Q1 2025 Patterson-UTI Energy Inc Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

Michael Sabella; Michael Sabella - PattVice President - Investor Relations; Patterson-UTI Energy Inc

William Hendricks; President, Chief Executive Officer, Director; Patterson-UTI Energy Inc

C. Andrew Smith; Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President; Patterson-UTI Energy Inc

Arun Jayaram; Analyst; JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Scott Gruber; Analyst; Citigroup Inc.

Ati Modak; Analyst; The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

Saurabh Pant; Analyst; BofA Global Research

Eddie Kim; Analyst; Barclays Capital Inc

Keith MacKey; Analyst; RBC Capital Markets

Stephen Gengaro; Analyst; Stifel Financial Corp

Daniel Kutz; Analyst; Morgan Stanley & Co LLC.

Connor Jensen; Analyst; Raymond James Financial, Inc.

Jeff LeBlanc; Analyst; TPH and Company

Don Crist; Analyst; Johnson Rice & Company L.L.C.

Sean Mitchell; Analyst; Daniel Energy Partners

Presentation

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the operator. Today's conference is scheduled to begin momentarily. Until that time, your line will be placed on music hold. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for standing by. My name is Dan, and I will be your conference operator today.
At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Patterson-UTI first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to Michael Sabella, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Michael Sabella

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to Patterson-UTI's earnings conference call to discuss our first quarter 2025 results. With me today are Andy Hendricks, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Andy Smith, Chief Financial Officer.
As a reminder, statements that are made in this conference call that refer to the company's or management's plans, intentions, targets, beliefs, expectations, or predictions for the future are considered forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties as disclosed in the company's SEC filings which could cause the company's actual results to differ materially.
The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. Statements made in this conference call include non-GAAP financial measures. The required reconciliation to GAAP financial measures are included on our website, patenergy.com and in the company's press release issued prior to this conference call.
I will now turn the call over to Andy Hendricks, Patterson-UTI's, Chief Executive Officer.

