Earnings Labs

Seadrill Limited (SDRL)

Q2 2014 Earnings Call· Wed, Aug 27, 2014

$49.63

-0.32%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. And welcome to the Second Quarter 2014 Seadrill Limited Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. John Roche. Please go ahead, sir.

John Roche

Management

Thanks, Alex. Good afternoon, and welcome everyone to Seadrill Limited Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. With me today I have Per Wullf; our Chief Executive Officer and Rune Magnus Lundetrae, our CFO. Before we get started, I would like to remind everyone, that much of the discussion today will not be based on historical fact, but rather consist of forward-looking statements that are subject to uncertainty. We articulate some of these items on page two of the presentation or additional information, please view our website at www.seadrill.com. To begin discussion today, Per is going to walk us through some of the highlights for the second quarter and subsequent events during the third quarter. We have a number of contract wins, a number of strategic developments, and also a number of funding successes that Rune will walk through later in the call. Per will also address Seadrill strategy and market outlook. We're an evolving group. We’ve come a long way since our IPO in 2007. We think this is a great opportunity to address the current structure of the group, how we arrive there and also how it helps us to compete in the current environment. Finally, Rune will then address our financial highlights and take us through the many successful transaction and developing capital structure of the Group. With that, I’d like to turn over the call to our CEO, Per Wullf.

Per Wullf

CEO

Welcome everybody. We've had a good second quarter and Seadrill has posted record result over the last two quarters and we are well placed for the future. We continue to have best-in-class operations performance and we have an excellent safety track record. You all know the license to operate is actually a safe and efficient operation. We're expanding our areas of operation attracting new businesses and increasing the number of assets we own. We also have strongest financial position in our history and have decided to maintain the dividend of $1 per share. We expect to be able to support this dividend level for foreseeable future. Seadrill remain partner of choice for the world's leading oil companies with the most modern fleet and the most competent work forces. If this combination of an ultra modern fleet and highly trained work force that actually make us partner of choice for most oil companies. Seadrill Limited's uptime during the second quarter was 96% for floaters and 93% for jack-ups. The utilization for jack-ups was affected by the mobilization of a number of rigs to Mexico for start-up during the third quarter. We expect utilization to return to the high 90s for the jack-ups in third quarter. Actually we already see that, we had 98% as we speak for third quarter. I'm very pleased with the recovery and operation performance for the entire group during the second quarter having posted a consolidated uptime of 94%. The Management Team and employees did an outstanding job of working through the challenges during the first quarter and we see the benefits of a uniform fleet. It’s fantastic to run light units when we have challenges because we can all held this around. Operational excellence is a corner focus of Seadrill and it leads to repeat businesses…

Rune Magnus Lundetrae

CFO

Thank you very much Per, and good morning, good afternoon and thanks for dialing in to our quarterly call. My name is Rune Lundetrae, I'm the Group's CFO. Starting with some financial performance highlights, we did see significant improvement in the economic utilization. So we have backed up at the 94% level for the fleet on a pro forma consolidated basis and we are very pleased with that. That's also evident in the numbers where we saw increase in revenue again on pro forma consolidated basis of $118 million. This is due to not only better uptime namely on the West Aquarius and West Alpha compared to the first quarter but also commencement of the Sevan Louisiana, the West Linus and the West Freedom in the quarter. On the operating expenses side, there is no significant changes and you’ll note that the EBITDA margin is pretty much inline with the previous quarter, of course slightly better due to the improved economic utilization. So OpEx is very much in line with the revenue for this quarter. EBITDA as Per said, third consecutive record quarter for Seadrill. From 788 in the first quarter to 865 in this quarter and again it's due to the commencement of the three rigs and also significantly better uptime for the working rigs. Moving over to the balance sheet side, not as volatile as last quarter where we deconsolidated Seadrill Partners. On the asset side, there was a decrease of some $800 million primarily driven by a decrease in cash and also decrease in related party receivables from Seadrill Partners resulting from the refinancing of debt again by Seadrill Partners. We did that in June, the Term loan B facility. On the liability sides, again a decrease of approximately $960 million primarily due to the repayment of…

John Roche

Management

Thanks Rune Magnu. Before I do turn over the call to the operator to queue up everyone, we do have a large number of callers today. I do kindly ask everyone to limit questions to one question, plus one follow-up. Also if there is anything that relates to specific accounting items, as always I will speak to all of you in good time and help you get the figures straightened out. So with that Alex, if we could pause for a moment to assemble the Q&A roster.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And we have an opening question from [indiscernible] of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

Hi, thank you for taking my question, I want to first hone in on Mexico which has seen quite a bit of buzz with energy reforms. We know oil companies already gearing up for deepwater licensing rounds, but do you also see these operators coming to the market for incremental floaters within next 12 to 18 months? And have you already started discussions with some potential customers?

