Stampede Drilling adding six rigs to its fleet

Brian Zinchuk

Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online

Stampede Drilling Rig 2. Photo by Brian Zinchuk

CALGARY – Stampede Drilling announced on Aug. 3 the acquisition of six drilling rigs from a private company, but didn’t say who it is.

However, reading the press release and comparing it to Beaver Drilling’s existing fleet, there seems to be a match. Reached by phone on Aug. 8, both Stampede and Beaver declined to comment as to who the vendor is. One of the few remaining privately-held drilling contractors of that size in Western Canada, Beaver’s head office is in Calgary while its operations are in Nisku.

Stampede announced the acquisition is for approximately $21.5 million. They’re doing that by selling more shares, as opposed to debt financing. And they plan of fixing up those rigs and putting them in the field.

The purchase price will be funded by proceeds from a concurrent short form prospectus offering of common shares at a price of $0.32 per offered share (the for minimum gross proceeds of $22.5 million and maximum gross proceeds of $25. The acquisition and the offering are expected to close on August 23, 2022, or such other date as may be agreed upon between the parties as described herein.

“The acquisition will add six high quality drilling rigs that are well suited to work in several of the most active oil and gas plays in western Canada, furthering our goal to provide the safest and most efficient drilling services provider in Canada,” stated Lyle Whitmarsh, president & chief executive officer of Stampede, in the release.

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Stampede was founded in Estevan. The company has eight rigs in southeast Saskatchewan and five in Alberta, according to data for the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors. This move, if completed, will result in further geographic diversification for the company.

In describing the hardware, Stampede said, “Stampede will be acquiring six drilling rigs and related assets, comprised of two ‘doubles,’ three ‘heavy doubles’ and one ‘super spec triple.’ Subject to the corporation’s expected investment of approximately $5 million (an anticipated investment of approximately $1 million per double rig) for required upgrades and recertification, Stampede anticipates that the two doubles and three heavy doubles will be working under short-term or long-term contracts by the end of 2022. The corporation anticipates that the super spec triple rig will be ready for work in mid-2023 subsequent to an additional anticipated investment by the corporation of approximately $5 million to upgrade, refurbish and recertify the super spec triple. Stampede expects to enter into a first amending agreement with HSBC later today, which is expected to increase the total credit capacity to a maximum of $32.5 million. Additional draws under Stampede’s lending facilities will be used to fund the capital upgrades on the assets purchased pursuant to the acquisition.”

In May, Elson McDougald was appointed as chair of Stampede. This brings together Whitmarsh and McDougald, who had worked together in CanElson Drilling. McDougald has been on the board as a director since 2017.

• 0060 Arizona Lithium Lease building
  0060 Arizona Lithium Lease building
• 0059 Southeast College Heavy Equipment Operator
  0059 Southeast College Heavy Equipment Operator
• 0058 Royal Helium Steveville opens anonymous rocket
  0058 Royal Helium Steveville opens anonymous rocket
• 9002 Pipeline Online 30 sec EBEX
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• 0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office
  0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office
• 0015 Latus Viro
  0015 Latus Viro
• 0052 Predator Inspections
  0052 Predator Inspections
• 0051 JML Hiring Pumpjack assembly
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• 0049 Scotsburn Dental soft guitar
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• 0046 City of Estevan This is Estevan
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• 0043 ALX ten sizes
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• 0039 Summit ESP Saskatchewan lower third
  0039 Summit ESP Saskatchewan lower third
• 0041 DEEP Since 2018 now we are going to build
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• 0032 IWS Summer hiring rock trailer music
• 0022 Grimes winter hiring
• 0021 OSY Rentals S8 Promo
• 0018 IWS Hiring Royal Summer
• 0013 Panther Drilling PO ad 03 top drive rigs
• 0011
• 0006 JK Junior
• 9001
• 0002