That obviously rips into a margin, and we’re cognizant of that. So I think had we not seen our high-spec drilling rate companies and kind of our market feelers say, hey, we think September kind of bottoms out and the market starts to come back — have we not seen kind of strip prices where they are, maybe we would have made a different choice. This, to me feels — and we’ve been through a lot of these, I know you have as well, John. This feels very different to me than some of kind of the longer-term long-dated downturns that we’ve been through before, where you’re cutting a workforce quickly. You’re going to stay down under the water for a long time. This feels like our team collectively have to get used to up like run up the mountain, run down the mountain, run right back up the next mountain.
And so I’m not necessarily saying, by the way, this is going to be a mountain because I don’t think it serves anyone to just be overly optimistic about 2024 activity. And I’m not saying that either. But I do think it will be better than Q3. So I don’t want to suggest to the market that I think this is going to be a huge ramp like it was in H2 2022. But I am suggesting to the market that we value what we have, and we’re really working hard to hang on to that. I can’t guarantee that. But I would rather take other actions than just cut right now because I do feel we’re going to see some recovery in activity.
John Daniel: Yes. Yes, I would agree. The next one, and this is another tricky question. It’s not meant to be a trick question. But it does come back to the pricing, right? I mean when the cycle started out, the request from customers were, hey, we need some relief on service costs, commodity prices have fallen. And you guys charge too much, which we can agree to disagree with, right? But that was the original sort of comments. And then activity starts to fall and now it’s just simply a supply demand. There’s too much supply, not enough demand, so prices fall. But like as you’re sitting here with your customers, I mean, and you want to work with them and partner with them, if you will, if that still exists or even exists. How do you get that reset on the price, where if you worked with your customer and gave some relief where you get to recover that. I mean I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m asking if that makes any sense, but just seems like…
Ann Fox: No, I know what you’re asking. It’s a vicious as it’s always been. So it’s not changing. It is I stab you and then you stab me, it’s — that’s just how it is, and that is how it will be. And you said supply-demand fundamentals, that is what it is. So what will happen if activity returns is if the privates decide they want to chase the commodity price, it will start to tighten up the market. As you know, the CapEx spend over the past few years in the service sector, it’s not close to what it was. And so eventually, that lack of investment in equipment, both maintenance programs as well as new equipment catches up. And so we will hit our customers with price when there is not enough equipment to go around. And when they become scared about availability, they will pay that price.
And that’s just how it works. So — and again, even for the, I think the longer-term contract guys, they’re going to contract when I think when they feel that they can get the best price. So for us, the spot market just going to reflect the actual market. And I wish I could tell you that it’s different, but it’s not.
