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Schlumberger, the world’s largest listed oilfield services group, has said it expects a divergence in the global oil industry this year between solid growth in most countries and “more uncertainty” for the outlook in North America.

The company set out its view of the coming year as it reported a 25 per cent drop in adjusted earnings per share to 36 cents for the fourth quarter of 2018, excluding one-off items. The earnings were in line with the average of analysts’ expectations, according to FactSet,, although revenues were slightly higher than expected at $8.2bn, unchanged from the equivalent period of 2017.

Paal Kibsgaard, Schlumberger’s chief executive, said in a statement that he expected a “gradual recovery” in crude prices in 2019 after their steep fall towards the end of last year, as the production cuts announced by Opec and Russia take effect, US output growth slows, and the Trump administration’s curbs on Iran’s oil exports are tightened.

He added that he expected demand for oil to be supported “as the US and China continue to work toward a solution to their ongoing trade dispute”.

However, he said, he expected the benefit of that upturn to be unevenly distributed around the world, with “solid, single-digit growth in the international markets”, while in the North American onshore industry, “the increased cost of capital and focus on aligning investments closer to free cash flow has introduced more uncertainty to the outlook for both drilling and production activity”.

In the fourth quarter of last year, revenues were $2.8bn, the same as in the equivalent period of 2017, but down 12 per cent from the third quarter as production companies slowed their operations. Outside the US, revenues were $5.3bn, up 1 per cent from both the fourth quarter of 2017 and the third quarter of 2018.

Mr Kibsgaard said:

In this environment, we have built significant flexibility into our operating plan for 2019, which gives us the means and confidence to address any investment and activity scenario. Furthermore, the foundation for our 2019 plans is a clear commitment to generate sufficient cash flow to cover all our business needs, without increasing net debt.