New York, January 23 (FinanceEnquiry.com) - As hydraulic fracturing is becoming an extremely popular and effective technique for obtaining oil and natural gas in the U.S., Halliburton Co (NYSE: HAL), the world’s largest provider of fracturing services has posted higher fourth-quarter results. Its net income went up to $906 million, or 98 cents a share, from $605 million, or 66 cents a share, a year earlier against analysts’ expectations of 99 cents a share.

As more and more companies involved in drilling for oil and natural gas in the U.S. are boosting spending by switching to the technique of fracking, which involves blasting water mixed with sand and chemicals underground to liberate the trapped hydrocarbons from shale formations, Halliburton’s earnings are soaring. According to an analyst, there has been an increase of 63 percent to $31 billion in the spending last year of oil and gas producers on fracking services.

As crude prices are rising, oil companies are expanding their exploration work especially in the U.S. onshore market. In the fourth quarter, oil prices rose 10 percent to $94.06 a barrel, up from $85.24 a year ago. Moreover, the average number of active oil and gas rigs in the U.S. went up 19 percent to 2,010 in the months of October through December 2011, compared to 1,688 a year earlier. Halliburton boosted its fracking services last year by increasing the amount of its pumping equipment 37 percent to 2.6 million horsepower in North America.