Halliburton Company is one of the world's largest oilfield services companies, headquartered in Houston, Texas, with a dual headquarters in Dubai, UAE, that generated $22.2 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2025. Founded in 1919 by Erle P. Halliburton as a one-man cementing operation in Duncan, Oklahoma, the company now employs approximately 46,000 people across more than 70 countries. Halliburton makes money by providing products and services to oil and gas companies through two segments: Completion and Production ($12.8 billion in 2025 revenue), which includes hydraulic fracturing, cementing, and completions; and Drilling and Evaluation ($9.4 billion), which includes drilling services, fluids, wireline, and well construction.
How Does Halliburton Make Money?
Halliburton generates revenue by providing products and services to oil and gas companies across the entire well lifecycle. The company operates through two primary segments. Completion and Production generated $12.782 billion in fiscal year 2025, or approximately 57.6% of total revenue. This segment provides cementing services, hydraulic fracturing, stimulation, intervention, artificial lift, and completion tools. Halliburton is the market leader in North American hydraulic fracturing, a position that accounts for nearly half of the company's total revenue. The Drilling and Evaluation segment generated $9.402 billion in 2025, or approximately 42.4% of total revenue, providing drilling services, drill bits, drilling fluids, wireline and perforating, testing and subsea services, and software solutions.
Revenue is recognized as services are performed, typically on a day-rate or unit-of-work basis, and upon product delivery. The company's customer base includes virtually every major oil and gas producer globally, from supermajors like ExxonMobil and Shell to national oil companies like Saudi Aramco to independent shale producers in the Permian Basin. Geographically, 39% of 2025 revenue came from North America, with the Middle East/Asia region contributing $5.832 billion, Latin America $3.935 billion, and Europe/Africa/CIS $3.351 billion.
Who Founded Halliburton and When?
Halliburton was founded in 1919 by Erle P. Halliburton as the New Method Oil Well Cementing Company in Duncan, Oklahoma. Halliburton started with approximately $1,000 raised from four friends, a borrowed pump, a wagon and team of mules, and a wooden mixing box he built himself. His wife Vida hand-washed cement sacks so they could be resold to cement companies, and at one point the couple had to pawn her wedding rings to pay hired help.
Halliburton's big break came when Skelly Oil Company hired him to control a wild well in the Hewitt-Wilson Field in south-central Oklahoma, proving the value of his cementing technique. On May 7, 1920, the company reorganized as the Halliburton Oil Well Cementing Company. In 1921 headquarters were established in Duncan, Oklahoma. In 1922, Halliburton patented the 'jet-cement' mixer. By late 1922, seventeen Halliburton trucks were cementing wells across Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas. The company listed on the NYSE in 1948 and performed the first commercial hydraulic fracturing treatments in 1949.
What Is Halliburton's Competitive Advantage?
Halliburton's single most defensible competitive advantage is its integrated technology platform spanning the entire well lifecycle combined with its dominant market position in North American hydraulic fracturing and completions. The company is North America's largest oilfield-services company by market share, with a leading position in hydraulic fracturing that accounts for nearly half of revenue. This scale creates a self-reinforcing cycle: larger fleet size enables lower per-unit costs, lower costs enable competitive pricing, competitive pricing wins market share, and market share justifies fleet investment.
Halliburton's material science expertise, honed over a century of cementing and drilling fluids operations, provides technology differentiation that commodity service providers cannot replicate. The company's digital platform, including DecisionSpace 365 for reservoir modeling and drilling optimization, integrates physical services with data-driven insights. With $10.5 billion in shareholders' equity and $2 billion in cash, Halliburton has the financial flexibility to weather cyclical downturns and invest in technology. The company's capital return framework, targeting at least 50% of free cash flow to shareholders, signals financial discipline that supports a valuation premium.
Halliburton Business Model Explained
Halliburton operates as a Tier 1 oilfield services provider, selling directly to oil and gas operators rather than through distributors. The company's business model is built on multi-year relationships, integrated service contracts, and technology differentiation. Day-rate contracts for drilling services, unit-of-work pricing for completions, and turnkey integrated project management contracts provide revenue visibility and risk-sharing with customers.
The company's gross margin is supported by technology differentiation and operational scale, though margin pressure from customer pricing negotiations and inflation in chemicals, cement, and logistics costs remains persistent. Halliburton attempts to pass cost increases to customers and has implemented cost reduction initiatives targeting approximately $100 million in quarterly savings. Capital expenditures are focused on technology and maintenance rather than fleet expansion, reflecting management's view that the current fleet is sufficient to meet demand. The SAP S4 upgrade, while costly in the near term, is expected to improve operational efficiency.
Halliburton Key Acquisitions
Halliburton's most transformative acquisition was the 1962 purchase of Brown & Root for $36.7 million, which gave the company industrial and marine engineering capabilities and a connection to government contracting. The acquisition diversified Halliburton beyond oilfield services, though Brown & Root (later KBR) was eventually spun off in 2007.
The 1998 merger with Dresser Industries in a $7.7 billion deal created Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) and made Halliburton one of the largest diversified energy companies in the world. However, the merger loaded the balance sheet with debt and created organizational complexity that would take years to resolve. The 1957 acquisition of Welex Jet Services and 1959 acquisition of Otis Engineering Corporation expanded Halliburton's capabilities into well logging, perforating, and production services that remain core to the business today.
What Are the Biggest Risks Facing Halliburton?
The most significant risk facing Halliburton is the structural shift in US shale economics that has reduced drilling and completions intensity even at historically elevated oil prices. US operators have moved from growth to capital discipline, meaning fewer wells and less intensive completions. This structural headwind, combined with the cyclical downturn, has compressed North America revenue by 8% year-over-year and driven a 44.6% collapse in operating income over three years.
The August 2024 cybersecurity incident cost $35 million, forced a temporary pause in share buybacks, and delayed billing and collections. The attack, suspected to involve the RansomHub ransomware group, highlighted operational vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure. Pricing pressure from customers demanding annual service cost reductions of 3-5% is relentless. The energy transition poses a long-term challenge, as any acceleration away from oil and gas would reduce Halliburton's addressable market. Competition from SLB, Baker Hughes, and Weatherford remains intense across all service lines and geographies.
