Patterson-UTI continues to maintain a significant drilling footprint across the Permian Basin, with year-to-date activity showing 1,189 wells drilled across 56 Patterson rigs in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico.
The rig-level data provides additional insight into which rigs are most active, the operators they are working for, where drilling is concentrated, and how frequently rigs appear to move between wells.
Patterson’s Most Active Permian Rigs
Several Patterson rigs stand out based on year-to-date well activity.
Patterson Rig 814 leads the dataset with 44 wells drilled, all for Chevron in Texas. Its activity has been concentrated in Midland County, with additional drilling in Upton and Reeves counties. The rig averaged approximately 13.3 days between spuds.
Other leading rigs include:
- Rig 883 — 42 wells, primarily for EOG, with most activity in New Mexico.
- Rig 594 — 39 wells, all for Mewbourne in Eddy County, New Mexico.
- Rig 567 — 38 wells, all for EOG in Lea County, New Mexico.
- Rig 815 — 38 wells, all for Chevron across Lea and Eddy counties.
- Rig 289 — 37 wells, all for Chevron in New Mexico.
- Rig 812 — 36 wells, all for Chevron in Midland County, Texas.
The results illustrate the importance of dedicated operator-contractor relationships in maintaining high rig utilization.
New Mexico Accounts for Most Patterson Activity
One of the clearest trends in the YTD data is Patterson’s concentration in the Delaware Basin of southeastern New Mexico.
Of the 1,189 wells represented in the report, approximately 842 are associated with New Mexico and 347 with Texas, meaning roughly 71% of the activity occurred in New Mexico.
Lea and Eddy counties appear repeatedly among Patterson’s most active rigs. For example, Rig 567 drilled all 38 of its wells in Lea County, while Rig 594 recorded 39 wells in Eddy County. Rigs 560 and 575 each recorded 34 wells while working for Mewbourne across Lea and Eddy counties.
Texas activity is spread across major Permian counties including Midland, Reeves, Loving, Howard, Ward, Crane, Upton, Winkler and Ector.
Mewbourne, Chevron and Matador Drive Patterson Rig Demand
The operator breakdown shows that a relatively small group of producers account for a substantial portion of Patterson’s Permian drilling activity.
Mewbourne is the largest operator represented, accounting for 416 wells, followed by Chevron with 257 and Matador with 231. Together, those three operators account for approximately 76% of all wells in the dataset.
EOG is another significant customer with 80 wells, while BTA, Continental, OXY, HighPeak, MANTI and APA also appear across Patterson’s rig fleet.
The concentration is particularly visible at the individual rig level. Rig 814 drilled exclusively for Chevron, Rig 594 exclusively for Mewbourne, Rig 567 exclusively for EOG and Rig 813 exclusively for Matador.
Most Patterson Rigs Are Dedicated to One Operator
Of the 56 rigs analyzed, 46 were associated with a single operator, while only 10 showed activity involving multiple operators during the period.
That means approximately 82% of the rigs were exclusive to one operator based on the YTD records.
There are exceptions. Rig 803 recorded 32 wells split between Matador and Chevron, while Rig 595 recorded activity for Mewbourne, Continental and EOG. Rig 261 worked for OXY, HighPeak and Jetta.
For oilfield service companies, these operator-rig relationships can provide useful intelligence when determining where equipment and field activity are likely to be concentrated.
Rig Spud Frequency Provides Another View of Activity
The average number of days between recorded spuds varies considerably across the Patterson fleet.
Among the highest-activity rigs, Rig 814 averaged 13.3 days, Rig 883 averaged 13.9 days, Rig 289 averaged 13.6 days, and Rig 258 averaged 14.1 days between spuds.
At the extreme end, Rig 333 recorded a 9-day average between spuds, although only two wells were represented for the rig.
Using the report’s drilling-efficiency classifications, 8 rigs fall into the 10–14 day “steady” category, one falls below 10 days, and 47 have averages above 14 days. These figures should be interpreted as spud-frequency indicators rather than measurements of actual drilling time, since the calculation measures the interval between recorded well spud dates.
What Patterson’s Permian Rig Activity Tells Suppliers
Patterson’s YTD activity demonstrates why rig-level intelligence can be valuable to companies selling into the Permian Basin.
Knowing that a rig is active is useful. Knowing which operator it is drilling for, how many wells it has drilled, which counties it is working in and how frequently it moves to another well provides considerably more context.
The YTD Patterson data points to three particularly important trends: drilling activity is heavily concentrated in New Mexico, Mewbourne, Chevron and Matador dominate the operator mix, and most Patterson rigs in the dataset appear to be dedicated to a single operator.
For drilling, completion, rental, transportation, fluid, water, fuel and other oilfield service companies, those relationships can help identify where repeat field demand is most likely to occur.
Source: Oilgasleads analysis of Patterson-UTI Permian Basin YTD drilling activity. Rig activity represents the records contained in the underlying dataset and should not be interpreted as Patterson-UTI’s total corporate rig count or total company-wide drilling activity.
Author: phinds