Halliburton (HAL) Risk Analysis

Changes in or the adoption or enactment of laws, regulations, treaties or international agreements related to greenhouse gases, climate change, or alternative energy sources, including changes that may make it more expensive to explore for and produce oil and natural gas, may negatively impact demand for our services and products. For example, oil and natural gas exploration and production may decline as a result of environmental requirements, including land use policies responsive to environmental concerns. State, national, and international governments and agencies in areas in which we conduct business continue to evaluate, and in some instances adopt, climate-related legislation and other regulatory initiatives that would restrict emissions of greenhouse gases. The President of the United States has issued Executive Orders seeking to adopt new regulations and policies to address climate change and to suspend, revise, or rescind prior agency actions that the administration identified as conflicting with its climate policies. These include Executive Orders requiring a review of current U.S. federal lands leasing and permitting practices, as well as a temporary halt of new leasing of U.S. federal lands and offshore waters available for oil and gas exploration. The Executive Orders halting the leasing of U.S. federal lands were challenged in court and, in August 2022, a federal judge in Louisiana issued a permanent injunction against the temporary halt to the leasing of federal lands for oil and gas drilling. As a result of the review of leasing and permitting practices, the U.S. Department of the Interior recommended increasing the royalty rate payable to the U.S. government by operators, as well as bonding requirements and emissions requirements for operators. The Biden Administration resumed selling leases to drill for oil and gas on federal lands in April 2022, but with an 80% reduction in the number of acres offered and an increase in the royalties companies must pay to drill. All of these changes could have a negative effect on exploration and production of oil and natural gas and, consequently, negatively impact the demand for our products and services. In February 2021, the United States formally re-joined the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement requires countries to review and “represent a progression” in their intended nationally determined contributions, which set greenhouse gases emission reduction goals, every five years. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has proposed strict new methane emission regulations for certain oil and gas facilities. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 establishes a charge on methane emissions above certain limits from the same facilities. Though we are closely following developments in this area and changes in the regulatory landscape in the United States, we cannot predict how or when those changes may ultimately impact our business. Because our business depends on the level of activity in the oil and natural gas industry, existing or future laws, regulations, treaties, or international agreements related to greenhouse gases or climate change, including incentives to conserve energy or use alternative energy sources, may reduce demand for oil and natural gas and could have a negative impact on our business. Likewise, such restrictions may result in additional compliance obligations with respect to the release, capture, sequestration, and use of carbon dioxide. The efforts we have taken, and may undertake in the future, to respond to these evolving or new regulations and to environmental initiatives of customers, investors, and others may increase our costs. These and other environmental requirements could have a material adverse effect on our business, consolidated results of operations, and consolidated financial condition.

We continually seek opportunities to maximize efficiency and value through various transactions, including purchases or sales of assets, businesses, investments, or joint venture interests. These transactions are intended to (but may not) result in the realization of savings, the creation of efficiencies, the offering of new products or services, the generation of cash or income, or the reduction of risk. Acquisition transactions may use cash on hand or be financed by additional borrowings or by the issuance of our common stock. These transactions may also affect our business, consolidated results of operations, and consolidated financial condition. These transactions also involve risks, and we cannot ensure that: - any acquisitions we attempt will be completed on the terms announced, or at all; - any acquisitions would result in an increase in income or provide an adequate return of capital or other anticipated benefits; - any acquisitions would be successfully integrated into our operations and internal controls; - the due diligence conducted prior to an acquisition would uncover situations that could result in financial or legal exposure, including under the FCPA, or that we will appropriately quantify the exposure from known risks; - any disposition would not result in decreased earnings, revenue, or cash flow; - use of cash for acquisitions would not adversely affect our cash available for capital expenditures and other uses; or - any dispositions, investments, or acquisitions, including integration efforts, would not divert management resources.

Our business is directly affected by changes in capital expenditures by our customers, and reductions in their capital spending could reduce demand for our services and products and have a material adverse effect on our business, consolidated results of operations, and consolidated financial condition. Some of the items that may impact our customer's capital spending include: - oil and natural gas prices, which are impacted by the factors described in the preceding risk factor; - the inability of our customers to access capital on economically advantageous terms, which may be impacted by, among other things, a decrease of investors' interest in hydrocarbon producers because of environmental and sustainability initiatives; - changes in customers' capital allocation, including an increased allocation to the production of renewable energy or other sustainability efforts, leading to less focus on oil and natural gas production growth; - restrictions on our customers' ability to get their produced oil and natural gas to market due to infrastructure limitations; - consolidation of our customers; - customer personnel changes; and - adverse developments in the business or operations of our customers, including write-downs of oil and natural gas reserves and borrowing base reductions under customers' credit facilities.