Earnings Labs

Valaris Limited (VAL)

Q4 2008 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 26, 2009

$102.23

+0.25%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day and welcome to the Ensco International Fourth Quarter, Full-Year 2008 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded, and your participation constitutes consent to its taping. I will now turn this conference over to Mr. Richard LeBlanc, Vice President, Investor Relations, who will moderate the call. Please go ahead, sir.

Richard A. LeBlanc

Management

Thank you, Melanie. I'd like to welcome everyone to our earnings conference call this morning. With me in Dallas are Dan Rabun, our Chief Executive Officer; Bill Chadwick, our Chief Operating Officer; and Jay Swent, our Chief Financial Officer, as well as other members of our executive management team. This morning, we released our earnings announcement and we filed our 8-K with the SEC. I'd like to remind everyone earnings release is available on our website, www.enscointernational.com. As usual, we'll keep our call to about an hour. Jay will first provide a financial overview. Dan will then discuss our markets and operations. Any comments we make today about our expectations of future events are forward-looking statements pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and many factors could cause actual results to differ materially. We refer you to our earnings release and SEC filings available on our website, which defines such forward-looking statements, state that the company undertakes no duty to update any such statement and lists risk factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. I'd also like to remind everyone that with regard to our rig status, a detailed listing is provided on our website, and it's updated the middle of each month when we file our 8-K with the SEC. The last update was as of February 17. At the end of our prepared remarks, we will have time for questions. With that, let me turn it over to Jay.

James W. Swent, III

Management

Thank you, Richard. Good morning and thank you all for joining us today. I will start our call this morning with an overview of full year 2008, then discuss fourth quarter results and close with some comments about our outlook for the first quarter and full year 2009. We're pleased to report that 2008 was another record year for ENSCO. Net income increased nearly $1.2 billion, a 16% increase over 2007 and earnings per share was $8.11, a 21% increase. Approximately 80% of our year-over-year operating improvement relates to the stronger performance of our international jackup fleet in Asia-Pacific and Europe/Africa, where average day rates increased 16% and 11% respectively. We also realized a significant day rate increase on ENSCO 7500 in early 2008 while it operated in the Gulf of Mexico. During the fourth quarter, we commenced segment reporting and our SEC filings will now provide separate financial information for our deepwater operating segment and three jackup operating segments. The deepwater operating segment will include ENSCO 7500 and all 8500 Series rigs. Our three jackup operating segments will be displayed on a geographic basis with segments for North and South America, Asia-Pacific and Europe/Africa. Deepwater will become a major component of our business over time. So going forward, I will split my comments between the deepwater segment and the three jackup segments. Deepwater revenue grew 16% in 2008 to about 3.5% of total revenue. ENSCO 7500, the only rig earning revenue in 2008 commenced preparatory work for mobilization to Australia late in the third quarter. And as a result, $36 million of day rate revenue was deferred in 2008 and will be amortized over the initial contract term once the rig commences operations in Australia. This is expected to occur in April 2009 at a day rate of $550,000…

Daniel W. Rabun

Management

Thanks, Jay and good morning everyone. First, I'd like to make a few introductory comments about 2008. We completed another very successful year and achieved a number of important milestones. We took delivery of ENSCO 8500, the first of our seven ultra-deepwater rigs in the ENSCO 8500 Series. ENSCO 8500 is currently undergoing deepwater sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico, and we expect the rig to commence operations in April. This is an important strategic initiative for the company, as we transition from what was once considered largely a pure jackup company to now being a hybrid driller with a meaningful presence in both shallow and deepwater. We believe the significant investment that we are making in deepwater will become more widely recognized and valued as we continue to take delivery of our ENSCO 8500 Series semis. We continued our emphasis on safety performance in 2008 and our results were very positive. The safety of our employees is a core value of our company. Our total recordable incident rate was equal to our record performance in 2007, the best in the history of the company, and it was 25% better than the industry average. We were also pleased that the severity of incidents continue to decrease as well. Our people are to be commended for their efforts in this critically important area. We plan several initial initiatives in 2009 to continue the improvement in our safety performance. We also added to our contract backlog over the last 12 months with additional deepwater term commitments and contracts on three of our Gulf of Mexico jackup rigs in Latin America. Our total backlog increased to $4 billion as of February 2009, a 5% improvement from a year ago. We will have the opportunity to add to our backlog with our yet…

