Net income rose to $1.3 billion, or 97 cents a share, from $944 million, or 69 cents, a year earlier, Houston- and Paris- based Schlumberger said in a statement today. Shares rose 2.7 percent to $71.70 at the close in New York.

Schlumberger First-Quarter Profit Rises Mike Fuentes/Bloomberg
Schlumberger helps companies drill for oil and natural gas, including using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to free the fuel from shale formations.

Schlumberger helps companies drill for oil and natural gas, including using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to free the fuel from shale formations.

.The average number of active oil and natural-gas rigs outside the U.S. and Canada during the quarter climbed 1.2 percent to 1,189, according to Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) Oil drilling increased as the average prices for Brent crude climbed 12 percent to $118.45 a barrel from $105.52 a year earlier.

“Their international margins held steady, which I view as a positive,” Stephen Gengaro, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc. in New York, who rates the shares a buy and owns none, said today in a telephone interview. “They were flat in a weaker seasonal quarter.”

Excluding a normal seasonal drop in sales, the increase in high-margin exploration and deepwater activities helped sustain “robust” international margins, Schlumberger said in the statement. Sales climbed 22 percent to $10.6 billion.
 

Schlumberger helps companies drill for oil and gas, including using a pressure-pumping technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to free the fuel from shale formations.
 

Sergey Makarov, President of the Company said in a statement on Tuesday that the situation in Syria is gradually returning to stability, adding "the company transported a number of its staff from Homs to Damascus during the events, but now we begin to return them to Homs to carry out the project."

The firm said that it intends to maintain its presence in Syria to preserve value for shareholders and protect its legal rights over the assets there.

It also plans to consolidate its interests in Tunisia.

In today’s financial results for 2011, Gulfsands revealed that the political and humanitarian crisis in Syria has overshadowed what would have otherwise been a very successful year.

In December, Gulfsands declared force majeure over the Block 26 PSC as international sanctions on Syria’s oil industry tightened. Gulfsands ceased its involvement in exploration, development and production operations in the country.

As such it currently receives no revenue from its principal asset in Syria, which comprises the majority of the group’s oil reserves – with 74.5 million barrels of 2P reserves in Block 26.

Today’s results show that prior to the troubles, however, the group’s investment in Block 26 was really starting to pay off. It revealed that it generated 34 per cent more cash from its operations last year and profits were up 23 per cent at US$55.1 million.

Oil production was affected by the troubles in Syria during the year and at the government’s request, output was at times intentionally constrained.

Working interest production averaged 8,542 barrels a day during the year, which represents a 17 per cent decrease from last year.

The company ended the period with US$124.2 million in the bank.

“We can but hope that the coming months will bring some respite from the present acute difficulties in Syria, most importantly for the population but also for the company and its shareholders,” said chairman Andrew West.

“In the interim, we are leaving no stone unturned in our continuing efforts to find attractive opportunities to deploy our financial and technical firepower into "fast track" geographical diversification.”

Chief executive Richard Malcolm explains that Gulfsands already has the foundations to achieve this goal with significant financial resources, highly competent human and technical resources, as well as credibility in the oil industry.

He says there are numerous opportunities for Gulfsands to acquire both exploration acreage and prospective production at an attractive cost of entry.

“Several such opportunities are currently being evaluated. In all cases, the emphasis is upon cash preservation, the ability to fast-track production and the opportunity to maximise the company's operational strengths and experience,” Malcolm adds.

So 2012 promises to be an exciting year, he says, as Gulfsands applies its proven strengths to establish a stronger base from which to build future value for shareholders.

“Gulfsands has sufficient cash to meet its objectives for the short to medium term,” Seymour Pierce analyst Dougie Youngson said in a note to clients.

“This also presents an attractive proposition for any potential takeover of the company, with current ongoing rumours of a Chinese bidder.

“The company has stated that it will have effectively disposed of all of its Gulf of Mexico assets in 1H2012 which will result in additional cash for the company.”

He adds: “Overall these are a decent set of results in a very difficult operating environment.”

The analyst says Gulfsands has a progressive management team and a robust asset base.

“We feel the company’s share price represents clear value to investors at its current level.

“In the event of a political resolution in Syria, we expect Gulfsands to return to previous trading levels.”

Seymour Pierce has an ‘add’ rating for the oil firm. Youngson has a broad target range for the stock to reflect the group’s valuation under the current circumstances (target of 146p) and under normal operating circumstances (366p).

Two of the tankers flying the flag of Italy and their carrier R A G, which is supposed to be arrived at the Syrian port of Banias last Thursday.

Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said in the twenty-seventh of last month that his country sent at least two shipments of gas oil to Syria in the last few years, promising to send more supplies Caracas oil to the Syrian government as necessary.

Ramirez – who is at the same time head of the government’s national oil company – said The conflict in Syria and Western sanctions on Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program led to destabilize the world oil markets.

Swiss company
The source said that at least two vessels took up Venezuelan diesel to Syria chartered Swiss oil trading company E or T, the latter has refused to comment on the subject. 

oil distillation products as oil, gas and fuel for heating, as well as for the operation of heavy military vehicles.

