[Abrupt start] may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations, and include known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which the company is unable to predict or control, that may cause the company’s actual future results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by those statements. These risks and uncertainties include the risk factors disclosed by the company from time to time in its filings with the SEC, including in the company’s annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC of section of March 6, 2020. Furthermore, as we start this call, please also refer to the statement regarding forward-looking statements incorporated in the company’s press release issued this morning, and please note that the contents of the company’s conference call this morning is covered by those statements. During this conference call, management will make reference to EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. A reconciliation of non-GAAP measure to the applicable GAAP measure can be found in the company’s current earnings release, a copy of which is located on the company’s website, which is www.dawson3d.com. The call is scheduled for 30 minutes, and the company will not provide any guidance. I would now like to turn the call over to Stephen Jumper, Chairman, President and CEO of Dawson Geophysical Company.

Thank you, John. Good morning, and welcome to Dawson Geophysical Company’s First Quarter 2020 Earnings and Operations Call. As John said, my name is Steve Jumper, Chairman, President and CEO of the company. Joining me on the call is Jim Brata, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we get too far along, I want to cover a few items. If you’d like to listen to a replay of today’s call, it will be available via webcast by going to the Investor Relations section of the company’s website at www.dawson3d.com. Information reported on this call speaks only of today, Thursday, May 7, 2020. And therefore, you are advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay listening. Turning to our preliminary first quarter financial results. For the quarter ended March 31, 2020, the company reported revenues of $39 million compared to $51.2 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2019. For the first quarter of 2020, the company reported net income of $993,000 or $0.04 per common share compared to a net loss of $137,000 or $0.01 loss per common share for the first quarter of 2019. The company reported EBITDA of $5.8 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2020 compared to EBITDA of $6 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2019. During the first quarter of 2020, the company operated three large channel count crews in the United States, primarily in the Permian Basin and a peak of three crews in Canada with varying utilization rates of the active crews during the quarter compared to a peak of five total crews, two of which were larger channel count in the US and a peak of four crews in Canada in the first quarter of 2019. The winter season in Canada concluded at the end of the first quarter of 2020 with limited seismic activities anticipated until the next winter season. Equipment station in Canada will be redeployed to the US to service the company’s clients as needed. As in recent quarters, the majority of the company’s projects are on behalf of multi-client companies in the US. I will now turn control of the call over to Jim Brata, who will review the financial results. Then I will return for some final remarks and our outlook into the second early part of third quarter of 2020. Jim?

Thank you, Steve, and good morning. Revenues for the first quarter of 2020 were $39 million compared to $51.2 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2019. As stated in our earnings release issued this morning, during the first quarter of 2020, the company operated three large channel count crews in the US, primarily in the Permian Basin and a peak of three crews in Canada with varying utilization rates of the active crews during the quarter compared to a peak of five total crews, two of which were large channel count crews in the US and a peak of four crews in Canada in the first quarter of 2019. The winter season in Canada concluded at the end of the first quarter of 2020 with limited seismic activities anticipated until the next winter season. The equipment station in Canada will be redeployed to the US to service the company’s clients as needed. As in recent quarters, the majority of the company’s projects are on behalf of multi-client companies in the US. Cost of services in the first quarter of 2020 were $29 million, a decrease of 29% compared to $40.9 million in the same quarter of 2019. General and administrative expenses were $3.7 million in the first quarter of 2020, a decrease of 19% compared to $4.5 million in the first quarter of 2019. Depreciation and amortization expense in the first quarter of 2020 was $4.9 million, a decrease of 19% compared to $6.1 million in the same quarter of 2019. Net income for the first quarter of 2020 was $993,000 or $0.04 per share compared to a net loss of $137,000 or $0.01 loss per share in the first quarter of 2019. EBITDA in the first quarter of 2020 was $5.8 million compared to EBITDA of $6 million in the same quarter of 2019. An EBITDA reconciliation was provided in our earnings release issued this morning. And now I’ll highlight some balance sheet items. Our balance sheet continues to remain strong. As of March 31, 2020, we had debt including obligations under financing leases of approximately $3.1 million, cash and short-term investments of $30.2 million. Our current ratio was 3.3 to 1 and working capital was approximately $50.7 million. And with that, I’ll turn the call back to Steve for some comments on our operations.

