HOUSTON (AP) -- Oil field services provider Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday that its second-quarter net income rose 30 percent, as its customers increased overseas drilling.
Results met or beat analyst predictions, and Baker Hughes said it's cautiously optimistic about its prospects for the rest of the year. Its shares rose $3.22, or 7.7 percent, to $44.97 in premarket trading.
If commodity prices remain at current levels, it expects U.S. drilling to remain stable. Baker Hughes also predicts that drilling will increase in the Gulf of Mexico and overseas.
Oil prices have dropped sharply in recent months, hurt by worries about a slowing global economy. Tensions in the Middle East have sent them up again in recent days — 19 percent in the past three weeks — but it's uncertain if the gains will last.
The company, which is based in Houston, earned $439 million, or $1 per share, in the April-June period, up from $338 million, or 77 cents per share, in the same quarter last year. Wall Street analysts surveyed by FactSet expected a profit of 77 cents per share for the latest quarter.
The year-ago period included expenses of $70 million, or 16 cents per share, stemming from the shutdown of oil production in Libya because of that country's civil war last year.
Revenue rose 12 percent to $5.33 billion from $4.74 billion. Analysts expected $5.27 billion.
North American revenue jumped 13 percent to $2.67 billion. Revenue from the company's Europe, Africa and Russia region rose 13 percent to $925 million, while Middle East and Asia Pacific revenue rose 13 percent to $804 million.
