Halliburton Q4 2022 Earnings Report

Halliburton EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.72
• Consensus EPS: $0.67
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.05
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.92

Halliburton Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $5.58 billion
• Expected Revenue: $5.59 billion
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$8.09 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +30.50%

Halliburton Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2022
• Date: 1/24/2023
• Time: Q4 2022 Earnings Call
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2023
• Conference Call Time: 9:00AM ET

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) (NYSE: HAL) is a global provider of products and services for the energy industry. The company supports oil and natural gas exploration, development and production across the life cycle of a well, serving both independent and national oil companies.

Halliburton operates through two principal business segments: Completion and Production, which provides cementing, stimulation, intervention and completion services; and Drilling and Evaluation, which offers drilling services, formation evaluation, well construction, project management and related technologies. Its offerings include hydraulic fracturing, well cementing, drilling systems, directional drilling, wireline and perforating services, digital solutions and subsea production systems.

Founded in 1919 by Erle P. Halliburton, the company helped develop commercial oil-well cementing and has expanded into a broad international oilfield-services provider. Halliburton serves customers in major oil and gas regions around the world, including North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. Jeff Miller serves as chairman, president and chief executive officer.

Halliburton Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Halliburton delivered full-year 2022 revenue of $20.3 B and operating income of $2.7 B, with adjusted operating income up 70% YoY, generated $1.4 B of free cash flow, repaid $1.2 B of debt, and maintained capex at 5–6% of revenues.
• In Q4 2022, revenue grew 4% sequentially to $5.6 B and operating income rose 15% to $976 M, yielding a 17.5% operating margin and $0.72 per-share net income, while generating $1.2 B of operating cash flow and $856 M of free cash flow.
• The board approved a 33% increase in the quarterly dividend to $0.16 per share for Q1 2023, resumed share buybacks ($250 M repurchased in Q4) with $5 B remaining authorization, and set a capital return framework to distribute at least 50% of annual free cash flow to shareholders.
• Management expects continued oil and gas market tightness with resilient demand, forecasting U.S. activity growth above 15% and international growth at least mid-teens in 2023, underpinned by underinvestment, rising service intensity and disciplined capital stewardship.
• Halliburton will drive profitable growth by leveraging differentiated technologies—such as the iCruise drilling system, iStar logging platform and LOGICS automation internationally, and Zeus e-fleets, Octave automated fracturing and SmartFleet intelligence in North America—to enhance margins and capital efficiency.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the fourth quarter 2022 Halliburton Company Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there'll be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during this session, you'll need to press star one one on your telephone. You will hear an automated message advising you your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, David Coleman, Senior Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[David Coleman, Senior Director of Investor Relations at Halliburton Company]

Hello, and thank you for joining the Halliburton 4th quarter 2022 conference call. We will make the recording of today's webcast available on Halliburton's website after this call. Joining me today are Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO, and Eric Carre, Executive Vice President and CFO. Some of today's comments may include forward-looking statements reflecting Halliburton's views about future events. These matters involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to materially differ from our forward-looking statements. These risks are discussed in Halliburton's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31st, 2021, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30th, 2022, recent current reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings. We undertake no obligation to revise or publicly update any forward-looking statement for any reason. Our comments today also include non-GAAP financial measures.

[David Coleman, Senior Director of Investor Relations at Halliburton Company]

Additional details and reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our fourth quarter earnings release and in the quarterly results and presentation section of our website. I'll turn the call over to Jeff.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Thank you, David. Good morning, everyone. Halliburton finished the year strong with solid financial and operational performance in both divisions and both hemispheres. Halliburton's execution in 2022 demonstrates the earnings power of our strategy. I expect this earnings power to strengthen in 2023 and beyond. Let's jump right into the 2022 highlights. We delivered full year total company revenue of $23 billion and operating income of $2.7 billion. Adjusted operating income grew 70% compared to 2021, with improved margin performance in both divisions. Our full year international revenue grew 20% over 2021. Our revenue and operating income increased each quarter in 2022. I am pleased with the international growth and margin progression Halliburton demonstrated this year despite a second quarter exit from our Russian business.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Our full year North American revenue increased 51% over 2021, with improved margins driven by activity and pricing gains. Both our Drilling and Evaluation and Completion and Production divisions grew revenue and margins this year. The Drilling and Evaluation division generated full-year operating margins of 15%, an increase of 320 basis points over 2021. The steady expansion of D&E margins demonstrates the global competitiveness of our D&E business. Our Completion and Production division posted 18% full-year operating margins, a year-over-year increase of 290 basis points, driven by activity and pricing improvements. We generated strong free cash flow of $1.4 billion, retired $1.2 billion of debt, maintained capital spending within 5%-6% of revenues, and ended the year with $2.3 billion of cash on hand.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Our service quality performance excelled in 2022. Non-Productive Time improved by 7% over 2021, which drove the highest ever uptime across our business. Execution is at the heart of who we are, and our results are a testament to our employees' continued commitment to superior service quality. I'm pleased with the 4th quarter results. Revenue grew 4% and operating income grew 15% sequentially. Margins increased in both C&P and D&E divisions and in both hemispheres. Cash flow from operations in the quarter was $1.2 billion, and free cash flow was $856 million. Building on this strong foundation of execution, today I am pleased to announce the following shareholder return actions.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

