Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Waqar Syed: No. We do hear that with these some of these big H&P consolidations, once they are consummated, you may see or you are seeing some geoscientists come out from these consolidated companies or become redundant, and some private capitalists chasing them and new companies are being formed, and that you may see private activity maybe pick up in the second half or maybe in 2025. Are you seeing any early signs of that? Are you having any conversations in that respect?

John Lindsay: Well, as you probably know, most of I think 80% of our active fleet today is with large public companies. However, we do have nice partnerships with the private and there are some examples where here recently, just recently in the past quarter, we put a rig to work for various small private companies. So I definitely think that that is an opportunity. Clearly, the consolidation that we see usually in the first period of time, there is some slowdown in activity. But at the end of the day, they are going to want to keep their production levels up. And in many cases, that means keeping the same amount or even adding some rigs. So, and then the additional, private companies, we could sure see that happening. It is happened in the past and maybe it will happen in the future, but hard to say much more about that Waqar.

Waqar Syed: And then just one final question that as the service intensity continues to increase now, going to these four multiples, some companies, are you seeing the super spec rig specifications kind of change again or step out again? Are the rig of choice super spec rig of choice for the last year or two years ago is still pretty relevant?

John Lindsay: Very relevant. We have been able to handle these three, four mile laterals with the kit that we have. There are times where you may need to upside the setback capacity or something like that. But in general, the FlexRig is very well suited for the work that is required and ongoing. So we feel really good about where we are. Like I said earlier, we think there will be more demand for super spec, not less. It is going to be harder and harder for the lower tier rigs to be competitive, because of the length of the lateral and the performance that is required. And then just finally on the technology side, it is very, very difficult for a human to keep up with what a computer or the technology is going to do. So this is 24×7 work and the ability to have apps and algorithms that are doing the work, making the decisions as opposed to it being done by a human 24×7, it is night and day difference.

So the technology opportunity set is huge. And whether that is a two-mile lateral or a four-mile lateral, we are going to see more and more of that adoption, I believe, as we go forward.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Kurt Hallead from Benchmark.

Kurt Hallead: John. I’m curious. What your take might be on your conversations with your customer base, your customer base looking out beyond 2024. A lot of, hope and opportunity with respect to exporting gas for these LNG facilities that are scheduled to come online. And then on top of that a lot of discussion of late around the data centers and AI and the need to power that dynamic and that needing more grid capacity and that need needing more natural gas. Long winded way of asking the question is, are any of these topics on the front of mind of your customer base? And how do you think about how that is going to translate into incremental drilling activity, first for LNG going into next year and then potentially looking at the dynamics related to the data center?

John Lindsay: Well, Kurt, it is a great question, and it is a question on everybody’s mind. And, no doubt, there is a lot of opinions out there. And our opinion, our hope is that it is going to be sooner as opposed to later. I think at some point in time, it is definitely going to happen on the gas side. It is just that natural gas is just a great energy source for lots and lots of reasons, and there is a huge opportunity ahead. Obviously, the unconventional gas, the opportunities that we see in the Middle East. So there is a market out there, and I think there is a huge opportunity ahead for us. And it is just, as I said earlier, Kurt, it is hard to say when that is going to be. I think we are going to play a H&P will play a very large role in that when that recovery takes off, just like we were playing previously before the correction in the natural gas activity.

Kurt Hallead: And just follow-up on, I noticed here that you had very minimal, share repurchase activity during the course of the March quarter relative to the December quarter. Just kind of curious as to what those dynamics were driven were driven by and was it related to the Saudi contract or anything else? That kind of you guys had to put the pause on?