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油田服务公司 Patterson-UTI 已经摆脱了疫情的影响，其业务不断增长，资产负债表蓬勃发展，其创新推动了行业发展。其六个月平均运营钻机数量为 131 台，与 COVID-19 之前的活动相符，其股价同期反弹超过 20%，在 2023 年第一季度保持稳定，价格与 2019 年相当。

在接受 Hart Energy 石油和天然气投资者主编 Deon Daugherty 的独家采访时，帕特森总裁兼首席执行官安迪·亨德里克斯 (Andy Hendricks) 讨论了该公司在二叠纪盆地和全国各地的战略，帕特森正在这些地区部署先进的技术。 -最先进的钻机能够更快、更高效地生产更多产量。

Deon Daugherty：您在二叠纪盆地看到的最大机遇是什么？

安迪·亨德里克斯：最大的机会存在于人和工人周围。在过去的几年里，这个行业发展得如此之快，以至于我们都有相当多的营业额。尽管我们仍然会在二叠纪盆地生长，但展望未来，它会更加温和。我认为这将使我们有机会在劳动力方面获得一定的稳定性。

DD：那么，您近期面临的最大挑战是什么？

AH：我们必须为近期和长期做好计划。大宗商品价格的整体波动和近期天然气价格的下跌给我们的勘探与生产客户带来了短期内的不确定性，具体取决于他们运营的盆地。尽管自今年年初以来总体钻机数量有所下降，但帕特森-UTI 钻机数量几乎保持稳定，因为我们只运营 AC 高规格钻机。事实上，我们的活动水平高于 2020 年 1 月。今年钻机总数的下降是由于旧机械和 SCR 钻机的释放。这些下降不会影响我们，因为我们在拥有更高技术的多个盆地中处于有利地位，并且与客户以及多样化的客户组合拥有牢固的合作伙伴关系。

然而，运营商关注的这种近期环境给我们规划未来活动带来了一些挑战，这对于我们能够更新我们的资源计划并确保我们对机组人员进行培训以维持或发展活动非常重要水平。规划未来活动对于我们今年剩余时间的资本预算以及提前完成钻杆和结构钢等长期项目也至关重要。 

长期前景更加乐观，而且现在还处于年初。如果油价恢复到合理水平，即使天然气市场疲软，根据我们正在进行的讨论，我们可能会在年底前看到行业 AC 高规格钻机数量的增加以及压裂价差数量的增加，这意味着我们的活动仍可能增加。我们总是根据需要进行调整，但我们也必须做好准备。

DD：该行业的一个关键限制是，它是一个“周期性”行业，人们被雇用，很快赚很多钱，然后因为经济低迷而被解雇。每当需求上升时（尤其是在二叠纪盆地），这对您的招聘能力有何影响？

AH：这是最热的盆地，所以当地的劳动力普遍都不够用。你必须从流域外引进人。与过去十年更具挑战性的情况相比，现在不同的一件事是，我们正处于一个多年周期内。

随着大宗商品价格动态的变化，美国生产商不再处于高增长模式；他们正处于适度增长模式。美国的石油产量不再超过石油需求，因此大宗商品价格现在面临的风险较小。过去几年的这种情况变化使我们进入了多年的上升周期。

DD：帕特森的“名片”之一是开发高科技、超规格的钻机，这可能会减少钻更多井所需的钻机数量。请带我们了解二叠纪盆地的实施情况，并告诉我们它如何影响您的劳动力需求。

AH：在过去的四五年里，我们使用 Tier 1 Super Spec 钻机在二叠纪钻探的油井数量几乎增加了一倍。它为年复一年在大面积上进行钻探的运营商的计划提供了更高的效率。它使他们能够提高生产，这就是真正的经济学。

我们运营其中一台钻机的成本确实更高，因此勘探与生产公司使用其中一台钻机进行钻探的成本也更高。但每年你会获得更多的油井，因此你可以从通常情况下获得更多的产量。因此，拥有最高效的钻井和完井系统对于勘探与生产来说是一项经济胜利。

就人员而言，我认为这有点用词不当，因为我们现在在该钻机上工作的人数实际上比五年前要多，因为作业的速度和强度要快得多，而且我们需要安全地做到这一点。确实需要更多的人来协调。

我们确实有自动化在现场做不同的事情，但它并没有取代人类。实际上，我们已经为每个钻机增加了几个人。

DD：服务业作为一个整体如何才能最好地管理通胀？

AH：我们的勘探与生产客户面临的挑战是，作为钻井承包商和服务提供商，我们的成本在过去几年中大幅上升，而且从历史上看，我们必须将这些增加的成本转嫁给我们的客户。尽管该行业最近商品价格有所下降，但服务成本并不是商品价格的函数。

服务成本，无论是钻机还是压裂价差，都是设备可用性、在美国整体市场上具有竞争力的工资以及激活和维护设备所需的货物和材料成本的函数。 

过去两年我们不得不两次加薪。第一个是随着“行业活动增加”而进行的市场调整，因为我们的许多现场人员在过去五年多的时间里只看到了特定职位的稳定工资。那么第二次增长与经济中整体生活成本通胀直接相关。

同样，在服务成本不断增加的同时，勘探与生产公司也受益于通过技术和流程改进提高效率的共同成果。例如，我们在二叠纪的超规格钻机现在每年钻探的长度大约是四年前的两倍。这意味着现在每台钻机每年平均为勘探和生产生产的油井数量是原来的两倍。

DD：您如何看待盆地的整合？
 

AH：我们客户群的整合一直是我们行业的重要组成部分，随着钻井库存随着时间的推移而耗尽，这一趋势将持续下去。我们的战略始终是保持牢固的合作伙伴关系并拥有广泛的客户群。再加上我们各业务部门的高绩效运营，使我们能够在潜在合并之前和之后处于有利地位。

DD：紧张的劳动力市场对您的运营有何影响？
AH：我们没有错过任何工作，并且能够在安全水平上配置我们的运营人员，但实现这一目标并非没有挑战。自世界摆脱疫情、企业恢复并增加活动以来，美国的劳动力市场一直非常紧张。随着石油和天然气需求的不断增长，我们不得不在紧张的劳动力环境中扩大我们的地域搜索范围，并且不得不承担额外的成本来寻找、招聘、培训和入职新员工，以支持我们的高水平工作。卓越运营。

因此，过去两年我们的活动水平基本上翻了一番。我们致力于支持员工的成长、发展和职业发展，并很高兴他们加入我们的公司。

DD：您如何看待自己在能源转型中的角色？

AH：我们在钻井和完井作业的低排放解决方案方面处于领先地位，我们致力于继续实施和增强这些技术。例如，我们的 EcoCell 锂电池解决方案取代了井场的柴油发电机，与我们的 GenAssist 电源管理自动化软件相结合，这些技术可以将井场的总体燃料使用量和排放量减少高达 30%。

在此过程中，我们正在帮助勘探与生产公司实现减排目标。此外，我们还投资了一家地热公司 Criterion Energy Partners，其目标是能够通过采用成熟油田技术建造的地热井提供基本电力。我们对我们正在部署的技术的应用感到兴奋，这些技术不仅可以减少当前的排放，而且能够帮助未来提供可靠和清洁的能源。

Presented By:

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Oilfield services firm Patterson-UTI has emerged from the pandemic with its business growing, its balance sheet thriving and its innovation driving the industry. Its six-month average operating rig count of 131 matches pre-COVID-19 activity, and its share price has rebounded more than 20% during the same period, remaining stable during first-quarter 2023 at values comparable to 2019.

In an exclusive interview with Hart Energy’s Deon Daugherty, Oil and Gas Investor editor-in-chief, Patterson president and CEO Andy Hendricks discussed the company’s strategy in the Permian Basin and throughout the nation, where Patterson is deploying state-of-the-art rigs capable of producing greater volumes — faster and more efficiently.

Deon Daugherty: What are the biggest opportunities that you see in the Permian Basin?

Andy Hendricks: The biggest opportunity is around people and the workers. The industry has been ramping up so fast over the last couple of years that we've all had a fair amount of turnover.  Even though we’re still going to grow in the Permian, going forward, it’s going to be more moderated. And I think that'll give us a chance to get some stability in the workforce.

DD: And now, what are the biggest challenges you face in the near term?

AH: We have to plan for both the near-term and the long-term. Overall volatility in commodity prices and the recent decline in natural gas prices has created uncertainty for our E&P customers in the near-term, depending on the basins where they operate. And while the overall rig count is down since the beginning of the year, the Patterson-UTI rig count has been nearly steady as we only operate AC high-spec rigs. In fact, we are at a higher level of activity than in January 2020.  The decline in the overall rig count this year is due to releases of older mechanical and SCR rigs.  Those declines don’t affect us, as we are well positioned in multiple basins with higher technology and have strong partnerships with customers as well a diverse customer mix.

However, this near-term environment of operator concern creates some challenges for us to plan our forward activity, which is important for us to be able to update our resource plan and ensure we have the training for crews in progress to either sustain or grow activity levels. Planning forward activity is also crucial for our capital budget for the remainder of the year and to get ahead of long-lead items such as drill pipe and structural steel. 

