Skip to main content

Shares in Precision Drilling Corp. jumped by as much as 16.6 per cent Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange after it reported strong operational results from its U.S. operations in the fourth quarter.

Shares in Precision traded as high as $3.30, up from Wednesday’s close of $2.83, at mid-day. It posted a 52-week high close of $5.28 last August.

“In the fourth quarter, strong demand for our Super Series rigs and firm pricing in the U.S., combined with aggressive cost management in our Canadian businesses, drove better-than-expected financial results,” said CEO Kevin Neveu in a news release.

Precision reported fourth-quarter revenue of $427 million, up from $347 million in the same period of 2017, as drilling rig working days jumped 36 per cent in the U.S. and fell nine per cent in Canada.

Drilling activity in Canada is down about 30 per cent this winter compared to last year and is not expected to improve through the first six months of 2018, Neveu said, explaining customers have cut budgets due to a lack of pipeline export capacity and price volatility.

Activity is expected to strengthen in the second half of the year as Alberta’s oil production curtailment program that began Jan. 1 — and is already credited with lowering oil price discounts — helps to reduce a storage glut, he said.

Precision’s operational results in the last three months of 2018 came in well above expectations because of its ability to maintain a high number of working rigs in the United States, according to a research note from analysts at Tudor Pickering Holt & Co.

Precision said its current U.S. active rig count is 81, 16 more than at this time last year, but it said clients remain cautious about their 2019 budgets.

It said it has added five of its top-rated AC Super Triple drilling rigs to its U.S. fleet over the past year by relocating two from Canada and building three new ones.

Rig movements south are an ongoing trend — the Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors said Wednesday the industry relocated 16 Canadian rigs to the U.S. in 2018, up from just six in 2017. So far this year, four rigs have been moved south of the border.

The poor outlook for activity in Canada and in its U.S. directional drilling division led to Precision taking a $208-million goodwill impairment charge on the quarter, resulting in a net loss of $198 million.

That compared with a loss of $47 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

Excluding the impairment charge, the company said it would have had net earnings of $1 million for the quarter.

Precision’s results were buoyed by receipt of a break fee from Calgary rival Trinidad Drilling Ltd. after it cancelled an October takeover deal with Precision in favour of being acquired by another Calgary company, Ensign Energy Services Inc.

Net of transaction costs, the fee amounted to $14 million, Precision said.

Report an editorial error

Report a technical issue

Tickers mentioned in this story

Study and track financial data on any traded entity: click to open the full quote page. Data updated as of 28/03/24 4:00pm EDT.

SymbolName% changeLast
PD-T
Precision Drilling Corp
+0.33%91.13

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe