21 January 2014, News Wires -Contractor Baker Hughes saw its full-year profit drop despite posting healthy revenue figures for 2013 and the final quarter.
Security issues in Iraq that required swiftly moving staff led to a $79 million hit in the fourth quarter, an issue the company had already warned about earlier this month.
Net profit for the year was $1.17 billion as against $1.35 billion in 2012. For the fourth quarter, however, net profit still came in higher than the year-ago period – $248 million as against $214 million.
At the top line, it was good news for the Houston-based player, as revenues soared to a quarterly record of $5.86 billion in the final three months of the year – up from $5.33 billion a year earlier.
For the year, revenues shot up 5% from $21.36 billion to $22.36 billion, driven mainly by a 14% hike in operations in the eastern hemisphere, where the company performed strongly in the Middle East and Africa.
In early January, Baker Hughes warned investors of a $80 million hit to its adjusted net earnings for the fourth quarter after it declared force majeure in Iraq. The company resumed operations in Iraq’s Basra region in mid-December after declaring the emergency measure a month earlier when protesters raided their offices.
The US player also said at the time that its North America and Europe/Africa/Caspian regions would see profits fall quarter on quarter due to weather delays in the US and the UK North Sea.
In the end, costs for the fourth quarter shot from $4.89 billion to $5.38 billion, while for the year they went from $19.17 billion to $20.42 billion.
Despite the profit drop, chief executive Martin Craighead remained upbeat on the company’s prospects.
“Looking forward, we project increased activity in all of our operational segments in 2014, led by 10% rig count growth in international markets and 5% well count growth in the US,” he said.
– Upstream