First, our board approved an increase in our quarterly dividend to $0.16 per share in the first quarter of 2023, representing a 33% increase from last year. Second, we have resumed share buybacks under our existing board authorization of approximately $5 billion, and in the fourth quarter of 2022, bought back shares totaling $250 million. Finally, our board approved a capital return framework that we expect going forward to return at least 50% of our annual free cash flow to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. These actions demonstrate Halliburton's confidence in our business, customers, employees, and industry outlook. Before we continue, I want to take a moment and thank the Halliburton employees around the world who made these results possible. Our success this quarter and throughout 2022 was a direct result of your hard work and dedication.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

I thank you for your relentless focus on safety, operational execution, customer collaboration, and service quality performance. Let's turn to the macro outlook, where everything I see today points towards continued oil and gas tightness. On the supply side, in the U.S., an increased spend of almost 50% and activity growth of nearly 30% yielded a production increase of about 5%. Given the increased spend required to grow and replace production, I expect activity to remain strong and service intensity to increase through 2023. I see the same supply-side challenges in the international markets. One indicator being that despite OPEC's 2022 production quotas, several members did not meet their goals. On the demand side, we saw the resilience of oil and gas demand throughout 2022, even as central banks raised interest rates to combat inflation. I expect oil and gas demand to remain strong.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

As we start 2023, I also expect China's reopening to further increase demand. It's clear to me that oil and gas is in short supply and only multiple years of increased investment in both stemming declines and reserve additions will solve short supply. I believe these investments will drive demand for oilfield services for the next several years. The unique feature of this upcycle, as I see it, is the investor-driven return discipline by both operators and service companies, which I expect drives a longer duration cycle and translates into years of increasing demand for Halliburton services. Let's turn to Halliburton, starting with our performance in the international markets. We successfully executed our strategy to deliver profitable international growth through competitive technology offerings, improved pricing, and selective contract wins. International revenue grew 20% year-over-year with strong growth and margin expansion from both divisions.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

This gives me confidence in the earnings power of our international strategy. In 2023, we expect international activity to grow at least mid-teens, with most new activity coming from the Middle East and Latin America. As this up cycle continues, I believe that we will see substantial growth in all international markets, both onshore and offshore, led by development activity and increased spend at the wellbore. This is excellent news for Halliburton. About half our revenue comes from international markets. We have leading positions in key well construction product lines and a strong geographic footprint. I'm excited about the growth and profit opportunities that will come with the adoption of our new drilling technology platforms. Our iCruise drilling technology, iStar logging while drilling platform, and LOGIX automation capabilities. Each of these technologies are in different stages of implementation, and we are already seeing benefits.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Our iCruise directional drilling system represents about half of our rotary steerable fleet while drilling about 70% of our global footage. It is a key contributor to increasing international profitability. Our iStar logging while drilling platform now delivers high-definition measurements closer to the bit and deeper into the formation. While early in its rollout with only 600,000 feet logged, the iStar platform directly complements the iCruise directional drilling system. Logix automates drilling with iCruise and iStar. With more than 7 million feet drilled in 20-plus countries, the Logix platform reduces operational risk and delivers wells reliably. Turning to North America, we had a terrific year. Our performance demonstrated our strategy to maximize value in North America through capital efficiency, improved pricing, differentiated technology, and alignment with high-quality customers.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

In 2022, our North America revenue grew 51% year-over-year, while revenue in the fourth quarter was flat sequentially due to weather-related downtime late in the year. Looking ahead, we expect strong activity and anticipate customer spending to grow by at least 15% in 2023. The market for equipment is tight. Lead times for new and replacement equipment remain long and service companies remain disciplined. Our completions calendar is fully booked and pricing continues to improve across all product service lines. Against this constructive market backdrop, Halliburton will outperform with our unique strategy to maximize value. We see strong demand for our Zeus e-fleets, with several repeat customers contracting additional fleets. Zeus is a proven design with a strong operational track record. Our new automated fracturing platform, OCTIV, fully automates equipment operation, reduces maintenance, and extends component life.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

We are in the early innings of this rollout, having proven it over 15,000 stages. I expect it to drive higher capital efficiency. Finally, our SmartFleet intelligent fracturing system is gaining significant traction with customers. SmartFleet data helps customers answer key questions such as the existence of flow barriers, well interference, parent-child performance and depletion, all to improve completion performance. These are a few examples of how technology maximizes value in North America. Each example delivers better margins, either by reducing capital cost or increasing capital velocity, and in many cases, both. Halliburton is unique and is the only integrated services company to have a strong presence in both North America and international markets, a strong execution culture, and differentiated technology. We will continue to sharpen our value proposition to collaborate and engineer solutions to maximize asset value for our customers. I am confident in Halliburton's strong long-term outlook.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

This is the best setup and market outlook for oil field services and Halliburton that I have seen in a very long time. Our exceptional financial performance this year is a clear result of the execution of our strategic priorities to maximize value in North America, deliver profitable international growth, and drive capital efficiency. I expect Halliburton to continue to deliver financial outperformance. I will turn the call over to Eric to provide more details on our financial results. Eric?

