WRAPUP 2-Contract drillers Pride Int'l, Helmerich's profits fall

* Pride sees softness in jack-up unit, weak midwater rates

* Sees Seahawk Drilling spin-off completion in near future

* PTEN sees low GOM activity,land drilling to hurt H2 results

* Helmerich & Payne says continues to communicate with PDVSA

* Helmerich&Payne, Patterson-UTI shares up, Pride stock down (Recasts; adds conference call details, analysts comments, updates share movement)

By Shradhha Sharma and Hezron Selvi

BANGALORE, July 30 (Reuters) - Drilling contractors Helmerich & Payne Inc (HP.N), Pride International Inc PDE.N and Patterson-UTI Energy Inc (PTEN.O), whose quarterly results were hurt by a precipitous drop in drilling activity, forecast continued weakness in pricing and utilization going forward.

Houston-based Pride, which reported a lower second-quarter profit that beat Street estimates late Wednesday, said it expects to see softness at its jack-up unit through 2009 and into 2010. [ID:nWNBB6248]

On a conference call with analysts, the company said that 40 percent of its jack-up fleet will look for new contracting opportunities in the next six months. Day rates at its mid-water segment, which was seeing "non-existent" activity levels, would soften further and more rigs were likely to be idled, it said.

"We expect clients to remain cautious about making any near-term rig commitments as we believe clients are looking for further cost reductions from the service industry and oil prices to stay above $60 per barrel in order to justify new projects," Pride said.

The steep fall in oil and gas prices from record highs seen a year ago has forced energy companies to scale back drilling activity to protect margins and counter mounting inventories.

Pride, which also forecast third-quarter profit below analysts' expectations, said earnings from continuing operations during the quarter might be impacted positively by one cent a share, if the spin-off of Seahawk Drilling -- its fleet of mat-supported jack up rigs was completed during the quarter.

The company's announcement that it expects the divestiture to occur in the very near future was the key takeaway from the conference call, Jefferies analyst Judson Bailey said by phone.

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PATTERSON-UTI SLIPS TO Q2 LOSS

Patterson-UTI Energy, which sunk to a second-quarter loss as weak natural gas prices chewed into demand for its drilling rigs, said the lack of activity in the Gulf of Mexico and falling land drilling levels would continue to hurt its revenue and earnings for the remainder of 2009. [ID:nWNBB6186][ID:nN30328683]

Natural gas prices in the United States have tumbled to less than half of year-ago levels, and the industry expects high inventories to curb spending by producers on new wells.

"Utilization is going to improve in the third quarter, but pricing will continue to fall," Morgan Keegan analyst Michael Drickamer said by phone.

The company sees average U.S. and Canada rig count in the third quarter improving marginally to about 70, from 63 in the second quarter, which had seen a sequential decline.

"The severe downturn in our industry affected all of our regions and all sizes of rigs," the company said in a statement.

However, the company said demand for its rigs under spot rate contracts had risen, boosting its rig count in July, but average revenue per day remained low as spot rate contracts have lower day rates than long term contracts.

"A lot of that is because rates for their long-term contracts were set before rates actually started falling," Drickamer said.

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NEGOTIATIONS ON WITH PDVSA

Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Helmerich & Payne's third-quarter profit slumped 58 percent, on falling rig utilization and missed Street estimates by a penny, expects its peers to continue discounting day rates to protect their shrinking market share.

On a conference call, the company said 15 of it's international land rigs are now idle and without a contract.

Earlier, it said rig utilization at its land segment dropped to 51 percent from 96 percent, a year earlier. [ID:nWNBB6040]

Helmerich & Payne said nine of its rigs were now stacked in Venezuela as part of an ongoing payment dispute with the country's state oil company, PDVSA. [ID:nWNBB6279]

The company said it will continue to communicate with PDVSA and hopes to see continued progress in collections.

Shares of the company were trading up 65 cents at $33.86, while those of Pride were down 18 cents at $25.53, Thursday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange.

Patterson-UTI shares were trading flat at $14.31 on Nasdaq. (Editing by Gopakumar Warrier, Dinesh Nair)