Halliburton is moving three hydraulic fracturing fleets from natural gas basins to oil basins to help meet customer demands, the company said.
During its first-quarter 2023 earnings call, the US oilfield services giant said customers told the company to move three of its fleets to oil basins amid a softer natural gas market.
“Clearly, gas economics are challenged today, and I don’t think it’s something that service prices solve,” Halliburton chief executive Jeff Miller said during the earnings call.
“I think gas is incredibly important and I suspect that it continues, and even gets stronger as we build into the [liquefied natural gas] capacity being built in the US. But along the way, we see opportunities for unmet demand in oil,” Miller said, adding that gas is forecast to recover.
He added that the additional 6 billion cubic feet being added in the LNG sector within the next 24 months is expected to solve the softness of the market.
In the meantime, Miller said the movement of fleets is not one sided, and that one of Halliburton’s e-fleets was just placed into a gas basin with an operator.
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E-fleets are hydraulic fracturing fleets that are electrically powered, usually with gas turbines, instead of being powered by diesel.
Halliburton has plans to increase its total percentage of e-fleets, which will require the company to retire diesel fleets over time, Miller said.
The company saw leaps in profit an revenue in the first quarter of 2023, posting a 148% increase in net income over the same period last year.
Miller said he is bullish about continued domestic an international growth, saying he forecasts 15% growth in North America year on year in 2023.
“We’re even doing deep planning today for 2024 activities that we expect to ramp up,” Miller said.