The Houston-based company that helps oil explorers drill and complete wells reported net income of $6 million, or 1 cent a share, better than a loss of $54 million, or 6 cents, a year earlier, according to a statement Wednesday. Profit was higher than the 6-cent average loss of 38 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Halliburton sales in the U.S. and Canada plunged by more than two-thirds during the downturn as customers slashed spending to survive a global oil rout brought on by a glut of new production. Executives at Halliburton and its largest competitor, Schlumberger, declared at the end of July that the worst may be over after oil prices bounced off their low in February and the U.S. land rig count hit bottom in May.

“There’s definitely light at the end of the tunnel as it relates to North America onshore activity,” said Byron Pope, an analyst at Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. in Houston, who rates the shares a buy and owns none. “Now it’s just a question of what’s the timing and the magnitude of the recovery.”

‘Barroom Brawl’

Most of the oil-services sector this year has been operating at a loss in North America, home to the world’s largest market for hydraulic fracturing in shale fields. While the world’s contractors have begun trying to boost service pricing as activity climbs, Halliburton President Jeff Miller lately characterized negotiations with customers as a “barroom brawl.”

Halliburton isn’t expected to report a profit in North American operations until the first quarter next year, Pope said.

Explorers boosted the U.S. onshore rig count by 100, or 25%, during the third quarter, according to Baker Hughes. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, slipped 0.2% in the quarter to average about $45/bbl.

Schlumberger is scheduled to report third-quarter results on Thursday.

The statement was released before the start of regular trading in New York.

Source: World Oil