Yesterday, I noted how Dawson Geophysical's
H&P has avoided falling victim to the domestic oversupply of commoditized rigs, thanks to a little secret weapon called the FlexRig. This is an in-house rig design that excels at performing directional drilling and other demanding applications. Because the FlexRig reduces the number of days required to drill a well, it is still economical for operators to employ H&P's rigs at a higher dayrate than what they would pay for an old mechanical rig. Everybody wins.
In its fourth fiscal quarter, H&P pretty much stomped its competitors in every way. U.S. land rig utilization came in at 95%, whereas Patterson-UTI
With 83 FlexRig commitments for three-year terms or longer, H&P is sitting pretty, no matter what wackiness befalls the lower 48 drillers in the near term. If you're seeking more leverage to the hot international land drilling market, plied by the likes of Nabors Industries