A. Lee Graham
Reporter
Basic Energy Services Inc. of Fort Worth has reported an increase in well-servicing rig hours, rising from 68,100 in February to 74,800 in March.
Meanwhile, the oil and gas well-services company reported higher rig utilization, with the rate rising from 73 percent in February to 76 percent in March. The 76 percent rate rose from 74 percent in March 2013, according to the company’s newly released report on March 2014 activity.
Rig utilization rates determine what percentage of a company’s rigs is in use.
“March activity across our business segments increased from February levels as demand for our services continued to benefit from increased spending by our customers aided by better weather and longer daylight hours,” said president and CEO Roe Patterson, commenting in a news release.
Patterson said he expects first-quarter revenue to rise about 8 to 9 percent higher compared to the company’s previous guidance of 4 to 5 percent.
“This improvement is mainly attributable to the better-than-expected utilization levels across all business segments, along with moderate weather conditions within our footprint in the first quarter,” Patterson said.
Also in the new report, the company reported selling four inland barge workover rigs, dropping its well-servicing rig count from 425 to 421. Its fluid service truck count increased by four to 1,012. Fluid service truck hours for the month totaled 211,000 compared to 189,000 and 192,300 in February 2014 and March 2013, respectively.
Drilling rig days for March 2014 totaled 301.
Basic Energy Services, which provides oil and gas well-site services, employs more than 5,500 workers in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas, Kansas and the Rocky Mountain and Appalachian regions. More information is available at www.basicenergyservices.com.