The world's largest oilfield services company Schlumberger posted Friday a net loss and revenue decline in the second quarter of 2020, as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues hammering the global oil industry.
The American firm’s net loss in the April-June period of this year amounted to $3.43 billion relative to its net income of $492 million for the same period last year.
Revenue also declined to $5.35 billion in the second quarter of 2020, down 35.3% from $8.27 billion for the same quarter of 2019, according to the firm's financial results statement.
The decline in revenue was 'caused by the unprecedented fall in North America activity, and international activity drop due to downward revisions to customer budgets accentuated by COVID-19 disruptions,' Schlumberger CEO Olivier Le Peuch explained in the statement.
'This speaks volumes about an industry confronted with historic oil demand and supply imbalances caused by demand destruction from the global COVID-19 containment effort,' he added.
The region of North America took the largest hit for Schlumberger, who saw a whopping 58% revenue decline in the region, falling to $1.18 billion in the second quarter of 2020, from $2.8 billion for the same period of 2019.
Revenue from international operations witnessed a 24% decline during this period, down to $4.14 billion from $5.46 billion.
Among international territories, 'Latin America and Africa experienced the largest revenue declines due to COVID-19-related restrictions and the drop in deepwater activity,' according to the statement.
Schlumberger further saw its net losses widen for the first half of 2020 to $10.81 billion, as opposed to a net income of $913 million during the first six months of 2019.
For the January-June period of this year, revenue came in at $12.81 billion, posting a 20.7% fall from $16.15 billion recorded in the first half of last year.
By Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr