High oil prices have prompted energy producers to plunge billions of dollars into developing liquids-rich fields such as Texas’ Eagle Ford shale rather than gas fields, a move that allowed Halliburton to push through price increases in the quarter.
That boom was likely to last beyond this year, the company said.
“Strong crude prices, operators’ improved cash flows combined with their ability to access capital, and the increasingly liquids-rich nature of the US land market, give us continued confidence in the strength of North America through 2012,” Chief Executive and Chairman Dave Lesar said in a statement.
Second-quarter net profit climbed to $739 million, or 80 cents per share, from $480 million, or 53 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, the company earned 81 cents per share, topping the 74 cents per share that analysts had on average forecast, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue rose 35 percent to $5.9 billion and came in above the average analyst forecast of $5.71 billion.