Richard A. LeBlanc

Management

Melanie, we are happy to take questions at this time.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, Mr. LeBlanc. (Operator Instructions). And our first question will come from Robin Shoemaker with Citigroup.

Robin Shoemaker - Citigroup

Analyst · Citigroup

Thank you. Good morning. Jay, I was wondering if your comment about the 11% cost reduction for the jackup in 2009, it included I think as you said some fewer rig days, operating rig days. But in terms of a generic kind of cost trend with respect to wages and insurance and all the other cost that go into that, what is that trend on a year-over-year basis roughly?

James Swent, III

Analyst · Citigroup

Well, I think Robin, I'd say, of all the expenses as I kind of highlighted in my comments, insurance is probably the one that people are likely to see big increases in year-over-year. I think we haven't made any firm decisions yet relative to wages, and as I always say, we operate in the market, we have to be competitive. So we will follow whatever the market does. At the moment, it's not looking like there's going to be any huge increases in labor, so. But in terms of where we expect cost to come out, there is always work to be done looking at rigs and trying to find more efficient ways to run them and we're doing that. We're also... obviously, there is fewer rig days as you said, there is a lot of moving pieces as you note from my comments in the first quarter. But at the end of the day, we will have fewer rig days unless the market turns back up and that's a big component of the savings as well.

Robin Shoemaker - Citigroup

Analyst · Citigroup

Okay. And Dan, I was going to ask you about your strategy or the current state of your conversations with potential customers for the three 8500 Series rigs which are not yet contracted. And obviously, they are a little more than two years away from completion of the first one. But are we likely to see anything in that respect this year or is it in ENSCO's interest to wait for a better market environment perhaps in 2010.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Citigroup

Good question. We continue to be pleasantly surprised by what's going on in the ultra-deepwater market with these major discoveries being announced. We have fairly substantial customer engagement and interest in these rigs. So, it's really difficult to predict. But, at the time if we have an opportunity, we're not going to hesitate to contract, I mean not just to judge by what the term and the rate maybe. But yeah, it's difficult to predict whether it will be this year or when in this year it will be or next year. But I will say the interest is extremely high.

Robin Shoemaker - Citigroup

Analyst · Citigroup

Okay. If you are successful in your... in what you expect to bid into Mexico again this year, are you -- how many rigs would you anticipate could potentially end up in Mexico from your Gulf of Mexico fleet, given this 10 rig tender package you are anticipating?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Citigroup

Probably out of the Gulf of Mexico fleet, probably a couple more.

Robin Shoemaker - Citigroup

Analyst · Citigroup

Okay. So then the other rigs bid for PEMEX would come from Middle East part probably?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Citigroup

Would come from other markets, that's correct.

Robin Shoemaker - Citigroup

Analyst · Citigroup

Okay all right, thank you.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Citigroup

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will come from Ian MacPherson with Simmons & Co. Ian MacPherson - Simmons & Co.: Hi good morning. Could you indicate which of your rigs were the latest low bidders to PEMEX and what the day rates look like or do they have the index terms as others have recently or?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Simmons & Co

Jeff Saile who runs that business is here; let me let him address that.

