Report: Few big U.S. land drillers set to ride out oil downturn as winners
Analysts say big U.S. land drillers that operate new, faster rigs are best placed to weather the downturn brought by weaker crude oil prices and could gain market share from smaller drillers with high debt levels and outdated equipment.
Companies with considerable debt such as Nabors Industries (NYSE:NBR) and small private firms with less efficient rigs will scramble to keep them in operation; those with new rigs, such as Helmerich & Payne (NYSE:HP) at Patteron-UTI (NASDAQ:PTEN), will have more leeway to negotiate lower rates with producers and keep or even expand their business.
The top 3-4 players had 65%-70% of the most modern rigs and the oil slump gives them a chance to win market share from small firms that make up about half of the U.S. land drilling sector, RBC Capital analyst Kurt Hallead says.
HP has a debt-to-EBITDA ratio of less than 1, PTEN's is 2.3x while NBR is 7.4x.
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