Oilfield services major, Schlumberger, has seen its profit reduced by almost 50 per cent as the company experienced ‘one of the steepest quarterly declines’ since the downturn started.
The Houston-based company generated net income of $501 million, or $0.40 diluted earnings per share, on revenue of $6.5 billion, compared with a profit of $975 million, or 76 cents a share, on revenue of $8.1 billion in the year-ago quarter.
The revenue dropped some 36 per cent year-on-year and some 16 per cent sequentially.
Unlike the fourth quarter 2015 when Schlumberger recorded a $530 million charge associated with headcount reductions, and overall booked more than $2 billion in restructuring and asset impairment charges, there were no charges or credits recorded during the first quarter of 2016.
Schlumberger in January said it had reduced its headcount by an additional 10,000 workers and left with the employee count of more that 95,000. At the end of the first quarter 2016 that number decreased by additional 2,000.
“In this environment, our overall outlook for the oil markets remains unchanged with the tightening of the supply-demand balance expected to continue during the rest of the year,” said Paal Kibsgaard Schlumberger chairman and CEO.
Subsea World News Staff