Mubasher: The US-based energy giant Schlumberger Ltd on Friday reported a net income of $644 million, or 46 cents per share, for the third quarter of 2018, up from $581 million in the year-ago period.

Earnings per share (eps) also stood at 46 cents in Q3-18, the world's largest oilfield services company said.

Revenue grew to $8.504 billion in the three-month period ended September from $7.905 billion in the same quarter a year earlier, it added.

Paal Kibsgaard, CEO of Schlumberger, said that revenues in international areas accelerated sequentially more than in North America for the first time since Q2-14, MarketWatch reported.

Sequential growth in North America was positive, but it started slowing from the previous quarter "as takeaway constraints in the Permian impacted hydraulic fracturing activity”.

“From a macro perspective, the oil market continued to tighten in the third quarter as seen by a further draw in global oil inventories and a significant increase in oil prices despite continued strong production from the US and increasing output from key OPEC countries," Kibsgaard highlighted.

He said that tightening supply and demand balance has been worse due to cuts in Venezuela and Iranian exports.