Schlumberger profit drops, shares bounce off lows

Schlumberger took fourth-quarter charges of 8 cents a share due to workforce cuts and asset write-offs, including payments due from a unidentified client with liquidity problems.

Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA has built up debts with providers and skipped payments to partners.

Gould said Latin America would be flat in 2009, with two markets staying healthy and two others weakening dramatically, while Algeria and big players in West Africa offshore would hold up, only partially offsetting weakness elsewhere.

Pre-tax profit from oilfield services rose 4 percent to $1.6 billion, and revenue grew 15 percent. WesternGeco posted a 68 percent drop in profit to $88 million and a 25 percent drop in revenue, but saw its backlog reach a record $1.77 billion.

The company anticipates $3 billion in 2009 capital expenditure, including $800 million for WesternGeco, down from a total of nearly $4.1 billion in 2008. Gould said much of the capex was for deepwater and natural gas projects overseas.

Shares of Schlumberger rose $2.73 or 7.3 percent to $40 on the New York Stock Exchange, off their lowest level since mid-2005 hit before the opening of trade. The stock is still down 5 percent in 2009, versus a rise of 2 percent in the Philadelphia oil service index .OSX in the same period.

(Reporting by Matt Daily and Braden Reddall; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Dave Zimmerman and Matthew Lewis)