Earnings Labs

Baker Hughes Company (BKR)

Q3 2016 Earnings Call· Tue, Oct 25, 2016

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Baker Hughes Third Quarter 2016 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Ms. Alondra de Oteyza, Director of Investor Relations. Ma'am, you may begin.

Alondra de Oteyza - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Thank you, Abigail. Good morning everyone and welcome to the Baker Hughes third quarter 2016 earnings conference call. Here with me today is our Chairman and CEO, Martin Craighead, and Kimberly Ross, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Today's presentation and the earnings release that was issued earlier today can be found at our website at bakerhughes.com. As a reminder, during the course of this conference call, we will provide predictions, forecasts and other forward-looking statements. Although they reflect our current expectations, these statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks and assumptions. We advise you to review our SEC filings for a discussion of some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. Also, reconciliation of operating profit and other non-GAAP measures to GAAP results can be found on our earnings release and on our website at bakerhughes.com under the Investor section. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Martin Craighead. Martin?

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Alondra, and good morning everyone, and thanks for joining us today. This morning I'm going to address several topics with you. First, I will provide an overview of our third quarter results and the improvement we achieved. Second, I will update you on our progress against the three financial and strategic objectives that we outlined in early May and provide further details on how we are aggressively executing on these plans. And finally, I will give you our perspective on the market, including how our views have evolved and how Baker Hughes is positioned for the opportunities ahead. But look, before I get started, I want to take a moment and thank all of our employees for their commitment and effort in delivering a vastly improved quarter. The last two years have been extraordinarily challenging and I'm very proud of their leadership and how they've responded to those challenges, remaining focused on working safely and compliantly and taking care of our customers. Okay. Starting with the third quarter, we've made progress on all fronts. This is evident in our third quarter results. We recorded an adjusted net loss of $64 million or $0.15 per diluted share, an improvement of $328 million sequentially. While revenue declined 2% sequentially to $2.4 billion, reflecting lower activity levels and pricing pressure in key markets, we generated an adjusted operating profit of $7 million in the quarter. This represents an improvement of $462 million compared to the prior quarter and is an indication of the momentum in our cost reduction and business restructuring efforts. Now, let me provide an overview of our performance against the three objectives we outlined in May: one, reducing $500 million of cost by year end through simplifying our organizational structure and operational footprint; two, focusing on our core strengths…

Kimberly A. Ross - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Martin, and good morning, everyone. Let me start by saying that like Martin, I am very pleased with the progress our teams have made. We have had a lot of moving parts recently. During the last six months, we restructured the organization and people have now settled into their new role, while at the same time focusing on the customer and executing our cost reduction initiative. Additionally, we took steps to optimize our capital structure and continued to enhance processes around cross management, capital discipline and working capital. Delivering on all these objectives simultaneously ahead of schedule is a true testament of team performance. While we have more work to do, I have no doubt that we are on the right path. Moving to our third quarter results, today we reported revenue for the third quarter of $2.4 billion, down 2% sequentially, primarily as a result of activity reductions in our Gulf of Mexico, West Africa and Norwegian deepwater operations. On a GAAP basis, the net loss for the quarter was $429 million or $1.00 per share. The adjusted net loss for the third quarter was $64 million or $0.15 per share. Adjusted net loss excluded $365 million in after-tax adjusting items, or $0.85 per share primarily related to additional impairments and restructuring charges. As a result of the restructuring actions taken this quarter, we have now achieved $600 million of annualized savings. Approximately two thirds of the savings are related to lower compensation expense from workforce reductions and another one third of savings are associated with reduced depreciation and amortization expense from impairments. From a segment perspective, approximately 30% of the cost savings reside in North America, 65% in international and 5% in industrial services. The majority of the benefit is reflected in our third quarter results with…

Alondra de Oteyza - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Thank you, Kimberly. At this point, I'll ask the operator to open the lines for questions. To give everyone a fair chance to ask questions, we ask that you limit yourself to a single question and one related follow-up. With that being said, Abigail, can we have the first question please?

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our first question comes from Jud Bailey with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Judson E. Bailey - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Good morning, Jud.

Judson E. Bailey - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst

First of all, congratulations on impressive results. My first question I think is for Kimberly. I think you may have, you've touched on this, but looking at your results, revenue is down slightly sequentially but you had over a $200 million increase in EBITDA sequentially. Did I hear you right that you recognized about $600 million of savings already, annualized savings in the third quarter and that accounts for probably the majority of the increase in EBITDA? What other items should we look at that were driving the sequential increase in EBITDA? Was it mix, or some other things that helped drive that? And then thinking about the fourth quarter, it sounds like we have some more cost savings to kind of roll through. I just wanted to just kind of have you touch on that, please.

