UPDATE 1-Pioneer Drilling Q3 loss narrower than expected

* Q3 loss $0.18/shr vs. est loss $0.22/shr

* Q3 rev down 57 pct

* Says results reflect $1.3 mln bad debt recovery

Nov 5 (Reuters) - Pioneer Drilling Co Inc (PDC.A) posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss as a bad debt recovery helped cushion the impact of lower utilization rates for its rigs.

For the third quarter, the company posted a net loss of $9.2 million, or 18 cents a share, compared with earnings of $24.2 million, or 48 cents, a year ago.

Revenue fell about 57 percent to $74.4 million.

Analysts, on average, expected the company to post a loss of 22 cents a share, excluding items, on revenue of $67.8 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Quarterly utilization rate for the company's drilling rigs averaged 35 percent, down from 96 percent in the year-ago period.

Pioneer said its results were boosted by a bad debt recovery of $1.3 million.

Utilization is showing modest improvement at 38 percent in the current fourth quarter, the company said.

Shares of the San Antonio, Texas-based company closed at $6.86 Wednesday on the American Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan in Bangalore; Editing by Deepak Kannan)