Per Wullf

CEO

We have not started discussions with potential customers for Mexico as we speak right now. We know it is opening up. We have fantastic position, as you know we have the five jack-ups in there that are physically there. Three of them are running as we speak and the two other ones are coming into an earning day ratio within the next couple of weeks. So, there we are perfectly positioned with Pemex. Furthermore, we also have a deepwater unit in there. We have operated the past two and half year, the West Pegasus and we have had loggish strike for that rig for the past two and half years. So we have possibly sitting there. We know how to work in Mexico and we are ready to work more for Pemex and also for other companies but right now we’re not discussing directly with the companies other than Pemex.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

Okay, thanks. And for my follow-up, you’ve mentioned that several oil companies now are introducing requirements on managed pressure drilling. Could you elaborate on this trend and I am wondering if the idle West Tellus or any of your other rigs could be candidate for this technology and if so what would that upgrade until in terms of engineering costs?

Per Wullf

CEO

Well, first I would say that managed pressure drilling, we don’t come under, you will go and see a large number of the sixth generation units having managed pressure drilling ongoing for over the coming years. In all our deepwater units can hold managed pressure drilling, there are various systems in the market not all our units they can support managed pressure drilling. Short term our existing units are prepared to receive managed pressure drilling and typically it is something the oil company, if they have the requirement it is a discussion that is going on in parallel with the normal day rate then it also takes possibly take for you if you can run managed pressure drilling. We have secured managed pressure drilling packages and these packages can actually work on any of our units, so it’s just a matter of making them suitable to, where they are first required. So they could typically, going to be presently idle in West Palm.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

Okay, great. Thanks.

Per Wullf

CEO

The cost of the units can vary on, depending on the package size plus anywhere between $18 million and $35 million and like I said it’s typically the oil company paying it over day rate or as an lump sum.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

Perfect. I’ll turn it over.

Per Wullf

CEO

Next question please.

Operator

Operator

We take our next question from [Luthar] (ph) of Citigroup. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

Hello, gentlemen. Could you just please update us on your discussions with Petrobras and how do you see that market developing in the short term? Thanks very much.

Per Wullf

CEO

Well, as you know, we took a strategic position as we tried to expand our operation in harsh environment and come up into the other area a year ago. You’ve seen that we're done with Rosneft and you’ve seen the amount of units we have going in there. We aim to appear, this will all go and be done and tested we expect in mid-November then everything has been firmed up and we have five units that will go and commence offshore from 2015 and 2017. So, from operation point of view this is fantastic. We also have Alpha in there already now drilling up in the Kara Sea. So we look at it as a fantastic opportunity for Seadrill to team up with Rosneft and working in Russia and being in there as a front runner working with Rosneft, we feel we are ideally placed there or are easily going forward.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

Sir, I was actually asking about Petrobras, sorry. I was actually wondering about your construction in Brazil.

Per Wullf

CEO

I thought you were asking about Rosneft, sorry about that.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

That was also very helpful.

Per Wullf

CEO

?:

Unidentified Analyst

Management

Sir, Petrobras.

Per Wullf

CEO

Well, we have agreed on -- sorry about this, we agreed on the two contracts for the extension of two of the contracts down there. They are in packets, Petrobras have gone out to a number of drilling contract as an extended or negotiated extension of contracts and be a part of a packet of, I think it is five units. We are waiting on the Board approval there but everything has been done. So, we’re just waiting on the Board.

Unidentified Analyst

Management

Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

We’ll take our next question from Lukas Daul of ABG. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Lukas Daul - ABG

Management

Thank you. Good evening guys. First question, Per, you have been restrained from defining the leading edge day rate over the past few conference calls, but looking at West Pegasus where the day rate is being adjusted to market rate. Now, it's down from 555 to 461. Would you say that, that 460 is a leading edge currently for a 60 unit?

Per Wullf

CEO

Well, that’s hard to say. When you see the adjustment on Pegasus, first if you recall, we inherited this contract with this nice contract wording and yes we get the rig cheap. We also have that wording in there. So, the rate is going a little bit up and down there. This rate represent actually it follows an index of rigs up to 7,500 feet. So, it is not a thing you can use as a leading edge for day rates, that would be wrong. It was something that was done with the previous owner of this rig and it’s just an index we have to use in order to regulate the contract and that’s happening every year in August.

Lukas Daul - ABG

Management

All right, good. And then the second thing, you are indicating some down time in the third quarter, actually in excess of 100 days. Could you say a little bit more about, which rigs this relates and what the issue is?

