OREANDA-NEWS. Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) announced today a loss from continuing operations of $149 million, or $0.17 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2016. Adjusted income from continuing operations for the fourth quarter of 2016, excluding impairments and other charges and a class action lawsuit settlement, was $35 million, or $0.04 per diluted share. This compares to income from continuing operations for the third quarter of 2016 of $6 million, or $0.01 per diluted share. Halliburton's total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2016 was $4.0 billion, which increased 5% from revenue of $3.8 billion in the third quarter of 2016. Reported operating income for the fourth quarter of 2016 was $53 million. Adjusted operating income for the fourth quarter of 2016 was $276 million, compared to operating income of $128 million for the third quarter of 2016, which did not include any impairments or other charges.

Total revenue for the full year of 2016 was $15.9 billion, a decrease of $7.7 billion, or 33%, from 2015. Reported operating loss for 2016 was $6.8 billion, compared to reported operating loss of $165 million for 2015. Excluding special items, adjusted operating income for 2016 was $690 million, compared to adjusted operating income of $2.3 billion for 2015. Both revenue and operating results declined due to the impact of lower commodity prices creating widespread pricing pressure and activity reductions on a global basis.

Commenting on 2016 results, Dave Lesar, Chairman and CEO said, “Despite the turbulent year for the energy industry, I am very pleased with our 2016 results. They show that we have executed in a challenging market.

“Guided by the lessons learned from past industry cycles, our strategy focused not only on managing costs but also on aligning our resources to strengthen our market position. We were able to reinforce the long-term health of our global business and position the company for growth as the market improves.

“For the fourth quarter, our total company revenue increased 5% sequentially, and our adjusted operating income doubled. We also generated over a billion dollars in cash flow from operations during the fourth quarter, demonstrating our attention to efficient working capital management.

“I am pleased to announce that we returned to operating profitability in North America this quarter, and achieved 65% incremental margins.

“We gained significant market share through the downturn, and as the market stabilized we leveraged this share to drive margin improvement. This market share improvement continued in the fourth quarter as we outgrew our primary competitor in North America, Latin America and the Eastern Hemisphere.

“Despite the positive sentiment surrounding the North American land market, it is important to remember that our world is still a tale of two cycles. The North America market appears to have rounded the corner, but the international downward cycle is still playing out.

“In the international markets, low commodity prices have stressed budgets and have impacted economics across deepwater and mature field markets, which led to decreased activity and pricing throughout 2016. Despite these headwinds, we maintained our margin in the Eastern Hemisphere for the fourth quarter. We do not expect to see an inflection in the international markets until the latter half of 2017.

“2016 was a year of transition, and as we move into 2017 our focus will be on driving industry leading returns. We will continue to maintain our financial flexibility, leverage our strong balance sheet to invest in our broad service portfolio and strengthen our long term market position,” concluded Lesar.