INA announced its decision to its Syrian counterpart, the General Petroleum Company (GPC) a few days ago, citing a "complete temporary suspension of economic activities for unavoidable reasons in which the Croatian company cannot interfere".

The company, however, reserves the right to reactivate its concessions for oil and gas extraction in Syria, once "the obstacles from above have been overcome".

Experts say that the sanctions will have a negative effect on the INA, as most of the 264 million euros in profit recorded by the company last year was derived from its activity in Syria.

The bullish outlook came as Europe’s largest oil company by market capitalization unveiled weaker-than-forecast fourth quarter profits, after dismal industry-wide refining margins sent the crude processing division into a loss.

The company also announced a weaker rise in its dividend than some analysts expected, adding just 1 cent to its first quarter dividend for 2012, to $0.43 per share.

Hague-based Shell said it was eyeing a return to strong production growth in the coming years, after nearly a decade. Apart from a 5 percent rise in 2010, the group’s production has fallen every year since 2002.

"Oil & gas production should average some 4 million boe/d (barrels of oil equivalent per day) in 2017-18," the company said in a statement.

Production averaged 3.215 million boe/d in 2011, a 3 percent drop on 2010.

However, a big rise in crude prices outweighed this drop, and weak refining profits. Net profits for 2011 were $24.69 billion, up 37 percent on the year.

The company said its fourth quarter current cost of supply (CCS) net income was $6.46 billion, helped by one-off gains from the sale of assets.

Excluding one-offs, the result rose 18 percent to $4.85 billion, shy of an average forecast of $5.17 billion from a Reuters poll of nine analysts.

Brent crude prices averaged $109 per barrel last quarter, up from $88 a year before.

CCS earnings strip out unrealized gains or losses related to changes in the value of inventories, and as such are comparable with net income under U.S. accounting rules.

The British company, whose main operations are in Syria, said on Tuesday that the latest well to be drilled on its oil fields in Syria’s North East found gas and oil in volumes which matched its expectations.

A study, due to be published in April, would evaluate its total oil reserves, Gulfsands said, adding that recent surveys had positive implications for the amount of oil and gas held in its licence.

Gulfsands said in December it would cease to be involved in production at its oil fields in Syria after sanctions were put in place by the European Union, but that it would continue with its exploration activities until the latest well had been drilled and then assess whether it could safely continue exploring.

Shares in Gulfsands, which have lost over half their value in the last 12 months, closed at 166.5 pence on Monday, valuing the firm at 196 million pounds ($307 million).

The company specializes also provide all oil services and develop oil and gas fields and its maintenance, and maintenance of equipment and access to privileges and enter bids and the representation of companies and agencies and trade of oil and gas and their products and all acts of distribution, marketing and land transport, maritime and trading and manufacturing equipment and machinery of oil wells and natural gas, as well as owning and investing offshore platforms and onshore and all means of transport and service, land and real estate and all construction work, construction and fit-outs and trade of building materials and infrastructure works, roads, bridges, tunnels, implementation and maintenance of oil and gas pipelines and all associated construction work.

The company specializes as well in providing catering services, procurement and construction and have the restaurants, hotels, and malls, including agricultural projects and food and carrying out exploration and import and export of all materials permitted by the state and e-commerce, participation, and mergers and acquisitions serve the company’s objectives and achieve its objectives and all of the above according to the regulations and laws in Syrian Arab Republic.

Dr. Abdul Rahman Abdullah, chairman of the company said in his lecture that the contamination of soil with crude oil is one of the most important environmental problems encountered in the fields of oil, especially when this ancient pollution and oil pollution, refuse containers, which cause high levels of Asphalt and paraffin..

problem He noted that the company faced serious environmental since its inception was the presence of heavy oil rigid contaminate soil field and spread over the entire yard field amounting to 209 kilometers square and due to periods of time old, pointing out that that problem was solved through the local efforts, without the expertise of outside the company to conduct field trials was the fact were to expect as a result a simple and economic method led to the elimination of most contaminated sites.

Abdullah reviewed stages of the treatment method, which was the pull of oil in the oil halls and benefit from it by emptying the production facilities, marketing and selling it with the oil product and then scrape the soil remaining saturated with oil and transfer to a clean place will then be published soil on an area of suitable thickness of 10 to 20 cm then add the urea her by 50 kg per 1000 square meters in order to stimulate the bacteria naturally present in the soil so that active and start eating the oil is then tilling the soil, which is published once every two weeks and are taken soil samples and analyzed laboratory and then held control of the content of the soil from the hydrocarbon and in the case the ratio was less than 2500 ppm soil is clean and in the event rate was higher until the treatment is to continue to reach the required percentage.

syria-oil

An official source at the company told SANA that the reports of some media about the work of the company were untrue, adding "the company works in Syria and practices its activities as normal."

A number of media institutions yesterday reported that Tatneft has suspended it work in Syria "because of the instable situation in the country."