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Patterson-UTI Buys Canadian Drilling Tech Company

Patterson-UTI logoPatterson-UTI Energy is a company we watch as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around (see Turn Around! Patterson-UTI August Rig Count Up 3rd Mo in a Row). Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States and Canada. Patterson announced this morning they have agreed to buy out Canadian-based Warrior Rig Ltd., a drilling technology company. No price was disclosed. We consider it a good sign that Patterson can scrounge up enough nickles to buy another company. A sign that things are indeed beginning to look up…
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Turn Around! Patterson-UTI August Rig Count Up 3rd Mo in a Row

Patterson-UTI logoAs we do every month, MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). Month by month Paterson’s rig count has declined over the past year plus–until June (see Tide has Turned: Patterson-UTI June Rig Count Ticks Up by 2). June was the first time in over a year that Patterson’s rig count reversed and began to climb once again. In July the count went up again (see Patterson-UTI July Rig Count Goes Up for 2nd Month in Row). And now, drum roll please! For a third month in a row the Patterson-UTI rig count in the U.S. increased, jumping from 56 rigs operating in July to 60 operating in August. We believe we can safely say we’ve now turned the corner with drilling in the Marcellus/Utica. We’re officially on the upswing!…
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Patterson-UTI July Rig Count Goes Up for 2nd Month in Row

Patterson-UTI logoAs we do every month, MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). Month by month Paterson’s rig count has declined over the past year plus–until June (see Tide has Turned: Patterson-UTI June Rig Count Ticks Up by 2). June was the first time in over a year that Patterson’s rig count reversed and began to climb once again. What about July? The numbers are in, and we’re excited to report that Patterson added another rig to the count in July…
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Patterson-UTI 2Q16: $86M Loss, “Well Positioned” for a Recovery

Patterson-UTI logoEach month MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). After more than a year, Patterson’s June report finally showed a small turnaround (see Tide has Turned: Patterson-UTI June Rig Count Ticks Up by 2). But what about Patterson’s financial health? The company released their second quarter 2016 update earlier today. Patterson reports losing $86 million in 2Q16, versus losing $19 million in 2Q15. The reason for the drop: Patterson averaged 55 operating rigs in 2Q16 versus an average of 71 rigs operating in 1Q16. According to comments by the company’s top brass, they are doing everything they can to make it through the downturn and believe they are “well positioned for a recovery.” If things have truly turned around and drilling is back, hopefully Patterson will come roaring back. The Marcellus/Utica is counting on it!…
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Financial Finagling: Patterson-UTI Extends Date for Line of Credit

Patterson-UTI logoEach month MDN reports on the rig count for oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy. Why? Because Patterson-UTI has major operations in the Marcellus/Utica and we use their rig count as a proxy for predicting the pickup or slowdown of drilling in the northeast. Last week we reported the exciting news that Patterson’s rig count had, after more than a year, reversed and went up (see Tide has Turned: Patterson-UTI June Rig Count Ticks Up by 2). Today we report that Patterson is, like so many other companies in the oil and gas sector, playing around with its financing. Patterson announced it has extended its line of credit. Some $358 million of the company’s $500 million line of credit was due to be paid off by September 2017. They cut a deal with their bankers to extend that to March 2019. Plus they’re doing some other financial finagling…
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Tide has Turned: Patterson-UTI June Rig Count Ticks Up by 2

Patterson-UTI logoAs we do every month, MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). Month by month Paterson’s rig count has declined over the past year plus. We have been waiting for over a year to report this: We’ve finally turned the corner! The Patterson rig count in June ticked up by 2 rigs–to 55 active rigs (up from 53 in May). Perhaps it’s too early to pop the cork on the champagne, but we are excited and hope/think this portends the slow down has finally hit rock bottom and new drilling is, ever so gradually, beginning to pick up again…
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Signs of Hope? Patterson-UTI Rig Count Drop Slows in May

Patterson-UTI logoAs we do every month, MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). Month by month Paterson’s rig count has declined over the past year plus. May was no different–although the good news is that the rate of decline slowed. Patterson reports operating an average of 53 rigs in May, versus 56 in April–a 5% drop…
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Patterson-UTI Rig Count for April Hits Another New Low

chart going downAs we do every month, MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). Month by month Paterson’s rig count has declined over the past year plus. April was no different. Patterson reports operating an average of 56 rigs in April, versus 64 in March–a big 12.5% drop and a new low. Once again we ask, how low can it go? Below is our running Patterson-UTI rig count chart that shows the sad story…
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Patterson-UTI 1Q16: $70M Loss, Rig Counts Down, Still Bleeding

