THE chief executive of US drilling contractor Patterson UTI expects overall drilling activity to drop by around 60%, as hydraulic fracturing work crews take a frack holiday and completions in the nation roll to a stop amid the low-price environment and shrinking storage capacity due to a massive global crude oversupply. "I think the term 'frack holiday' may be overstating what's going on. I think that completion activity continues to come down," Patterson UTI chief executive Andy Hendricks told investors. "I don't see how completion makes a bounce-back, certainly not in the third quarter and fourth quarter. (It) is still a ways off." Hendricks added that the drilled but uncompleted inventory is likely to increase and he sees operators moving on the uncompleted wells toward the end of the year unless there is a significant change in commodity prices, which have been persistently low since the oil price collapse in early March.
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