Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. agreed to acquire smaller rival Pioneer Energy Services Corp. in a move that could lead to further consolidation among oversupplied contractors in the oilfield, Bloomberg News reported. The stock-and-cash deal is valued at about about $295 million, which includes the retirement of all of Pioneer’s debt, Houston-based Patterson-UTI said Tuesday in a statement. The addition of Pioneer, which emerged from bankruptcy protection last year, adds rigs to America’s second-biggest drilling fleet and helps Patterson expand outside the U.S. into Colombia. “In a structurally smaller North American market with a customer base that has also consolidated, we applaud this type of consolidating, complementary transaction,” Evercore ISI analysts including Jason Bandel wrote Tuesday in a note to clients. While deals among U.S. shale producers have rebounded this year amid a recovery in crude prices, the oilfield services sector had remained relatively quiet since Liberty Oilfield Services Inc. bought the fracking business from Schlumberger last year in a deal valued at about $450 million at the time.
