Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 6 of 6

Jeffrey Miller: Look, we think that Q1 is up from Q4. So there’s activity that comes back to seasonal in Q4. As we look at the balance of the year, I think that there are — as we plan the business for what we got visibility of and we can see our fleets are largely contracted for ’24, that’s what we know. Are there factors that may add to that? I think — if you have to do that, I think if production levels are low, clients may speed up. There’s a lot of variables that could happen that, I think, are to the positive. But nevertheless, as we look out to ’24 and we plan a business that generates the kind of returns we expect to generate, that’s what we see.

Marc Bianchi: Okay. The other question I had was on D&E in the first quarter here. I think historically, there have been some onetime sales that continue for D&E in the first quarter. And then margin could be down in the second quarter. Is that sort of the base case outlook here? Or is there something unusual going on this year versus the prior years?

Eric Carre: No, there’s nothing unusual. I think if you — actually, if you were to go back and look at the Q1 ’24 over Q4 ’23 guidance that we just gave, it is very much in line with the typical Q4 to Q1 seasonality that we saw prior to COVID, so you go back to 2020, 2019, 2018. So what we’re seeing here is really a business that’s fully in line with historical trend. What’s happening on the D&E side, the influence of software sales in Q4 typically is maintained in Q1. But we’re having a lot of weather-related issues in the Eastern Hemisphere and the North Sea, et cetera, that is influencing our D&E margins. But again, very much in line in terms of quarter-on-quarter guidance as we have had historically in our business, nothing unusual.

Operator: [Operator Instructions]. Our next question comes from Kurt Hallead with Benchmark.

Kurt Hallead: A lot of good stuff to digest here to make. Jeff, appreciate all that color. I think my question here, kind of what piqued my curiosity was, again, a couple of things that you — one of which you put in the press release, which was a kind of AI-driven dynamic that you have going on with ADNOC. And maybe start with that one in the context of how you are seeing AI evolving as a tool for the customer base as a tool for your company. The — how do you see the adoption of that? And how do you see the financial impact of that evolving over the course of the next couple of years?

Jeffrey Miller: Yes. Thanks, Kurt. Look, I think software and automation, and I say it that way because software business is strong and focused on enterprise solutions, which will adopt all sort of AI and generative AI as we continue to move forward. And that will create efficiency and [indiscernible] in a lot of ways for our customers. Internally, as we adopt automation and AI into our tools and service delivery, I expect that it will have a meaningful impact. Probably over the next 2, 3 to 5 years, just as those things are adopted, it’s going to reduce service costs, it’s going to drive demanding. And it’s also going to improve service quality, and I think will actually improve the capability of tools, which I think is so fundamental to how we generate long-term returns.

Kurt Hallead: Appreciate that color. Also just that Halliburton Labs entered into a venture to some direct lithium extraction. So curious as to how you might see Halliburton involved in that process as well.

Jeffrey Miller: Well, look, that’s one of our labs companies. We’re excited to have them here. We make a very, very small investment in companies that join our labs, but it’s very small. It’s around $100,000. So it’s — we’re a tiny piece of their Series B, which we’re excited for them. But Hal Labs continues to attract, in my view, more quality investable companies over time. We’re watching them enter Series As, and in some cases, Series B. And it’s a journey. We’re doing a lot different industries, but we’re careful. This is clearly not corporate venture capital. We are not investing in the companies that join Hal Labs other than small 3% to 5% stake that we get from them generally for the services that we provide to them as a member of Halliburton Labs. So super excited about where that’s going. But we just need to let that continue to progress on its own.

Operator: I would now like to turn the call back over to Jeff for any closing remarks.

Jeffrey Miller: Yes. Thank you, Josh. Let me close the call with this: I’m excited about 2024. I mean our outlook for oilfield services is strong, and I expect Halliburton will generate significant free cash flow for shareholders in 2024. Look forward to speaking with you next quarter. Let’s close out the call.

Operator: Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Follow Halliburton Co (NYSE:HAL)

Page 6 of 6