Bad weather causes Patterson-UTI Energy to lose 120 ‘drilling days’ in March

Ray Tyson

Petroleum News Houston correspondent

U.S. contract land driller Patterson-UTI Energy last month lost an estimated 120 drilling days, or an average of four rigs, because of weather related delays in moving rigs, the company said April 5.

Patterson’s estimate does did not include drilling days lost due to weather conditions that caused customers to delay preparation of drilling locations, the company said.

Drilling days reported by Patterson represent the number of days in which a company rig was moving or operating under a drilling contract. The company owns 361 land-based drilling rigs that operate primarily in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and western Canada.

For the month of March 2004, the company said it had a total of 6,458 drilling days, or an average of 208 drilling rigs operating, including an average of 195 rigs in the United States and 13 rigs in Canada. For the three months ended March 2004, the company reported a total of 18,052 drilling days, or an average of 198 drilling rigs operating, including an average of 184 rigs in the United States and 14 rigs in Canada.