, these cost savings, as the market recovers.”

Company executives did not elaborate further on the possibility of future job cuts as it endures the latest downturn and works to close its merger with Baker Hughes Inc by 16 December. Company executives warned approval of the deal could be pushed from year-end 2015 into 2016.

Halliburton typically makes the bulk of its profit from North American operations, but the company reported revenue of about US$3 billion from markets outside of North America. The amount was down about 22 per cent compared to last year, but only 5 per cent sequentially.

Revenue from the Middle East and Asia region for Q3 2015 dropped from $1.5 billion in Q2 2015 to about $1.3 billion in the Q3. Revenue from the Africa, Europe and CIS region fell from about $1.5 billion to about $1 billion; while Latin America revenue fell from about $1 billion to $739 million.

“The international markets have held up better than North America, but they are not immune to the impact of lower commodity prices,” Lesar said. “Although we have had to concede some on pricing, we have worked closely with our customers during the past year to improve their project economics through technology and operating efficiency.”

Velda Addison can be reached at vaddison@hartenergy.com.

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