SLB plans to quickly scale up operations in Venezuela, echoing competitor Halliburton's view that oilfield-service companies are ready to expand in the country.
Chief Executive Olivier Le Peuch said Friday that SLB is well-positioned to expand its business in Venezuela, where it is currently the only active service provider and does work for Chevron. Historically, he added, SLB was the country's largest service provider.
About 10 years ago, SLB employed more than 3,000 people in Venezuela and recorded over $1 billion in annual revenue. The company maintains active facilities, equipment and personnel in the country, and it said it can quickly expand operations under the right conditions.
"With appropriate licensing, safety parameters and compliance measures in place, we can rapidly ramp up activities," Le Peuch said on a call with analysts. "We're already receiving a lot of incoming calls to explore options."
The comments come as interest in Venezuelan oil has surged in recent weeks. President Trump has made increased oil production central to his plans for the country, following the U.S. incursion earlier this month that deposed strongman Nicolás Maduro.
While U.S. oil producers have expressed hesitancy about rushing back into Venezuela, the companies that provide them with equipment and expertise are positioning themselves for what could be years of work rehabilitating the country's oil fields, pipelines and export infrastructure. Fellow oilfield-service provider Halliburton said Wednesday that it aims to quickly grow its business in Venezuela, with early steps toward reentry already underway.
Beyond Venezuela, SLB said it stands to benefit from increasing international activity and its nascent data center business, which is growing faster than expected.
The Houston-based company, formerly known as Schlumberger, is well-positioned to capitalize on accelerating rig activity across the Middle East, Le Peuch said. At the same time, large-scale manufacturing and infrastructure investments -- particularly those tied to artificial intelligence in the U.S. and China -- are expected to drive demand for oil and gas, helping to rebalance supply heading into next year.
Also on the AI front, SLB is focused on expanding the scope and footprint of its data center business. The unit, which offers services such as modular manufacturing and cooling, more than doubled its revenue during the recent quarter, compared with a year earlier, and it is showing no signs of slowing down.
By the end of the year, the unit is expected to account for $1 billion in annual revenue. "It will be significantly above this in 2027, and we believe that we will see growth for the rest of the decade," Le Peuch said.
Still, most of these tailwinds are long-term plays. The company's near-term outlook is tepid, as it expects first-quarter revenue to decline sequentially. For the year, SLB guided for $36.9 billion to $37.7 billion in revenue, below the $38.83 billion that Wall Street modeled, according to FactSet.
For its three months ended Dec. 31, SLB posted a profit of $824 million, or 55 cents a share, down from $1.10 billion, or 77 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings of 78 cents a share topped the 74 cents a share that analysts expected.
Revenue climbed 5% to $9.75 billion, ahead of Wall Street models for $9.55 billion.
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