Houston-based oil field services co. cuts C-level position, jobs, assets to reduce costs by Olivia Pulsinelli, Houston Business Journal, Aug 20, 2019
Houston-based Quintana Energy Services Inc. (NYSE: QES), an oil field services company that went public in February 2018, is making changes to reduce its costs to deal with current market conditions.
Earlier this month, the company eliminated its COO position as part of that cost-cutting effort. …
Quintana reduced its headcount by about 10 percent — or over 130 people — from March to the end of July, CFO Keefer Lehner said on the call, according to a transcript posted by Seeking Alpha. …
On Aug. 19, Quintana announced another cost-cutting move. The company sold its legacy conventional pressure pumping operations in Kansas and Bartlesville, Oklahoma, to Kansas-based Hurricane Services Inc. for $4.4 million in cash.
The divestment included approximately 12,000 hydraulic horsepower, five facilities and 26 employees, according to an Aug. 19 press release. For the first half of 2019, those assets represented $2.2 million of revenue and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $400,000, per the release.
“This sale allows us to streamline our focus and cost structure on our go-forward service offering and the needs of our unconventional pressure pumping and cementing customers,” Baker said in the Aug. 19 release. “Our regional pressure pumping predecessor, Consolidated Oil Well Services, had been active in the Kansas pressure pumping market since 1956, but as our operating strategy evolved to focus on high-utilization unconventional completions, these legacy conventional pumping services have become noncore. Post-closing, we retain the remainder of our pressure pumping operations, including the unconventional frac business operating in the (Mid-Continent), Permian and Rockies and our cement business based in Gillette, Wyoming.”
… Due to the latest oil price downturn that started in late 2018, many companies in the upstream space — which includes both producers and the companies that supply them with services and equipment — have been caught in a three-way pin between weak oil prices, shifting investor expectations and crushing debt.