[Eric Carre, Executive Vice President and CFO at Halliburton Company]

Thank you, Jeff, and good morning. Let me begin with a summary of our fourth quarter results. Total company revenue for the quarter was $5.6 billion, a 4% increase over the third quarter, while operating income was $976 million, an increase of 15% over third quarter operating income. Operating margin for the company was 17.5% in the fourth quarter, a 460 basis point increase over operating margins in the fourth quarter of 2021. These results were primarily driven by increased global activity, pricing, and year-end product and software sales. Our fourth quarter reported net income per diluted share was $0.72, an increase of $0.12 or 20% from the third quarter. Our 2022 full year adjusted net income per diluted share nearly doubled from 2021.

[Eric Carre, Executive Vice President and CFO at Halliburton Company]

Beginning with our Completion and Production division, revenue in the fourth quarter was $3.2 billion, a 1% increase when compared to the third quarter, while operating income was $659 million, an increase of 13% when compared to the third quarter. Despite weather-related downtime late in the year, C&P delivered an operating income margin of 20.7%, the highest operating income margin since 2012. This was due to improved pricing, service efficiency, and activity mix in North America land, as well as increased activity in international markets. In our Drilling and Evaluation division, revenue in the fourth quarter was $2.4 billion, an increase of 8% when compared to the third quarter, while operating income was $387 million, an increase of 19% when compared to the third quarter.

[Eric Carre, Executive Vice President and CFO at Halliburton Company]

These results were driven by higher year-end software sales and an uptick in international activity. Operating margin increased 210 basis points above Q4 2021, which demonstrates the global competitiveness of our D&E business. Moving on to geographic results. Our international revenue increased 9% sequentially due to solid year-end sales, pricing gains, and activity increases. In North America, revenue in the fourth quarter was $2.6 billion, a 1% decrease when compared to the third quarter. This decrease was primarily driven by weather-related downtime in North America land. Latin America revenue in the fourth quarter was $945 million, a 12% increase sequentially due to higher activity in Mexico and across the region.

[Eric Carre, Executive Vice President and CFO at Halliburton Company]

Europe-Africa revenue in the fourth quarter was $657 million, a 3% increase sequentially, driven by higher completion tool sales, drilling activity, and well intervention services across the region. These increases were partially offset by lower activity in Norway. Middle East-Asia revenue in the fourth quarter was $1.4 billion, a 10% increase sequentially, primarily resulting from higher software sales and drilling and evaluation services across the region. I'd like to cover some additional financial items. In the fourth quarter, our corporate and other expenses was $70 million. For the first quarter, we expect our corporate expenses to be slightly lower. Net interest expense for the quarter was $74 million, a slight decrease due to higher yields on cash balances and debt retirement in September. For the first quarter, we expect this expense to remain approximately flat.

[Eric Carre, Executive Vice President and CFO at Halliburton Company]

Other net expense for the quarter was $60 million, primarily related to unfavorable foreign exchange movements. For the first quarter, we expect this expense to be slightly lower. Our normalized effective tax rate for the fourth quarter came in at approximately 21%. Based on our anticipated geographic earnings mix, we expect our first quarter effective tax rate to increase roughly 150 basis points. Capital expenditures for the fourth quarter were $350 million, with our 2022 full year CapEx totaling approximately $1 billion. Turning to cash flow. For the full year, we generated $2.2 billion of cash from operations and delivered approximately $1.4 billion of free cash flow. As a result, we ended the year with approximately $2.3 billion in cash.

[Eric Carre, Executive Vice President and CFO at Halliburton Company]

Next, I'd like to provide a few more details about our capital return framework. First, an important pillar of our capital framework is to maintain CapEx between 5% and 6% of revenue. I believe the spending level is appropriate and supports our earnings growth and free cash flow generation over the next several years. Second, we expect to return a minimum of 50% of free cash flow to our shareholders in the form of dividends and share buybacks. Our board of directors increased our quarterly dividend by 33% to $0.16 per share, effective with the dividend payment in March 2023. Finally, in the fourth quarter, we repurchased $250 million of shares, and we have remaining authorization of approximately $5 billion.