P. Jeff Saile

Analyst · Simmons & Co

It's two of the 250s ENSCO 90 and 93 and the rate, the terms are not indexed, or the rate is not indexed. And the rights will be... and they are in the low 100s, in the teens, so well in teens. Ian MacPherson - Simmons & Co.: Okay. Following up again on the cost guidance for this year with lower activity expected. Does that implicitly assume cold stacked time for certain rigs or how exactly does lower activity in your jackup fleet manifest itself?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Simmons & Co

I guess Ian, I would say at this point in time we haven't made any firm decisions about cold stacking any rigs. As you can tell from my comments, we have rigs coming off of contract and being marketed. And so, they're going to be in a warm stacked condition for some period of time. And we will evaluate cold stacking at some point of time. So our guidance at the moment at the end of the day assume some level of cold stacking, but we can't be very specific at this point in time. Ian MacPherson - Simmons & Co.: Do you have a... I imagine you've done this in your planning process, I don't know if you will be willing to share with us today or not, sort of a bracket of possible utilization outcomes for your jackup fleet this year based on what you see in the market?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Simmons & Co

You're right. I think I'll stay away from that question. Ian MacPherson - Simmons & Co.: All right, thanks.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Simmons & Co

Thanks, Ian. Operator: And our next question will come from Geoff Kieburtz with Needham & Company. Geoff Kieburtz - Needham & Company: Thanks. Good morning. I am actually going to start out with a little bit of a repeat there. Just to understand your guidance in terms of OpEx for '09, you said down 11%. Some of that is reduced operating days, but it wasn't quite clear in your last response there, you are including in that the assumption of some cold stacking?

James Swent, III

Analyst · Simmons & Co

There is some assumption of that in there, yes. Geoff Kieburtz - Needham & Company: Okay.

James Swent, III

Analyst · Simmons & Co

And that's probably about as specific as I can be for you. The only thing Jeff, I forgot to really talk about is, obviously labor staff of our cost, the other half is repair and maintenance and other third-party cost, if you will. Everybody is getting price pressure and we're in the process of putting pressure on our vendors as well and we think that will yield some additional savings as well. Geoff Kieburtz - Needham & Company: What are you thinking operating cost per active rig day is going to do in '09 versus '08? Is that going to be flat or down?

James Swent, III

Analyst · Simmons & Co

I would say, it's probably going to be flat. Geoff Kieburtz - Needham & Company: Okay. All right, that's helpful. And Dan, you touched on this, you acknowledged that we're going to ask about M&A. So I guess what I'd like to

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Simmons & Co

Well, I knew I couldn't get away from that question. Geoff Kieburtz - Needham & Company: Yeah, just flagging it isn't going to let you off the hooks.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Simmons & Co

Not off the hook yet. Geoff Kieburtz - Needham & Company: You've got, a lot of you emphasized several times the financial flexibility that ENSCO has. It's fairly self evident. Flexibility is only valuable though if you think you are going to use it. Are you saying that the flexibility is there, you are waiting to see a little bit more clearly how deep and how long this downturn is and then you will assess what's flexibility and what is really just an insurance policy? Or is it really being drive more by evaluation of the bid as spread in the market for either newbuild or existing assets?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Simmons & Co

Well, kind of a combination of things. One, we definitely believe there're going to be opportunities. All we say is, as we sit here and speak today, what we've evaluated, we don't think the current... right now is the appropriate time now. Quite frankly, given the way these markets are moving, the volatility in the markets, that could change next week. So, it is such a rapidly evolving situation that it's hard to make any predictions about where it's going to go. So given the volatility, we remain real conservative with the balance sheet. Geoff Kieburtz - Needham & Company: Got you. Okay. Any sense as to... I mean, do you have any sense yet as to when there might be a little bit more stability in the market, where you can start making a little bit more confident long-term plans? I think the answer is no, but I will.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Simmons & Co

Well, we are trying to get over our chuckling first. Geoff Kieburtz - Needham & Company: All right. And then just last question, you did say there's a lot of interest on the deepwater, the un-contracted 8500 rigs. Has there been any change in the body language or the tone of those conversations over the last thee months?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Simmons & Co

Let me characterize it this way. I think as we look through the fall, things just dropped off the radar screen and so, to give an example, Petrobras just said we are not going to make any decisions on rigs because we need to figure out what our business plan is going to be. And I think all of our customers were doing the same thing. Now that people have recalibrated their plans, based on lower commodity prices, the interest level has picked up. So I would say, first quarter activity level compared to fourth quarter activity level could offset ends of the continuum. So, I think that's... so I would say, the body language has not changed. In fact, it's picked up quite substantially, so. Geoff Kieburtz - Needham & Company: Okay, great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Tom Curran with Wachovia.

