Pioneer Drilling Reports Fiscal 2004 Second Quarter Results

Revenues were up 42 percent Daily drilling margin increased 48 percent Loss per share improved to $0.03 from $0.08

Nov 6, 2003

NOVEMBER 6, 2003 – SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – Pioneer Drilling Company (AMEX: PDC) today reported results for the three and six months ended September 30, 2003. 

Revenues for the fiscal second quarter of 2004 increased 42 percent to $24.3 million as compared to revenues of $17.1 million in the second quarter of 2003. EBITDA, defined as earnings before net interest, income taxes and depreciation and amortization {for further information, please review definition and reconciliation table under item “(1)” below}, grew to $3.8 million in the second quarter of 2004 compared to $1.6 million in the same period last year, an increase of 139 percent. Net loss in the second quarter of 2004 was $621,000, or $0.03 loss per share, versus a net loss of $1.3 million, or $0.08 loss per share, during the second quarter of 2003.

 

Average rig utilization for the second quarter was 85 percent, up from 78 percent in the same period last year. The average number of rigs during the fiscal second quarter increased to 26.3 versus an average number of rigs during last year’s quarter of 22. Revenue days were 2,064 compared to 1,577 days for the second quarter of fiscal 2003. Drilling margin was $4.5 million for the second fiscal quarter of 2004, or $2,158 per day, versus drilling margin of $2.3 million, or $1,460 per day, in the second quarter of 2003.

 

Michael E. Little, Pioneer Drilling’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “The trend that we saw developing in our first fiscal quarter is now confirmed by our second quarter results. We are pleased that revenue days and drilling margins per day were up 5.4 percent and 21.3 percent, respectively, over our June quarter. “We have remained focused on building a quality land fleet, prudently using and managing debt at historically low interest rates, and maintaining a strong demand for our services in spite of the market conditions.

 

Pioneer has added six rigs to its fleet over the past twelve months, a 27 percent growth, has averaged a utilization rate of 83 percent and has improved drilling margins in a difficult dayrate environment.

We believe this strategy will yield substantial increases in cash flow and earnings in an improving land rig
environment.


“We are also excited about the establishment of our North Texas division, which currently operates
two rigs. Within a week, we will be running four rigs in this division, including our recently upgraded Cabot 1200, which we purchased in Trinidad. Strategically, we plan to continue to enlarge our drilling rig fleet through acquisitions and will look for opportunities to further expand geographically,” added Mr. Little.

Revenues for the first six months of fiscal year 2004 were $48.1 million compared to revenues of $35.5 million for the first six months of fiscal year 2003. EBITDA, increased to $6.6 million in the first six months of fiscal 2004 compared to $4.6 million in the same period last year. Net loss during the first six months of fiscal 2004 was $1.7 million, or $0.08 loss per share, versus net loss of $1.5 million, or $0.09 loss per share, during the first six months of fiscal 2003.

Average rig utilization for the first six months of fiscal 2004 was 86 percent, up from 78 percent last year in the six month period. Revenue days were 4,022 days during the first six months of fiscal 2004 compared to 3,030 days for the comparable period of fiscal 2003. Drilling margin was $7.9 million in the six month period in fiscal 2004, or $1,973 per day versus drilling margin of $5.7 million in the first six months of fiscal 2003, or $1,865 per day.

Pioneer Drilling’s management team will be holding a conference call on Thursday, November 6, 2003, at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. To participate in the call, dial (303) 262-2140 at least ten minutes before the conference call begins and ask for the Pioneer Drilling conference call. A replay of the call will be available approximately two hours after the call ends and will be accessible until November 13, 2003. To access the replay, dial (303) 590-3000 and enter the pass code 557931.

 

Investors, analysts and the general public will also have the opportunity to listen to the conference call over the Internet by accessing Pioneer Drilling’s web site at http://www.pioneerdrlg.com. To listen to the live call on the web, please visit Pioneer Drilling’s web site at least fifteen minutes early to register, download and install any necessary audio software. For those who cannot listen to the live web cast, an archive will be available shortly after the call. For more information, please contact Karen Roan at DRG&E at (713) 529- 6600 or email kcroan@drg-e.com.

Pioneer Drilling Company provides land contract drilling services to independent and major oil and gas operators drilling wells in north, east and south Texas. The Company’s fleet consists of 28 land drilling rigs that drill in depth ranges between 8,000-18,000 feet.

This press release contains various forward-looking statements and information that are based on management’s belief as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. Forward-looking information includes statements regarding the Company’s anticipated growth, demand from the Company’s customers, capital spending by oil and gas companies and the Company’s expectations regarding its new rigs and the U. S. land drilling sector. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Such statements are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including, among other matters: general and regional economic conditions and industry trends; the continued strengt h or weakness of the contract land drilling industry in the geographic areas where the Company operates; decisions about onshore exploration and development projects to be made by oil and gas companies; the highly competitive nature of the contract land drilling business; the Company’s future financial performance, including availability, terms and deployment of capital; the continued availability of qualified personnel; and changes in governmental regulations, including those relating to the environment. Should one or more of these risks materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expected. These risks, as well as others, are discussed in greater detail in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2003 and subsequent Form 10-Q’s.

EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, represents earnings before net interest, income taxes and depreciation and amortization. Our management believes EBITDA is a useful measure for evaluating our financial condition and results of operations because of its focus on our results from operations before net interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization. We use EBITDA to monitor and compare the operating performance of our business from period to period. EBITDA is not a measure of financial performance under generally accepted accounting principles. However, EBITDA is a common alternative measure of operating performance used by investors, financial analysts and rating agencies to value and compare the financial performance of companies in our industry. A reconciliation of EBITDA to net loss is included below.