[Eric Carre, Executive Vice President and CFO at Halliburton Company]

We were clear about our goals to reduce debt and increase cash returns to shareholders, and I am pleased that we've announced these actions today. I believe Halliburton's capital return framework provides visibility for investors and affords us the flexibility to pursue acquisitions and strengthen the balance sheet. Let me provide you with some comments on how we see the first quarter. As is typical, our results will be subject to weather-related seasonality and the roll-off of year-end product sales, which will mostly impact our international business. As a result, in our Completion and Production division, we anticipate sequential revenue to be essentially flat with the fourth quarter, while margins will drop between 75 and 125 basis points.

[Eric Carre, Executive Vice President and CFO at Halliburton Company]

In our Drilling and Evaluation division, we expect revenue to decrease in the low to mid-single digit sequentially, while margins are expected to be down 25-75 basis points. I will now turn the call back to Jeff.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Thanks, Eric. Let me summarize our discussion today. Oil and gas is tight, and only multiple years of increased investment will solve short supply, which translates into years of increasing demand for Halliburton services. The announced dividend increase, share buybacks, and Halliburton's new capital return framework provide shareholders with clarity and consistency on how we expect to return cash to shareholders. This exceptional financial performance is a clear result of our execution of Halliburton's strategic priorities. I expect Halliburton to continue to deliver financial outperformance, strong free cash flow, and shareholder returns. Now let's open it up for questions.

[Operator]

As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from David Anderson with Barclays. Your line is open.

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Hi, good morning, Jeff.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Morning, Dave.

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Halliburton's international business is now half of overall revenue. Middle East has been a big part of the growth over the years. It was up 10% this quarter. Just wondering if you could just give us a little bit more insight into kind of your views on that market over the next kinda couple of years. Based on activity is how it's trending and the ramp-ups going on, I guess, in the near term, is it reasonable to think the growth should sort of stay at these levels the next several quarters? Also, if you could highlight some of the countries where you see most of this growth coming from over the next several years, including kind of where you think you're best positioned in terms of footprints or product lines in the Middle East. Thank you.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Well, thanks, Dave. Look, I'm really excited about international growth. I think I said in my call north of 15%, which clearly I expect it will be north of that, and should continue actually to expand, I think, over the next few years, just because we will. It takes longer to get traction internationally, get things contracted. Really excited about what we see. The with our international business being about half of our business today, that indicate or demonstrates that we have strong footprint sort of everywhere where we think it's important, and our technology, as I described, rolling out. Clearly it's got strong application in the Middle East and Latin America, which we kind kind of saw this year. It's the same technology that's applicable in all corners of the world.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

you know, I think we're early in the rollout a lot of this technology, and that's only gonna help strengthen our international business. As we see, you know, activity grow, I expect our, you know, our share of that to grow and improve margins as we focus on profitable international growth.

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

If I could shift over on the U.S. side. There's been a lot of recent talk about activity levels slowing down in the U.S. The rig count has drifted down a bit in recent weeks. Been some weather, as you highlighted, and there's also some concerns out there in the natural gas market. Also notice how any E&Ps have announced any spending budgets for this year. I was wondering if you could just help us out with a little bit of visibility on the market. Kind of what are your customers saying about kind of how activity is gonna play out into the spring? Then based on that, kind of how do you see sort of the dynamics of that pressure bumping market in terms of capacity and the tightness for 2023?

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Yeah. Thanks, Dave. Look, North America is going to, in my view, will surprise to the upside. You know, our outlook is north of 15% growth. Clearly, we outpaced that last year. That's what I said last year. You know, I don't have any clients that are not, you know, that plan to get smaller. They all plan to grow. You know, I think that, you know, North America has the dynamic of the more you grow, the more the market has to work in order to maintain even the growth given decline curves. So, you know, I expect we see increased service intensity throughout 2023 and likely beyond. The market is, you know, extremely tight for frack equipment and the supply chain's still backed up.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

I don't see, you know... I see discipline in the marketplace, more importantly, I see sort of required discipline based on equipment being unavailable. The more activity we see, then ultimately, the more price we will see. I am very positive on 2023, North America. I think the concerns are misplaced and, you know, rig count likely moves up actually as DUCs get blown down.

[David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays]

Thanks, Jeff. Appreciate it.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Just as a reminder, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Our next question comes from Arun Jayaram from JP Morgan. Your line is open.

[Arun Jayaram, Research Analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co.]

Yeah, good morning, Jeff. you know, clearly one of the themes this earnings season has been the inflection in Middle East spending and offshore. I was wondering, Jeff, if you could talk about Halliburton's, you know, portfolio, and competitive position in both the Middle East and as well as offshore, and how do you think you're positioned this cycle versus last?