Tom Curran - Wachovia

Analyst · Wachovia

Good morning, guys.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Wachovia

Hi Tom.

Tom Curran - Wachovia

Analyst · Wachovia

Another great quarter. Dan or Bill, curious the ENSCO 96 and 97, on which field did they spend the majority of their time with Aramco?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Wachovia

They were on Manifa.

Tom Curran - Wachovia

Analyst · Wachovia

Both of them?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Wachovia

Yes.

Tom Curran - Wachovia

Analyst · Wachovia

And that was throughout the majority of their contracts?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Wachovia

Yeah, I think the whole time they were on Manifa.

Tom Curran - Wachovia

Analyst · Wachovia

And looking ahead from here, how many of its remaining jackups that are working on oil fields you expect Aramco to release?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Wachovia

I can't answer that question, you need to ask Aramco that. All they have told us is, and we've even spend quite a bit a time with them a couple of weeks ago and they're under the same cost pressure as everybody in the world is in. So, our rigs were the first rigs to get into Saudi Arabia. They were the first one that's off their contract terms, so we were the most vulnerable. And as contracts come due, I think the Rowan rigs got released, they were coming due in April. You can probably look at whose rigs are working there and see when they come off contract and make your own assumptions about it.

Tom Curran - Wachovia

Analyst · Wachovia

Sure. Can you sense that there is a method at work, other event first up for renewal first out? Do they seem to be factoring in the nature of the fields that the rigs are currently working on or spend most of their time working on?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Wachovia

Yeah, oh absolutely. I mean, the least vulnerable are rigs drilling for gas and the most vulnerable are the rigs drilling for oil and in inverse order, if you're drilling in for light oil versus heavy oil. If you're drilling for heavy oil, that's the least marketable. So, when they meet their OPEC commitments, they've described us, they cutback on what's the least marketable which is heavy oil, and that's where we happen to be drilling.

Tom Curran - Wachovia

Analyst · Wachovia

Right. And presumably that would mean not only Manifa but Safaniya?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Wachovia

We are not there, so I can't really comment.

Tom Curran - Wachovia

Analyst · Wachovia

But Safaniya is the other primary offshore field that's heavy. Right?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Wachovia

Yeah.

Tom Curran - Wachovia

Analyst · Wachovia

Okay. Great, thanks guys. I'll turn it back.

Operator

Operator

We'll take your next question from Dan Pickering with Tudor, Pickering and Holt. Dan Pickering - Tudor Pickering & Holt: Good morning, guys.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Tudor, Pickering and Holt

Good morning. Dan Pickering - Tudor Pickering & Holt: Dan, you mentioned that there is no -- nothing new to say about the rig in Venezuela. I guess I'm just curious, is it actually operating now and Jay, are we incurring cost down there or is that a zero revenue, zero cost asset for you guys at this point?

William Chadwick, Jr.

Analyst · Tudor, Pickering and Holt

Dan, this is Bill. The rig is operating, it's being operated by the subsidiary, so PDVSA is our customer. We still have our crew on board in a observation mode. So we are still incurring some cost for crew requiring shore base is still operational. And actually that's because we anticipate resolving this situation in the very near future and resuming operations under the contract. So we are still incurring some cost. We have curtailed those to the maximum extent possible. If this thing retracted for any great length of time, we'd have to take another look at that. But right now, it's our expectation that this thing will be resolved very soon. Dan Pickering - Tudor Pickering & Holt: Okay.

