The world’s three largest oil service providers anticipate improving business conditions outside North America, but a slump in their home market is prompting them to slash capital expenditure (capex) to conserve cash. Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes all plan significant cuts to capex this year (see lower table). And all three firms say a bigger share of their budgets is earmarked for operations outside North America. Oil field contractors are dealing with the consequences of having raced to catch up with North America’s shale development boom, only to find themselves with a glut of hydraulic fracturing capacity as US natural gas drilling activity dropped by almost half in 2012.
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