(Reuters) - Schlumberger Ltd and Baker Hughes Inc , the world's No. 1 and No. 3 oilfield services companies, posted higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday as revenue piled up outside North America.
Investment cycles outside the volatile U.S. and Canadian oilfield markets are generally smoother, and analysts said SCHLUMBERGER (SLB.NY)got a particularly big lift from Europe and Africa.
The closely watched Baker Hughes-compiled U.S. rig count has been steady as natural gas reductions have been offset by more oil drilling. But the count outside North America hit 1,285 in June, its highest level since 1985, lifted by the inclusion of some 80 rigs in Iraq that expanded the Middle East count by a quarter.
Schlumberger's second-quarter net profit rose to $1.40 billion, or $1.05 per share, from $1.34 billion, or 98 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts' average forecast was $1.00 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue increased 16 percent to $10.45 billion, above the $10.41 billion analysts expected. Two-thirds of the revenue for Schlumberger, with its major offices in Paris, Houston and The Hague, was earned in markets outside North America.
Profit growth for Houston-based Baker Hughes was also driven by Europe, and better-than-expected earnings in its home market. The company earned $439 million, or $1 per share. Analysts expected 77 cents a share.
Analysts at Tudor Pickering Holt described the results as "very good, especially against low expectations."
Like other U.S. hydraulic fracturing players, Baker was hit by a leap in the price of guar, a key ingredient in fracking fluid, as well as the massive shift to U.S. oil basins in response to decade-low natural gas prices.
Halliburton Co
Analysts say guar prices have already come off their peak and should continue sliding for the rest of the year.
Shares of Schlumberger rose 2.5 percent to $70.34 in premarket trading on Friday. Halliburton rose 1 percent.
Baker Hughes expects continuing improvement in the Gulf of Mexico and international markets, and CEO Martin Craighead was "cautiously optimistic" about the outlook for the rest of 2012.
"If commodity prices remain at current levels, we believe activity in onshore U.S. should remain stable," he said.
(Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by John Wallace)
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