   (A)  EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, represents earnings before net
        interest, income taxes and depreciation and amortization.  Our
        management believes EBITDA is a useful measure for evaluating our
        financial condition and results of operations because of its focus
        on our results from operations before net interest, income taxes,
        depreciation and amortization.  We use EBITDA to monitor and compare
        the operating performance of our business from period to period.
        EBITDA is not a measure of financial performance under generally
        accepted accounting principles.  However, EBITDA is a common
        alternative measure of operating performance used by investors,
        financial analysts and rating agencies to value and compare the
        financial performance of companies in our industry.  A
        reconciliation of EBITDA to net loss is included below.  EBITDA as
        presented may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures
        reported by other companies.


                    EBITDA Reconciliation to Net Loss
                               (Unaudited)

                       Three Months Ended          Six Months Ended
                      9/30/03      9/30/02      9/30/03       9/30/02

  EBITDA             $3,792,568   $1,586,515   $6,636,944   $4,643,332
  Depreciation and
   amortization      (3,927,546)  (2,827,364)  (7,551,727)  (5,515,645)
  Net interest         (671,347)    (637,287)  (1,357,312)  (1,173,526)

  Income tax benefit    185,122      576,237      594,591      572,339
  Net loss            $(621,203) $(1,301,899) $(1,677,504) $(1,473,500)


                PIONEER DRILLING COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARIES
                  Consolidated Statements of Operations

                             (Unaudited)               (Unaudited)
                          Three Months Ended         Six Months Ended
                         9/30/03      9/30/02      9/30/03      9/30/02

  Revenues:
      Contract
       drilling        $24,244,382  $17,041,599  $48,094,465  $35,493,452
      Other                 30,925       10,493       39,872       22,433
    Total operating
     revenues           24,275,307   17,052,092   48,134,337   35,515,885

  Costs & Expenses:
    Contract drilling   19,791,141   14,738,554   40,157,547   29,841,532
    Depreciation         3,927,546    2,827,364    7,551,727    5,515,645
    General &
     administrative        691,598      617,023    1,339,846    1,124,908
    Bad debt expense           ---      110,000          ---      110,000
      Total operating
       costs            24,410,285   18,292,941   49,049,120   36,592,085

  Operating loss          (134,978)  (1,240,849)    (914,783)  (1,076,200)

  Other income (expense):
    Interest expense      (700,075)    (667,132)  (1,433,730)  (1,226,922)
    Interest income         28,728       29,845       76,418       53,396
    Other                      ---          ---          ---      203,887
    Total other           (671,347)    (637,287)  (1,357,312)    (969,639)

  Earnings before taxes   (806,325)  (1,878,136)  (2,272,095)  (2,045,839)

  Income tax benefit       185,122      576,237      594,591      572,339

  Net loss               $(621,203) $(1,301,899) $(1,677,504) $(1,473,500)

  Earnings per share:
    Basic                   $(0.03)      $(0.08)      $(0.08)      $(0.09)
    Diluted                 $(0.03)      $(0.08)      $(0.08)      $(0.09)

  Weighted average number
   of shares outstanding:
    Basic               22,037,064   16,137,459   21,873,399   16,046,229
    Diluted             22,037,064   16,137,459   21,873,399   16,046,229


                PIONEER DRILLING COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARIES
                           Operating Statistics

                             (Unaudited)               (Unaudited)
                         Three Months Ended         Six Months Ended
                        9/30/03      9/30/02      9/30/03      9/30/02

  Average number
   of rigs                  26.3         22.0         25.4         21.3
  Utilization rate           85%          78%          86%          78%
  Revenue days             2,064        1,577        4,022        3,030
  Drilling margin     $4,453,241   $2,303,045   $7,936,918   $5,651,920
  EBITDA              $3,792,568   $1,586,515   $6,636,944   $4,643,332
  Drilling revenue/day   $11,746      $10,806      $11,958      $11,714
  Drilling cost/day       $9,589       $9,346       $9,984       $9,849
  Drilling margin/day     $2,158       $1,460       $1,973       $1,865
  Capital expenditures:
    Routine           $1,792,414   $3,168,986   $3,042,649   $5,055,820
    Rig additions     $8,822,364   $2,646,355  $14,501,678  $10,853,537
                     $10,614,778   $5,815,341  $17,544,327  $15,909,357


                PIONEER DRILLING COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARIES
                  Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

                                               (Unaudited)
                                                9/30/2003      3/31/2003

                 Assets
  Current assets:
    Cash and cash equivalents                   $4,977,660    $21,002,913
    Receivables, net                             8,114,537      4,499,378
    Contract drilling in progress                4,220,911      4,429,545
    Federal income tax receivable                      ---        444,900
    Current deferred income taxes                  130,944        180,991
    Prepaid expenses                               264,453        914,187
      Total current assets                      17,708,505     31,471,914
  Net property, plant and equipment             97,115,000     87,855,903
  Other assets                                     352,083        366,500
  Total assets                                $115,175,588   $119,694,317

          Liabilities and Equity
  Current liabilities:
    Notes payable                                     $---       $587,177
    Current long-term debt                       3,504,550      2,811,986
    Accounts payable                            10,562,261     14,206,586
    Prepaid drilling contracts                     216,000            ---
    Accrued expenses                             2,976,163      2,721,856
      Total current liabilities                 17,258,974     20,327,605
  Long-term debt                                44,013,599     45,854,542
  Deferred taxes                                 5,740,607      5,839,908
      Total liabilities                         67,013,180     72,022,055
  Total shareholders' equity                    48,162,408     47,672,262
                                              $115,175,588   $119,694,317

Email Alerts/RSS Feeds