"YOU’VE GOTTA MAKE THE ECONOMICS WORK" INSIDE H&P’S PUSH TO DEFINE A NEW ERA OF DRILLING IN AUSTRALIA
Lane McCarty didn’t plan to end up in Australia. “I never thought I’d be in Australia. Not once did I see it in my plan for the future,” he says. But from the moment he arrived, one thing was clear: if the Beetaloo Basin was going to make history, it wouldn’t happen by accident.
“We brought what we do in U.S. Land Unconventionals to Australia because that’s what the operator wanted to see,” says McCarty, now H&P’s Senior Manager of Operations for the Western Hemisphere. “Every year we’re shaving days off wells and they’re having better results. It will be huge for the Northern Territory economy and Australia as a whole.”
The Beetaloo is still in exploration mode, but the pace of learning is anything but tentative. “From the two wells we drilled this year, there was a 40% reduction in time. It was a 3000-meter lateral, the longest lateral and deepest well in the basin at that time”
Culture Transfer, Not Culture Clash
Rolling out U.S. Land processes in international settings can be a tricky proposition. “We worked with our team beforehand - we said, ‘don’t just get here and say this is how we do it back home,’ because people get tired of hearing that,” McCarty explains.
That intentional approach has helped lay the foundation for H&P’s reputation abroad. “They’re very receptive to what we say in our feedback... we’re learning as we go here, and we’re receptive to their input too. It’s all about working together.”
According to International Account Manager Attila Vasvary, the appetite for innovation is already there: “Everybody’s excited about new technologies. They’re hungry for it... but the challenge of the market remains that there’s not a whole lot of projects. You've gotta make the economics work.”
With a tight project pipeline and limited scale, the tech gap is real. “A lot of the BHAs and other equipment, a lot of it we’re not even using in West Texas anymore,” McCarty says. Australia struggles to even obtain access to current equipment, let alone the latest and greatest in innovation.
That’s where H&P’s collaborative advantage comes in. “In other organizations, teams often operate in silos – engineering doesn’t talk to operations, or regional groups keep information to themselves. But at H&P, we take a different approach. If I’m dealing with a wellhead issue or a BHA challenge, I can count on open communication. We don’t hold it in – we share it.”
Operational Discipline in the Wild
In the Northern Territory, a region twice the size of Texas, where basic infrastructure lags and every hour counts, well site staffing requirements are significantly higher than what is seen in US Land. “Sometimes it’s 100 or 120 people, because it’s so remote,” McCarty says. “Everyone has to have extra people. Because of this, their spread rate is very high. So any minute you can take away is worth a lot of money.”
Daily calls, shared accountability, and unfiltered feedback have become part of the rhythm. “Nobody’s afraid to share information. You’re not going to get yelled at. We’re all honest and vulnerable. We just try to share the learnings day-to-day, and then use those shared learnings to improve performance.”
This mindset, McCarty says, is pure H&P. “We could sit back, right? And let them drill longer wells and probably make more money - more days on well. It’s not necessarily benefiting us financially, but that’s just how we are at H&P – doing the right thing is a core value. We want to be the best and continue to shave days off every well program.”
A Springboard for the Future
For both McCarty and Vasvary, the Australia project represents more than a milestone - it’s a case study in what it means to lead from any seat.
“There’s growth in the unknown - you can go into whatever field you want to within H&P. You get to choose your own path,” McCarty says. “I started as a floorhand in West Texas... when I did get in the office as a performance engineer I covered for superintendents all the time on weekends, any time I could, because that was my next goal.”
Vasvary agrees. “In a smaller operation, the engineer has to also be the admin, supply chain, and all kinds of stuff. Being open for that already and ready for any challenges helps you to learn and grow - it sets you up for success.”
Together, they’re helping to shape a different kind of drilling landscape - one defined by openness, rigor, and a belief in doing things the right way, even when no one’s watching.
As McCarty puts it: “Some of these other contractors over here might just sit back and let you go, right? That’s not our mentality, and that’s not who H&P is as a company either.”
Click here to download the article: https://www.hpinc.com/media/product-highlights/Australia-Article-4.pdf.
Read out the full thought leadership update from here: https://www.hpinc.com/you-have-gotta-make-the-economics-work-inside-h-ps-push-to-define-a-new-era-of-drilling-in-australia.
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