James Swent, III

Analyst · Tudor, Pickering and Holt

And Dan, my comment was that we've deferred recognizing revenue that doesn't necessarily mean we'd given up on it. Dan Pickering - Tudor Pickering & Holt: Right. And I guess in the bad debt adjustment, I assume all PDVSA debt is still considered current. So in other words, there is no increase in bad debt assumption for PDVSA at this point?

James Swent, III

Analyst · Tudor, Pickering and Holt

Oh I wouldn't jump to that conclusion. Dan Pickering - Tudor Pickering & Holt: Okay, all right. So part of the Q4 cost would assume some PDVSA?

James Swent, III

Analyst · Tudor, Pickering and Holt

Some of it was PDVSA, yes. Dan Pickering - Tudor Pickering & Holt: Okay, thank you. And then just so I get my math correct, on the 7500 when it starts up in April, 550 is the day rate and we're going to be adding $70 million over 17 months on top of that number, is that correct?

James Swent, III

Analyst · Tudor, Pickering and Holt

You got the math right, yes sir. Dan Pickering - Tudor Pickering & Holt: Thank you. And then I guess conceptually the last question from me would be, on the deepwater side, Dan, I don't hear any hesitancy on the three newbuild rigs for late delivery. So there is no thought at his point of slowing down or stopping any work on I guess the 8503 through 06?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Tudor, Pickering and Holt

If anything, we've talked about accelerating it. Dan Pickering - Tudor Pickering & Holt: Okay. And what's the total spending today on those three rigs?

James Swent, III

Analyst · Tudor, Pickering and Holt

Today, Dan, we've spent 1.7 billion, that would be as of the end of '08. The balance to be spent over all rigs through 2012 is about another 1.7 billion. Dan Pickering - Tudor Pickering & Holt: Thank you very much, guys.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Tudor, Pickering and Holt

No, it's 1.4 and 1.7. You said 1.7 as we spent. Dan Pickering - Tudor Pickering & Holt: Okay 1.7 spent and 1.4 left?

James Swent, III

Analyst · Tudor, Pickering and Holt

No. Let me start over, 1.4 has been spent as of the end of 2008. Dan Pickering - Tudor Pickering & Holt: Okay.

James Swent, III

Analyst · Tudor, Pickering and Holt

1.7 is left to go for a total of 3.1 billion. Dan Pickering - Tudor Pickering & Holt: Got you. Thank you.

James Swent, III

Analyst · Tudor, Pickering and Holt

Okay

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Tudor, Pickering and Holt

Thanks, Dan.

Operator

Operator

We'll take our next question from Arun Jayaram with Credit Suisse.

Arun Jayaram - Credit Suisse

Analyst · Credit Suisse

Good morning, buys.

James Swent, III

Analyst · Credit Suisse

Good morning.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Credit Suisse

Good morning, Arun.

Arun Jayaram - Credit Suisse

Analyst · Credit Suisse

Quickly guys, for the 8500 Series rigs, what kind of daily operating cost should we be thinking about, I think those are far more improved, I'm just trying to get a sense of the cost on those?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Credit Suisse

The 8500 Series.

Arun Jayaram - Credit Suisse

Analyst · Credit Suisse

Yeah?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Credit Suisse

That's 75,000 a day.

Arun Jayaram - Credit Suisse

Analyst · Credit Suisse

That's great.

James Swent, III

Analyst · Credit Suisse

And remember Arun, we have full cost adjustments on all of those.

Arun Jayaram - Credit Suisse

Analyst · Credit Suisse

That's right. Dan, interested in your recent trip down to a couple of fells. I just wondered if you could give us some comments on, if they're run into situation where customers are not paying them, what do you think they do? And could there be some opportunities for you guys to work with your strategic relations with them to increase your deepwater fleet?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Credit Suisse

Interesting question. I don't think KFELS has a lot of exposure in that area, Arun. I think the yards that have exposure to other places. So no, I don't really see a lot of opportunities as of taking advantage of our good relationship with KFELS with some of these opportunities that exist. They just don't have a lot of exposure to companies that are having funding issues. I think there was one that was pretty well publicized. It's kind of now gone by the way, so.

Arun Jayaram - Credit Suisse

Analyst · Credit Suisse

Yup, that's right. And last question, Dan, you know we do a lot of work in terms of on valuations looking at either the replacement costs of rigs and obviously the U.S. dollars appreciated versus some of the Asian currencies making maybe cheaper on dollars basis. Any sense from talking to KFELS, if you theoretically would build or to get a rig from them, what the cost would be versus some of the recent numbers in that 200 plus range?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Credit Suisse

No, and I really haven't even asked the question. I mean I've got kind of an instinctive feel for what it might be, but I think to speculate it, it's obviously come down.

Arun Jayaram - Credit Suisse

Analyst · Credit Suisse

What's your instinct tell us?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Credit Suisse

Sorry.

Arun Jayaram - Credit Suisse

Analyst · Credit Suisse

What would it be your instinct?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Credit Suisse

It's come down.

Arun Jayaram - Credit Suisse

Analyst · Credit Suisse

Okay, it's come down.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Credit Suisse

I think I told you, it come down, I'm not going to quantify it. I mean half the cost or more than half the cost is equipment and NOV hasn't been real generous in lowering their prices yet. And so, really it's the cost of steel and just the Singapore dollar component of the labor to construct the rigs. So you can count on the back of an envelope, figure out what those might be.

Arun Jayaram - Credit Suisse

Analyst · Credit Suisse

You are a well trained lawyer, Dan. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Operator

Operator

And we'll take our next question from Pierre Conner with Capital One South Company.

Pierre Conner - Capital One Southcoast, Inc.

Analyst · Capital One South Company

That's me. Good morning, gentlemen.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Capital One South Company

Hi Pierre.

Pierre Conner - Capital One Southcoast, Inc.

Analyst · Capital One South Company

Hi. Want to ask you guys, in the past the strategy might have been to take potentially weaker markets to accelerate upgrades and modifications, and to the extent you've got a $125 million of CapEx planned for enhancement. In the current environment, do you -- would you anticipate accelerating potentially any other into this year if you had available time?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Capital One South Company

I think Pierre, it's really a function of the rig and the geography it's in. I mean it's not a simple question. Obviously, we've always... when we've had time breaks in the schedule, we would use that to and not been afraid of spending money on the rigs. I think as we've said, we view cash as a precious commodity right now, and so we're going to be very judicious in how we spend it. But if we have a rig that has good work prospects and need some work done before it goes to the next contract, we're not going to be bashful about spending money on it. Obviously, if you are looking at a rig that you're going to have to spend lot of money on it, has no work prospects, we're going to spend a lot more time thinking about that.

James Swent, III

Analyst · Capital One South Company

And Pierre, you were breaking up as you asked the question, but I think what you asked, is there possibility if we have rigs that are idle that we would accelerate CapEx?

Pierre Conner - Capital One Southcoast, Inc.

Analyst · Capital One South Company

That's correct, and I believe that's not.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Capital One South Company

I think the answer to that is no quite frankly, because if you look at our fleet, we've pretty well completed our upgrade program. We've got a couple of projects that we've identified that are included in that budget that Jay mentioned and quite frankly, there is not any other major upgrades that we could make to our rigs, quite frankly.

Pierre Conner - Capital One Southcoast, Inc.

Analyst · Capital One South Company

Okay. Well that was my sense, you're pretty much done.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Capital One South Company

Yeah.

Pierre Conner - Capital One Southcoast, Inc.

Analyst · Capital One South Company

Okay.

William Chadwick, Jr.

Analyst · Capital One South Company

More than anything that would be contract specific.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Capital One South Company

Yeah, so I mean if we're able to get some other rigs down to PEMEX or something like that, yeah.

Pierre Conner - Capital One Southcoast, Inc.