Kimberly A. Ross - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Yeah. Thanks, Jud. So clearly we did have some cost savings in the quarter, that both from the initiatives that we did in Q2 as well as in Q3. And as we said, now on an annualized basis, we do expect to get $650 million, of which $$600 million is now done. With that said, there were some Q2 to Q3 items. Recall that in Q2 we had about $166 million of bad debt that didn't reoccur this quarter. Also, we had valuation allowances on indirect taxes last quarter of about $45 million. And in this quarter, we also recognized some non-reoccurring benefits, which were a bunch of small items largely related to some of the initiatives that we had with regards to cost reductions. And then also we had provisions for excess inventories that don't repeat this quarter. Then if we think of the Q4, I think there are a couple of things to recognize. First of all, again, we said that we have about $20 million more of savings that we expect in quarter four. Obviously, the $45 million of one-offs this quarter will not repeat next quarter. And then a lot depends on activity, and keeping in mind that in Q4 last year we saw some pullback during the holiday season, and so that could repeat this quarter again. And also, we don't expect to have a significant peak in direct sales in Q4, which historically has been a quarter when there are quite a bit of direct sales coming through.

Judson E. Bailey - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. But just to sum it up and just to kind of follow up on that, it looks like if I hear you correctly, we back out some of the one-time items you cited that were favorable. This is very much a real new baseline in margins that we should think about, so activity increases we should apply, what are we thinking incremental margins should be as we think about 2017? So it feels like this is a new baseline. I just want to confirm that. And then number two, how are you thinking about additional cost cut opportunities for 2017? Where do you see the opportunities? Is there any way to get a sense of how you think the size and scale of that next round of cost reductions could be?

Kimberly A. Ross - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Yes. I'm not going to give color at this point in time on 2017. But again, when you talk about baseline, keep in mind that we did have that $45 million this quarter that we don't expect to reoccur. With regards to additional cost savings, so we're continuing to identify areas. I've talked in the past about opportunities around manufacturing cost savings. There are things like continuing to negotiate with our suppliers. We're also evaluating what and where we manufacture things, whether it's internally, externally, we're looking at that. We're looking at processes to reduce costs in our products and also to bring our products to market faster. We're looking at logistics and distribution, and we started already some of those initiatives and they will continue into 2017. But at this point in time, we're not giving a specific number. As I've said, we've increased the cost savings target for this year on a run rate basis to $650 million and we'll continue to look for more opportunities.

Judson E. Bailey - Wells Fargo Securities LLC

Analyst

Great. Thanks. Thanks again.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from James West with Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

James West - Evercore ISI

Analyst · Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

Hey. Good morning, Martin. Morning, Kimberly.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Good morning, James.

Kimberly A. Ross - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Good morning.

James West - Evercore ISI

Analyst · Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

Martin, I'm curious on the sales channel strategy that you're putting in place on the international side. I could totally get the concept of selling to some of the local providers, but how do you manage the, I guess the process of strengthening them when they could compete against you in other product lines that you're keeping in those countries?

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Well, a lot of that goes, James, to the selection of the individual player. I think one of the advantages that we have is being the first mover in this space in a strong, purposeful way. So, selecting the right player, having the agreements pretty tight and papered up well.

James West - Evercore ISI

Analyst · Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

Okay.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

But you know, there's another element here. These are long-term, enduring relationships. They could be measured in decades. And some of these markets that I said in my prepared comments are markets that we don't even exist in.

James West - Evercore ISI

Analyst · Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

Right.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

So in that case, it's (33:28) for us.

James West - Evercore ISI

Analyst · Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

That's easy. Sure.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Okay. And the risk of, let's say, annoying us with some kind of violation of an agreement, when we have the technology pipeline that we have, we have the spare parts, platform, I mean, it's always – it's a risk, but it's a very I think manageable risk, James.

James West - Evercore ISI

Analyst · Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

Okay. Okay. Fair enough, Martin. And then on the pressure pumping side of the business, obviously, we're here at the bottom of the cycle. We appear to be going into an up-cycle that could show some strength here next year. That is a nice swing earnings provider. So how do you think about the timing of the, either the partnering or the exiting? I know you said you definitely want to have access, so some type of strategy around maybe taking that off of your plate to put it on somebody else's plate for at least for the time being. How do you think about the timing there and how you maximize the value of some type of transaction?