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Yeah, thanks, Arun. Look, we're better positioned than we've ever been as Halliburton, both from a technology perspective that I described examples of that, but clearly that's not all of the technology we've got in the market today. From a footprint standpoint, a lot of that build-out was done prior cycles. It's still there and ready to go. Feel very good about our geographic footprint, our technology, advancement that we've made, and our team. I mean, we've just got an exceptionally strong team today internationally. I feel very confident, certainly from that perspective. When we look at where our business is, you know, when offshore is good for us, I think that about 40% of our international business is offshore today. You know, that's a good market for us.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

I think another nuance as we look out into next year, certainly and likely beyond, is the sort of emphasis on development activity as opposed to exploration that maybe we've seen in prior cycles. I think that's very consistent with where operators are from a capital discipline standpoint and just producing more barrels sooner, which leads us to development. That is a place where we have, you know, leading positions in a number of the service lines that allow that to happen, cementing, drilling fluids, completion tools. You know, I think this is gonna be a great, even better market for Halliburton.

[Arun Jayaram, Research Analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co.]

Great. Maybe a follow-up for Eric. Eric, I wanted to get your thoughts on cash conversion in 2023, just wanted to think about just working capital needs to support the growth this year. Just any broad thoughts on collections, particularly for international, some of your international and NOC customers.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Thanks, Arun Jayaram. I mean, broadly speaking, we're looking at the cash generation profile in 2023 as being fairly similar to 2022, quite a bit weighted toward the back half of the year. Looking at things overall, I mean, the big buckets obviously will see significantly increased net income driven by growth in our revenue, improvements in our margins. On the CapEx side of things, we finished 2022 on the low end of our range of 5%-6%. We were at 5%. When I look at 2023, we will be at the higher end of that range, primarily driven by supply chain constraints and extended lead time in our, you know, supply chain that we talked about on prior calls.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

You know, the third element in terms of working capital, again, our business will continue to grow, so we will continue to see some headwinds in terms of working capital, you know, essentially, and also the impact of growing internationally, which tends to be, you know, more, bigger consumers of working capital than when we grow our business in North America. The way all of that is going to land is a little north of 20% growth in terms of free cash flow over our 2022 performance.

[Arun Jayaram, Research Analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co.]

That's super helpful. Thanks.

[Operator]

One moment. Our next question comes from James West with Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

[James West, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI]

Hey, good morning, Jeff. Morning, Eric.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Morning, James.

[Eric Carre, Executive Vice President and CFO at Halliburton Company]

Morning, James.

[James West, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI]

Jeff, in North America, I wanted to start there. In North America, your customer base and the majority of the customers really have three options, right? You can grow, you can shrink, you can go international. Where do you see in your conversations with the bigger shale operators, you know, and you mentioned earlier you think there could be a surprise to the upside in North America. How do you think they're thinking about the North American market, especially given, you know, what's gonna be inventory constraints at some point here, you know, whether it's three years, five years, seven years, we don't really know. At some point on wells and what do they plan to do over the next couple of years?

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

I expect that, you know, within sort of expectations. Within capital discipline levels, I expect growth is really the only path for most-

[James West, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI]

Right

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

... of these companies. As in commodity price, very supportive, it'd be, you know, international growth very, very difficult and shrink not really an option.

[James West, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI]

Right

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

I think that we'll see initially increased service intensity. That's the first step, and that clearly we benefit from.

[James West, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI]

Yeah

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

... service intensity. The second, if we wanna go out 10 years, that's a bet against technology, and that's not a bet I'm willing to make. I mean, in fact, I'm very confident in what technology will do. There is a lot of oil in North America.

[James West, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI]

Sure. Yep.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

We're already seeing the impact of work harder producing more barrels. Also that's one of the reasons as Halliburton, you know, the SmartFleet as an example, I talk about it a lot, but that's one of the tools that operators can take, I expect over time, and start to solve how to make more barrels and more productivity. You know, as the, you know, we invest a lot of R&D dollars into North America. We're kind of unique in that fashion, and we try to put those dollars into what we think are most impactful. It's not a bigger X or a smaller Y, but more a function of what is the technology that I think and the company thinks will really unlock productivity over time.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

I think those kind of tools in the hands of our operators, I mean, they're incredibly competitive, smart, technically deep, and I think it's more a matter of getting tools in their hands to allow them to unlock what 10 years down the road looks like.

[James West, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI]

Okay. That's great perspective there. If I could just switch to the international side of the business. At this point, are we in a market that is still price driven, or have we switched now to a market where it's about availability and service quality?

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Well, I don't think you have one without the other, James, but I would expect I mean, my view is service quality and having equipment, quality equipment is more and more important every day. That ultimately drives price as well. You know, we spend a lot of time focused on how we execute and deliver service quality, and our service quality.

[James West, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI]

Right

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

... feel very good. We are a beneficiary of that. As the market gets tighter, you know, the market starts to, you know, pull equipment out. I expect that sort of where we are, we've got a very good equipment portfolio and technology that we're bringing to the market and all of that. It certainly benefits us.

