Though the Middle East is still a major revenue generator for the leading oil services firms, most of which have had a strong third quarter, all eyes are on North America, where production is particularly sensitive to falling oil prices.

Services firms are optimistic that oil prices will rebound: “I am not going to predict what the oil price is going to be, but on a longer term, we believe industry fundamentals suggest that these lower prices are not sustainable,” Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar, said in the company’s latest analyst call. Schlumberger CEO Paal Kibsgaard says that it’s too early to say definitively how prices will react moving into 2015, however, he believes that “there’s going to be some kind of recovery happening.” (CONTINUED - 765 WORDS)