Multinational oilfield services giant SLB posted a net profit of $934 million for the first quarter of 2023, up 83% on the previous year.

Buoyed by higher oil prices, the Houston-headquartered company reported revenues of $7.7 billion, up 30% year-on-year and $200 million above investment banking company TD Cowen’s forecast for the quarter.

“I am very pleased with our start to 2023. We delivered strong year-over-year revenue growth and margin expansion at a scale that instills further confidence in our full-year financial ambition,” SLB chief executive Olivier Le Peuch said.

The quarter was defined by “strong activity dynamics offshore and in the broader international basins”, he added, highlighting well construction and production systems as the segments that enjoyed most growth.

Le Peuch said a slight decrease in income from the previous quarter was less pronounced than the historical trend as seasonal effects were partially offset by robust activity gains.

International and offshore growth

SLB’s revenue in North America grew 4% sequentially, its eighth consecutive quarter of growth and revenue in this region jumped 32% from the same period last year.

But the company’s international and offshore work is also a key growth area, as onshore activity in North America is expected to potentially plateau in 2023 due to lower gas prices.

“Offshore is not only international, offshore is happening in North America in Northeast Canada, offshore Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, the combination of which is set to grow and outpace this year the US land and onshore economic activity,” Le Peuch said during the earnings call.

SLB’s contracts for the first quarter, which one analyst characterised as “unprecedented” during the call, showed a focus on offshore projects and the Middle East. Le Peuch said the company expects to have its highest revenue ever in the Middle East this year. Plus, he said the company has committed up to 20 floating production, storage and offloading vessels to Brazil.

The company is optimistic about the second quarter.

“Looking ahead to the second quarter, we expect strong growth with seasonal recovery in the northern hemisphere, capacity expansion projects in the Middle East that are in various stages of ramp-up, and robust activity in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. This growth scenario provides support for broad sequential margin expansion across the divisions and geographies,” Le Peuch said.

In the first quarter, SLB repurchased about 4.4 million shares of stock for a total of $230 million, with goals to give $2 billion back to shareholders in buybacks and dividends.

The company, formerly known as Schlumberger, rebranded last year to expand its focus on the energy transition.