For 94 years, a Helmerich headed Helmerich & Payne (H&P). The company was formed in Tulsa, Okla., by Walt Helmerich in 1920. In 1960, Walter Helmerich III took over as president, followed by his son Hans Helmerich as CEO in 1989. At the company’s annual meeting on March 5, 2014, Hans Helmerich stepped down as CEO, and John Lindsay became the first president and CEO not named Helmerich.

An article in the March 6 edition of the Tulsa World noted that H&P had a $500 million market cap when Hans became CEO. He handed over the reins of a company with an $11 billion market cap to Lindsay.

The drilling contractor expanded its fleet from 96 rigs in 2001 to more than 350 rigs today. The company introduced its AC-powered FlexRig in 1998, and demand for the rig in the shale plays has skyrocketed, according to the article.

I recently went on a tour of Statoil’s operations in the Eagle Ford. The operator was using H&P’s FlexRigs in its operations there. The company is keeping pace with the developments in shale plays with emphasis on a factory approach to drilling. The newer FlexRigs are designed for pad drilling and moving in any direction.

Lindsay, who joined H&P in 1987 as a roughneck, pointed to H&P as mainly a “people company,” the Tulsa World noted. That was driven home to me in Perth, Australia, of all places. I was there April 7 to April 9 for the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) conference.

I stopped to talk to Bill Rippey, operations manager, Enerdrill, at his company’s booth at the APPEA exhibition. Like most oil and gas industry conversations, we drifted around to the places where we had worked before. Rippey was a former H&P hand, working in Venezuela for five years. He recalled how much he enjoyed working for the company. He was surprised to find out that Hans Helmerich was retiring.

H&P is moving forward under its new CEO. On the same day the leadership transition was announced, the company reported new drilling contracts with YPF in Argentina. The company is moving 10 existing FlexRig3s from the U.S. to the Vaca Muerta play in Neuquén Province under five-year term contracts. The first rig is expected to begin drilling operations during H&P’s fourth quarter of fiscal 2014. When all of the rigs are deployed by the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2015, the company will have 19 rigs in Argentina.

What the Helmerich family built, the new generation of leaders will have an opportunity to grow. Like a lot of other Oklahoma-born companies—Halliburton, Phillips Petroleum and Conoco—the more things change, the more they stay the same. As Sonny and Cher used to sing, “The beat goes on.”

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