Well, thank you, Jim. While the company reported a decrease in revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2020, we reported net income of $993,000 compared to a net loss of $137,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2019. Gross margin for the quarter ended March 31 improved 5.5% to 25.6% as a result of improved crew efficiencies, increased utilization of reporting channels, energy sources as well as continuing success with our cost control initiative. Capital expenditures for the quarter of 2020 totaled $2.3 million, primarily for maintenance capital items and purchases of additional recording channels as opposed to leasing such channels on less favorable terms. The company’s Board of Directors has approved an initial capital budget of $5 million for 2020. Capital expenditure for the balance of the year are anticipated to be for maintenance requirements only. As Jim said, the company’s balance sheet remains strong with $30.2 million of cash, restricted cash and short-term investments and $50.7 million of working capital as of March 31, 2020. The company had notes payable and finance leases of $3.1 million as of March 31, 2020. First quarter results were favorably impacted by the continued operation of three large channel count crews in the United States and a better than anticipated Canadian season. While we are pleased with our first quarter results, there have been numerous changes to the oil and gas industry and the overall market since we reported December 31, 2019 results in late February. The combination of the dissolution of OPEC oil production quotas, primarily by Saudi Arabia and Russia in early March and the economic impact and resulting reductions in demand for oil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in an oversupply of oil worldwide, which caused oil prices to plummet from approximately $52 per barrel on…

[Operator Instructions] We will move on to our first question from Amar Sheth of Bellwood Partners. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

I appreciate you guys are coming into this with such a good balance sheet. I guess my question really relates to that. Given your experience in prior down cycles, can you give us a little color on how you’ve been able to navigate it in the past? And what aspects of your business could help you navigate this down cycle?

Appreciate the question. I have personally been in this business, with this company for 35 years. And the company has been around as an entity since 1952, having gone public in 1981 and so I have personal experience with the company through several of these cycles that we go through. And we have always known as a company, that the oil and gas industry is cyclical and we’ve always understood that we’re in a line of service within the oil and gas industry that is - can be even cyclical within a cyclical, the overall macro cyclicality of the oil and gas industry. And so I was early in my career in the early ‘80s, when the big crash hit in ‘85. And then we navigated through the 1998, ‘99 issues and then the 2008 issue, and then, again, in 2015 when these things occurred. To be honest, this is something that is different than anything I believe any of us have ever seen. If you look back at historical - from my perspective, if you look at historical cycles within the overall oil and gas industry in particular, our business, we have dealt with either an oversupply issue that occurred in the early ‘80s and again in 2014 when OPEC decided to not abide by their production quotas on that Thanksgiving - I believe it was Thanksgiving in ‘14. And then, we’ve had demand issues that were kind of related to - same thing happened in ‘98 on the supply side, when we hit the demand issues somewhat around 2001 and again in 2008 relating to banking crisis. So this has really been the first time I believe as an industry we have been hit with a double whammy on supply right in front of COVID-19. So it is…

Yes, thank you so much that culture [ph] [indiscernible]. I guess my other question there was, if there is another major up cycle or at least price improvement in oil in the future and post these stay at home orders say whether it’s a year or two years or six months from now. How do you foresee I guess Dawson being able to participate in matter? Or do you imagine there would be more of a delayed thing in terms of how Dawson would participate? Or when do you think clients might start reengaging?

