Earnings Highlights MTDR, PDS, & PTEN

Matador Resources (MTDR)
With the selloff in the price of the stock, Matador’s board and senior staff decided to implement share repurchases.  Additionally, in response to recent commodity price volatility, Matador has decided to adjust its drilling and completion activity for 2025 to provide for more optionality. Matador began 2025 operating nine drilling rigs and now expects to drop to eight drilling rigs by the middle of 2025. The company also expects to adjust its completion schedule in accordance with actual drilling activity but will remain focused to take advantage of certain operational efficiencies.

The adjustment in activity is expected to reduce the company’s drilling, completing and equipping capital expenditures for full-year 2025 by $100 million from Matador’s original expectation of $1.375 billion to a revised expectation of $1.275 billion.  Matador’s full year 2025 natural gas production guidance is revised lower by 1.4% compared to the prior reporting quarter.


Precision Drilling (PDS)
The company’s Canadian activity averaged 74 drilling rigs in the first quarter of 2025 and surpassed the 73 active rigs in the same period last year.  Precision’s U.S. activity averaged 30 drilling rigs in Q1 2025 compared to 38 in the same period last year.  Internationally, the company had eight rigs active in the first quarter, consistent with the first quarter of 2024.

The company said that second-half of 2025 industry activity in North America will depend largely on customer realized cash flows and their capital allocation priorities. Precision believes industry capital discipline will remain a stabilizing market feature. In the U.S., the next wave of LNG export terminals is expected to add approximately 13 bcf/d of export capacity over the next five years.  


Patterson-UTI Energy (PTEN)
The first quarter 2025 unfolded largely as the company had anticipated, with steady drilling activity and a strong sequential rebound in completion demand.  Patterson’s Drilling Services technology continues to drive efficiency gains for their customers, resulting in a sequential improvement in both average daily rig count and returns for the segment.
For the company’s Completion Services, utilization across their entire fleet was high, with their Emerald line of 100% natural gas-powered assets continuing to grow as a proportion of total completion activity during the quarter.

Q2 2025 activity levels remain steady relative to first quarter 2025 levels. Patterson has not seen any material change in customer plans. According to the company, if oil prices remain at current levels for an extended period, some customers could reduce activity in the oil basins, although customers are so far communicating a steady outlook.
On the natural gas side, activity began to recover late in Q1 2025, which was earlier than previously anticipated. Patterson continues to believe that increased drilling and completion activity in the natural gas basins will be necessary over the next several years to meet growing domestic demand and global demand for U.S. LNG. Absent a shift in the broader outlook, this trend should support increased natural gas-directed activity into 2026.