Oil services companies Tidewater Inc. and Halliburton Co. both warned Thursday that their previous quarter’s financial results will be below analysts’ earning expectations. Tidewater partially blamed a continued weakness in Gulf of Mexico (GOM) offshore drilling, while Halliburton cited legal costs and poor results from some joint ventures.

New Orleans-based Tidewater, which owns and operates nearly 570 vessels and claims the world’s largest offshore energy fleet, estimates second quarter earnings per share (EPS) will be 20-23 cents. Its second quarter ended Sept. 30. Thomson First Call analysts had pegged the company’s quarterly earnings at 31 cents.

Most of the decline, said Tidewater, is from lower utilization in its supply and towing vessels in international markets, including Nigeria, Venezuela and Brazil. Also cited was slow activity in the GOM drilling market, which will result in an operating loss in domestic operations, “despite significant cost cutting efforts that took place during the quarter.”

Meanwhile, Houston-based Halliburton, the world’s second largest services company, warned Thursday it will report lower-than-expected third quarter earnings because of high legal fees and poor results from some joint ventures. Halliburton expects to post EPS of at least 27 cents, which is down from an internal July 31 forecast of 32 cents a share. Analysts had pegged the company’s quarterly earnings at 33 cents a share.

Halliburton would not comment on the reason for the higher legal fees, nor would it identify which joint ventures will have lower results.

However, in the second quarter, Halliburton reported a loss of about $104 million, or 24 cents a share after tax, on charges from its Brazilian deepwater project Barracuda-Caratinga. Those problems continued into the third quarter. Also, the company has been defending massive class action lawsuits concerning asbestos and silica in the past year, offering to settle by paying as much as $4.5 billion in cash and stock to thousands claiming exposure to the cancer-causing materials.

Although Halliburton declined to name which joint ventures had caused a quarterly shortfall, analysts believe it most likely was caused by the company’s Subsea 7 joint venture, which was formed last year between its Energy Services Group and Norway’s DSND Subsea ASA. The unit has offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea, Brazil and the Caspian Sea, and builds underwater energy production structures and systems.

RBC Capital Markets analysts estimated that Halliburton’s legal expenses accounted for 3-4 cents of the EPS drop, with the rest of the decline from joint ventures. The legal expenses, said RBC, were associated with a patent case, lawsuits and an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.

“Subsea 7 profitability was less than internal projections due to slack demand in the deepwater markets,” said RBC’s Kurt Hallead and Kevin G. Pollard. Other Halliburton units, however, appear to be running “on plan,” they said.

Tidewater is planning a quarterly earnings call on Oct. 23. A simultaneous web cast of the conference call may be accessed online at www.tdw.com. Halliburton will report third quarter results on Oct. 29, and also will simulcast a conference call on its web site at www.halliburton.com.

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