Pioneer Drilling New Assets

Pioneer Drilling Company has purchased the assets of United Drilling Company and U-D Holdings, L.P. The Company paid $7 million for these assets, which consist of two Ideco H-725 12,000 foot mechanical land drilling rigs, a substantial inventory of spare parts and equipment and five vehicles. These rigs were refurbished in 2001, are in excellent operating condition and have experienced crews.

Additionally, Pioneer has agreed to purchase two National 110-UE 1500HP diesel electric rigs from IDM Equipment, Ltd for approximately $6.0 million each. The rigs, rated to 18,000 feet, will be comprised of primarily new equipment with some components refurbished to like-new condition. Pioneer will provide drill pipe, drill collars, blowout preventers and handling tools to complete the rigs. These transactions are being financed with a combination of bank debt, mezzanine capital and/or common stock.

Michael E. Little, Pioneer Drilling's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We are very pleased to add these high quality rigs to our fleet as we continue to execute our growth strategy. The two Ideco H-725 rigs are ready to be deployed and we anticipate moving one of the rigs on a multi-well drilling program in mid-June.

The first of the two National 110-UE 1500HP rigs will be ready to commence operations by October 2002 and the second rig by January 2003. These two rigs are similar to the two National 110-UE rigs that we purchased from IDM in the past, except that every engine on these rigs will be equipped with the new energy-efficient Caterpillar 3512 B series engines. We found this type of rig to be very well liked by our customers due to its efficiency and dependability Visit to

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