Per Wullf

CEO

I don’t like to talk about down time because I hate it. But when we talk second quarter, with deepwater units and we can have smaller partners. It can be three kilometer water debt of the consequences when stuff happens off in 2014, 16 days. You know the amount of the units we have. And it happens once in a while. So, first of all when we guide for third quarter, our EBITDA there, then all the days, the 100 plus days we have put in, that’s the included in there. We have already taken that in there. Okay, so that’s one explanation. Then when we look at the rigs in question, we are talking about, we are talking about a couple of rigs in Brazil. One rig in Brazil and we’re talking about two rigs in the Gulf of U.S.

Lukas Daul - ABG

Management

All right. That’s helpful.

Per Wullf

CEO

When we talk about the failure of the rigs, it’s all subsea related forcing us to do a BOP round trip and off when these water depths just around itself take 12, 13, 14 days. Okay?

Lukas Daul - ABG

Management

Sure.

Per Wullf

CEO

Next question please operator.

Operator

Operator

We’ll take our next question from Darren Gacicia of Guggenheim Partners. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Darren Gacicia - Guggenheim Partners

Management

Hey, thanks for taking my question. One of the things you said in your opening comments and in the report was sort in the sea incremental tendering and proving at least the volume of it and I think the market probably has some visibility of kind of the very public tenders but there is also a lot of conversations that happed underneath or beyond the tender market. The question really is, for me, what do you see in terms of the start dates for some of these contracts? Is there a particular region that you’re seeing some particular strength? Does it kind of make it incrementally more positive, relative maybe the last time you spoke to us? Just some parameters and some profiling of kind of what you’re seeing in the tender market would be great?

Per Wullf

CEO

I was not that positive about the market when we spoke the last time and I see it actually quite some better and you just see how the market moves. This is three months ago we spoke about this last time and a number of things have happened. First of all we have a number of units coming out and we are already in dialogue about new buildings coming out in end 2015 about securing term contracts. So, that is a good sign. I did not see that when we spoke three months ago. So, that is an opening -- that's why I say it in the opening here today as well, that’s one thing, but also you have seen Saturn, you have seen Jupiter materialize five contract for Total and the two year for Exxon happening and right behind that we have seen actually a number of operators in the market, both tantalize but we also talked directly about securing term contracts. We can’t afford to leave Tellus where it is right now, and Las Palmas, so once she get term contract then we will look for infill work for her. So I am little bit more positive about the market. I am still a little bit quieter, but it looks better than three months ago, especially for our new units, that makes a big difference. This bifurcation is in there big, big time I tell you.

Darren Gacicia - Guggenheim Partners

Management

Understood, thanks. Little bit unrelated, I know people are concerned about how everything gets funded in the rest especially with relation of the dividend. When you think about incremental rigs coming, what sort of a capital structure maybe on a per rig basis, is it something where you’re still looking to finance thing kind of 50% with debt, maybe some portion of the MLP? How does the thought process go there and in terms of incremental adds on the debt side because it seems like the capital markets have been opened to you but I am just trying to understand how you’re thinking about it.

Rune Magnus Lundetrae

CFO

Hi, this is Rune. I’ll take that question. What we have done and we’re talking floaters I think that’s what you’re asking about. So, typically what you see us do is to put in 20% to 30% in initial installment through our equity or free cash flow where we ordered rig and then the remaining installment is left on the delivery day. And what we've done up until now and when we plan on doing also for the new builds under construction is to pay five installment with new debt and the $1.5 billion we did just two weeks ago for the three drillships we take delivery of in this quarter is a good example where the final installment is in the 420ish area and we got funding for about $500 million each. So that is – that has been the strategy and will continue to be this strategy going forward.

Darren Gacicia - Guggenheim Partners

Management

And are there any preferences on how to structure debt, is the term loan now the better or the best option. Or is that something that kind as very dynamic?

Rune Magnus Lundetrae

CFO

No, I think the reason we liked the term loan is that, it fits very well in with the MLP structure because of the low amortization. The amortization was simply too steep for the MLP structure. So we do not plan on using the TLB market for Seadrill Limited meaning as standalone Seadrill Limited. We still like the bank financing which has an amortization profile over typically 10 years and that allow us to -- when we refinance those facility is actually to raise new capital. A good example is the 1.35 facility we closed in July also this summer where the refinancing brought us about $350 million new capital. And we earned that through the amortization of those facilities. So, there is a difference in the strategy in the different companies that now form the Seadrill Group.

Darren Gacicia - Guggenheim Partners

Management

And from the bank side, the parameters in which the banks are looking at loan to value on new assets, is it similar to what you’re seeing historically?

Rune Magnus Lundetrae

CFO

We can base it on the 2.8 we have closed the summer and I think I can say -- a loud yes to that.

Darren Gacicia - Guggenheim Partners

Management

Great. Thank you very much.

Rune Magnus Lundetrae

CFO

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

As we have no further questions in the queue, I’d like to turn the call back to the speakers for any additional or closing remarks.