William Hendricks

Thank you, Mike, and welcome to our first quarter earnings conference call. The first quarter of 2025 unfolded largely as anticipated, with steady drilling activity across US shale and a strong recovery in completions activity following fourth quarter E&P budget constraints. As the first quarter progressed, we started to see some positive momentum in the natural gas basins, and that momentum has carried into the second quarter.
In oil basins, we have continued to see steady demand as our customers monitor recent macro events. At Patterson-UTI, our focus on optimizing our core operations and disciplined capital allocation is delivering results. Our scale, our strong customer relationships, and comprehensive service and product offering set us apart operationally, positioning us for sustained success.
At the core of our strategy is our commercial offering that can deliver a suite of services and products that is unique to Patterson-UTI with an operational footprint that allows us to touch more of the well site than nearly any of our competitors. We believe this can enhance efficiency and unlock value for our customers while positioning us for relative market outperformance.
All Patterson-UTI segments performed well in the first quarter, which is a testament to the quality of our assets as well as our people and our technology. Our integrated agreements in both the drilling and the completion businesses leverage our full capabilities and our commercial strategy is benefiting the entire company. We continue to believe that controlling more of the well site will allow us to drive greater efficiencies for our customers while also maximizing returns for our investors.
The initial fully integrated PTEN Advantage project exceeded expectations, delivering performance bonuses and accretive margins for Patterson-UTI, while also delivering a better outcome for the customer, truly a win-win. We expect integrated work on both the drilling and completion side will continue to grow as a proportion of our overall business. For US shale, we believe that service companies that can deliver value-accretive services, not just the lowest price, will be positioned for sustainable returns.
Our differentiated position in the market is difficult to replicate, and we remain confident in our ability to drive long-term capital efficient value for both our customers and investors. Our size, scale and breadth of our offerings positions us favorably with larger, better capitalized customers that maintain a long-term strategic focus and are less reactive to short-term moves in commodity prices.
We have an outsized exposure to the industry's largest and most stable operators relative to the broader market. Feedback from our largest customers so far has focused on goals for long-term value creation rather than short-term reactionary decisions. These objectives are fully aligned with our own, providing a strong foundation for collaborative, sustainable relationships.
Financially, our strong balance sheet and liquidity provides the flexibility to pursue high-return opportunities, and we will remain targeted with our capital deployment and protect our capital structure. We closed the quarter with $225 million in cash and an undrawn $500 million revolver. Low leverage and investment-grade credit rating with an outlook that still sees significant uncommitted free cash flow in 2025.
From a capital perspective, we are operating from a position of strength and using our capital to drive long-term shareholder value is our key priority. On the macro, external factors have created an uncertain outlook, although we have yet to see any impact to activity levels from recent commodity volatility.
Regardless of how the market develops, Patterson-UTI is prepared to adapt and execute our strategy across a range of commodity price environments. On the oil front, recent commodity softness created by macroeconomic concerns has introduced some uncertainty. If oil prices remain near current levels for an extended period, we could see some of our customers reevaluate their plans.
At present, operations remained stable. On the natural gas side, the outlook is increasingly constructive. We have added multiple rigs and frac fleets in natural gas-focused basins already this year and we continue to believe that the industry needs higher natural gas drilling and completion activity over the next several years to satisfy a call for more US shale natural gas production to supply global LNG and domestic demand.
Our US contract drilling business delivered another quarter of strong results with sequential improvements in average daily rig count and margins and higher returns. The performance is a testament to the quality of our drilling assets combined with the people and processes we have in place, allowing us to deliver for our customers and show them value over lower-priced options.
Patterson-UTI's Cortex automation platform is setting a new standard in drilling automation by integrating advanced data science throughout its applications. By leveraging real-time analytics, pattern recognition and intelligent control logic, Cortex delivers both high operational efficiency and an intuitive user experience. The platform automates key functions such as auto drilling and directional control, enabling drillers to focus more on critical safety and performance measures.
With Cortex, the operators benefit from greater repeatability and a scalable advantage that expands across multiple rigs and our investors are seeing the benefit through higher returns and margins. We believe our technology allows us to drill faster, better, and safer wells for our customers.
We believe that our Apex drilling rigs are the premier capital assets in the drilling market and that our people and our technology are critical to unlocking value for our customers and investors. We continue to deliver improved cycle times and the relative demand for our rigs and the stability of our margins confirms our customers are recognizing our unique capabilities.
Our Completion Services segment experienced a strong rebound in the first quarter as expected. Demand for our frac services was healthy, supported by favorable commodity prices across both oil and natural gas basins. Notably, as the first quarter progressed and activity ramped up quickly, we saw growing demand in natural gas basins. The Haynesville was the biggest beneficiary so far. Although we would expect to see gains in other regions if macro conditions hold.
With our solid footprint in the key natural gas plays, we are well positioned to benefit as demand improves. We continue to make technical strides in our Completions business. Our fleet of Emerald 100% natural gas-powered equipment is performing exceptionally well, delivering strong results, and receiving positive feedback from our customers. In the first quarter, we again saw our Emerald fleets grow as a proportion of our overall frac activity with increasing demand for larger Emerald simul frac operations.
We believe we operate one of the highest quality fleets in the industry today. Importantly, we continue to high grade our asset base at a measured pace, remaining disciplined with our capital, generating significant free cash flow, and returning substantial cash to shareholders at the same time. Balancing between new technology investments and capital stewardship remains a cornerstone of our capital allocation strategy.
We expect our natural gas-powered equipment will continue delivering strong returns through the cycle, including our dual fuel equipment. More than 80% of our active fleet can be powered by natural gas. Across the industry, we believe equipment capable of running on natural gas is effectively sold out, a clear indicator of both current demand and the value of our investment in this technology.
Our Drilling Products segment continues to perform well in all regions, and the team has done a great job in anticipating customer needs by delivering the highest quality innovative products in areas where we see the best opportunities to improve efficiencies.
Our new product innovation revenue has continued to grow at strong returns, partly driven by our new MAVERICK cutter and drill bit designs. Overall, we are pleased with the company's performance in the first quarter across all segments and remain focused on execution for our customers and investors while outperforming the market.
I'll now turn it over to Andy Smith, who will review the financial results for the first quarter.