Halliburton’s margins continue to compress. Will the VoltaGrid partnership offer a pivot to prosperity?
Halliburton reported its full year 2025 results on Thursday.
We got some interesting news about margins and the possible future with VoltaGrid.
MARGINS CONTINUE TO COMPRESS
The shape of the company is changing before our eyes.
Comparing the fourth quarter of 2025 to the same period in 2024, we see total revenue increased 1%, which is notable given the continued headwinds across the oilfield.
But look what happened to revenue across the different regions:
➤ North America flat
➤ Latin America +12%
➤ Europe, Africa, CIS +17%
➤ Middle East, Asia -12%
Operating income excluding impairments dropped 11%.
That took operating margin from 17% to 15%.
VOLTAGRID DISCUSSION WITH FEW DETAILS
Halliburton’s partnership with VoltaGrid captured a lot of attention on the earnings call.
One notable detail is that Halliburton and VoltaGrid have secured 400 MW of manufacturing commitments for natural gas turbines.
That’s a big deal.
For some context, each of the brand new nuclear units at Plant Vogtle in Georgia has a capacity around 1.2 GW.
So Halliburton and VoltaGrid have secured the equivalent of a third of a massive new nuclear power unit.
Unfortunately for investors, that’s pretty much where the VoltaGrid details stop.
The executive team was asked how the returns on these power projects will compare with the company’s organic investments.
The CFO offered about as little visibility as possible:
“So it’s really early to tell you that it’s accretive, dilutive to our current return. It will depend.”
POWER IS A HOT TOPIC, BUT LACK OF CLARITY REMAINS
That’s part of the reason skepticism remains.
The executive team has little idea what the financial reality of these power projects will look like.
And while it’s great to have manufacturing commitments, that’s a far cry from having equipment on the ground, generating and delivering power under durable, accretive commercial agreements.
To be fair, you can’t accelerate from zero to a meaningfully-sized business with full financial transparency in short order.
But it’s a reminder that the Halliburton-VoltaGrid endeavor today is all about promise and potential.
It has very little track record to give us a sense of what it ultimately may or may not become.