Analyst · Capital One South Company

I understand. Same kind of question around the potential stacking and so, I know the math could be done. But what is that timeframe that would cause you, is it a six-month window that is not of an opportunity for a contract that says here's a cold stack opportunity?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Capital One South Company

Pierre, it's just not a bright line analysis which you can put to that. You've got to look at all the factors with regard to each specific rig. So, it's really hard to answer that question. As we've said, as Dan said, we are not going to be bashful about stacking rigs, but we also recognize it's actually you are taking a rig out of the market particularly in this market, is probably out of the market for a long period of time. So, you have to weigh up all of those factors to come to a conclusion.

Pierre Conner - Capital One Southcoast, Inc.

Analyst · Capital One South Company

Okay. Another one, it's probably a general answer too. Dan, you did say about the M&A: I guess I've heard it, one rig contractor is beginning to market a partially build rig for less than they contracted to build it. So, they're coming down. But is your sense that bid ask spread, has it increased or is it beginning to close, admittedly not there yet?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Capital One South Company

I think it's beginning to close, but I don't think it's quite there yet.

Pierre Conner - Capital One Southcoast, Inc.

Analyst · Capital One South Company

Okay. So the direction is better?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Capital One South Company

The direction is going better, that is correct.

Pierre Conner - Capital One Southcoast, Inc.

Analyst · Capital One South Company

Okay.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Capital One South Company

Is I would like to say, I don't need to talk to the equity holders, I need to be talking to the creditors, and that's when it will be an opportune time.

Pierre Conner - Capital One Southcoast, Inc.

Analyst · Capital One South Company

Right. Okay. I think the rest was answered. Thanks, gentlemen.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Capital One South Company

Thanks, Pierre.

Operator

Operator

Our next question will come from Truls Olsen with Fearnley Fonds.

Truls Olsen - Fearnley Fonds

Analyst · Fearnley Fonds

Yes, thank you. Few quick questions really in here. On your fleet status report of late, I've noticed that there's been some I don't know should I call it, fluctuations or variations on contract terms, on some of your jackups that have been, the term has been shortened quite substantially, where there has been sort of no comments into the when the contracts have been shortened or I think it did prior the date of it should be roughly, shortening or cutting short a contract there. Any particular reason for this occurring, it's been sort of on the five, six, seven contracts over the last three, four or five these latest reports.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Fearnley Fonds

Truls, sometimes we complete the work earlier than expected, sometimes the operator doesn't pickup options. We've definitely shown the expected duration in the status report, but we don't have a lot of color to that. I think there is five contracts as to what the difference might be.

Truls Olsen - Fearnley Fonds

Analyst · Fearnley Fonds

Okay. Just as an arbitrary example there. The ENSCO 97 was in the January report, which stated being on contract till October '09 and in the February contract it stated to be on contract in March '09.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Fearnley Fonds

That's the rig that they gave us notice 30 day notice as they were canceling the contract.

Truls Olsen - Fearnley Fonds

Analyst · Fearnley Fonds

Okay...

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Fearnley Fonds

In that case say, they had exercised a one year option, but it had a 30-day termination clause in it.

Truls Olsen - Fearnley Fonds

Analyst · Fearnley Fonds

Any other contract with termination clauses?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Fearnley Fonds

Yeah, there would be other contracts that had notice periods for termination in various contracts.

Truls Olsen - Fearnley Fonds

Analyst · Fearnley Fonds

Except in Mexico?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Fearnley Fonds

I mean it's different in every market we operate, which is the same for every other drilling contractor as well. I mean so it's kind of hard to generalize.

Truls Olsen - Fearnley Fonds

Analyst · Fearnley Fonds

Okay. I don't know, my other questions have been answered. Thank you

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Fearnley Fonds

Thank you.