[James West, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI]

Gotcha. Okay, great. Thanks, Jeff.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Neil Mehta with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

[Neil Mehta, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs]

Good morning, team. And thanks, Jeff, for the framework around capital returns, and that's kind of where I want to focus my questions here today. Can you talk about why you thought at least 50% of free cash flow was the right number? Then talk about how you the definition of that calculation. I think it'll be cash flow from operations inclusive of working capital minus CapEx before M&A, but just make sure we're on the same page.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Go ahead, Eric.

[Eric Carre, Executive Vice President and CFO at Halliburton Company]

No, no. I think that's, your view is correct. Yeah. The 50%, I mean, there's nothing magic in the 50% per se. We think that it's a number that gives some level of certainty in terms of what we're going to return to shareholders while giving us a lot of optionality to continue to invest in our business, to continue to make bolt-on acquisition or to make acquisition that are complementary to our product line business, and also give us optionality over the next few years to continue to work on strengthening our balance sheet.

[Neil Mehta, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs]

Yeah. Thank you. That was my follow-up, around capital returns. As you think about the buyback, how do you think about approaching it? Or do you wanna take a more ratable approach, or do you wanna be countercyclical in the way that you prosecute it? When you talk about M&A, or, do you see a scenario where we could be looking at larger scale things?

[Eric Carre, Executive Vice President and CFO at Halliburton Company]

Yes. Let me start with M&A maybe. Our philosophy there is extremely focused on adding technology. It's a bit of a, you know, build versus buy approach to complementing our technology budget. It is a bit opportunistic at time, depending on what's available and the opportunities that we have. Over the years, we've also invested in complements like smaller businesses that we can easily add to existing product lines. That's kind of the general view that we have on technology. From an overall strategy standpoint, and I'll let Jeff jump in, but we are where we need to be in terms of the businesses we want to compete in at this stage. Going to the other part of your question, Neil, around buybacks.

[Eric Carre, Executive Vice President and CFO at Halliburton Company]

I'm not gonna go into a lot of details, but generally speaking, we look at buybacks as being lever loaded through 2023, which will obviously top off in order to make sure that we meet our overall target of 50% or more. We're thinking about buybacks really as a mechanism to return cash to shareholders. We're not really trying to trade in our shares.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Yeah, let me just add to that as well. I mean, I think no surprises from us. Our outlook on M&A hasn't changed. It will stay that way. You know, as we look at, you know, the capital allocation, we also wanna continue, as Eric mentioned, opportunistically take out debt. We don't wanna be sloppy about it, kind of in the current market that we see, we have the opportunities to do things that are, you know, that make returns for the company. We wanna be crystal clear around what our minimum return was. That's clearly, you know, we'll work through that.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

you know, I would expect that, you know, by setting that minimum, I think it gives clarity to the marketplace, though we will, you know, only do things that we believe, you know, add meaningful returns to the company. Thanks, Jeff and Eric.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Luke Lemoine with Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

[Luke Lemoine, Managing Director at Piper Sandler]

Hey, good morning, Jeff, Eric.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Morning.

[Luke Lemoine, Managing Director at Piper Sandler]

Jeff, your 4Q EBITDA margins firmly hopped in that kind of low 20% range. You're basically at 14 levels, which was the target for 2023. Totally get there's severe in sales there. That skewed as higher in 4Q, but you're on the cusp of hitting 14 margins on an annual basis in 2023. you and Lance kind of gave us a 2-year outlook almost 2 years ago, and just wanted to see if maybe you could refresh this or expand upon it and how you see margins evolving over the next couple of years.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Yeah. Thank you. You know, when we did that two years ago, you know, when we looked at published estimates, you know, clearly we thought they were, you know, too low, and so we'd made some clear commentary in an effort to correct that. Now, as we look at the published street estimates today, you know, they seem about right. You know, I don't wanna try to, you know, continue to do that, you know, over and over. What I am is super excited about our outlook. You know, margins from here are up, revenue is up. I'm as confident in our outlook and our business as I have ever been.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

I just wanted to be clear, you know, with Q2 of 2021, you know, we wanted to be clear that we were pointing out what we felt was missing in the future street estimates. Today, as I said, I think, you know, published street estimates today are about right for the years ahead, both top line and profitability.

[Luke Lemoine, Managing Director at Piper Sandler]

Okay. Got it. Appreciate it.

[Operator]

Thank you. Just one moment. Our next question comes from Chase Mulvihill with Bank of America. Your line is open.

[Chase Mulvihill, Analyst at Bank of America]

Hey, good morning, everyone. You know, Jeff, I guess a quick, you know, follow-up or question, maybe we can kind of dig in a little more on the international side. We spoke a little bit about this at dinner, you know, we get a lot of questions around, you know, confidence in multi-year growth on the international side. Obviously, we saw strong growth last year, you know, expectations are for another year of strong growth. You know, I guess could you speak to, you know, what you see for continued growth on the international side once you get past 2023 and kind of what gives you confidence that we will continue to see growth on the international side, post this year?

