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Patterson-UTI drills oil and gas wells for energy companies and rents them the equipment to do it.
Patterson-UTI Energy is a big oilfield services company. It does two main things: it drills wells for oil and gas producers, and it rents out the specialized equipment those producers need. Its customers are energy companies — the folks who own the oil and gas underground but hire specialists to get it out. Patterson-UTI makes money in two distinct segments: contract drilling, where it charges a daily rate to run drilling rigs, and completions, where it rents pumps, pipe, and other gear used to finish a well after it's drilled. Together these bring in roughly $5 to $6 billion a year, though revenue swings a lot with oil prices.
Think of it as the contractor you hire to build your house. You own the land, but Patterson-UTI shows up with the crew, the drills, and the machines, gets paid by the day, and moves on to the next job. The drilling segment runs hundreds of land rigs across U.S. oilfields like the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico. The completions segment — built up largely through the 2023 merger with Nextier — provides the fracking pumps and equipment that push water, sand, and chemicals underground to crack rock and release oil. That deal turned Patterson-UTI from mostly a driller into a fuller one-stop shop. The business is deeply tied to oil and gas prices. When prices are high, producers drill more and pay up for rigs; when they fall, budgets get cut fast and day rates drop. Patterson-UTI has been a public company for decades, and it also owns a small stake in a company that makes specialized drilling bits. It uses its cash to pay a dividend, buy back shares, and pay down debt from acquisitions. The tricky part is that it has little control over the one thing that drives everything — the price of a barrel of oil.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Oct 2026
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