Precision Drilling president and CEO Kevin Neveu.TODD KOROL/Reuters
Precision Drilling Corp. has signed deals to build eight new rigs for the Canadian and U.S. oil and gas industry.
Financial terms of the contracts, announced Wednesday, were not revealed by the big Calgary-based drilling services company.
Precision said the rig contracts will boost its 2001 building program to 38 rigs for its energy customers.
Of those rigs, Precision expects to deliver 18 in 2011 and the remaining 20 next year.
Precision estimated the company will spend $880-million this year in its capital program. The company said it also expects to carry forward an additional $303-million for 2012.
The eight new rigs to be built consist of four of the company's so-called Super Single rigs for the Canadian market and four Super Triple 1200 rigs for the United States.
"Precision's Super Series rigs continue to generate a high level of customer interest despite the persistent global economic concerns," the driller's president and chief executive officer Kevin Neveu said in a release before stock markets opened Wednesday.
"The mobility and operating efficiency demonstrated by our Super Series rigs address the key challenges our customers face developing unconventional oil and gas reserves."
Exploration and production of oil and natural gas from shale rocks and other unconventional plays has boomed in Canada and the United States in recent years.
That has provided a market opportunity for drilling companies selling new technology and services.