Oil services provider Schlumberger sees a “strong” outlook for upstream activity in the second half of 2014, with its international businesses expanding in all geographic markets and North America offering growth opportunities, particularly in onshore shale plays, its CEO said Friday. As the global economy continues to recover, the global oil market is relatively tight, although solid demand has been offset in part by pockets of supply uncertainty due to political events in parts of the world, Paal Kibsgaard said during a second-quarter earnings call. But in general, Brent crude that is holding above $100/barrel should encourage investment in oil-directed activity as US production continues to grow, Kibsgaard said. In 2014, “we continue to expect well-related E&P investment levels to grow north of 6%, driven by more development than production-focused activities,” he said. Meanwhile, “exploration spending will be largely flattish in 2014 driven by lower seismic spending as international […]