Patterson-UTI logoEach month MDN tracks the number of active rigs deployed by oilfield services drilling company Patterson-UTI Energy (see our Patterson-UTI stories here). Patterson deploys a number of rigs in the Marcellus/Utica, so we use them as a proxy for trends in rig counts in our region. The news has not been good for Patterson. The most recent monthly count, for March, was it’s lowest yet (see How Low Can it Go? Patterson-UTI Rig Count Plunges to 64 in March). Yesterday Patterson issued its first quarter 2016 update, and the news was, well, not very good. The company lost $70.5 million in 1Q16, compared with making $9.1 million in 1Q15. Revenues were WAY down–from $658 million in 1Q15 to $269 million in 1Q16. Ouch. Management expects to see a further 20% decline in the second quarter. Here’s the full, sad story…
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How Low Can it Go? Patterson-UTI Rig Count Plunges to 64 in March

As we do every month, MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). Month by month Paterson’s rig count has declined from 5-10% (see Patterson-UTI Average Rig Count Falls to 74 in February). The latest numbers are out and Patterson’s rig count has dropped another 10 rigs, to 64. That’s a massive 14% drop in a single month. We seriously ask ourselves, just how low can it go?…
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Patterson-UTI Average Rig Count Falls to 74 in February

As we do every month, MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). Previously Patterson’s January rig count number went down by 5%–from 82 in December to 78 in December. The month before that it was down 10%–from from 91 in November to 82 in December. What about February? Down another 4 rigs to a new low of 74 operating in the U.S. That’s a decrease of another 5%. Will the bleeding never end?…
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Patterson-UTI Average Rig Count Falls to 78 in January

As we do every month, MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). Previously Patterson’s December rig count number went down by 10% from November–from 91 in November to 82 in December. The count has dropped again for January–down to 78 active rigs for the month. For many months Patterson’s Canadian rig count has stood at four. Below is the announcement for January’s numbers, along with a chart we’ve created showing Patterson’s average monthly rig count number from March 2015 through January 2016…
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Laurel Mountain Drilling First Well in Western PA – It’s a Utica

Laurel Mountain Energy logoOne of our ace tipsters alerted us that Laurel Mountain Energy, a relatively new E&P (exploration and production) company is firing up a drilling rig to drill one, possibly two new Utica wells in Pennsylvania. You may recall MDN brought you the news one year ago that Laurel Mountain, essentially a reborn Vista Resources with big money backing from TPH Partners (Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.), had formed and set up headquarters in Pittsburgh (see “New” Pittsburgh Company Forms to Target Marcellus/Utica in W PA). Since that time we’d not heard anything about Laurel Mountain Energy–until now. Below we’ve pieced together information from our tipster and from the forthcoming edition of the Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook
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Ouch: Patterson-UTI Rig Count Drops Another 10% in December

As we do every month, MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). Patterson’s November rig count number went down, but only by one, which led us to speculate that perhaps we had finally turned the corner on falling rig counts (see Patterson-UTI Rig Count Hits New Low in November). Alas, we were wrong–in a big way. Patterson released their December rig count numbers yesterday and their U.S. rig count dropped from 91 in November to 82 in December–down 10% in a single month. For months and months Patterson has operated four rigs in Canada. In December the Canadian rig count went to one. It seems like there’s no end of bad news when it comes to domestic shale drilling…
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Patterson-UTI Rig Count Hits New Low in November

As we do every month, MDN tracks how many rigs oilfield services company Patterson-UTI Energy reports operating–as a proxy for when/if the drop in rig counts for the Marcellus/Utica will turn around. Patterson operates a number of rigs in the northeast, as well as other areas of the continental United States (and Canada). The company has just issued their report for November, and once again the rig count went down. However, the company reports idling only one more rig in November over October–operating 91 rigs in November vs 92 in October. Is the slide in rig counts finally ending? About to turn around?…
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Patterson-UTI Rig Counts Continue to Slide in October

Since March MDN has been watching the active number of rigs operated by Patterson-UTI Energy as a proxy for whether or not we’ve “turned the corner” on falling rig counts in the Marcellus/Utica. Patterson is a major drilling contractor with operations in the Marcellus/Utica region. Month after the month it’s the same story: Patterson is operating less rigs in the U.S. than it was the month before. The numbers are now out for October. What do they show? We’ve hit a new low. Here’s a recap of the numbers rigs Patterson was operating in the U.S. over the past eight months: March – 142; April – 131; May – 122; June – 112; July – 111 (seemed like it was turning the corner! but it wasn’t); August – 106; September – 99; and now in October – 92. Kerplunk…
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