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

I would just start with the under-investment that we've seen, for the last roughly eight years and, you know, really haven't caught up with that. If I just look broadly at kind of reserve replacement and availability, you know, that portends a lot of years of recovery. We're in the early stages of that. One-ways. It takes time to get international projects up and underway. A lot has to be renegotiated with different, you know, partners. I think that, you know, what we see building is the, you know, tender backlog, and these are tender backlogs that go beyond a year, well beyond a year. That's consistent with sort of the slower, recovery and spend that we typically see internationally.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

I am confident that that's basically what's required to recover and produce enough oil to meet demand. You know, beyond that, specifically, you know, dialogue with customers, targets set by countries, outlooks, that, you know, nearly all international countries that produce oil have targets that are certainly above where they are today. Less clarity about how they get there, which actually really does, indicate more service intensity, in terms of how they get there, which is more activity certainly for us.

[Chase Mulvihill, Analyst at Bank of America]

Okay, perfect. If I can pivot a little bit and follow up on some of the North America questions. You know, obviously, you know, here you've stated, you talked about there's probably upside to North America, that you don't see, you know, pricing pressure unfolding in pressure pumping. You know, supply chain constraints probably, you know, upside to demand. You know, but we do get a lot of questions around, you know, around pressure pumping and the risk to pricing. Really those questions revolve around kind of lower tier fleets, and kinda, you know, investors kind of asking about, you know, who has the high-end fleets and the lower-end fleets.

[Chase Mulvihill, Analyst at Bank of America]

I don't know if you could take a moment and just talk about, you know, how many, you know, what % of your fleets are kind of, you know, tier 2, diesel, where if you were to see some pricing pressure, that's maybe where you would see it if you would see any?

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

I don't see that in our business today at any level of equipment. In fact, all equipment is called for. You know, clearly we have a strong, environmentally, you know, a low emissions fleet as well that's probably at the higher end of the price deck. Even at the bottom end of the price deck, our equipment, you know, we've systematically replaced equipment over time, and so we're really pleased with the fleet that we have. Even the tier 2 dual fuel equipment is in demand, most certainly. What I'm most impressed with actually is sort of the strong market pull that we see around our Zeus e-fleets. You know, we've got strong customer demand, and especially I'm seeing repeat customers, which is terrific, where it's not 1 but 2 to the same customer, all fully contracted.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

I think that's, you know, just an indication of the strength of our technology. It's proven technology. I believe it's a better mousetrap. Quite frankly, we have a very strong IP portfolio, and I think that is going to continue to be important.

[Chase Mulvihill, Analyst at Bank of America]

Okay. Awesome. Appreciate the color. I'll turn it back over. Thanks, Jeff.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question will come from Roger Read with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

[Roger Read, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Hey, thank you. Good morning. Well done on the quarter. I'd like to come back to some of your guidance and expectations for the international market. As we look at 2023, you know, you said kind of 15%, but bias to the upside of that. I was just curious what finished the year strong in 2022, maybe better than expectations and sort of feeds into that, you know, expectation of, let's say, at least mid-teens to higher as we think about international in 2023?

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Yeah. Look, I think it's sort of like everything's pointing at busier 2023 than 2022. That comes in the form of tender pipeline, that comes in form of sort of backlog increasing, product backlog that we've seen strengthen throughout the year and all of that points, I mean, all of it points at 2023, maybe even into 2024. Discussions with customers, sort of the intensity of customers' view of staying busy and, you know, producing more barrels sooner rather than later. It's a very favorable market. You know, it just gives me a lot of confidence in the outlook for 2023, and particularly from our standpoint, you know, where we sit with technology and our global footprint.

[Roger Read, Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Thanks. On the supply chain side, not just yours, but the one you see for the industry, any areas you think, you know, continue to have, let's just call it headwinds broadly as we look at 2023? Something that would slow project development or acceleration in 2023.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Yeah. I don't see anything that slows things down. You know, are there things that have extended lead times today? We're still working through some of that, but I don't think anything meaningful gets in the way of getting started. You know, I think we still see inflation in the marketplace, so that's one of the ways that we, you know, solve for getting things. The I don't think that it's gonna be a headwind necessarily. We're starting to see rigs come back. You know, there'll be a lot of work around getting those ready in some places. Clearly, you know, motivating customers and, you know, there'll be some, as I said, some inflation to get all of that done. I don't see those as headwinds.

[Luke Lemoine, Managing Director at Piper Sandler]

That's great. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Scott Gruber from Citi. Your line is open.

[Scott Gruber, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Citi]

Yes, good morning.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Morning, Scott.

[Operator]

Morning, Scott.

