PROSPECTUS
SUMMARY
This summary highlights important
features of this offering and the information included or incorporated by
reference in this prospectus. This
summary does not contain all of the information that you should consider before
investing in our common stock. You
should read the entire prospectus carefully, especially the risks of investing
in our common stock discussed under Risk Factors.
KEY ENERGY
SERVICES, INC.
Key is a Maryland corporation that was organized in
April 1977 and commenced operations in July 1978 under the name National
Environmental Group, Inc. We emerged from a prepackaged bankruptcy plan in
December 1992 as Key Energy Group, Inc. On December 9, 1998, we
changed our name to Key Energy Services, Inc. We believe that we are now
the leading onshore, rig-based well servicing contractor in the United States.
From 1994 through 2002, we grew rapidly through a series of over 100
acquisitions, and today we provide a complete range of well services to major
oil companies and independent oil and natural gas production companies,
including rig-based well maintenance, workover, well completion and
recompletion services, oilfield transportation services, cased-hole electric
wireline services and ancillary oilfield services, fishing and rental services
and pressure pumping services. During 2006, Key conducted well servicing
operations onshore in the continental United States in the following regions:
Gulf Coast (including South Texas, Central Gulf Coast of Texas and South
Louisiana), Permian Basin of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico, Mid-Continent
(including the Anadarko, Hugoton and Arkoma Basins and the ArkLaTex and North
Texas regions), Four Corners (including the San Juan, Piceance, Uinta, and
Paradox Basins), the Appalachian Basin, Rocky Mountains (including the Denver-Julesberg,
Powder River, Wind River, Green River and Williston Basins), and California
(the San Joaquin Basin), and internationally in Argentina and Mexico. We provide limited onshore drilling services
in the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachian Basin and in Argentina. We also conduct
pressure pumping and cementing operations in a number of major domestic
producing basins including California, the Permian Basin, the San Juan Basin,
the Mid-Continent region, and in the Barnett Shale of North Texas. Our fishing
and rental services are located primarily in the Gulf Coast region of Texas as
well as in the Permian Basin, California and the Mid-Continent region.
Description of Business Segments
Key operates in three primary business segments:
well servicing, pressure pumping and fishing and rental services. Key operates
in various regions in the continental United States and internationally in
Argentina and Mexico.
Well Servicing Segment
Key provides a broad range of well services, including
rig-based services, oilfield transportation services and other ancillary
oilfield services necessary to complete, stimulate, maintain and workover oil
and natural gas producing wells. Rig-based services include the maintenance of
existing wells, workover of existing wells, completion of newly drilled wells,
recompletion of existing wells (re-entering a well to complete the well in a
new geologic zone or formation) and plugging and abandonment of wells at the
end of their useful lives. Our well servicing segment includes contract
drilling and cased-hole electric wireline services.
Maintenance Services.
Key
provides the well service rigs, equipment and crews for maintenance services,
which are performed on both oil and natural gas wells, but more frequently on
oil wells. While
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some oil wells in the United States flow oil to the surface without
mechanical assistance, most require pumping or some other method of artificial
lift. Oil wells that require pumping characteristically require more maintenance
than flowing wells due to the operation of the mechanical pumping equipment.
Because few natural gas wells have mechanical pumping systems in the wellbore,
maintenance work on natural gas wells is less frequent.
Workover Services.
In
addition to periodic maintenance, producing oil and natural gas wells
occasionally require major repairs or modifications, called workovers. Workover services are performed to enhance
the production of existing wells. Such services include extensions of existing
wells to drain new formations either by deepening wellbores to new zones or by
drilling horizontal or lateral wellbores to improve reservoir drainage. In less
extensive workovers, Keys rigs are used to seal off depleted zones in existing
wellbores and access previously bypassed productive zones. Our workover rigs
are also used to convert former producing wells to injection wells through
which water or carbon dioxide is pumped into the formation for enhanced
recovery operations. Other workover services include: conducting major
subsurface repairs such as casing repair or replacement, recovering tubing and
removing foreign objects in the wellbore, repairing downhole equipment
failures, plugging back a section of a well to reduce the amount of water being
produced with the oil and natural gas, cleaning out and recompleting a well if
production has declined, and repairing leaks in the tubing and casing. These
extensive workover operations are normally performed by a well service rig with
a workover package, which may include rotary drilling equipment, mud pumps, mud
tanks and blowout preventers, depending upon the particular type of workover
operation. Most of our well service rigs are designed to perform complex
workover operations.
Completion Services.
Keys
completion services prepare a newly drilled oil or natural gas well for
production. The completion process may involve selectively perforating the well
casing to access producing zones, stimulating and testing these zones and
installing downhole equipment. We typically provide a well service rig and may
also provide other equipment such as a workover package to assist in the
completion process. Also, for some completion work on natural gas wells, coiled
tubing units can be used in place of a well service rig.
Plugging and Abandonment Services
. Well
service rigs and workover equipment are also used in the process of permanently
shutting-in oil and natural gas wells at the end of their productive lives.
Plugging and abandonment work can be performed with a well servicing rig along
with wireline and cementing equipment and require compliance with state
regulatory requirements.
Oilfield Transportation.
Key
provides oilfield transportation services, which primarily include vacuum truck
services, fluid transportation services and disposal services for operators
whose oil or natural gas wells produce salt water and other fluids. In
addition, we are a supplier of frac tanks which are used for temporary storage
of fluids in conjunction with the fluid hauling operations.
Ancillary Oilfield Services.
Key
provides ancillary oilfield services, which include, among others: electric
wireline operations (conveying downhole tools and information); wellsite
construction (preparation of a wellsite for drilling activities); roustabout services
(provision of manpower to assist with activities on a wellsite); foam air
services (drilling technique using air or gas to which a foaming agent has been
added); and air drilling services (drilling technique using compressed air).
Pressure Pumping Services Segment
Key Energy Pressure Pumping Services provides well
stimulation and cementing services to oil and natural gas producers. Well
stimulation services include fracturing, nitrogen services, and acidizing.
These services (which may be completion or workover services) are provided to
oil and natural gas
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producers and are used to enhance the production of oil and natural gas
wells from formations which exhibit restricted flow of oil and natural gas. In
the fracturing process, we typically pump fluid and sized sand, or proppants,
into a well at high pressure in order to fracture the formation and thereby
increase the flow of oil and natural gas. With our cementing services, we pump
cement into a well between the casing and the wellbore. Key offers a full
complement of acidizing, fracturing and nitrogen and cementing services.
Fishing and Rental Services Segment
Key Energy Fishing & Rental Services
provides fishing and rental services to major and independent oil and natural
gas production companies in the Gulf Coast, Mid-Continent, and Permian Basin
regions of the United States, as well as in California. Fishing services
involve recovering lost or stuck equipment in the wellbore and a fishing tool
is a downhole tool designed to recover any such equipment lost in the well. The
fishing tool supervisors who manage the fishing process have extensive
experience with downhole problems. In addition, Key offers a full line of
services and rental equipment designed for use both on land and offshore for
drilling and workover services. Our rental tool inventory consists of tubulars,
handling tools, pressure-control equipment and a fleet of power swivels.
Business and Debt-Related Risk Factors
Our business is
dependent on conditions in the oil and natural gas industry, especially oil and
natural gas prices and capital expenditures by oil and natural gas companies.
The demand for our services is primarily influenced
by current and anticipated oil and natural gas prices. Prices for oil and
natural gas historically have been extremely volatile and have reacted to
changes in the supply of and demand for oil and natural gas. These include
changes resulting from the ability of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries to establish and maintain production quotas to support oil prices,
domestic and worldwide economic conditions and political instability in
oil-producing countries. Weakness in oil and natural gas prices (or the
perception by our customers that oil and natural gas prices will decrease) may
cause lower rates for, and lower utilization of, available well service
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equipment. In addition, when oil and natural gas prices are weak, or
when our customers expect oil and natural gas prices to decrease, fewer wells
are drilled, resulting in less completion and maintenance work for us.
