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Empresas y finanzas

Schlumberger profit falls 28 percent, tops view


    NEW YORK (Reuters) - Schlumberger , the world's largest oilfield services company, reported a 28 percent decline in first-quarter earnings on Friday as the global slump in energy demand forced its customers to reduce activity and seek price reductions.

    Oil prices have dropped by 65 percent and natural gas prices by 75 percent since their peaks last July, prompting production companies to slash spending. That has cut the number of rigs drilling for new energy supplies in the United States by half in the past nine months.

    "We do not see any significant recovery in North American gas drilling before 2010," Chief Executive Andrew Gould said in a statement.

    Gould said the steep drop in the rig count, weakness in Russia and the declines in several currencies against the U.S. dollar had weighed on its oilfield services business.

    Net profit fell to $938 million, or 78 cents per share, from $1.3 billion, or $1.06 per share, a year earlier.

    Analysts on average had expected earnings per share of 73 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

    Revenue fell 5 percent to $6 billion.

    Halliburton Co and Weatherford International Ltd reported drops in first-quarter profits earlier this week.

    Revenue fell 3 percent to $5.4 billion at SCHLUMBERGER (SLB.NY)s oilfield services business and dropped 18 percent to $551 million at the WesternGeco seismic arm.

    Shares of Schlumberger, down 58 percent from a high of $111.91 last July, are up 10 percent so far in 2009.

    (Reporting by Matt Daily in New York and Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)