With the U.S. rig count now more than 1,700-a three-fold increase from a decade ago-the oil-service sector is seeing a significant swelling in its ranks as more and more companies parade to the IPO market to take advantage of the burgeoning industry need for drilling, completion and production services. Since summer 2005, Wall Street has witnessed the likes of Superior Well Services, Bronco Drilling, Hercules Offshore, Basic Energy Services and Union Drilling post their trading symbols on the Big Board and other exchanges. Small wonder. Commodity and energy-stock prices have been at record highs, domestic oil and gas supply/demand fundamentals are tight, private-equity investors are seizing the opportunity to monetize their earlier investments at attractive public-market valuations, and institutional investors can't seem to get enough of any equity paper that's energy-related. This April, two more oil-service providers-Complete Production Services Inc. (NYSE: CPX) and Warrior Energy Services Corp. (Nasdaq: WARR)-made their market debut. Like the 2005 class of service IPOs, these companies are aggressively seeking to capture more of the upstream capex dollars being poured into North America's natural gas resource plays. While the names of these companies may be new to many investors, their managements have been around for decades. That means they've been through all the down-cycles before and have weathered them. Moreover, they have track records of growing revenues and earnings. For more on this, see the October issue of Oil and Gas Investor. For a subscription, call 713-260-6441.
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