Hughes

Baker Hughes Inc. on Friday reported a 30% drop in first quarter profits, stung by weak North American drilling, but there is more optimism about the U.S. onshore rig count through the rest of the year, management said Friday. Schlumberger Ltd. also reported a drop in quarterly profits on declines in North America, and executives said the outlook this year for the United States and Canada remains uncertain.

Baker Hughes Inc. on Friday reported a 30% drop in first quarter profits, stung by weak North American drilling, but there is more optimism about the U.S. onshore rig count through the rest of the year, the management team said Friday. Schlumberger Ltd. also reported a drop in quarterly profits on declines in North America, and executives said the outlook this year for the United States and Canada remains uncertain.

Baker Hughes Inc., the third largest oilfield services provider in North America, on Wednesday reported a big decrease year/year in earnings, in part because of a 25% oversupply of pressure pumping equipment used in unconventional natural gas and oil plays.

The U.S. oil and natural gas rig count will fall through 2013, with a “glaring change” to the forecast for wet gas drilling, according to Raymond James & Associates Inc. A “meaningful rebound” won’t occur until the second half of 2014 and through 2015, analysts said Monday.

Baker Hughes Inc. is planning to open a regional headquarters in Massillon, OH, in 2013 to take advantage of the business opportunities generated by the growing shale gas resources in the Utica and Marcellus formations.

Halliburton Co., the U.S. leader in pressure pumping services, and Baker Hughes Inc. last week said they have been challenged logistically and supply-wise as producers move from natural gas plays to liquids-rich fields in the North American onshore. New infrastructure is key because “tens of thousands” of wells remain to be drilled in the unconventional plays, said Baker’s CEO.

Victory Energy Corp. said Thursday a carbonite formation well in southeastern New Mexico it holds an interest in has been successfully re-entered, five years after being plugged, and is now completed, fracked and producing oil and natural gas.

Under a state regulatory process established a little more than a year ago for hydraulic fracturing (fracking), Wyoming has determined that trade secret compounds involving 146 separate chemicals, but not the chemicals themselves, have been granted confidentiality by the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC).

Houston-based Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) last said its quarterly earnings rose nearly 7% as North American markets, especially onshore, rebounded from a year ago. The company also is seeing a willingness “like never before” to invest in new technology, the COO said.