WRAPUP 2-Halliburton profit slides, but tops forecasts

* Halliburton Q2 EPS 30 cents vs Wall St estimate 26 cents

* Weatherford Q2 EPS 10 cents vs Wall St view of 16 cents

* Earnings hit by weak North America markets

* Halliburton shares up 2.7 pct; Weatherford down 8 pct
(Adds Weatherford CEO remarks, analyst comment, updates share
prices)

By Braden Reddall

SAN FRANCISCO, July 20 (Reuters) - Halliburton Co (HAL.N)
posted a higher-than-expected profit on Monday, lifting its
shares, but the world's second-largest oil services company
warned that North American natural gas markets would stay weak
throughout 2009.

Natural gas prices in the United States have tumbled to
less than half of year-ago levels, and the industry expects
high inventories to curb spending by producers on new wells.

"It seems that in North America, there's no place to hide,"
said Bernard Duroc-Danner, chief executive of rival Weatherford
International Ltd (WFT.N), which posted a steeper-than-expected
second-quarter profit drop on Monday. "Pricing was under severe
pressure just about everywhere I could think of."

The sharp decline in oil and gas prices over the past year
has forced exploration and production companies to reel in
spending across the board, putting a tight squeeze on pricing
power among companies selling them services.

Halliburton said margins in the international market, which
tends to react more slowly to hydrocarbon pricing trends, would
shrink by 3 to 5 percentage points by the end of 2010.

Halliburton's second-quarter net profit fell to $262
million, or 29 cents per share, from $504 million, or 55 cents
per share, a year earlier.

Excluding a $12 million charge to cut jobs, Halliburton
posted earnings per share of 30 cents, topping the analysts'
average forecast of 26 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue dropped to $3.49 billion from $4.49 billion, while
analysts had expected $3.41 billion.

"We believe it is unlikely that there will be a meaningful
recovery in natural gas prices and, consequently, drilling
activity for the remainder of the year," Halliburton Chief
Executive Dave Lesar said in a statement.

Weatherford, which was similarly hard-hit in North America,
reported a 77 percent drop in profit, and its stock fell 8
percent. [ID:nN2057837]

Duroc-Danner, who is in the process of cutting
Weatherford's North American costs, told analysts on a
conference call that he believed the downward pressure on its
pricing internationally was behind it.

Last month, Goldman Sachs cut its ratings on Halliburton
and other stocks exposed to natural gas because of persistent
weakness in the huge North American market. [ID:nBNG447254]

On Friday, Baker Hughes Inc (BHI.N) said the number of U.S.
rigs drilling for gas had hit a seven-year low of 665.
[ID:nN17495182]

Analysts at Tudor Pickering Holt said Weatherford "has been
an international revenue growth story -- but derailed in Q2 on
painful North American profitability."

Halliburton shares were up 2.7 percent at $21.95. At
Friday's close, the stock was up 18 percent in 2009, or half
the gain of Philadelphia oilfield service index .OSX.

Weatherford shares, despite their drop on Monday, are up by
68 percent so far in 2009.
(Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco and Matt Daily;
Editing by Maureen Bavdek, Lisa Von Ahn and Matthew Lewis)