CRITICAL ISSUES IN DRILLING & COMPLETIONS
TOP With plans to run 24-26 rigs this
year, Pioneer will leverage both its scale
and supplier partnerships to address
supply chain and infl ation challenges.

BOTTOM Pioneer is pairing seasoned
employees with newer ones to supervise
its rigs, which the company believes
helps to combine experience and an
eagerness for technology adoption.

Are you looking at technologies that
could help Pioneer achieve com-
pletely autonomous drilling?
Automation is a journey. In the near
term, we’re focused more on improving
efficiency and safety rather than auton-
omous drilling. There are many, many
technologies out there; you can’t adopt all
of them all at the same time. We have to
figure out which ones are a right fit for our
operation and which ones will really make
a difference in efficiency. It doesn’t mean
that we won’t adopt more of them later, but
you have to have a priority.

With that said, I believe we have built
a strong foundation, particularly on the
people side with our subject matter experts.

Like I mentioned with our command cen-
ters, we’re putting together very diverse
teams so they can play off of one another’s
expertise and technological backgrounds to
improve efficiencies. I think that’s what is
making drilling exciting again, and we’ve
not yet seen the limits of what we can do.

Going back to what you said earlier
about having deep, long-standing
relationships with your contractors
and suppliers – can you talk about
Pioneer’s approach to building rela-
tionships like that?
One of the things that we are very proud
of is that we approach those vendor rela-
tionships as true partnerships. We are as
transparent as possible with our plans so
that they can also plan their work. We
recognize that, in order for them to help us
deliver on our projects, they have to know
what we need from them and when, with
some surety.

Communication and transparency are
paramount, and that involves having con-
versations early and often. If there is
potential for our plans to change, we com-
municate that with them. At the same
time, if our vendors are having challenges
around supply chain or labor, there is
enough trust in our relationship that they
can tell us upfront, and we can try to
solve those issues together as early as
possible. There seems to be a bigger focus on
energy security now than we’ve seen
in perhaps decades. Do you see this
as a potential turning point for the oil
and gas industry? What can we do to
turn this into an opportunity to renew
our image among either investors or
next-generation talent?
Without a doubt, there’s been a huge
focus on energy security. People are talk-
ing a lot more about the energy supply
and demand dynamic and whether this
is completely a product of the Russia/
Ukraine war. I think that’s been good for
our society because it has brought energy
security to the forefront. We’ve had limited
investment in the oil and gas space for
several years, so we definitely have some-
thing to prove to our investors.

I believe we have to continue to show
that we are strong investments that focus
on returning free cash flow and a strong
return of capital. That is certainly a key
focus for us at Pioneer.

While we’re seeing a recovery in the
onshore drilling market, it seems
unlikely that many new rigs will be built
soon. So what upgrades to existing
rigs and equipment would you like to
see in the next few years?
Q&A with Bonnie Black, Pioneer,
continued on page 31
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