Additional factors that affect demand for our services include:
·
the
level of development, exploration and production activity of, and corresponding
capital spending by, oil and natural gas companies;
·
oil
and natural gas production costs;
·
government
regulation; and
·
conditions
in the worldwide oil and natural gas industry.
In addition, we anticipate that prices for oil and
natural gas will continue to be volatile and affect the demand for and pricing
of our services. Decreases in oil and natural gas prices can result in a
reduction in the trading prices and value of our securities, even if the
decreases in oil and natural gas prices do not affect our business directly.
Moreover, a material decline in oil or natural gas prices or activities over a
sustained period of time could materially adversely affect the demand for our
services and, therefore, our results of operations and financial condition.
Periods of diminished or weakened demand for our
services have occurred in the past. Although we experienced a material decrease
in the demand for our services beginning in August 2001 and continuing
through September 2002, since September 2002 we have experienced
continued strong demand for our services. We believe the previous decrease in
demand was due to an overall weakening of demand for onshore well services,
which was attributable to general uncertainty about future oil and natural gas
prices and the U.S. economy, including the impact of the September 11,
2001 terrorist attacks. If any of these conditions return, demand for our
services could again decrease, having a material adverse effect on our
financial condition and results of operations. In light of these and other
factors relating to the oil and natural gas industry, our historical operating
results may not be indicative of future performance.
We may be unable to implement
pricing increases on our core services.
A component of our business strategy includes
charging higher prices on our core services in order to generate higher
returns. During periods of strong industry activity when demand for our
services has increased, we have been able to increase our prices. These increases
have been initiated to offset our rising cost structure and to enhance our
margins. We believe that we have been able to increase our prices due to strong
industry conditions, our capabilities and our leading market position. In the
event market conditions deteriorate, it may become more difficult for us to
increase prices, and if demand for our services declines, some customers may
seek pricing concessions. Additionally, in some cases, we have not been able to
successfully increase prices without adversely affecting demand for our
services. Specifically, some customers have elected to use our competition
rather than to pay our higher price.
The inability to secure further price increases
could:
·
limit
our ability to offset rising costs; and
·
impact
our ability to generate higher free cash flow which would be used to expand our
business.
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Increases in industry capacity may adversely affect our business.
Over the past three years, new capacity, including
new well service rigs, new pressure pumping equipment and new fishing and
rental equipment, has entered the market. In some cases, the new capacity is
attributable to start-up oilfield service companies and in other cases, the new
capacity has been employed by existing service providers to increase their
service capacity. Should oilfield service companies continue to add new
capacity and demand for services not increase, it is possible that we could
experience continued pressure on the pricing of our services. This could have a
material negative impact our operating results.
An economic downturn may adversely
affect our business.
A downturn in the U.S. economy may cause reduced
demand for petroleum-based products and natural gas. In addition, many
oil and natural gas production companies often reduce or delay expenditures to
reduce costs, which in turn may cause a reduction in the demand for our
services during these periods. We view the Baker Hughes U.S. land drilling rig
count as a good barometer of oilfield service activity, which is driven by
capital spending from oil and natural gas production companies. During 2002,
the last economic slowdown in which activity levels fell, the Baker Hughes U.S.
land drilling rig count declined to an average of 717. Since that time,
activity levels, as measured by the Baker Hughes U.S. land drilling rig count,
have improved. According to available industry data, in 2006, the average U.S.
land drilling rig count was approximately 1,559 working rigs, as compared to an
average of approximately 1,290 working rigs in 2005. The number of land
drilling rigs may be seen as indicative of the demand for services such as
those we provide. If the economic environment should deteriorate, our business,
financial condition and results of operations may be adversely impacted.
Our business involves certain
operating risks, which are primarily self-insured, and our insurance may not be
adequate to cover all losses or liabilities we might incur in our operations.
Our operations are subject to many hazards and
risks, including the following:
·
blow-outs,
the uncontrolled flow of natural gas, oil or other well fluids into the
atmosphere or an underground formation;
·
reservoir
damage;
·
fires
and explosions;
·
accidents
resulting in serious bodily injury and the loss of life or property;
·
pollution
and other damage to the environment; and
·
liabilities
from accidents or damage by our fleet of trucks, rigs and other equipment.
If these hazards occur, they could result in
suspension of operations, damage to or destruction of our equipment and the
property of others, or injury or death to our or a third partys personnel.
We self-insure a significant portion of these
liabilities. For losses in excess of our self-insurance limits, we maintain
insurance from unaffiliated commercial carriers. However, our insurance may not
be adequate to cover all losses or liabilities that we might incur in our
operations. Furthermore, our insurance may not adequately protect us against
liability from all of the hazards of our business. We also are subject
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to the risk that we may not be able to maintain or obtain insurance of
the type and amount we desire at a reasonable cost. If we were to incur a
significant liability for which we were uninsured or for which we were not
fully insured, it could have a material adverse effect on our financial
position, results of operations and cash flows.
We are subject to the economic,
political and social instability risks of doing business in certain foreign
countries.
We currently have operations in Argentina and Mexico
and may expand our operations into other foreign countries. As a result, we are
exposed to risks of international operations, including:
·
increased
governmental ownership and regulation of the economy in the markets where we
operate;
·
inflation
and adverse economic conditions stemming from governmental attempts to reduce
inflation, such as imposition of higher interest rates and wage and price
controls;
·
increased
trade barriers, such as higher tariffs and taxes on imports of commodity
products;
·
exchange
controls or other currency restrictions;
·
war,
civil unrest or significant political instability;
·
expropriation,
confiscatory taxation and nationalization of our assets located in the markets
where we operate;
·
governmental
policies limiting investments by and returns to foreign investors;
·
labor
unrest and strikes; and
·
restrictive
governmental regulation and bureaucratic delays.
The occurrence
of one or more of these risks may:
·
negatively
impact our results of operations;
·
restrict
the movement of funds and equipment;
·
inhibit
our ability to collect receivables; and
·
lead
to U.S. government or international sanctions.
We historically have experienced a
high employee turnover rate. Any difficulty we experience replacing or adding
workers could adversely affect our business.
We historically have experienced an annual employee
turnover rate of almost 50%, although our turnover rate during 2006 improved to
approximately 43%. The high turnover rate is attributable to the nature of the
work, which is physically demanding and performed outdoors. As a result,
workers may choose to pursue employment in fields that offer a more desirable
work environment at wage rates that are competitive with ours. We cannot assure
that at times of high demand we will be able to retain, recruit
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and train an adequate number of workers. Potential inability or lack of
desire by workers to commute to our facilities and job sites and competition
for workers from competitors or other industries are factors that could affect
our ability to attract and retain workers. We believe that our wage rates are
competitive with the wage rates of our competitors and other potential
employers. A significant increase in the wages other employers pay could result
in a reduction in our workforce, increases in our wage rates, or both. Either
of these events could diminish our profitability and growth potential.
We may not be successful in
implementing technology development and technology enhancements.
A component of our business strategy is to incorporate
our technology into our well service rigs, primarily through the KeyView®
system. The inability to successfully develop and integrate the technology
could:
·
limit our ability to improve our market position;
·
increase our operating costs; and
·
limit our ability to recoup the investments
made in technology initiatives.
We are subject to environmental,
health and safety laws and regulations that expose us to potential liability.
Our operations are regulated under a number of
federal, state, local and foreign laws that govern, among other things, the
handling, storage and disposal of waste materials, some of which are classified
as hazardous substances, and the discharge of hazardous materials into the
environment. In addition to potential liability if we should fail to comply,
environmental regulations may expose us to liability for noncompliance of other
parties, without regard to whether we were negligent. Sanctions for
noncompliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations may include
administrative, civil and criminal penalties, revocation of permits and
corrective action orders. Furthermore, we may be liable for costs for
environmental clean-up at currently or previously owned or operated properties
or off-site locations where we sent, disposed of, or arranged for disposal of
hazardous materials.
Our expenditures for environmental compliance have
not been significant in the past but may increase in the future. Compliance
with existing laws or regulations, adoption of new laws or regulations or more
vigorous enforcement of environmental laws or regulations could have a material
adverse effect on our operations by increasing our expenses and limiting our
future business opportunities.
In addition, we conduct electric wireline logging,
which entails the use of various downhole sondes that acquire geologic data
from the surrounding well bore. The data is set up downhole using armored,
insulated cable which has from one to seven electrical conductors inside. We
use radioactive isotopes along with other nuclear, electrical, acoustic, and
mechanical devices to evaluate downhole formations, such as Americium,
Beryllium 241, Cesium 137, Iodine 131, and other isotopes. Our activities
involving the use of isotopes are regulated by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission and specified agencies of applicable agreement states that work
cooperatively in implementing the federal regulations. Additionally, we use
high explosive charges for perforating casing and formations, and various
explosive cutters to assist in well bore cleanout. Such operations are
regulated by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms, and Explosives. Standards implemented by these regulatory agencies
require us to obtain licenses or other approvals for the use of densitometers
as well as explosive charges. While we believe we are in substantial compliance
with these requirements, failure to obtain necessary licenses or otherwise to
comply with the law could adversely affect our business.
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We rely on a limited number of
suppliers for certain materials used in providing our pressure pumping
services.
We rely heavily on three suppliers for sized sand, a
principal raw material that is critical for our pressure pumping operations.
While the materials are generally available, if we were to have a problem
sourcing raw materials or transporting these materials from either of these
vendors, our ability to provide pressure pumping services could be limited.
We may not be able to generate
sufficient cash flow to meet our debt service obligations.
We had $421.8 million of total indebtedness and
capital lease obligations outstanding at December 31, 2006. As of
June 30, 2007, we had $419.1 million of total indebtedness and capital
lease obligations outstanding.
Our ability to make payments on and to refinance our
indebtedness, and to fund planned capital expenditures, will depend on our
ability to generate cash in the future. This, to a certain extent, is subject
to conditions in the oil and gas industry, general economic and financial
conditions, competition in the markets where we operate, the impact of
legislative and regulatory actions on how we conduct our business and other
factors that are beyond our control.
We cannot assure you that our business will generate
sufficient cash flow from operations to service our outstanding indebtedness,
or that future borrowings will be available to us in an amount sufficient to
enable us to pay our indebtedness or to fund our other capital needs. If our
business does not generate sufficient cash flow from operations to service our
outstanding indebtedness, we may not able to refinance our indebtedness. We may
not be able to continue to implement the parts of our business strategy
relating to strengthening our balance sheet by reducing debt, making
acquisitions and remanufacturing our rigs and related equipment.
Our debt instruments impose
restrictions on us that may affect our ability to successfully operate our
business.
Our senior secured credit facility limits our
ability to take various actions, such as:
·
incurring
additional indebtedness;
·
paying
dividends;
·
repurchasing
junior indebtedness;
·
making
investments;
·
entering
into transactions with affiliates;
·
merging
or consolidating with other entities; and
·
selling
all or substantially all of our assets.
These restrictions also could limit our ability to
obtain additional financing, make needed capital expenditures, withstand a
downturn in our business or the economy in general, or otherwise conduct our
business.
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