The following video is from Thursday's Digging for Value, in which host Alison Southwick, Motley Fool analyst Joel South and fool.com contributor Tyler Crowe dive deep into the top stories for today's energy sector investors.The twice-weekly show can be viewed on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It can also be found on Twitter, along with our extended coverage of the energy and materials sectors: @TMFEnergy.
In this segment, Joel discusses what he is looking for in Halliburton's (HAL -0.23%) earnings, due out next week. Rather than looking at the tried and true oil services metric, rig counts, Joel sees drilling intensity as a much more important factor to watch. Increased drilling efficiencies such as pad drilling means more wells can be drilled per rig, so drilling intensity is a more accurate gauge of how companies like Halliburton and Schlumberger (SLB 0.49%) are performing, especially in the North American market. Tune into the video below to see what could be expected in this important metric for the quarter, as well as one more thing to watch in Halliburton's earnings.
