After the 1979-81 oil boom went bust, a lot of U.S. land drillers stacked their iron and headed for bankruptcy hearings. But more than a few drilling contractors, even though decimated by the oil and gas bust, held onto a rig here and a rig there and took the opportunity to pick up discarded iron for pennies on the dollar. Still others, seeking to compete for work in a badly fractured drilling market, took the time to cobble together newer mud pumps, higher-horsepower rigs and higher-grade drillpipe to create more marketable rig packages. These weren't merely survivors. These were contractors with a vision-people who understood how cycles work. In short, they understood the inverse of one of Newton's laws of physics-that what comes down will eventually go up again. Today, amid $65 oil and $8-plus gas, that vision has been rewarded. Two such land drillers that weathered the downturn of the 1980s and capitalized on acquiring old rigs and building new ones before the iron market turned red hot are Union Drilling Inc. (Nasdaq: UDRL) and Pioneer Drilling Co. (Amex: PDC). For more on this, see the July issue of Oil and Gas Investor. For a subscription, call 713-260-6441.

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