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Basic Energy Services Rig Hours Drop in September

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Basic Energy Services, Inc. reported selected operating data for the month of September 2015.  Basic's well servicing rig count remained unchanged at 421. Well servicing rig hours for the month were 46,800 producing a rig utilization rate of 46%, compared to 53% and 71% in August 2015 and September 2014, respectively.

During the month, Basic's fluid service truck count remained flat at 1,015. Fluid service truck hours for the month were 183,400, compared to 188,100 and 215,800 in August 2015 and September 2014, respectively.

Drilling rig days for the month were 97 producing a rig utilization of 27%, compared to 23% and 91% in August 2015 and September 2014, respectively.

Roe Patterson, Basic's President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Rig hours and utilization fell from August to September, primarily due to the Labor Day holiday period and competitive market conditions.  Fluid service hours in September on an average per truck per calendar basis were consistent with August activity despite the Labor Day holiday impact. Completion activity in our completion and remedial segment continues to be impacted by the lower drilling rig count and volatile oil price environment. As a result of the continued weakness in commodity prices, pricing in all of our markets and lines of business is being lowered in order to maintain activity levels and protect market share as much as possible. Recently, in a few selected markets, stimulation pricing has fallen to levels where cash margins at the field level do not support regular maintenance capital expenditures on equipment. In these instances, we have either temporarily stacked our equipment or relocated frac spreads to other markets.

"Pricing in our production-related businesses remains competitive but we have seen more stable utilization rates. Of these lines of business, our fluid services business has been the most resilient because of our salt water disposal well network, especially in markets like the Permian Basin. Concentrating our produced water hauls on our company-owned disposal facilities allows us to keep costs low and efficiencies high. Seasonal impacts and low commodity prices will weigh on our production-related businesses in the near term, but we expect them to perform better than drilling and completion-related businesses until the drilling rig count rebounds.

"Based on our September performance, we expect that our third quarter 2015 revenues to be in line with our previous guidance of 4 to 5% lower sequentially.  We will discuss our third quarter performance and fourth quarter expectations during our third quarter earnings call later this month."