The longer-term outlook is more positive, and it is still early in the year. If oil prices recover to a reasonable level, even with the gas market soft, based on discussions we are having we could see an increase in the industry AC high-spec rig count and an increase in the frac spread count before the end of the year, which means our activity could still increase.  We always adjust as needed, but we have to be ready as well.

DD: One of the industry’s key refrains is that it's a ‘cyclical’ industry in which people get hired, make a lot of money quickly, and then they get laid off because there's a downturn. How does that affect your ability to hire whenever there is an uptick – especially in the Permian?

AH: It’s the hottest basin and so the local workforce is generally tapped out. You have to bring in people from outside of the basin. One thing that’s different now – as opposed to where it's been more challenging over the last decade – is, we’re inside a multi-year cycle.

With the change in the dynamics of the commodity prices, the U.S. producers are no longer in a high growth mode; they’re in a moderate growth mode. The U.S. is no longer out-producing the demand for oil, and so the commodity prices are less at risk now. This situation change over the last few years has put us in a multi-year up cycle.

DD: One of Patterson’s “calling cards” is the development of high-tech, super spec rigs that may reduce the number of rigs needed to drill more wells. Walk us through that implementation in the Permian and tell us how it’s impacted your workforce needs.

AH: Over the last four or five years, we've almost doubled the amount of wells that we drill, per-rig in the Permian, using our Tier 1 Super Spec rigs. It provides more efficiency for the program of operators that drill year-in, year-out on large acreage footprints. It allows them to bring production forward and that’s the real economics.

It does cost us more to operate one of these rigs and so it costs the E&P more to have one of these rigs drilling for them. But you get more wells per year, so you bring more production in from what you normally would have done. And so it's an economic win for the E&P to have the most efficient in drilling and completion systems out there.

In terms of personnel, I think that there's a bit of a misnomer because we actually have more people working on that drilling rig now than we did five years ago because the pace and the intensity of the operation is so much faster – and we need to do it safely. It does take more people to coordinate.

We do have automation doing different things in the field, but it's not replacing people. We've actually increased the headcount by a few people per rig.

DD: How can the services sector as a whole best manage inflation?

AH: The challenge for our E&P customers is that as drilling contractors and service providers, our costs have risen significantly over the last couple of years, and we historically must pass those increases on to our customers. Although the industry has seen recent declines in commodity prices, service costs aren’t a function of commodity prices.

Service costs, whether it’s drilling rigs or frac spreads, are a function of equipment availability, wages that are competitive in the overall U.S. market and the costs for goods and materials needed to activate and maintain equipment. 

We have had to give two wage increases over the last two years. The first was a market adjustment as … industry activity increased, as many of our field personnel had only seen steady wages for a given position for the previous five-plus years. Then the second increase was directly related to the overall cost-of-living inflation in the economy.

Similarly, while service costs are increasing, E&Ps are benefitting from the shared achievements in improved efficiencies through technology and process improvements. For example, our super-spec rigs in the Permian are now drilling approximately double the footage-per-year versus four years ago. That means each drilling rig now produces twice as many wells per year on average for the E&Ps.

DD: How do you view consolidation in the basin?
 

AH: Consolidation within our customer base has always been a big part of our industry and that trend will continue as drilling inventory becomes depleted over time.  Our strategy has always been to maintain strong partnerships and have a broad customer base.  This coupled with high performing operations across our businesses allows us to be well positioned before and after potential mergers.

DD: How has the tight labor market affected your operations?
AH: We have not missed any work and have been able to staff our operations at safe levels, but it has not been without challenges to achieve this. The labor market in the U.S. has been very tight since the world emerged from the pandemic and businesses resumed and increased activity.  With the growing demand for oil and gas, we have had to broaden our geographical searches in this tight labor environment and have had to incur additional costs in order to find, recruit, train and onboard the new employees in order to support our high level of operational excellence.

As a result, we have essentially doubled our activity level over the last two years.  We are committed to supporting the growth, development and career advancement of our employees and excited to have them with our company.

DD: How do you see your role in the energy transition?

AH: We have a leadership position in low-emissions solutions for drilling and completion operations, and we are focused on continuing to implement and enhance these technologies.  For example, our EcoCell lithium battery solution replaces a diesel generator at the wellsite and, when combined with our GenAssist power management automation software, these technologies can reduce overall fuel usage and emissions at the wellsite by up to 30%.

In doing so, we are helping E&P companies to move towards their goals of reducing emissions.  As well, we have also invested in a geothermal company, Criterion Energy Partners, whose objective is to be able to provide a base load of electricity from geothermal wells, constructed using proven oilfield technologies. We are excited about the application of technologies we are deploying both to reduce emissions today and also to be able to help provide reliable and clean energy in the future.