NexTier Oilfield sees Q3 CapEx $85M

“Given the pending merger with Patterson-UTI, we will not provide detailed financial guidance. On activity, we anticipate we could see our deployed fleet count fall by as many as 3 fleets by the end of the third quarter, and we also expect to see increased whitespace, with our average pumping hours per fleet also expected to decline slightly. For the third quarter of 2023, we expect capital expenditures will be down, sequentially, to $85 million. We expect to reduce capital expenditures further in the fourth quarter. Free cash flow should be strong again and we expect that we will exceed our target of zero net debt by the end of the third quarter.” Drummond concluded, “We view the current slowdown in industry activity as transitory, and by 2024, we see a path for US land completion activity to recover to levels that we saw in the first quarter of this year. Considering our view that newbuilds have been insufficient to entirely replace attrition, we believe frac equipment could once again be the bottleneck to US oil and gas production growth by next year. We have no intention to accelerate the depreciation of our equipment to hold work in the near-term, and as such, we will use any downtime as an opportunity to invest to upgrade and fully maintain our fleet to ensure we are prepared for a recovery.”