Well, that’s a very good question. It’s a very difficult question to answer. And the honest answer is, I’m not totally sure at this point where in the cycle we would come into play. I can give you some historical information and I believe I understand the question correctly. But early on in my career, when 3D seismic data first came to the market back in the late ‘80s, we were early in the cycle. In other words, early on we were first in to identify prospects. And historically, if the seismic crew count increased, it was a good indication that there would be some increase in rig count to follow. Through the movement to the unconventional plays, you can call them shale plays or unconventionals or whatever might be the case. We became more of a late cycle entry. In other words, early on in the conventional mode, it was seismic data, leasing - seismic data, prospect evaluation, leasing and drilling. During the unconventionals, it became more of a leasing drill seismic to finish out and develop the drilling program. During that cycle, our technology was basically used as a where not to drill tool. In other words, it was used to identify geohazards, such as parsing or faulting or those types of things to make sure the well did not come upside zone of interest. Over the last few years, our technology has improved with the higher channel count and the venture spacing and the better imaging and the better attribute to where we’re beginning to aid in looking at what some of the rock properties and rock fabric and makeup may be. And so we’re kind of in a little bit of a shift through the - back into the where to drill as opposed to just…

And that’s very helpful, particularly the comments on that. That’s one of the things everyone’s wondering, natural gas prices going to increase here. I guess my last question’s more of just a housekeeping question on - I noticed that the accounts receivable balance. And this is in this quarter necessarily that make over the last year or so has increased a little bit. And just wondering in terms of that if this is just typical clients looking for a little bit better terms? Or if there’s anything that you’re worried about there?

No. We’re not worried about at this point our accounts receivable. These are always snapshots in time, right? And so that’s a March 31 snapshot compared to 12/31 snapshot compared to a 9/30 snapshot. And so they’re snapshots in time. And those numbers over the course of a few days or week can change dramatically. And so I think our days outstanding are staying fairly consistent over the last couple of years. There can be some things that can show up in receivables, particularly related to some third-party pass through charges, that we have. If we’re on a project, for example, that we’re actually funding the land access permit directly, those can spike a little bit and then get paid very quickly. And so I think we’re in a good shape with our receivables, and I’ve not seen anything today. But pattern wise, that is alarming or anything out of the usual.

Okay, great. Thank you so much for taking my question.

We will take our next question from Bruce Berger of Turnaround Capital.

I was wondering if given all the large amount of shutdowns we’re seeing shutting wells if that ironically could spur more demand for your multi-client customers’ data? And great to speaking of the resumed drilling and there could be water flowing into wells and a lot of problems. What are your thoughts about that? Could ironically more demand for seismic come through because of what’s happened with the shut-ins?

Bruce, I kind of lost you there for a second, I’m sorry. Can you repeat the question? It didn’t - something kind of hit there and maybe it’s on our side. Can you repeat the question, please?

Okay. Yes, sure. I was just wondering, given all the shut-ins that are occurring, if when wells are started up again or reopen, whether there would be demand for data from your multi-clients or customers like spurring more demand for seismic shooting.

Okay. So let me kind of break that question apart just a little bit. We acquire the data on behalf of our multi-client data library companies who then license that data to other folks E&P companies as needed. And so I don’t know that shut-in and restarting would directly impact us directly. I think it could theoretically impact some of the multi-client data companies that have shelf data in an area. I think we’re more likely to be involved in a start-up of new drill and new complete projects rather than restart of existing wells. And I’m sure you’ve been reading that the concept of shutting in horizontal wells and bringing them back on is certainly a risky business. And so I don’t know if shut-in and restart directly impact us, but certainly new drill and potentially new complete could definitely impact either us directly or us indirectly through the multi-client companies.

Well I guess anything that puts more money into the hands of the multi-client is good for you. So they’re willing to shoot.

That is correct.

Just one more question. Are you comfortable that if crew utilization continues to go lower, you can take out more costs if necessary, to get to cash breakeven in any circumstance?

Yes. We continue to monitor that. We certainly have, as we said in this press release visibility to the early part of the third quarter. There’s always some things that are in discussion and communication that hopefully can extend that. But there’s nothing firm that would indicate so. But we do believe that there are some slightly positive things for later in the year that may happen, certainly not on a great scale. Certainly, it’s going to be at or below current levels is what we anticipate now. And so our cost structure is a very large percentage of it is, and then we’re probably got variable costs in there. So as crews shut down or as fuel prices reduce, those kind of things, those variable costs could certainly move lower. But we always continue to take a look at the scale and where we are and things that need to be looked at and addressed. And I think we’ll continue to do so. And we’ve never been one to overreact too quickly one way or the other. And so we’ll continue to evaluate like we’ve done in the past and make those decisions accordingly.

