Baker

Halliburton Co. laid off more than 6,000 additional people during the first quarter, and it signaled that its mega-merger with Baker Hughes Inc. is in danger of collapsing.

Halliburton Co., which signaled that its mega-merger with Baker Hughes Inc. may be on the rocks, also warned that the North American drilling market is nowhere near an upturn.

Halliburton Co. laid off more than 6,000 additional people during the first quarter, and it signaled that its mega-merger with Baker Hughes Inc. is in danger of collapsing.

Halliburton Co., which signaled that its mega-merger with Baker Hughes Inc. may be on the rocks, also warned that the North American drilling market is nowhere near an upturn.

An investment firm that took $2.6 billion in stakes in Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Inc. after they had agreed to merge, with the intent to formulate merger strategies with the companies, was sued Monday by the Justice Department.

The count of drilling rigs active in the United States plummeted again for the week ending Feb. 5. The U.S. total declined by 48 units to end at 571, which is just under 40% of where it was one year ago when the count was 1,456.

The oil and natural gas commodity price rout is showing no signs of abating, which doesn’t bode well for the rig count this year, Baker Hughes Inc. CEO Martin Craighead said Thursday.

Industry bellwether Halliburton Co., the largest pressure pumper in North America, reported revenue in its combined U.S.-Canadian operations slumped 54% in the final three months of 2015, and it has little visibility from customers that it’s going to be any better going forward.

The U.S. rig count dropped by a net of 14 units in the week ending Jan. 15 compared with the previous week, falling 61% from a year ago. At the same time, the number of rigs in Canada jumped to 227, up 37% from 166 in the first week of the year, but still down 48% from 440 last year.