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Well, the fact that we're going to keep a meaningful participation kind of takes the timing risk out of the transaction.

James West - Evercore ISI

Analyst · Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

Okay.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

And as you've said and as we've said multiple times, having someone else manage it, run it, invest in it, we'll keep a relationship. But since that business has moved to the form that it is, which is really water and sand, it's become a horsepower and logistics game. So our strategy has not wavered one bit, and as I said in the remarks, we're moving through the process. We like where we are, and hopefully we'll bring this to conclusion within the next few months.

James West - Evercore ISI

Analyst · Evercore ISI. Your line is open.

Okay. Great. All right. Thanks, Martin.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

You're welcome.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Byron Pope with Tudor, Pickering, Holt. Your line is open. Byron K. Pope - Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Securities, Inc.: Good morning. Martin, I just have one question on North America. It remains your largest revenue segment, and so you provided a couple of data points for it. I think you mentioned drilling services and drill bits outpacing the U.S. land rig count in Q3. So as we think about North America onshore activity recovering faster than international and global offshore activity, can you frame for us how you think about which of Baker's product and service lines both in D&E and C&P you expect to lead the growth charge for you guys next year?

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Sure, Byron. Good morning. I'll tell you, by far the competitive advantage as well as the secular change in the market with regards to longer laterals lines itself up very well to a proportional steering rotary steerable, which is the AutoTrak Curve. We're the only one with that. And being able to drill a gauge hole the entire through the curve, through the lateral, avoid all the micro doglegs that the competitor tools create, as these completions get longer and you got to get your pipe to bottom, I mean the market is rapidly steering itself right into our drilling bailiwick, if you will. You couple that bottom hole assembly with the drill bit in terms of maximizing steerability and durability, I mean it's a beautiful thing to watch. You move to the production side and a big part of our business in North America is the production portfolio, and as we migrate less and less from the pressure pumping, it's only going to become more. And the artificial lift, I think is kind of a hidden gold mine. We continue to innovate in that space. I don't think our customers are paying attention to their electric bill as much as they should be. I think that's going to be another opportunity where technology is going to make a difference for our customers' lifting cost. So if I had to frame it up, it's first and foremost drilling technology followed by the artificial lift, and then as you've heard me say over and over, Byron, we've discussed the great thing about North American production is that as wells get older, it's like people getting older, they need drugs. These wells need chemicals, and just as I highlighted in the oil sands, our chemical expertise and our folks in that area are constantly innovating for some new flow assurance and items. So I'd stack it up in that category. Byron K. Pope - Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Securities, Inc.: That's helpful. And as I think about all those that you mentioned, I don't think of any of those as being particularly capital intensive. And so, realize it's too early to opine on 2017 CapEx, but is that a fair characterization of those product service lines that you mentioned that aren't terribly capital intensive as you think about the growth base?

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

That's exactly right. No, an overarching theme that we kind of coined back when we came out of in May, was that we're going to be a capital-light organization. I mean return on capital is going to drive our mindset in our investment decisions, who we work for and where we work. So yes, that's what we like about our core businesses.

Kimberly A. Ross - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

And it goes to our core strengths also. Byron K. Pope - Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Securities, Inc.: Great. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Byron.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Sean Meakim with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Sean C. Meakim - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Hey. Good morning.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Good morning, Sean.

Sean C. Meakim - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan. Your line is open.

So Martin, maybe you could follow on to that discussion talking about the lower capital intensity of the business. Would it be fair to say, given how that mix can shift, that your CapEx spend just on a theoretical basis, or just conceptually, could stay below DD&A for an extended period of time? And to that extent, how do you think about what that translates in the form of free cash flow?

Kimberly A. Ross - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

So, Sean, this is Kimberly. Obviously, the idea here is to have a better return on our capital at the end of the day, right. So it's less about how much we spend and more about what kind of returns we get on capital. And obviously, there are different components to the capital. Clearly, well as we start seeing increase in activity, then there will be money that will be spent on tools and those type of things. And additionally, we'll be looking at will there be some capital that we'll need to put into play with regards to redesigning our footprint around supply chain. And so there might be some other initiatives like that, that we'll have where we'll spend some CapEx. So again, we haven't given the color for 2017 at this point. Very clearly right now, I want to make sure everyone realizes, not that we're starving the business from CapEx by any means. It's very much about what kind of returns are we getting. And obviously, there's been a decline in the overall activity, therefore less requirement for CapEx. But with that said, not having the investments in rolling stocks and large facilities and other things for North America pressure pumping will obviously take some of the capital intensity away.

