Halliburton,
the second biggest oilfield service company
in the world, on Thursday said work in Iraq
had boosted revenue as it swung from a loss
to record second-quarter net income of $26m
, or 6 cents a share, compared with the year-earlier
period.
The
Houston-based company credited the quarter's
11 per cent rise in revenue, to $3.6bn largely
to increased activity in its Engineering and
Construction Group (ECG) projects, including
government services work in the Middle East.
The
second quarter of 2002, to which this past quarter's
results were compared, included charges for
asbestos liabilities, losses at its Barracuda-Caratinga
project in Brazil and restructuring and sales
charges.
Halliburton
is in the process of finalising a $4bn settlement
of asbestos claims. The Barracuda-Caratinga
project continues to weigh on its results, with
a $173m pre-tax loss on the project in the second
quarter of 2003.
Nonetheless,
the results this past quarter included a foreign
exchange gain of $19m because of a significant
strengthening of the British pound against the
US dollar during the period.
"We
expect earnings per share from continuing operations
for the third quarter to be at least 32 cents
per share, excluding any impact of the proposed
asbestos settlement," David Lesar, Halliburton
chairman, president and chief executive, said.
The
company's ECG revenues increased 23 per cent,
with government services more than doubling,
mainly because of activity in Iraq.
Nonetheless,
ECG recorded an operating loss of $148m, narrower
than the loss of $450m in the year-earlier quarter.
vThat was because Halliburton had taken a
$330m asbestos charge in 2002 and this year
had recorded heightened activity in Iraq.
Halliburton
ended the second quarter with cash and equivalents
of $1.9bn, up from $1.1bn at the end of 2002.
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