Halliburton aims to outperform deepwater market by 25 percent

(Reuters) - Oilfield services provider Halliburton Co said on Wednesday it aims to expand in the deepwater market at least 25 percent faster than the market growth rate over the next three years. Eric Carre, senior vice president for drilling and evaluation, cited industry estimates for deepwater market growth of 11 percent annually through 2018, with 62 percent of the new wells to be drilled in the so-called Golden Triangle: Brazil, West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico. "We're looking at healthy market growth, and market trends which are favorable to Halliburton," Carre said at the company's 2013 analyst day. Looking back at the past three years, Carre said the deepwater market's compound annual growth rate was 13 percent, compared with 31 percent for Halliburton. To achieve that, he said, the company invested about $1 billion and increased its staffing in the Golden Triangle by 35 percent. Halliburton executives outlined their strategy at the much-anticipated meeting with analysts. The company's shares, having risen 5 percent in the previous two weeks, were little changed in morning trading on Wednesday. At the meeting, Halliburton, the No. 2 oilfield services company behind Schlumberger Ltd , committed to tripling the revenue it earns from its mature fields business to $9 billion by 2016. (Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and John Wallace)