Oil service giant Baker Hughes reports quarterly loss

Oil service giant Baker Hughes on Wednesday reported a loss of 981 million U.S. dollars in the first quarter of this year, mainly due to the continued low oil prices and its pending merger with rival Halliburton.

The Houston-based firm said in a report that its first-quarter revenue stood at 2.7 billion dollars, down 42 percent from the fourth quarter of 2015.

Meanwhile, its net loss in the first quarter of this year amounts to 981 million dollars, up about 65 percent year-on-year.

Martin Craighead, chief executive officer of Baker Hughes, said that during the first quarter of this year, the oil and gas industry faced another precipitous decline in activity as oil producers reduced spending further.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit challenging the merger deal that will combine Baker Hughes and Halliburton, the world's second- and third-largest oil-field services firms.

"We are retaining costs in our operating profit margins in compliance with the merger agreement. Additionally, the unique circumstances in which we are operating limit our ability to consider and action a broader range of measures required to align the company with the current and near-term market conditions," said Craighead.

Halliburton, which saw its first-quarter revenue drop 40 percent year-on-year, delayed a conference call to May 3 after the April 30 deadline for the merger.

Oil closed on Wednesday above 45 dollars a barrel in New York, and the U.S. crude output fell to 8.94 million barrels a day last week, the least since October 2014. Endi