RigsThey are now at 74 owned rigs but really 80 rigs, as of they are renting 6. Note that these rigs are probably for the Sukhari contract as the contract is for a minimum of 5 rigs. If I remember well, in recent presentations, Harper did mention that they were already adding one in Febrary and receiving another in March in Egypt. So I guess this contract ramped up much faster that what they expected.
Renting rigs is more expensive than buying them so this could explain for part of the decrease in their overall margin.
But, a bit exctiing to see that right now, they do have the same number of rigs that they were expecting to have by the end of the year !!! Things are ramping up much faster. Harper basically preannonced a monster 2nd quarter and you can hear the suprise in the analyst answer in the conference call.
Note also that they are mentionning rate increase for the first time so expect another bonus.
So market stinks but even tough the price of gold and battery metals have gone down a bit, it is still quite healty and the situation have not change. Expect more drilling
GLTA