Halliburton Bids for Britain's Expro

The oil services giant's offer is more than an April bid by a group led by Candover Partners.
By TSC Staff ,

Updated from 9:54 a.m. EDT

Oil services giant

Halliburton

(HAL) - Get Report

has bid 1.71 billion British pounds for London-based rival

Expro

.

The all-cash bid is higher than a 1.61 billion British pound offer made in April by a consortium comprising funds managed or advised by Candover Partners.

"The proposal does not amount to a firm intention to make an offer and is subject to certain pre-conditions," Expro said in a company statement.

The offer comes amid soaring prices for crude oil this week. Crude futures

reached over the $135 mark

, a new intraday record, Thursday, before finishing lower for the first time in five days.

The

U.S. Oil Fund ETF

(USO) - Get Report

has surged as much as 5.9% this week.

Meanwhile, a number of companies have reported expected hits to their bottom lines due to soaring crude prices. American Airlines parent

AMR Corp.

(AMR)

on Wednesday said it was

slashing capacity

and charging new baggage fees to deal with rising oil costs. And on Thursday,

Ford

(F) - Get Report

said it was shifting production away from gas-guzzling SUVs and trucks to more fuel efficient cars to meet consumer tastes, which

will hamper

the company's prior expectation of returning to profitability in 2009.

Halliburton shares were up fractionally to $48.38 in recent trading after Friday's opening bell.

Rival

Schlumberger

(SLB) - Get Report

was down 1% to $101.49 and

National Oilwell Varco

(NOV) - Get Report

was up fractionally to $82.47.

This article was written by a staff member of TheStreet.com.

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