Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Jeff Miller: Look, I think that I’ve always said, we’ve invested in technology and D&E in a meaningful way. We expect those margins to continue to move up. As you just mentioned, they have consistently moved up and that’s on the back of technology and footprint and where we are, and I expect that trajectory to continue beyond where we are today or where we were last cycle. And so the outlook would be to continue to stack year-on-year quarters that are better than the last year. And so I have a lot of confidence in our outlook for D&E where they could go ’23 and beyond.

Operator: And our next question, one moment, is from Stephen Gengaro from Stifel.

Stephen Gengaro: So I think two things for me, if you don’t mind. Can you talk a little bit on the domestic pressure pumping side. Obviously, I know you guys are pretty much sold out for the year. What are you seeing in the market as far as new build supply demand fundamentals as we look three, four, five quarters out, because I know you guys are — you got your finger on the pulse there, I’m just curious what your take is on the overall market growth or lack thereof in supply?

Jeff Miller: Look, I think the market is certainly undersupplied today. And I think that attrition is happening every day even if it doesn’t happen necessarily at the fleet level, but it does happen at the unit level. And part of the way that got solved in 2022 was through industry consolidation. So that’s one method of dealing with attrition is bringing in more inventory and equipment. And then the other, as I look out throughout the year, all of ’23, I mean, half the capacity additions that we’ve heard about are electric. And I think what’s being realized in the field is electric is harder to do than it looks. And from our perspective, we have proven technology, we have technology with a track record, and we have a very strong IP portfolio around frac. And so I think that combination gives me a lot of confidence, a, in where we are and also that the market won’t be oversupplied.

Stephen Gengaro: And just as a follow-up, we’ve seen consolidation in the US pressure pumping space. And some of the larger competitors are doing things to kind of make themselves have a higher revenue content at the well site, right, different types of vertical integration or well site integration. Have you seen any change in the competitive landscape at the well site? I mean, obviously, now everybody is busy. But just in general, has there been any change in the way your competitors are competing with Halliburton?

Jeff Miller: No, I don’t see any change there. when I think about sand — you’re talking about sand, and when I think about sand, we’ve got very good suppliers in the sand business. We work well with them. And then I think about competitive advantage, I mean, real competitive advantage. What are things that we do to create competitive advantage. And we want to spend our dollars on things where we do have clear competitive advantage, which is in this case, pumping technology and then drilling technology, software, things where we clearly have competitive advantage. I view sand clearly as an input, it’s an important input, we need access to it but at the same time, don’t want to overinvest in that part of the business.

Operator: Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference back to management for closing remarks.

Jeff Miller: Thank you, Catherine. As we close out today’s call, let me just close out with this. In this strong market for oilfield services, I am confident that Halliburton will execute on its strategic priorities and deliver financial outperformance. I look forward to speaking with you next quarter. You can close out the call.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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