Halliburton Company
Halliburton Company provides products and services to the energy industry worldwide. It operates in two segments, Completion and Production, and Drilling and Evaluation. The Completion and Production segment offers production enhancement services that include stimulation and sand control services; cementing services, such as well bonding and casing, and casing equipment; and completion tools that offer downhole solutions and services, including well completion products and services, intelligent well completions, liner hanger systems, sand control systems, multilateral systems, and service tools. This segment also provides electrical submersible pumps, as well as artificial lift services; production solutions comprising coiled tubing, hydraulic workover units, downhole tools, and pumping and nitrogen services; pipeline and process services, such as pre-commissioning, commissioning, maintenance, and decommissioning; and specialty chemicals and services. The Drilling and Evaluation segment offers drilling fluid systems, performance additives, completion fluids, solids control, specialized testing equipment, and waste management services; drilling systems and services; wireline and perforating services consisting of open-hole logging, and cased-hole and slickline; and drill bits and services comprising roller cone bits, fixed cutter bits, hole enlargement, and related downhole tools and services, as well as coring equipment and services. This segment also provides cloud based digital services and artificial intelligence solutions on an open architecture for subsurface insights, integrated well construction, and reservoir and production management; testing and subsea services, such as acquisition and analysis of reservoir information and optimization solutions; and project management and integrated asset management services. Halliburton Company was founded in 1919 and is based in Houston, Texas.
What does it do?
Halliburton is one of the world's largest oil field services companies — think of them as the contractors that oil companies hire to actually drill and complete the wells. When ExxonMobil or Saudi Aramco wants to pull oil out of the ground, they often call Halliburton to do the specialized technical work. Halliburton sends in the equipment, the engineers, and the expertise to drill holes miles deep, crack open rock formations to release oil and gas (a process called fracking), and get the well producing. They work in roughly 70 countries, from Texas shale fields to offshore platforms in the Middle East.
Halliburton is essentially a bellwether for global oil activity — when energy companies spend more on drilling, Halliburton wins, which makes it a useful gauge of where the oil industry is heading. With energy security back at the top of the political agenda in the US and Europe, and Middle Eastern producers investing heavily in expanding capacity, the demand for oilfield services remains a live story for investors. At a $33 billion market cap, it's one of the few large-cap ways retail investors can get indirect exposure to oil and gas spending without owning a barrel of crude.
How does it make money?
Halliburton earns its $22.2 billion in annual revenue through two main business lines. The first, Completion and Production, is its biggest earner and covers the work done after a well is drilled — stimulating the rock with high-pressure fluid (fracking), cementing the well casing, and installing downhole tools to maximize oil flow. The second, Drilling and Evaluation, provides the technology and services to actually drill the well, including measurement tools that tell operators exactly what's underground. Customers are charged for these services on a job-by-job or day-rate basis, meaning revenue closely tracks how busy oil companies are with new drilling projects.
Why do investors care?
The investment case for Halliburton rests on one core idea: if oil and gas companies keep spending on new wells, Halliburton gets paid. International and offshore drilling activity — which tends to be more profitable for Halliburton than US shale work — has been picking up, which is a positive shift in their revenue mix. The company has also been pushing into digital oilfield technology, where software and sensors help clients drill more efficiently, potentially opening a higher-margin revenue stream over time. For the thesis to work, oil prices need to stay high enough that energy companies feel confident committing to expensive, multi-year drilling programs.
Deep Dive
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