RIGZONE article, Pioneer Rig rates avg $19,154 per day, .....and increasing.
It is very good that AMEP owns its own rigs:
Energy Boom Fuels Pioneer Drilling's Record Gain
by Vicki Vaughan San Antonio Express-News
Friday, August 04, 2006
Oil rigs are hot -- and Pioneer Drilling Co. capitalized on a booming energy market during its first quarter of fiscal 2007, as a bigger rig fleet helped it reach record results.
The San Antonio-based contract driller Thursday said its quarterly profit rose to $19.5 million, or 39 cents a share, compared with $7.7 million, or 17 cents a share, for the same period a year ago.
Revenue soared 56 percent to $93.5 million, compared with $59.9 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2006.
The company attributed the increase in revenue to a 38 percent boost in average revenue per day to $19,154 a day, as well as to an increase in the average number of rigs in the fleet to 56.7 from 50.
"Demand for our rigs has remained strong and we have continued to see increases in day rates in each of our operating areas," Pioneer CEO William Stacy Locke said.
Pioneer's revenue days in the quarter rose 13 percent to 4,881, compared with 4,303 revenue days for the same period in fiscal 2006.
The company's average drilling margin per revenue day jumped 86 percent to more than $9,000 in the quarter compared with $4,829 in the same period a year ago. Drilling margins reflect revenue per day minus costs per day.
Pioneer's utilization rate was 95 percent for the first quarter of fiscal 2007, unchanged from the same quarter a year ago. Forty-four of the company's 59 rigs are operating under term contracts of six months to two years.
Locke told analysts that Pioneer spent $8.3 million in the quarter to upgrade six rigs, adding, "The good news is that most of the significant upgrades are behind us." He sees the upgraded rigs as helping the company in good times or bad. The improved rigs will command substantially higher day rates in flush times such as today, and during a downturn "we'll have a lot more competitive rig," Locke said.
Pioneer Chief Financial Officer William Hibbetts told analysts that Pioneer began expensing stock compensation in the quarter, resulting in a $915,000 expense and a $595,000 reduction in net income. He said the company expects stock-compensation expense to average about $719,000 a quarter for the remaining three quarters of fiscal 2007.
Pioneer provides land contract-drilling services to independent and major oil and gas operators in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and the Rocky Mountains region. Its rigs drill to depths ranging from 6,000 to 18,000 feet.
FYI &DD,
... %^ greeneyedhawk
