Capital that keeps crews
on location.

Oilfield service runs on a cash-flow mismatch that is severe even by the standards of capital-intensive industries. Crews are paid weekly, sometimes with per diem on top. Fuel is bought daily and in volume. Equipment payments, insurance, and DOT compliance costs run monthly and do not flex. Your customer is an exploration and production company paying on net 60 to net 90, on terms set by their accounts payable department rather than by negotiation. Mobilize to a new pad and you front the trucks, the crews, the fuel, the lodging, and the location cost weeks before the first invoice is even submitted, let alone paid.

Layered on top of that is cyclicality that few other industries face. Rig counts and completion activity move with commodity prices, and the swings are violent — 2015, 2020, and every cycle before them left capable companies with damaged balance sheets and impaired credit that had nothing to do with how well they operated. Banks respond to that history by leaving the sector or by pricing it out of reach, and by demanding two years of financials that inevitably include the worst of a downturn. Legion underwrites the trailing deposit record and the work in hand, and closes in a day or two.

What we fund inside an oilfield service company

Payroll and per diem through the gap between mobilization and the first operator payment. Fuel, which for a trucking-heavy service company is often the single largest variable cost and is bought on terms far shorter than the revenue it generates. Mobilization to a new pad, a new operator, or a new basin — trucks repositioned, crews housed, location costs fronted. Equipment acquisition: vacuum and water trucks, winch and bed trucks, frac tanks, pumps, compressors, workover rigs, coiled tubing units, wireline units, and the trailers and iron that go with them. Maintenance and repair, which in this sector is a heavy, unpredictable, and non-deferrable cost. DOT and safety compliance, including ELD systems, drug and alcohol programs, and the insurance premiums that operators require before you set foot on location. Bonding and insurance costs for master service agreements. Receivables bridges when an operator stretches terms or disputes an invoice line.

What we don't ask for

We don't run hard credit pulls to check pricing. We don't ask for two years of tax returns that include a downturn year. We don't require collateral on positions under $250K. We don't require a notice of assignment to your operator on most positions. We don't disqualify a company for credit damage sustained in a prior price collapse. We underwrite deposits, work in hand, and operator mix.

A generic underwriting engine misreads an oilfield service company constantly. The enormous weekly fuel and payroll outflows read as a business bleeding cash. The three-week gap while crews mobilize before the first invoice reads as revenue collapse. Concentration with two operators reads as fragility. A credit report scarred by 2020 reads as a character problem rather than as a commodity cycle. Our underwriters know the difference. They look for deposits that hold across trailing twelve months, a fuel-to-revenue ratio consistent with the service line, invoice timing that matches the operator's known payment behavior, and NSF counts that stay controlled through heavy weekly activity.

We also calibrate to your service line and its exposure. Production-side work — workover, well servicing, water hauling and disposal, chemical treatment, and maintenance — is tied to existing wells, generates recurring revenue, and holds up through downturns; that profile earns better pricing and longer terms. Completion-side work — frac support, sand and water logistics, wireline, coiled tubing — is tied to new drilling and is far more cyclical; we size it more conservatively and structure shorter. Midstream and infrastructure contractors working on pipelines, gathering systems, and facility construction run on project cycles with progress billing, and we anchor to the billing schedule. Companies running across multiple basins carry meaningfully less risk than single-basin operators, and it shows in the terms.

Energy segments we fund every week

Water hauling, transfer, and saltwater disposal operators. Vacuum truck and fluid-handling services. Workover and well-servicing rig companies. Wireline, coiled tubing, and pressure-pumping support. Frac sand and proppant logistics. Roustabout and general oilfield labor contractors. Pipeline construction, maintenance, and integrity services. Gathering-system and facility construction contractors. Site preparation, roadbuilding, and location construction. Equipment rental companies serving the patch. Crane, rigging, and heavy-haul operators. Chemical supply and treatment companies. Compression and production-equipment services. Environmental, remediation, and plugging-and-abandonment contractors. Man-camp, catering, and field-support services.

Common oilfield funding scenarios

An operator calls with a mobilization request expecting crews on location in ten days, and the fuel, lodging, and payroll to get there land six weeks before the first check. We fund the mobilization. A vacuum truck goes down mid-contract and a replacement — new or at auction — has to be running this week or the contract is at risk. We wire the purchase and the outfitting. An operator stretches from net 60 to net 90 without discussion and the fuel vendor does not extend the same courtesy. We bridge the difference. A master service agreement requires higher insurance limits than the company currently carries, and the premium is due before the first job. We fund the premium against the contract. Activity picks up after a soft quarter and the company needs three more crews staffed and equipped before competitors take the work. We fund the ramp. A company stacked advances through a downturn to hold its crews together and the daily debits are now consuming the cash that fuel and payroll need. We consolidate and cut the debit substantially.

The pattern is consistent across all of it. In oilfield services the crews get paid long before the operator pays, and the companies that survive the cycles are the ones with capital available to bridge it.