The US justice department is suing to stop Halliburton from buying oilfield-services rival Baker Hughes - the latest effort by the Obama administration to block mergers that it believes enrich corporations but hurt consumers.
The corporate deal-making boom last year was one for the record books. The harder part: Winning the blessing of emboldened antitrust officials in the Obama administration’s last year.
U.S. antitrust officials have prepared a lawsuit to stop Halliburton Co. from taking over rival oil-services company Baker Hughes Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter.
The number of rigs exploring for oil and gas in the US has dropped by 12 this week, according to the latest figures.
Halliburton Co.’s bid to buy oil-services rival Baker Hughes Inc. was stalled for a third time by European Union regulators who said the companies have once again failed to supply key information about their proposed deal.
The fate of the Halliburton and Baker Hughes’ mega merger will be decided by July 11.
The European Union has suspended the deadline for its review of Halliburton’s acquisition of Baker Hughes as regulators said the companies failed to supply “important information.”
Baker Hughes' international rig count for January 2016 was 1,045, down 50 from the 1,095 counted in December 2015, and down 213 from the 1,258 counted in January 2015.
Halliburton Co. was given more time by the European Union to come up with a package of asset sales that will assuage competition concerns over its takeover of oilfield services rival Baker Hughes IncThe company said Wednesday that it would offer the remedies soon, after the EU pushed back the deadline for reviewing the deal by 20 working days to June 23.
Baker Hughes said it expects the global rig count to decline by as much as 30% in 2016, as the slump in oil price continues.
Baker Hughes is field trialling a new adaptive production system which the global services firm delivers 300% greater oil production and 200% higher natural gas production compared with its previous artificial lift offering for unconventional plays.
Baker Hughes has unveiled its latest rig count for the final month of 2015.
Halliburton Co. passed on a chance to offer early concessions to European Union regulators, meaning it will likely face a protracted antitrust review of its plan to buy oil services rival Baker Hughes Inc.for $26 billion.
Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Inc. will extend to April 30 the time period for closing their pending $26 billion merger as they work to satisfy U.S. Justice Department concerns.
Oil has gained for a fourth day, the longest winning streak since April, on signs the pace of drilling is slowing in the US amid a global oversupply.
The managing director of Baker Hughes will become the new co-chair of Step Change in Safety’s leadership team. Crawford Anderson will take over the reins from the managing director of Petrofac, Steve Bullock, as the contractor co-chair. Anderson has sat on the Step Change Leadership Team since 2012 and will now join Ian Sharp a fellow co-chair and chief operating officer from Fairfield Energy.
Halliburton Co.’s proposed purchase of Baker Hughes Inc. faces further regulatory scrutiny after Australia’s competition watchdog raised concerns that the $34.6 billion deal would shrink the number of suppliers for oilfield goods and services, particularly for offshore drilling. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission delayed its decision until Dec. 17 and asked for further comments from market participants, according to a statement from the regulator on Friday. The businesses have significant competitive advantages in providing services as they benefit from extensive product ranges, economies of scale and scope as well as industry experience, the ACCC said. Halliburton and Baker Hughes last month flagged the sale of additional business units in an effort to satisfy antitrust concerns over the takeover. The world’s second- and third- largest oilfield service companies have been seeking to complete the deal by either Dec. 15, or 30 days after both certify compliance with US Justice Department requests, whichever is later.
Baker Hughes said it expects less drilling in the current quarter caused by a reduction in customer spending. The oilfield services provider said it had seen "stronger interest" in other services helping to increase oil and gas production.
Halliburton Co., the world’s largest fracking services provider, said it had a third-quarter loss as the volatile North American oil market continued to tumble. The company reported a loss of $54 million, or 6 cents a share, compared with net income of $1.2 billion, or $1.41, a year earlier, the Houston-based company said in a statement Monday on Businesswire. Excluding certain items, the per-share result was 4 cents more than the 27-cent average of 34 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales dropped 36 percent to $5.6 billion. "It was a challenging period," Luke Lemoine, an analyst at Capital One Southcoast in New Orleans who rates the shares the equivalent of a buy and owns none, said in a phone interview before the results were released. "Most people at the beginning of the quarter were expecting things to level off. Well, they continued to more or less crash."
Baker Hughes has revealed the worldwide rig count for September 2015 was 2,171, down 55 from the 2,226 counted in August 2015, and down 1,488 from the 3,659 counted in September 2014.
Halliburton and Baker Hughes will sell additional businesses in connection with the former's pending acquisition of its smaller rival. In November last year Halliburton announced its proposed acquisition but in recent month it has run into regulatory hurdles with US antitrust enforces who believe the merger will lead to higher prices and less innovation. Halliburton said in April that it would sell three of its drilling businesses and on Monday said it had received proposals from multiple interested parties for each business.
Halliburton is set to pay back $18.3million to more than 1,000 oil and gas workers after they were improperly exempted from overtime pay. The US Department of Labour said the oil company had improperly identified workers in 28 job categories as exempt from additional earnings under the Fair Labour Standards Act. Halliburton has already begun the process of paying back the accrued overtime for one of the largest settlements for the Labour Department in recent years.
Baker Hughes said its international rig count for the month of July was down by 264 from the same time last year. The figures also dropped by 28 from the previous month of June.
U.S. energy firms added 5 oil rigs this week after putting 21 rigs into service last week, the most in over a year, despite a collapse in U.S. crude prices from recent highs in June, data showed on Friday. That was a sign some drillers followed through on plans to add rigs announced in May and June when U.S. crude futures were averaging $60 a barrel. U.S. crude futures so far this week however have traded around $48. The rig count gain this week was the fourth increase in the past 34 weeks, bringing the total rig count up to 664, the highest early May, oil services company Baker Hughes Inc said in its closely followed report.
Halliburton Co.’s takeover of Baker Hughes Inc. is facing resistance from US enforcement officials who are concerned the tie-up could hurt competition, according to a person familiar with the matter. Justice Department lawyers reviewing the proposed $34.6 billion transaction are worried about consolidation in the industry from combining the No. 2 and No. 3 firms, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the review is confidential. Though Halliburton has proposed selling some assets to other companies, government officials aren’t convinced its plan would restore sufficient competition, the person said.