FINWIRES · TerminalLIVE
FINWIRES

Halliburton Sees Early Signs of North America Shale Recovery, Says Fleet Capacity Tightening

-- Leading oilfield services company, Halliburton (HAL), said it was seeing "early signs" of a recovery in North American shale activity, with tightening capacity in the hydraulic fracturing market pointing to improving demand conditions.

During the company's Q1 2026 earnings call on Tuesday, President and CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller noted that the frac calendar, which was filled with "white space" during the first few months of the year, was now filled, amid soaring industry-wide demand.

Entering the year, Miller said that the company was worried about drops and delays in completion work, but that is "no longer a concern," he said.

The company also flagged an uptick in inbound requests for spot work, particularly from smaller operators, as an early indicator of rising demand.

Helliburton's COO, Shannon Slocum, said that while this might still be "early innings," in her view, "the setup for North America is constructive."

The company also added that the premium equipment market was already tightening, with the industry just "a handful of fleets" away from being sold out entirely.

Management, however, noted that it remains focused on maximizing returns, over gaining market share, prioritizing pricing and utilization of exiting fleets.

Related Articles

Australia

Unico Silver Reduces Rigs at Argentina Drilling Operations During Transition to Winter Operations

Unico Silver (ASX:USL) said it reduced the number of drill rigs under its drilling operations in Argentina to two from three as it moves into reduced winter operations, according to a Friday Australian bourse filing.The company plans to update the Joaquin project mineral resource estimate in the June quarter to incorporate recent infill drilling.In the same filing, the company said it is conducting pre-feasibility work streams, including geotechnical drilling and interpretation to define open-pit slope and design parameters, as well as comminution and metallurgical test work to confirm processing assumptions and recovery pathways.The company's shares fell past 1% in recent trading on Friday.

$ASX:USL
Asia

Japan Stocks Open Higher on Iran Talks, Lebanon Ceasefire Extension

Japanese shares slightly rose at the start of Friday's session, as investors remain cautiously optimistic on the U.S.-Iran negotiations after an extended ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.The Nikkei 225 rose 267.2 points or 0.5% to open at 59,407.44President Donald Trump announced a three-week extension of the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, yet investors stayed wary as market direction depends on whether tensions with Iran intensify or move toward diplomatic solutions.The West Texas Intermediate climbed to about $97 a barrel, while Brent Crude closed at nearly $105 on Thursday.At home, Japan's core inflation accelerated to 1.8% in March from 1.6% the previous month, driven by higher energy costs-a trend that could affect the Bank of Japan's decision to leave its benchmark rate unchanged coming Tuesday.

$^N225
Asia

Commonwealth Bank of Australia Deploys Agentic AI System to Combat Fraud, Scams

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA) has launched a new agentic artificial intelligence (AI) system that continuously analyzes payments data to identify emerging fraud patterns and propose real-time detection rules, strengthening its ability to intercept scams faster while maintaining human oversight, according to a Friday statement by the bank.The system leverages the bank's wider AI infrastructure, which analyzes over 80 million signals and processes about 20 million payments daily, enabling it to issue over 40,000 proactive fraud alerts to customers each day.The initiative, part of the bank's AU$1 billion annual security investment, has already reduced fraud losses by over 20% in the early year and helped generate or update around three-quarters of card fraud rules.The bank's shares fell 1% in recent Friday trade.

$ASX:CBA