NEW YORK, Jan 5, 2026, 04:40 ET — Premarket
Halliburton (HAL.N) shares were up 4.7% at $29.60 in premarket trading on Monday, as oilfield services stocks climbed after weekend developments in Venezuela put future drilling and well-work demand back in focus.
The move matters now because any push to restart and expand Venezuelan oil output would require oilfield services — the rigs, crews and equipment that drill wells and complete them, the work that readies a well to start producing. Halliburton is one of the largest suppliers of those services.
The rally comes as crude prices sit near $60 and investors watch how producers set 2026 budgets, with international work seen as a buffer when U.S. activity slows. Broader risk appetite held up, with S&P 500 e-mini futures slightly higher as traders looked ahead to a busy week of economic data.
President Donald Trump said on Saturday that large U.S. oil companies would go into Venezuela and “spend billions of dollars” to fix oil infrastructure after Nicolás Maduro was captured and removed by U.S. forces, a Reuters report said. Chevron is the only U.S. major currently operating in Venezuela, and Halliburton, SLB, Baker Hughes and Weatherford did not immediately respond to requests for comment, the report added. Reuters
Oil prices, however, were lower early Monday, with Brent down 0.8% at $60.26 a barrel and U.S. WTI down 0.9% at $56.79, as ample supply and policy expectations outweighed disruption fears, Reuters reported. OPEC+, the OPEC producer group and its allies, kept output unchanged on Sunday; RBC Capital’s Helima Croft said, “All bets are off in a chaotic change of power scenario like what occurred in Libya or Iraq.” Reuters
Peers tracked higher before the bell, with SLB up 4.8% and Baker Hughes up 3.5%, while Chevron and Exxon Mobil also rose in early trading.
For Halliburton, the Venezuela angle is less about immediate revenue and more about visibility into a new pipeline of projects that would need drilling, completion and well-intervention services. Traders will be watching for concrete steps on licensing, sanctions and contract frameworks that determine whether work can start moving from headlines to tenders.
The next scheduled company catalyst is Halliburton’s quarterly earnings report on Jan. 21, when investors will focus on guidance, pricing and customer spending signals for 2026 across North America and international markets.
But the upside case hinges on policy and execution. If the U.S. keeps the embargo tight, legal terms stay unclear, or political instability interrupts operations, Venezuela may remain a long-dated possibility while lower oil prices still weigh on producer budgets.
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