Official figures shared by Schlumberger Ltd. for the fiscal year's fourth-quarter revealed that the company's earnings fell by a substantial 31%, mainly on the back of continued weak prices. Revenue, however, did show more signs that the demand is stabilizing, and results also managed to exceed the expectations pegged by analysts.

For the fourth quarter, the company posted earnings of $795 Million, or 65 cents per share, a substantial fall from the figure of $1.15 Billion, or 95 cents per share, that was reported for last year's same quarter.

Revenue fell by 17% to $5.74 Billion, but was up when compared to the previous quarter by 5.7%.

Analysts, on an average, had predicted earnings of 64 cents a share on revenue of $5.45 Billion.

Chairman and Chief Executive Andrew Gould, on Friday said that the company's outlook for the New Year is completely dependent on how the economy shapes up.