Schlumberger reports profit, no more job cuts
Thursday October 20, 2016
Schlumberger maintained its global workforce at about 100,000 employees after axing about 50,000 jobs in 18 months during the worst oil bust in 30 years.
“After calling the bottom of the cycle in the second quarter of this year, our business stabilized in the third quarter,” Schlumberger Chairman and CEO Paal Kibsgaard said in a prepared statement late Thursday.
Schlumberger’s $176 million net gain compares to a much larger $989 million profit during the same time last year. However, Schlumberger posted a  $2.16 billion loss during  in the second quarter.
Schlumberger’s revenues of $7.02 billion stayed largely in line with last quarter’s $7.16 billion, but still down from last year’s $8.47 billion during the same time period.
Kibsgaard said the global oil market is “now more or less balanced” on supply-and-demand fundamentals as  production levels  decline and world works through the oil glut.  He particularly referenced crude storage level declines in recent weeks in the United States.
“We maintain that a broad-based V-shaped recovery is unlikely given the fragile financial state of the industry, although we do see activity upside in 2017 in North America land, the Middle East and Russia markets,” he added. “We are therefore ensuring that we are optimally positioned to capture a large share of this upside that we can subsequently turn it into positive earnings contributions.”
The energy services giant has its principal offices in Paris, Houston, London and The Hague.
Schlumberger in April finalized its purchase of Houston-based Cameron International, which added close to 20,000 jobs worldwide, including about 4,000 in the Houston area. However, some of those positions were susceptible to job cuts in the second quarter.