Jeff Miller
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer at Halliburton
Thank you, David, and good morning, everyone. Halliburton delivered an impressive third quarter. Our margin strength demonstrated the power of our strategy. I am pleased with the stability of our North America business and the profitability of our international growth. Let's jump right into the highlights.
Total company revenue increased 8% year-over-year, while operating income grew 23%. International revenue grew 17% year-over-year with strong activity in all geographic markets. North America revenue was roughly flat year-over-year and down 3% sequentially. Our Completion and Production division grew revenue 11% year-over-year, while margins expanded 280 basis points. Margins expanded 105 basis points sequentially, driven by international operations, while North American C&P margins remained approximately flat to last quarter. Our Drilling and Evaluation division grew revenue 4% year-over-year, while margins expanded 168 basis points. Finally, we generated $874 million of cash from operations, $511 million of free cash flow and repurchased approximately $200 million of common stock and $150 million of debt during the quarter.
To our over 45,000 employees globally, thank you for another outstanding quarter. You executed our strategy and delivered excellent financial results.
I'll begin with what I see in the macro environment. Reliable and affordable energy remains at the very center of global economic growth and security. The most recent world oil outlook from OPEC expects 10 million barrels of oil demand growth before the end of the decade and further demand growth through 2045. Maintaining production, while adding incremental supply requires meaningful long-term investment in both short- and long-cycle barrels to meet demand. This challenge is reflected in our customers' activity levels and future development plans. Consistent with this outlook, we expect continued demand growth for oilfield services in 2024 and beyond.
Everything I see today strengthens my conviction in the long duration of this upcycle. Against this backdrop, I believe the execution of our strategy will deliver strong free cash flow growing margins and more cash returned to shareholders.
Starting with North America. Halliburton performed exactly as I expected, delivering our strategy to maximize value in North America. Our North America business has changed. Despite the U.S. rig count decreasing around 20% since Q4 of 2022, Halliburton delivered strong revenue and margin performance during this period. That's quite a different result from what Halliburton would have delivered in prior cycles.
Since 2015, we changed our strategy, we changed our operating model and the market structure changed. Our strategy in North America is to maximize value. Executing this strategy made many of our decisions over the last few years crystal clear, including our decision to invest in differentiated and value-added technologies, such as our Zeus electric fleets, automation and our fiber optic downhole fracturing diagnostics. We know that in a competitive market to capture value, you must first create value. Our decision to de-risk returns and maximize free cash flow by only building fracturing equipment under long-term contracts. And finally, our decision to retire old equipment when returns are not sufficient rather than to pursue market share. Maximizing value means just that. Do the things that improve returns and stop doing the things that lower them.
Next, we fundamentally changed our operating model. We removed $1 billion of fixed cost from our business in 2020. Those cost reductions were structural and remain in place today. As a result, today, our cost structure is more variable and less fixed. And it's one of the reasons we have the flexibility to pursue returns rather than market share. Our commitment to continuous improvement drove significant changes in the way we work. which delivered efficiency improvements in our operations. This resulted in a 68% improvement in hours pumped per crew in just the last four years.
Finally, the E&P and services markets fundamentally changed. Today, the market is more consolidated, more focused on returns and more focused on free cash flow generation. We see the benefits of this change. Customers assign value to technology and efficiency and the service industry is rewarded for returns rather than growth. Never before has the success of our North America business been better aligned with the success of our customers who make significant long-term investments in the region. I expect the combination of our value proposition and strategy will deliver a more profitable business that generates more free cash flow for years to come.
Now let's turn to international markets where Halliburton's revenue grew 17% compared to the same quarter of last year. In the third quarter, we saw activity increase in both divisions, though, particularly in our Completions and Production division. Our results clearly demonstrate Halliburton's strong global competitiveness in both divisions and the successful execution of our strategy for profitable international growth.
We execute our profitable growth strategy through our differentiated technology offerings, selective contract wins and our unique collaborative approach with customers, all of which build on our foundation as a leader in service quality and execution. I expect the market for oilfield services will further tighten as asset-intensive offshore activity increases. More importantly, I expect that pricing returns will serve as the mechanism to allocate scarce equipment. This is a great market for Halliburton to execute its strategy for profitable international growth. I'm excited about our international business, and we are on track to deliver high teens year-on-year growth in 2023. Looking ahead, 2024 is coming into view and I expect to see international activity, again, directionally higher with market growth in the double-digit range.
I'd like to take a few minutes and talk more about our global offshore business. Let me start with some color. Offshore represents more than 50% of our business outside of North America land. About 25% of our C&P revenue is generated offshore. More than 40% of our D&E revenue is generated offshore. All of our regions contribute materially to our offshore revenue. All of our product lines operate offshore and Halliburton leads in many well construction product lines key to offshore development.
Customers choose Halliburton because we collaborate and deliver impactful results. The combination of our leading product lines and our collaboration from design through well delivery is what drives superior results for our customers. One example is in Norway, where according to IHS Rushmore data, the Aker BP Alliance, where Halliburton provides well construction services consistently represents the top quartile of drilling performance. This performance matters even more in a market where offshore rig rates and spread costs are rising.
With our customers, we deliver some of the most technically complex wells in our industry. We provide leading solutions in many areas, including high-pressure deepwater completions, complex multilateral junctions, ultra-deep reading LWD tools, narrow-margin drilling fluids and tailored lightweight cement. These solutions enable our customers to efficiently and reliably develop their offshore reserves and maximize the value of their assets. Execution of our value proposition has created a strong offshore business, underpinned by efficiency and differentiated technology. Our ability to compete in all parts of the offshore business, including exploration, development and intervention has never been better.
Let me close with this. I'm both excited and confident in the outlook for our business. The duration of this up cycle, the clarity and depth of our strategy and the strength of our execution.
Now I'll turn the call over to Eric to provide more details on our financial results. Eric?
