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RPC provides equipment and services that help oil and gas companies drill and complete wells.
RPC makes its money selling muscle to oil and gas drillers. When an energy company decides to bore a hole in the ground or squeeze oil out of tight rock, it does not own all the pumps, pipes, and chemicals itself; it hires specialists like RPC to bring the gear and the crews. RPC runs two main businesses under the hood, though they share the same customers. The first, and by far the biggest at roughly nine out of every ten dollars of revenue, is pressure pumping — the fleet of truck-mounted pumps that blast water, sand, and chemicals underground to crack rock and release oil and gas. The second, a smaller set of services, handles downhole tools and tubing used to line and work on wells.
Think of it as a contractor for the oil field. The oil company is the homeowner who wants a new well; RPC is the crew that shows up with the concrete mixer, the drills, and the specialty tools, charges by the job and the day, then packs up and moves to the next site. Its customers are mostly North American oil and gas producers, and they choose RPC because the work is time-sensitive and technical — a fracking fleet that breaks down or shows up late costs the producer real money. The business rises and falls with drilling activity and commodity prices, so it is a cyclical, capital-heavy game. RPC is headquartered in Atlanta, a slightly odd home for an oil field company, and it was spun off from its parent Rollins family businesses decades ago. In recent years the big story has been consolidation and scale in fracking, plus a tough North American gas market that has kept some crews idle. When cash flows are strong, RPC funds its equipment fleet, pays a dividend, and occasionally buys back stock, while keeping debt low so it can survive the down cycles that always come.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Oct 2026
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