Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) has made a conditional offer to Expro International, a British oil field services company, to acquire the company for 1.7 billion pounds (about $3.36 billion).

What is interesting is that Expro had previously agreed to a bid of 1.61 billion pounds from private equity funds which included Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS).

So far, Expro has maintained that this latest news does not yet constitute a firm intention to make an offer and that it has pre-conditions to it.

With a $42 Billion market cap, Halliburton could easily absorb this.  Halliburton shares are unchanged in early pre-market hours.

Jon C. Ogg
May 23, 2008