The worst may be over for the North American oil market, predicted, as the US oil support service group reported its fourth consecutive quarter of losses as it continues to .

“We believe the North America market has turned,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday. “We expect to see a modest uptick in rig count during the second half of the year.”

Revenues for the group in the June quarter fell by 38 per cent to $2.1bn compared with the prior year period, and swung into a net loss of $3.2bn, compared with net income of $54m a year earlier.

The bulk of the losses stemmed from the $3.5bn in termination fee that it had to pay to after their proposed following opposition from US and European antitrust regulators.

Excluding this charge, the net loss was 14 cents a share — better than the 19 cents a share loss that investors were expecting.

North America, which before the oil price slump had accounted for more than half of Halliburton’s revenues, had been hard hit by the sharp pull back in fracking work as shale oil companies struggled to stay in business.

The region fell into an operating loss of $124m during the period as revenues tumbled by more than 43 per cent to $1.5bn.

However, Halliburton pointed to the recent stabilisation in oil prices as good news.

After falling 78% from the November 2014 peak, the US rig count reached a landing point during the second quarter, as we predicted during our last earnings call. Since reaching the bottom, the rig count has improved by 26 over the last several weeks, reflecting operator confidence in stabilising commodity prices.

Halliburton shares, up nearly a third so far this year, rose 0.8 per cent in pre-market trading.