Schlumberger joins Halliburton in calling oil cycle's bottom

Washington

THE world's two largest providers of oilfield drilling and fracking services have now declared that the worst may be over in the two-year-old oil market crash.

Schlumberger said last Thursday that the oil industry appears to have reached the bottom of the cycle, echoing smaller rival Halliburton Co, which on Wednesday said that the North American market reached its lowest point in the second quarter and is poised for modest growth the rest of this year.

"They're the two dominant players in the market, both of whom just called the bottom," James West, an analyst at Evercore-ISI in New York, said on Thursday in an interview. "It's a positive. Calling the bottom in the market sends the right signal, and Schlu…