US Land Operators Report Using Multiple Mud Motor Suppliers

US land oil & gas operators report using nearly 3 different mud motor suppliers to meet their drilling requirements based on personal interviews with approximately 100 operators in Kimberlite’s 2018 Drilling Equipment & Services report.

The US land market is highly fragmented with over 40 mud motor suppliers cited as being used. The smaller, independent mud motor suppliers are reported to being used by virtually all of US land operators and comprise in aggregate approximately 70% market share.

However, the performance of the mud motor suppliers varies significantly based on US land operators peer review and captured in Kimberlite’s 2018 Drilling report. Using a rating scale of 1 to 10 with 10 = excellent performance and 1 = poor performance, the graph below highlights a significant variance in the level of performance among the 40+ mud motor suppliers in US land. The performance ratings of the worst performing mud motor suppliers average approximately 6.0 on a 10-point scale whereas the best performing mud motor suppliers receive ratings of approximately 9.0 on the 10-point scale.

The large variance in performance places an added level of due diligence on the US land operators to be able to identify those suppliers that can deliver the best overall value and meet their drilling requirements.

In addition, 88% of US land operators report a desire to have increased torque versus speed and 75% of US land operators prefer to have longer elastomer survivability at the same power output versus having greater power output with no improvement in elastomer survivability.

The results of the 2018 Kimberlite Drilling report reveal that the US land operators will be seeking motor performance design improvements with increased torque and elastomer survivability as well as seek improved consistency in mud motor supplier performance as they strive to further improve drilling efficiency and results in 2019.