Patterson-UTI's Anil outlines integrated drilling and completions approach to fracking at ADIPEC

A speaker identified in the reporter's notes as Anil, from Patterson-UTI, used an ADIPEC 2026 presentation in Abu Dhabi to describe how the company is trying to link its drilling and completions businesses. The talk covered completions, auto-architect and intelligent completions.

He said Patterson-UTI is based in Houston, Texas, and is made up of several companies. He said it has a large presence in the Middle East and also provides directional services. He also described a manufacturing arm and Current Power, which he said builds electrical equipment and safety houses for energy storage.

The central question, he said, was how the company can “seamlessly integrate clink and completions” and use that to provide the best completions. The word “clink” appears in the machine transcript and may be a mishearing, so the phrase is reported here only as spoken.

He said the industry has pumped steadily more proppant and sand over the last couple of years. The question, he said, is whether operators are getting the benefit of what they pump and whether they are exploiting reservoirs as well as they can.

He described fracking as a complex operation involving heavy equipment, natural gas powered fleets, power solutions, wirelines and pump-down with wireline. He said the issue was how to optimise it.

On planning, he said that while drilling, the company already knows in the lateral where it is facing pain points. He said Patterson-UTI has been able to model the risk profile of the wellbore in the lateral phase.

He also described a case in which a customer detected about 40 fractures where one wellbore being injected had cracked into another. He said this disrupts flow. Parts of the transcript describing what happened next are unclear, so they are not reported here. He said the work produced “pretty good savings here and pretty good optimization,” and that it was not only about the science but also time and cost.

On AI, he said the company is “bringing the AI into the competition space.” He said it is looking at how to benefit from the drilling data sets it holds. The transcript does not establish that AI is already used to plan or optimise completions.

He also pointed to Superior QC, which he said detects wellbore accuracy and placement. He said that, combined with drilling data, it can be highly effective. He invited attendees to the company's stand, number 30, in the AI zone.

Background from published sources

Patterson-UTI's website describes Superior QC as bringing “aerospace-grade data science to wellbore placement.” It lists IntelliStim Frac Optimization and LateralScience Engineering among its performance optimisation offerings.

Patterson-UTI reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of $1.3 billion, a 9% sequential increase, in an 8-K filed on 28 October. Completion Services revenue was $808 million, with adjusted gross profit of $133 million, the company said.

Chief executive Andy Hendricks said in that release that investments in the fleet and in “digital and automation capabilities” are delivering differentiated operational performance for customers.

The same release said Drilling Products expects fourth-quarter adjusted gross profit to fall 5-10% sequentially, mainly because of lower drilling activity in Saudi Arabia due to ongoing geopolitical unrest. The company described the Middle East as its largest international market.

In December 2024, World Oil reported that ADNOC Drilling, SLB and Patterson-UTI had closed the Turnwell joint venture. According to World Oil, ADNOC Drilling holds 55%, SLB 30% and Patterson-UTI 15%.

World Oil also reported that Turnwell will use innovations in AI smart drilling design, completions engineering and production solutions to serve the UAE's unconventional energy needs.