You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: Today, we will follow our customary format with Tony Petrello, our chairman, president, and chief executive officer; and William Restrepo, our chief financial officer, providing their perspectives on the quarter's results along with insights into our markets and how we expect Nabors to perform in these markets.
Also, during the call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as net debt, adjusted operating income, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow.
We have posted to the investor relations section of our website a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most recently comparable GAAP measures.
I will begin my remarks with some overview comments.
Then I will detail the progress we made on our five keys to excellence and follow with the discussion of the markets.
William will discuss our financial results.
Our operating performance in the third quarter was strong.
All of our segments met or exceeded the outlook we gave a quarter ago.
On top of that, we completed several milestones across our strategic initiatives.
Adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter reached $125 million.
We maintained our execution at a high level while we grew the overall business.
Our global average rig count for the third quarter increased by two rigs, excluding the impact of the sale of our Canadian drilling assets.
Volumes in our Drilling Solutions and Rig Tech segments both grew quarter-on-quarter.
That drove sequential increases in both revenue and EBITDA in those operations.
The third quarter again marked progress on our twin priorities to generate free cash flow and reduce net debt.
Free cash flow in the quarter exceeded $130 million, including the Canada sales proceeds.
Without those proceeds and the funding for our geothermal investments, we generated free cash flow of $55 million.
This result was significantly above our expectations.
In line with the cash generation, net debt decreased to $2.3 billion in the third quarter, driven by the combination of our strong operating performance, disciplined capital spending, improved working capital and our strategic capital allocation evidenced by the Canadian sale.
I am pleased with our financial performance both in the third quarter and year to date.
Last quarter, I highlighted five key themes that we believe support the Nabors' investment thesis.
These drivers include our leading performance in the U.S., the upturn in our international business, improving results and the outlook for our technology and innovation, our commitment to sustainability and the energy transition and our progress on our commitment to delever.
Our margin performance in the Lower 48 remains strong.
As we expected, for the third quarter, we held daily margins above the $7,000 mark.
This accomplishment was in line with our second quarter and with the outlook we gave last quarter.
We believe our value proposition leads the industry, specifically in operational excellence, advanced technology, top safety performance and sustainability.
Our financial results validate this.
Next, our international business.
We bring the same elements to support our Lower 48 business to our International segment.
Our financial results are benefiting from outstanding performance in the field and highly disciplined capital spending.
Daily drilling margin in this segment remains robust.
As you look through the end of the year and into next, we have visibility to reactivations of three more rigs in Saudi Arabia.
This is in addition to the two restarts that recently occurred.
Currently, we have 40 rigs working in Saudi Arabia.
The in-Kingdom rig new build program is progressing.
Based on the manufacturer's delivery schedule, we expect to deploy the first of SANAD's five awards in the first quarter of 2022.
The balance should come at approximately one per quarter.
We expect each of these rigs to contribute annual EBITDA of approximately $10 million.
SANAD's long-term plans call for a total of 15 new builds over 10 years.
Each successive generation of five rigs today at $50 million annually.
Through the end of 2022, we have excellent visibility to growth at SANAD from expected rig activations and new builds.
With that expected growth, our International EBITDA could increase by 20% versus the third quarter just reported.
Let me next turn to technology and innovation.
Our advanced technology is one of the key drivers of our industry-leading performance.
Our portfolio continues to gain traction in the market.
Quarterly EBITDA in our Drilling Solutions segment increased sequentially by 22%.
This business has scale and is an earnings multiplier on top of our drilling business.
Beyond this performance, our technology pipeline remains full.
Penetration on Nabors' Lower 48 rigs and on third-party rigs increased.
Revenue on third-party rigs improved sequentially by more than 20%.
We continue investing in apps and products that are deployable on third-party rigs.
Notwithstanding that feature, the full potential of this portfolio is maximized on Nabors rigs.
In the third quarter, 74% of our rigs in the Lower 48 ran five or more NDS services.
