Earnings Highlights AR, NBR, PDS -- 2/12/2025

2/12/2025

Antero Resources (AR)
Antero’s natural gas production during Q4 2024 averaged 2.1 Bcf/d, down 7% from the year ago quarter (Q4 2023).  However, Q4 2024 liquids production was up 14% compared to the year ago quarter (Q4 2023). Antero Resources is a Northeast producer, and they are leading the way to making the Northeast a more liquids-based market.
For 2024, completion stages per day averaged 12.2 stages per day, a 14% increase compared to 2023, highlighting the significant efficiency gains.  The company’s 2025 production guidance for dry gas production points to roughly flat production growth YOY.

Nabors Industries (NBR)
The market environment in Q4 2024 was challenging in the U.S., as operators continued to modulate their activity levels in oil basins, mainly driven by recent mergers.  However, leading edge pricing in this market remained steady, supporting the company’s daily margins at relatively high levels.
For 2025, Nabors is planning for stable market activity through the early part of the year. Given this activity level, the company is responding with actions to improve efficiency and reduce costs.  US rig counts in Q4 2024 were at 65 and they are expected to be at 61 by the end of Q1 2025 as some rigs are transferred from the US to Argentina.

Precision Drilling (PDS)
Revenue in Q4 2024 was down 8% from 2023 as activity increases in Canadian drilling, well servicing, and international were more than offset by lower activity and day rates in the USA.  For 2025, the company expects to reduce debt and increase direct shareholder returns to 35% to 45% of free cash flow.

In the US, the company averaged 34 drilling rigs in Q4 2024.  Drilling activity growth remains constrained as producers continue to focus on shareholder returns rather than growth, while volatile commodity prices, customer consolidation, and drilling and completion efficiencies have restricted activity growth.

If commodity prices remain stable and hover around today’s level, Precision expects drilling demand to begin to improve in the second half and gain momentum through the remainder of 2025 as new LNG export capacity is added and customers seek to maintain or possibly increase production levels.