No, not that HP. I'm talking here about Helmerich& Payne (NYSE:HP). What, you haven't heard of these guys? OK, OK -- they're a leading contract drilling company in the United States, focused mostly on land-based drilling.

Even if most investors aren't immediately familiar with them, you can bet that a lot of exploration and production companies are. Just as a hot market for offshore rigs has propelled earnings for Transocean (NYSE:RIG) and GlobalSantaFe (NYSE:GSF), a hot market for land rigs has been good news for the likes of HP and Nabors (NYSE:NBR).

Sales in the company's fiscal fourth quarter were up 42% as utilization, dayrates, and margins were lifted by what management called the "strongest land environment in 20 years." In the U.S. land business, average rig revenue per day rose 49% from last year, and the average per-day margin more than doubled -- despite a 10% sequential increase in operating costs.

Although earnings per share came in a bit shy of expectations, operating income was still up almost 18% sequentially and more than triple the year-ago level (after adding back an asset impairment charge in the year-ago period).

Unlike offshore rigs, it's not quite so hard to build new land rigs, and it looks like another 80 or so newly built rigs could hit the market next year, with about half of those coming from HP and Nabors. In fact, the company recently signed agreements with two exploration companies covering nine new FlexRigs. These rigs will cost about $11 million each to build, but are under contract for at least three years at terms that the company believes will generate solid returns. While the company presently has 50 FlexRigs in operation, it has contracts to build 50 more (including these nine).

Although many of these new rigs will simply help fill the shortfall between demand and current supply, increased rig supply and/or lower energy prices will eventually push dayrates and profitability back down. It's happened every time before, and while I'll concede that this bull cycle may have longer legs than previous ones, the notion that "it's different this time" is total bunk in my book.

For now, though, there's nothing wrong with trying to make hay while the sun shines. The stock has gone up more than 80% in the past year, but if oil and gas prices move up in reaction to an inevitable cold snap this fall or winter, driller stocks might go for another ride.

Drill down into more energy Foolishness:

Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).