17 April 2014, News Wires – Services giant Baker Hughes has boosted quarterly net profit by 22% year-on-year to $328 million in the first quarter.
The Houston-headquartered company earned $5.73 billion in revenues between 1 January and 31 March, up 10% on the $5.23 billion revenues seen in the same period a year earlier.
Chief executive Martin Craighead put the improved bottom line down to “actions to optimise operational efficiency, along with increasing demand for several innovative new product offerings”.
Craighead said the company was also driving profit growth through technology allowing it to “redefine the technical limits for our customers in drilling efficiencies, production optimization, and ultimate recovery”.
The company increased its North American margins in the first quarter despite a drop in well count due to poor weather in the Rockies and the north-eastern US over the period.
At the same time seasonal declines and weather problems in the North Sea and Russia saw international revenues fall by 5% compared to the fourth quarter of 2013.
The latest quarterly results represent a reversal of fortunes for Baker Hughes compared to the first quarter of 2013, when a slump in North American onshore activity and reduced margins caused net income to tumble by 29% compared to the first quarter of 2012.
– Upstream