Truls Olsen - Fearnley Fonds

Analyst · Fearnley Fonds

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Next question will come from Mike Drickamer with Morgan Keegan. Michael Drickamer - Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc.: Hey, good morning guys. Have you been approached yet by customers looking to renegotiate terms of the contracts, perhaps they extend term for day rate?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Morgan Keegan

There have been -- yeah, there have been several conversations with customers and customers are willing to extend term, we'll talk to them about day rate. I don't think we've struck any deals with anybody, certainly had the conversations. Michael Drickamer - Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc.: I mean is it still very early in the conversations or something likely to happen there?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Morgan Keegan

It's impossible to predict. Needless to say, if we've got a firm contract and somebody wants us to reduce rate, we obviously want something in consideration for it. Michael Drickamer - Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc.: Sure. And my other question was on cold stacking cost. Assuming you guys perhaps cold stack some rigs this year, what should we look at as cold stacking cost, maybe as a percentage of our out righted cost or active cost?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Morgan Keegan

Well fortunately, we don't have much experience in the history of this company of cold stacking rigs. So I can only tell you, we've got ENSCO 1 that's coal stacked, our barge rig over in Singapore. And right now, its OpEx is $5,000 a day. That includes a pretty healthy allocation of overhead. So I think it's the true cost is somewhere 2,500 to $3,000 and we really don't have experience in what it's like on the jackup spread, I'll imagine it's a whole lot more now. Michael Drickamer - Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc.: Okay, that's it. Hey guys, thank you.

Richard LeBlanc

Analyst · Morgan Keegan

Probably we've time for one more question.

Operator

Operator

Great. We'll take our next question from Judson Bailey with Jefferies & Co. Judson Bailey - Jefferies & Co.: Thank you. Good morning. A follow-up to the comments on Mexico. If you are awarded those two contracts, I apologize if I missed this, did you say when those would start, and how long those rigs might be out of service in the Gulf to prepare for that work?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Jefferies & Co

I'll let Jeff handle that one.

P. Jeff Saile

Analyst · Jefferies & Co

Well one could be mid-year and the other will be some September timeframe. Judson Bailey - Jefferies & Co.: And would they need to be out of service for some amount of time to do some upgrades or work on the rig?

P. Jeff Saile

Analyst · Jefferies & Co

It would be a modest amount of contract specific work, it has to be done and it would probably take around 45 days and like that. Judson Bailey - Jefferies & Co.: Okay. And my follow-up; Dan, you covered all the markets pretty well in your prepared comments. Could you maybe give us a bit more color on the North Sea and what your customers are saying? I believe you said that there your indications are down below 200, it's pretty... could be a wide range. Do you have any sense on where things could re-price by say mid-year this year?

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Jefferies & Co

I'd tell you, let me let Mark answer that one because he's been dealing with all the customers over there.

Mark Burns

Analyst · Jefferies & Co

Joseph (ph), this is Mark Burns. As we see it today, the North Sea is surprisingly holding up very well. It still remains a very balanced jackup market. We are -- our mixture is between majors and independents. Obviously, we've seen some of the independents delay or cancel some of their planned programs for the back half of 2009. So we're in discussions with them. But we remain fully utilized in the North Sea. However, we expect to see some softness later in the back half of 2009. But we're pleased with where we are at there. Judson Bailey - Jefferies & Co.: And any sense on rates where some of your other rigs might re-price as they come up for renewal throughout the year?

Mark Burns

Analyst · Jefferies & Co

No, not really. None other than what Dan mentioned in his opening comments.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Jefferies & Co

I've one comment, we can't say, it is hard to say it several times. That is somewhat of a unique market in terms of the demand supply equation of rigs. There's not a lot of rigs that can move into that market or all are being build as newbuilds that can move into that market. So, it's got a different dynamic towards the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. So, it's clearly and has some pressures as commodity prices stay at these depressed levels, but it's really hard to say. Judson Bailey - Jefferies & Co.: Okay. That's all I have got. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Daniel Rabun

Analyst · Jefferies & Co

Thank you.

Richard LeBlanc

Analyst · Jefferies & Co

Thanks, Jud. I would like to just thank everyone for joining us today. And we look forward to talking again on Thursday, the 23rd of April for our first quarter earnings conference call. With that, Melanie, I'll turn it back to you.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank for joining us and have a wonderful day.