Thanks Steve. Great job in the first quarter.

[Operator Instructions] We will now move on to our next question from John Potratz of Research Investments.

It’s John Potratz. First of all, I want to complement you that the Board of Directors approved maintenance capital budget of $10 million in 2019 [ph], but you only spent $3.6 million. I think it’s important to recognize some great work on your part to be able to do that and keep that capital for the company for a longer term. But I think it’s just fantastic. Thank you very much for a good job there. Number two.

Thank you.

I notice that in. Sorry?

I said, thank you.

And obviously, I think I was asking [indiscernible] recognize that quality. You mentioned on the experience in reduction in pricing proposals and several large projects have been postponed. So you do have some potential projects have come to agreement with the multi-client people. Maybe you have some projects that might be able to move ahead if prices move up so that when you come into the third quarter, we might have a nice recovery. But I assume there’s something there first is having nothing in your hand to move ahead. Is that sort of a sense of future working here?

Yes. As we have said, there’s been a great reduction in the CapEx programs on behalf of the E&P company and those numbers continue to move and are updated sometimes weekly by E&P companies. So it’s still a moving target on what CapEx levels on behalf of the underlying client, which is the E&P companies, are going to be. And so we did have a couple of projects that were slated for sometime this summer that were - have subsequently been postponed. They have not been technically canceled. They have been postponed to a later date. We don’t know what that later date will be. We have several other projects that we believe are postponed later in the year pending what happens between now and third quarter. And so there’s still a lot of uncertainty, and there’s certainly a lot of headwinds against capital spending. And then we had a series of requests for proposals that were active prior to the OPEC decision and the COVID-19 that those projects while still in some level of conversation. Certainly feel like they’re going to be postponed and will be brought back at a later date potentially here again, pending what happens over the next few quarters. We don’t know what that timing is. We don’t know if that’s three months, six months, a year. And there’s always a chance that those projects could move ahead in a timely manner. But it’s most likely that they’ll be pushed back until economic conditions are better. There’s always the possibility that they’ll be canceled entirely. But so far, we’ve not had “a complete cancellation”. And then like I said, the visibility is very limited, but there are some glimmers of possibilities out there, that we continue to work closely with and have close conversations with our clients about their possibility. And so J [ph] that’s about as much as I can really speak to it, honestly.

So at least you have the prospects of something happen versus having nothing in your platter to move ahead. So that’s a positive thing for a future business. But again totally uncertain because you don’t know if they’re going to move ahead or not?

Yes, sir.

Very good. Question, is there any problem in confidence in collecting receivables? Is there any problems in there with the quality of getting paid for all the hard work that you do?

As of today, we have not had any significant issues nor do we have any great concern where we sit today, but that’s as of today. But so far, we feel like at this point, we feel like our receivables are in good shape.

Very good. Nice to work hard, but you need to get paid for just the second time. And the other thing is COVID-19. How has that affected - has that affected your crew costs and ability to get crews down a lot? And with the reductions that we’re seeing at a lot of the state levels, is that going to be able to reduce part of your costs in here? Or have you been able to sort of navigate to that COVID process without having to stop the crews from working or something that makes or has that been a major financial impact on you?

It has not. We’ve had as we mentioned in the press release some minor adjustments. We’ve had a few additional vehicles in the field and had some improved flexibility. Early on, these great folks that work for us out in the field typically work out of a fairly small rural towns. And so early on there were some access issues that they related to water supply, but we were able to secure other sources of water supply and get to them. And then, we had to adjust some flexible work schedules for people to get in and out back into town to get supplies that they would need from a personal standpoint. And those folks have just responded tremendously. We’ve had no issues with COVID-19 at the crew level. I think our people and our health safety department, our operations people and our HR folks have done a fantastic job of working with our employees at all levels and particularly at the field level. To give them proper procedures, protocols, the resources they need to continue to operate. And whether that’s having safety meetings by radio as opposed to large group gathering, whatever the case may be, but I don’t think there’s been a significant financial impact directly related to COVID-19 as with regards to crew costs. But I would just again reiterate at all levels within our company, given this situation that all of us have been through and continue to live with, that’s unprecedented that I think, as I would expect, with the group that I work with. They have responded extremely well and have done the right things have done them professionally. They’ve done them according to guidelines and have continued to work on behalf of our clients and our shareholders. So I’m extremely pleased with how all this went through just given all the uncertainty and given all the difficulties around the current situation is rolling.