Sean C. Meakim - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. And then just thinking about some of the challenges you're having offshore, you cited lower activity, but also some transitory issues, the North Sea and West Africa in particular. I was curious how much, are you seeing any outsized impact on your share just from the particular rigs where projects were being delayed, where perhaps you had more equipment this particular quarter? Just trying to get a sense for some of the transitory effects and what the implication is for the next couple of quarters going forward.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

That's a good question, Sean, and I think we were disproportionately hurt in the Gulf of Mexico, disproportionately helped on a share basis in West Africa, just given the customers that we work for. Our drilling share in West Africa now is probably 50%. It is that way. It has been consistently in the Gulf. We're not down, I'm not down on deepwater or offshore. It's just going through a transition. Our customers are battling their balance sheets trying to get the cost in line. We still have a very positive view on a dollar per barrel recovery cost. It makes all the sense in the world, but at these commodity prices, I think my customers in West Africa need about $65. I think it's probably about $55 in the North Sea, and I think it's about the same in the Gulf. And until we see that, as we've said before, you just have to have some period of stability for them to come back. The nice thing about that market, as you know, is the focus on technology, reliability, quality. That's right up our alley, so we're participating in managing our costs until that starts to recover.

Sean C. Meakim - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan. Your line is open.

That's helpful feedback. Thanks, Martin.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Kurt Hallead with RBC. Your line is open.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open.

Hey. Good morning.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Hi, Kurt.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open.

So you guys provided a lot of great information here this morning, and I just wanted to clarify a couple things just to make sure I'm on the right page here. So on a operating loss basis, when you adjust out for those one-time items, the operating income number I come up with is minus $1 million. Kimberly, am I approaching that the right way?

Kimberly A. Ross - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Yeah, without corporate.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open.

Yeah, it's without, before corporate. Yeah, before corporate. That's correct. Yeah.

Kimberly A. Ross - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Yeah.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open.

Okay. And then the context you guys provided around that was in the fourth quarter alone, you'll get another $20 million of incremental cost savings.

Kimberly A. Ross - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

That's the expectation, yes.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open.

Okay. And then can you give us some color around – I'm sorry, Kimberly, go ahead.

Kimberly A. Ross - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

I was just going to say, but also keep in mind the $45 million of non-reoccurring benefits that we had this quarter.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open.

Exactly. Thank you. And then the Andean sale, can you give us some general sense of what that contribution was in the third quarter?

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

I can't quantify it for you, but it was material to Latin America's results.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open.

Okay. And to the point where you think then Latin American operating income will not be repeatable effectively in the fourth quarter, that'll be down sequentially because of that sale?

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Yes.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open.

Or you think it still could be flat.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

No, I think your first supposition is correct.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open.

Okay. Great. All right. That's all I had. Appreciate the info. Thank you.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

You're welcome, Kurt.

Kimberly A. Ross - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Bill Sanchez with Howard Weil. Your line is open.

William Sanchez - Scotia Howard Weil

Analyst · Howard Weil. Your line is open.

Thanks. Good morning. Martin, two part question for you. Just given the North America revenue performance we saw relative to U.S. rig count; I know you talked about the impact of Gulf of Mexico. Could you help us perhaps just size for us Gulf of Mexico as a percentage of total MAM (45:02) revenue in the quarter? And also help us, Martin, as we think about 2017 top line in North America, what your expectations may be as it relates to the Gulf of Mexico type of recovery. What's going to be a good proxy to determining how your top line grows? Is it just overall spending with regard to the universe of independent E&P companies? Or how do we think about that mix between the U.S. land, Canada and Gulf of Mexico next year?