This compares to 62% in the second quarter.
For NDS in total, we are committed to expanding our digital portfolio further.
Over time, we expect to see greater penetration of these products across the market.
Next, I would like to highlight a significant technology breakthrough.
During the quarter, we deployed the industry's first fully automated land rig, the PACE-R801.
Earlier this month, Rig 801 reached total depth of 20,000 feet on its initial well.
This rig incorporates a number of innovations.
Features our fully automated robotic drilling package.
It also incorporates leading edge controls and smart suite drilling software.
The rig runs casing automatically with a high degree of precision and without the need for a separate casing crew and equipment.
With this design, we have removed the rig hands from the rig floor.
With less physical labor required, Rig 801 has the potential to greatly expand the pool of talent available to work on our rigs.
By removing people out of harm's way, we are confident this rig will experience a step change improvement in safety performance.
With all this rig has to offer, we've already seen interest from other operators.
Now, let's discuss delevering.
The third quarter marked significant progress to improve our capital structure.
Free cash flow in the quarter was strong.
We remain committed to a multifaceted approach to delever.
The primary focus is to continue delivering free cash flow.
I think our results thus far this year demonstrate our commitment and illustrate our success, but we're not finished.
We look forward to reporting additional progress in the future.
I'll now finish this discussion of our themes with sustainability and the energy transition.
We continue to refine and enhance our focus on sustainability.
We made additional progress on our environmental and social scores from ISS.
We remain on track for an additional 5% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. in 2021.
Our employee safety record measured by TRIR has improved each quarter this year.
This TRIR performance leads our industry.
We also made progress in our energy transition initiatives.
We are currently testing prototypes of our carbon capture and hydrogen technologies.
These results have been encouraging.
We have several more projects underway.
As these proceed, we'll be reporting the results.
During the third quarter, we completed investments in three early stage geothermal companies.
We now have a portfolio that covers the spectrum of innovative geothermal technologies.
We view geothermal as immediately adjacent to our existing business.
Each of these companies will benefit from our asset platform as well as our engineering and manufacturing expertise.
We are excited to help drive the widespread development of this source of renewable baseload energy.
We will help these companies cut down the time required to reach their respective commercial stages.
Our global presence, technology and scale will be applied to drive these and other initiatives in the transition space.
We are taking a three-pronged approach to the transition.
We reduced our own carbon footprint by applying new technologies.
We expand these technologies to other verticals.
And we can take advantage of the opportunities in areas adjacent to our activity by investing in these companies and helping them to reach scale.
Now, I will spend a few moments on the macro environment.
The quarter began with WTI above $70.
But at the end of September, WTI was in the mid-70s.
Since then, it has reached the $80 mark where it remains recently.
This range should be conducive to increases in drilling activity across markets.
Next, I'll review the rig count.
Comparing the averages of the third quarter to the second quarter, the Baker Lower 48 land rig count increased by 11%.
According to Inverness, from the beginning of the third quarter through the end, the Lower 48 rig count increased by 47 or approximately 9%.
Smaller clients accounted for nearly all of this growth.
Once again, we surveyed the largest Lower 48 clients at the end of the third quarter.
This survey group accounts for approximately a third of the working rig count.
Our survey indicates an increase in activity approaching 10% for this group by the end of the year.
This outlook is consistent with E&P spending increasing going into the end of the year.
It is very encouraging as we look into 2022.
We also see potential activity increases in our international markets.
In particular, we have visibility to reactivation of suspended rigs in Saudi Arabia.
We recently added an additional rig in Latin America and we are optimistic for additional rigs beginning early next year.
I'll wrap up this macro discussion with an update on our labor availability and the global supply chain.
For labor, we have been successful at recruiting and staffing to support our increases in activity.
Recently, this has become more difficult, particularly in Lower 48.
As a consequence, we raised compensation in this market during the last quarter.
This increase has helped and we are monitoring whether additional steps will be necessary.
Now, let me address the supply chain.
We continue to see moderate cost inflation and lead times have stretched significantly.
With our global systems, we are able to maintain operational continuity.
I would also like to point out that we have delivered on our margins.
The cost increases we have experienced have been offset by similar increases in our day rates for the fleet.
To sum up, commodity prices have continued to rise as global economic activity has increased.
In their current range, oil prices generate favorable operator economics in virtually all areas where we operate.
Natural gas prices have increased to levels not seen in more than 10 years.
We have observed early signs of increased interest from operators, which can benefit from these higher prices.
With that in mind, we remain vigilant to potential disruptions from the virus and challenges in the economy.
Those risks, notwithstanding the current commodity environment supports an increase in the level of drilling activity.
The net loss from continuing operations was $122 million or $15.79 per share.
The third quarter included a $13 million after-tax nonrecurring expense or $1.63 per share related to the purchase of technology in the energy transition space.
This compares to a loss of $196 million or $26.59 per share in the second quarter.
The second quarter results included charges of $81 million after taxes, mainly for an impairment of assets on the sale of our Canada drilling rigs and a tax reserve for contingencies in our International segment.
Revenue from operations for the third quarter was $524 million, a 7% improvement compared to the second quarter.
Excluding Canada, revenue increased by 9% with all of our segments providing strong contributions both in the U.S. and internationally.
rig technologies and Drilling Solutions were particularly strong, growing by 22% and 17%, respectively.
The constructive commodity price environment has continued to drive additional rig awards throughout our markets.
In the Lower 48, we are seeing increased rig demand from larger public customers in addition to continued expansion for private operators.
Internationally, we expect continued expansion in Latin America and the Middle East.
Total adjusted EBITDA of $125 million increased by $8 million or 7%.
Early termination revenue in international and improved activity in the U.S. more than offset lower rig count in Latin America and lower margins in Mexico.
Drilling EBITDA of $62.1 million was up by $2.3 million or 4% sequentially.
Our Lower 48 rig count increased by 4.1 from 63.5 in the second quarter to 67.6 in the third quarter.
Daily rig margins came in at $7,025, in line with the prior quarter.
As utilization for high-spec rigs continues to improve, increases in leading-edge day rates have accelerated significantly.
Although this price momentum has translated into higher average revenue for our fleet, the resulting quarterly improvement was offset by wage increases for rig crews.
For the fourth quarter, we expect average daily rig margin to remain in line with the third quarter.
Market day rates should continue to move upward as the market tightens, but we expect further wage adjustments for our rig crews.
Although these wage increases are largely recovered from our customers, the compensatory day rate increases normally come with a lag.
Currently, our rig count stands at 72.
We forecast an increase of five to six rigs in the fourth quarter versus the third-quarter average.
Drilling segment remained in line with the second quarter.
For the fourth quarter, we expect to add one rig in Alaska.
However, the EBITDA impact of this increased activity will be offset by expected downtime related to recertifications on our largest offshore rig.
International EBITDA gained almost $5 million in the third quarter or 7% sequentially at $7 million in early termination revenue more than compensated for a move-related decrease in Mexico.
Daily gross margins for International increased by almost $1,000 to $14,375.
Early termination revenue added $1,100 per day to our margins but the Mexico moves offset some of the improvement.
Mexico performance should improve in the fourth quarter, but we expect rig moves and idle time between contract exploration and renewal to still affect their fourth-quarter margins.
Without the early termination revenue and with the anticipated improvement in Mexico, the fourth-quarter daily margin should come in between $13,000 and $13,500 per day.
International average rig count came in at 67 rigs, a one rig reduction as compared to the second quarter.
The lower rig count reflected incremental rig count in Saudi Arabia, offset by idle time between contracts in Latin America.
Current rig count in the International segment stands at 69.
Turning to the fourth quarter, we expect International rig count to increase by four rigs as additional rigs are reactivated in Saudi Arabia and Latin America.
Drilling Solutions EBITDA of $15.6 million was up $2.8 million or 22% in the third quarter.