Congratulations. I don’t know it sounds like you’ve thought an awful lot about worked hard on it and have motivated the Dawson enterprise. You move ahead and deal with all those issues, but that takes a lot of work and time. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

You also mentioned here that you’re looking at - when you merged you had like looking at cost reduction keeping costs within line so it can be possible. I noticed that when you merged kind of total employees, you’re now down to about 450 in the first quarter. I assume you’re focusing intensely on having the ability to respond to the client needs but at the same time keep the costs as low as possible through this process.

Yes. And one of the things that’s built into that is the crew makeup over the last five years has changed dramatically. I mean, you go from 10 crews with smaller channel count to a few crew with much higher channel count. And so the economic, the utilization, the efficiency, all those kind of things, the underlying cost structure, all those kind of things have changed. And so I think our operations group and our - well, just everybody involved have done a great job making sure that we are in a position to respond to our clients and their needs quickly and efficiently. And at the same time making sure that we’re looking at everywhere we can to reduce costs and operating expenses. So far, I think we’ve been successful in doing that and I hope we continue to do so in the future.

Sounds exciting. Thank you very much for accomplishing that. One other thing I mentioned is thinking back or talking about this sector about 20 years ago, about how the technology has changed dramatically. And you mentioned that you’re reshooting some areas that you had done 20 years ago because the technology has improved so much. You have so much more data to determine [indiscernible] phones and things of that nature. Is that motivating some of the additional business at this point? Vehicles investments.

It has been. Yes, it has, for sure. Certainly not now and certainly this is a totally different situation that we’re in today. Certainly over the last couple of years, the increased number of channels that we’re using the density, the size of the survey, all those types of things have certainly changed and has continued to provide improved imaging capabilities for our technology. So yes it has created opportunities for us to go back in and reshoot certain areas that have had seismic data over in the past. If you think about the Permian Basin area and the Delaware Basin, there was a lot of activity in those areas back in the early to mid-90s. And certainly, we’ve gone back and done some of those areas. And so there was a gap in - of about 15 years or so between high activity in the Permian to where we are now. So yes, we continue to believe that there will continue to be areas that we need to and that we will be asked to have additional shooting over. But that’s been what’s driving our demand levels in recent years. Of course now we’re in a fully different situation.

Okay. I guess maybe the more key aspect in here is where the price of oil, not to demotivate your customers, Stephen. Again, thank you very much for the great job. Stephen, continue a great job, right? I’ve put a lot of my personal fortune into your stock and I believe you can do something well. Thank you very much. You have a great day.

Thank you, sir.

It appears we have no further questions at this time. I’d like to turn the conference back for any additional remarks.

Okay. Thank you, John. I want to thank everybody for taking the time to listen in. As we have said we’re very pleased with our first quarter results. We are facing, not just our company, but our industry and the overall oil and gas industry is certainly facing some unprecedented headwinds here over the next whatever period of time, we want to consider that. And I do believe that we have the technology and equipment base to compete and provide our clients with quality service. I think we’re well positioned. We will continue to monitor things and communicate with our employees as to where we are. We are beginning to open up a little bit, but we will continue to monitor and make sure we’re following CDC guidelines. And I just want to thank again, thank everybody for listening in. I really want to thank our employees for a great job and a great effort and for continuing to follow the procedure and protocols in place. And we want to thank our valued clients for their continued commitment and I want to thank our shareholders for continued support. And we look forward to speaking with you again in 90 days. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.