David Lesar

Halliburton 1Q Net Income Jumps 23%

Halliburton Co.

's (HAL) first-quarter earnings rose 23% as the oilfield-services company continued to benefit from the shift of rig activity to oil and liquids-rich basins even as natural-gas drilling declined.A drop in natural-gas prices has prompted many energy companies to abandon dry gas drilling and shift activity toward profitable oil-rich shale formations in North America. Halliburton is the top seller of North American hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, services, which crack open deeply buried oil-and-gas-bearing rocks, including shale.But the relocation of oilfield services toward these new areas has created some logistical and cost hurdles that have pressured the company's margins to 14.9% from 15.4% the year before. Fracking costs have risen even as demand for the service in natural-gas fields has declined."We expect pricing pressure in some of these markets in the near term but believe that these pressures will decline over the remainder of the year," Halliburton Chief Exec...

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