Penetration improved across all of our product lines, with the largest contributions coming from performance software in the U.S. and casing running services globally.
Activity in the Lower 48 generally improved, taking our combined drilling rig and Drilling Solutions daily gross margin to $8,900.
This translates into a $1,900 per day contribution from our rapidly growing solutions segment.
We expect adjusted fourth-quarter EBITDA for this segment to further improve on the strong third-quarter results.
Rig technologies generated adjusted EBITDA of $3 million in the third quarter, a $1 million improvement.
The growth was primarily related to higher equipment sales.
In addition to the already increase in spare parts, repairs and certification revenue, we're starting to see additional sales for rig components.
We believe that rig upgrades as well as upgrade cycles for specific components like top drives and catwalks should drive higher capital equipment sales going forward.
For the fourth quarter, EBITDA should continue to improve on higher capital equipment sales and repairs.
In line with the stronger results, liquidity and cash generation exceeded our expectations.
In the third quarter, total free cash flow reached $133 million.
This compares to free cash flow of $68 million in the second quarter.
The third quarter included a net benefit of $78 million from strategic transactions, namely the sale of our Canadian business for $94 million, partly offset by several investments in geothermal and other energy transition initiatives.
Outside of these transactions, our free cash generation of $55 million reflected the strong operational results, disciplined capital spending and continued progress on working capital reductions.
Free cash flow for the fourth quarter should reach $80 million to $90 million.
This translates into a total 2021 free cash flow of around $350 million.
Capital expenses in the third quarter of $62 million, including $19 million for SANAD newbuilds were down from $77 million in the second quarter.
The $15 million reduction reflected $13 million lower spend for the SANAD newbuilds.
In the fourth quarter, we now forecast roughly $80 million in capital expenditures, including $30 million for the SANAD newbuilds.
Our forecast capital spending for 2021 is approximately $270 million, including $90 million for Saudi newbuilds.
Our net debt on September 30 was $2.3 billion, a reduction of $120 million in the quarter.
At the start of the pandemic, our net debt stood at $2.9 billion.
We have reduced our net debt materially despite the challenging environment.
The third quarter was a further demonstration of Nabors leading operational performance both in the U.S. and internationally, with a potential for meaningful growth in the year ahead.
Our strong operational performance is also translating into robust free cash generation, allowing us to reduce our debt materially.
We expect further net debt reductions in the fourth quarter and in 2022.
With a rapid progress in technology introduction, our modern industry-leading fleet and our close relationships with customers across the globe, Nabors has never been stronger operationally.
And with our deleveraging efforts over the last five years, our capital structure and debt profile are considerably stronger than they have been in a long time.
We believe we are much better positioned to reach our leverage targets while taking advantage of the numerous opportunities presented by the improving industry environment.
These third-quarter results on top of performance in the second quarter reinforced our conviction that we have the right strategies to reach our goals.
We made significant progress to improve our capital structure.
At the same time, we advanced both the development and deployment of multiple impactful technology solutions.
We are committed to responsible hydrocarbon production as we pursue initiatives to support the energy transition.
In the face of the challenge brought on by the pandemic, Nabors has demonstrated material progress along both fronts.
As well, our financial results have proved resilient, demonstrating the value embedded in our global portfolio of businesses.
With all that we've achieved so far, I am confident the best is yet to come.

user
q3 revenue $524 million.
q3 loss per share $15.79 from continuing operations.
q4 international quarterly average rig count is expected to increase by about 4 rigs over q3 average.
nabors industries - q4 international daily drilling margin is expected to decline to $13,000 - $13,500, reflecting non-recurring early termination revenue in q3.
q4 u.s. drilling quarterly average lower 48 rig count is expected to increase by approximately five rigs over q3 average.
capital expenditures for full year are expected to total approximately $270 million.
q3 included a $13 million after tax expense, or $1.63 per share, related to purchase of technology in energy transition space.

assistant