Precision Drilling Corporation is the largest
drilling rig contractor in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, also providing oil field rental and supplies.
History
Precision Drilling Ltd. was founded in 1951.
In 1987, Precision Drilling was acquired by Cypress Drilling, led by president Hank Swartout, in a
reverse takeover which left the company with a fleet of 19 rigs.
Swartout led the company through extensive growth until his retirement in 2007.
In 2005, Precision sold its energy services and international contract-drilling divisions to
Weatherford International
Weatherford International plc, an American Irish public limited company, together with its subsidiaries, is a multinational oilfield service company and one of the largest companies in the world in oil services. Weatherford is a wellbore and p ...
for $2.28 billion and reorganized as an
income trust
An income trust is an investment that may hold equities, debt instruments, royalty interests or real properties. They are especially useful for financial requirements of institutional investors such as pension funds, and for investors such as retir ...
.
Precision converted from an income trust back to a corporation in 2010.
In 2008, Precision acquired its US rival Grey Wolf Inc. for $2 billion, a merger which expanded its rig count in the US, which it had largely left in 2005, over tenfold. The acquisition led to financial difficulties which led to a $330M CAD investment by the
Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) in 2009, characterized by ''
Maclean's
''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian perspe ...
'' as a
bailout
A bailout is the provision of financial help to a corporation or country which otherwise would be on the brink of bankruptcy.
A bailout differs from the term ''bail-in'' (coined in 2010) under which the bondholders or depositors of global sys ...
.
AIMCo divested its stake in 2013.
In 2018, Precision attempted to purchase
Trinidad Drilling with over $1B CAD of shares as a
white knight
A white knight is a mythological figure and literary stock character. They are portrayed alongside a black knight as diametric opposites. A white knight usually represents a heroic warrior fighting against evil, with the role in medieval literatu ...
, opposing the cash bid of competitor
Ensign Energy Services
Ensign Energy Services Inc. is a publicly traded Canadian company that provides oilfield services for the North American and international market. Founded in 1987, Ensign is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. Ensign's Common Shares are publicly t ...
, however a drop in Precision's share price and thus bid value resulted in Ensign's bid prevailing.
In September 2019, amid a difficult
energy sector
The energy industry is the totality of all of the industries involved in the production and sale of energy, including fuel extraction, manufacturing, refining and distribution. Modern society consumes large amounts of fuel, and the energy indust ...
in Alberta, Precision Drilling Corporation's share price fell below the required minimum for the
S&P/TSX Composite Index and was removed from the
index
Index (or its plural form indices) may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities
* Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index''
* The Index, an item on a Halo megastru ...
.
In July 2022, Precision Drilling acquired High Arctic Energy Services Inc.'s welling services and rental divisions for $29.3 million.
Global fleet
In 2019, Precision had 109
land drilling rigs in Canada (21% of the industry total), 104 in the US (5% of total), and 13 among
Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
,
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
,
Iraqi Kurdistan, and
Georgia.
[
]
See also
* List of oilfield service companies
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Oilfield services companies
Oil companies of Canada
Companies based in Calgary
Non-renewable resource companies established in 1969
1969 establishments in Alberta
2010 Copiapó mining accident
Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange