Halliburton Co., the world's No. 2 oil field services company, Tuesday posted a third-quarter net loss as it took $230 million in charges to fund its asbestos liability.
The Houston-based company, formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, said its net loss totaled $44 million, or 9 cents per share, compared with year-earlier net income of $58 million, or 13 cents per share.
Excluding the charge for its asbestos settlement, profit from continuing operations was $186 million, or 42 cents per share.
That figure topped Wall Street forecasts of 36 cents per share, according to Reuters Research.
Halliburton said revenue rose 16 percent to $4.8 billion because of higher activity in the Middle East from its KBR construction and engineering unit and record revenues at its Engineering Services Group.