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

I think it's, look, as we've said all along, Bill, and I appreciate your question, but breaking out the Gulf isn't something that I want to do. In terms of searching for a proxy as it relates to Baker Hughes North America, it's a challenge for you guys because you've got North America that's, sorry, pressure pumping, which will be separated in some capacity. We have an increasingly strong mix in the production portfolio, which doesn't tie to the rig count as directly. And then you have a fireball with regards to this drilling technology and the growing lateral lengths, which is really polarizing a market in separating guys who can only offer motors and to the guys who can offer rotary steerable tools. So, I think I can't give you the proxy as to some kind of indication out there of how you would model our North American revenue. It's been our intention, Bill, I can tell you, to continue to make this company focus on what it does best, which in many regards is going to make us increasingly more unique than our peers. And another threat of all this will be, as I said, the new channels that are even will participate in North America, like we did on our drilling fluids and what that means to revenues versus accretive margins. So I'll leave it to you experts to figure out what that proxy is. But that's the best color I can give you right now.

William Sanchez - Scotia Howard Weil

Analyst · Howard Weil. Your line is open.

Is it your view, Martin, it looks like Gulf of Mexico I guess activity has stabilized after a pretty sharp 3Q. Is that your view in the mix of rigs and projects that you're working on would suggest 4Q Gulf of Mexico is up for you relative to 3Q?

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

No I don't. I think that our customers, particularly our IOCs, are still struggling with cash flow issues. We have a significant operator there that told us recently the word from headquarters is you're going to deploy your capital to some better opportunities, one international and one on land. And if you look at the 17 rigs or whatever drilling rigs that are out there today, I think 10 at most have a contract to go beyond Q2, the MODUs. Beyond Q2, I've got six or seven rigs that I don't have visibility to. So I don't see the Gulf of Mexico getting better until probably mid-2017.

William Sanchez - Scotia Howard Weil

Analyst · Howard Weil. Your line is open.

Thanks for the time, Martin. Good quarter.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Scott Gruber with Citigroup. Your line is open.

Scott A. Gruber - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citigroup. Your line is open.

Good morning.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Hi, Scott.

Scott A. Gruber - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citigroup. Your line is open.

Martin, a longer-term question for you. What do you believe is the margin potential for your portfolio after you get through all the restructuring, after the sales model conversions, along with the smaller exposure to frac? And let's say the market delivers a modest middle of the road recovery in upstream spending over the next few years, what do you think is the normalized margin level that is reasonably achievable for your mix of businesses?

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

That's a great question. I think just one, you're going to have to wait until we see the market settle out a bit more, we see our business settle out a bit more. Don't forget, six months ago we were in a very different state. We've moved extremely fast, fixed a lot of things. We have more to do. Kimberly highlighted some of the manufacturing strategy. I'm not prepared yet to put a number out there as to a normalized rate, but we feel we got a lot of smiles on our faces on this side of the fence. We feel really good about where our business is going. I'm just going to leave it at that right now, Scott.

Scott A. Gruber - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citigroup. Your line is open.

Well, if I could ask a follow-up, do you think it's unreasonable to assume that you can do better than the low teens margins you achieved last cycle?

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Tell me what oil prices are and gas prices. And look, I'm not trying to avoid your question. I think as we get further through this process in our business and we get our portfolio where we want it to be – we still have some moving pieces. We still have putting some meat on the bones with regards to our new channels. When we have that all sorted out, I think we'll be prepared to put some numbers out there for you.

Scott A. Gruber - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Citigroup. Your line is open.

Okay. Well, I'll look forward to it. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Dan Boyd with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Daniel J. Boyd - BMO Capital Markets

Analyst · BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Thanks. Good morning.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Hi, Dan.

Daniel J. Boyd - BMO Capital Markets

Analyst · BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Hey. Sorry to keep following up on the baseline EBITDA run rate, but I want to give it one more shot. When I fully adjust the numbers, I get to about $224 million in EBITDA, adjusted for 3Q. 4Q, presumably we're going to see another $10 million benefit since half the $20 million benefit is D&A. So we have a $234 million run rate going into 4Q. So want to confirm that that's correct. And then as I think about seasonality in 1Q 2017, presumably since you're not seeing the uptick in 4Q, there shouldn't be much of a seasonality impact in 1Q. Is that a fair way to think about it?

Kimberly A. Ross - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

So, and if it's helpful later on, you can get offline with Alondra if you really want to get into the details. But if you're looking at it right now, it's $269 million was your starting point. You've got $45 million of non-reoccurring items, takes you to $224 million. Then if you take $20 million of the cost savings, so then you end up at $244 million, right, if you're doing math.

Daniel J. Boyd - BMO Capital Markets

Analyst · BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Well, I was – okay.

Kimberly A. Ross - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

And then of course you need to take in account what happens with activity in Q4, which that's obviously not something that we'd know the answer to yet.