[Scott Gruber, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Citi]

Yes, you mentioned a very full completion calendar here in the U.S. A quick question on that topic. Does that pertain to the fleets that the new e-frac fleets will be coming into place? My question relates to is there work already lined up that would keep the legacy fleet fully deployed, or those fleets need to be bid onto new jobs?

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Look, no, that we've got everything is spoken for in 2023, whether replacement or not. You know, I think over time, e-fleets replace fleets, but they don't do it initially. There'll be some period of time, where, you know, e-fleets take the place of legacy fleets. That's not what we see in 2023. We see everything busy in 2023.

[Scott Gruber, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Citi]

Gotcha. That's encouraging. Turning to D&E margins, there's another nice year of expansion there. Obviously, you guys have had an internal initiative to structurally lift those margins, but you also have a number of tailwinds today from pricing to mix. How should we think about D&E incrementals this year, if you're willing to provide, you know, some color there? Overall, how should we think about, you know, where you could take D&E margins, over the medium to longer term? I was looking back at our model and your D&E margins basically matched, you know, where they were last cycle. Think about whether you guys can get to the 20% plus margin that you witnessed back in the late 2000s, if this up cycle sustains.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Look, I think that, you know, I've always said we've invested in technology and D&E in a meaningful way. We expect those margins to continue to move up. As you just mentioned, they have consistently moved up, and that's on the back of technology and footprint and where we are, and I expect that trajectory to continue beyond where we are today or where we were last cycle. You know, the outlook would be to continue to stack, you know, year-on-year quarters that are better than the last year, and so have a lot of confidence in our outlook for D&E and where that could go 2023 and beyond.

[Scott Gruber, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Citi]

Great. I appreciate the color. Thank you.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question, one moment, is from Stephen Gengaro from Stifel. Your line is open.

[Stephen Gengaro, Managing Director at Stifel]

Thanks. Good morning, everybody. I think two things from me, if you don't mind. Can you talk a little bit, on the domestic pressure pumping side? Just obviously, I know you guys are pretty much sold out for the year. What are you seeing in the market as far as new builds, supply, demand fundamentals as we look 3, 4, 5 quarters out? I know you guys are. You know, you got your finger on the pulse there. I'm just curious what your take is on the overall market growth or lack thereof in supply?

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Yeah. Look, I think the market's certainly undersupplied today. I think that attrition is happening every day, even if it doesn't happen necessarily at the fleet level, but it does happen at the unit level. Part of the way that got solved in 2022 was through industry consolidation. That's one method of dealing with attrition, is bringing in more inventory and equipment. Then the other, as I look out throughout the year, the, you know, all of 2023, I mean, you know, half the capacity additions that we've heard about, are electric. I think what's being realized in the field is A, electric is harder to do than it looks.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

You know, and from our perspective, we have proven technology, we have technology with a track record, and we have a very strong IP portfolio around frack. I think, you know, that combination gives me a lot of confidence, A, in where we are and also that the market won't be oversupplied.

[Stephen Gengaro, Managing Director at Stifel]

Great. Thank you. Just as a follow-up, you know, we've seen consolidation in the U.S. pressure pumping space, and some of the larger competitors are doing things to kind of make themselves have a higher revenue content at the well site, right? Different types of vertical integration or well site integration. Have you seen any change in the competitive landscape at the well site? I mean, obviously now everybody's busy, but just in general, has there been any change in the way your competitors are competing with Halliburton?

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

No, I don't see any change there. You know, when I think about sand, you're talking about sand, and when I think about sand, you know, we've got very good suppliers in the sand business. We work well with them. I think about competitive advantage, I mean, real competitive advantage. What are things that we do to create competitive advantage? We wanna spend our dollars on things where we do have clear competitive advantage, which is in this case, pumping technology, and then drilling technology, software, things where we clearly have competitive advantage. You know, I view sand clearly as an input. It's an important input. We need access to it. At the same time, don't wanna overinvest in that part of the business.

[Stephen Gengaro, Managing Director at Stifel]

Okay, great. Thank you for the details.

[Operator]

Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference back to management for closing remarks.

[Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton Company]

Thank you, Catherine. As we close out today's call, let me just close out with this. In this strong market for oil field services, I am confident that Halliburton will execute on its strategic priorities and deliver financial outperformance. I look forward to speaking with you next quarter. You can close out the call.

[Operator]

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• David Coleman, Senior Director of Investor Relations
• Eric Carre, Executive Vice President and CFO
• Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO

Analysts

• Arun Jayaram, Research Analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
• Chase Mulvihill, Analyst at Bank of America
• David Anderson, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Barclays
• James West, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI
• Luke Lemoine, Managing Director at Piper Sandler
• Neil Mehta, Managing Director at Goldman Sachs
• Roger Read, Analyst at Wells Fargo
• Scott Gruber, Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Citi
• Stephen Gengaro, Managing Director at Stifel