Nabors hit by oil price, positive on Alaska

The steep drop in oil prices and resulting sharp decline in drilling activity has caused an approximately 32 percent fall in Nabors Industry’s Lower 48 rig count, commented Anthony Petrel, Nabors chairman, president and chief executive officer, during the company’s fourth quarter 2014 earnings call on March 3. But, although the Lower 48 drilling slowdown seems set to continue, in Alaska Nabors’ outlook is for a year-on-year increase in drilling activity, Petrel said.

Petrel said that his company’s anticipated growth in Alaska activity did not include the operation of Nabors’ new award-winning coiled tubing rig, designed for use on the North Slope but not expected to go into operation until 2016. Petrel was presumably referring to the coiled tubing rig that ConocoPhillips has ordered for use in the Kuparuk River oil field.

The downturn in rig usage in the Lower 48 has been highest in the Rockies region, including the Bakken and Midcontinent, Petrel said.

- Alan Bailey