Daniel J. Boyd - BMO Capital Markets

Analyst · BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Okay. Yeah, all right. And then as I think about your AutoTrak and the market share that you're gaining, one of your other competitors mentioned that they're sold out. Is this something that you can use to pull through other products and services or bundle to gain market share beyond just AutoTrak?

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

You know, that's a good question, Dan. And we're about sold out as well. As to a pull-along, there's not as much of that going on in North America. Very, very few. Very, very few , I wouldn't even call them bids, transactional activity is in any kind of combined state. But given the performance of our systems and the leverage that we have, and particularly as it starts to tighten up, I think you'll see more and more around completions are being pulled through. But we remain very focused on execution and I think our share position is going to just continue to grow, one, because of performance and two, which I think is a bit lost on the marketplace, is where these wells are going and you cannot drill them with a motor. Your torque and drag will just tear you up. And we have the only rotary steerable that has the ability to gently push off versus an on/off type of switch which creates a pretty tortuous well path, which is no big deal if you've got a 10,000-foot lateral, but as we approach 20,000-foot laterals, you've got to have really a smooth environment. So yeah, I think we will be pulling through more services as this market evolves.

Daniel J. Boyd - BMO Capital Markets

Analyst · BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Great. So hopefully that can help offset some of the mix issue. Thanks a lot.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

You're welcome.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our last question comes from Jim Wicklund with Credit Suisse. Your line is open. James Wicklund - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Good morning, guys. Appreciate it. International, Martin, historically, and you and I have been doing this a while, international, usually it takes about six to 12 months to begin to recover after the U.S., but this time with deepwater, the rising tide not lifting all boats, and you're still talking about activity and pricing pressure in the international, can you give us what you all's expectation is of how long the recovery's going to be generally in international following the domestic recovery we've already seen?

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Well, I think it's a very – and you're right, Jim, we've been in this a long time. And I think it's a little different. North America's activity bump is because a significant amount of the deflation that's come off of our backs and our competitors' backs. That isn't going to be there forever. And as we're just talking to Dan around some of the technology, we're getting tapped out in North America. And so that's a response in the market that's because of our costs coming down. So it's not that the fundamentals of I think our customer community being able to really make money at $50 oil. It's because we're giving up too much of the economic rent. And that's going to go away eventually. Internationally, I hate to say this, Jim. If we don't see $55 oil in the North Sea, it's not coming back. And I think we need $65 in West Africa. Russia is staying steady, I think for reasons that is really around production level mandates versus pure economics. Parts of the Caspian and so forth are flat to trending down. Now Middle East definitely continues to be a bright spot. And it gets back to low cost producer wins in this market, so substantial I think. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say substantial opportunity in Kuwait, Saudi, the United Arab Emirates and so forth. Oman. But besides that, if we don't get a lift in oil prices that's durable beyond just a few days or weeks, I don't see the rest of the world coming back in any meaningful way. James Wicklund - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Okay. That's, we'll pray for higher oil prices. And my follow-up, if I could, Russia. One of the larger companies mentioned it in glowing terms a number of times. Can you talk about your exposure in Russia and how big of a market that could be for your more direct sales group? I know in Saudi they're pushing for 70% and all. But Russia's a different animal. Can you talk about your potential in Russia and your activity in Russia?

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Year-on-year, we picked up over 100 drilling rigs in Russia. Obviously, our state of play last year was a bit bobbled and cumbersome given the situation we were in. So they've hit the market hard, and the customers have responded. Again, technology's playing a role. In terms of overall size, I envision that we'll have a very large business in Russia. But it will be somewhat of a hybrid. There'll be leveraging the local content initiatives that are taking place. And again, the trade secrets and the model that we'll have around these new channels will facilitate that growth. On the other hand, in parts of Western Siberia the technology demands are still high and that goes to the fact that, as I said, we've picked up 100 drilling rigs in Russia just in the last eight months. So I don't want to quantify it for you at this stage, but it's going to be a bigger part of our Eastern Hemisphere business, I'm pretty confident of. James Wicklund - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): You don't need to divine it. That's very good, Martin. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. I will now turn the call back to Martin Craighead for closing remarks.

Martin S. Craighead - Baker Hughes, Inc.

Management

Thanks, Abigail. So let me thank all of you for joining us and let me wrap up with three points. First, there continue to be some challenging conditions and volatility and uncertainty remain, but there is some growing optimism that the conditions needed for a sustained recovery are closer at hand than they seemed to be just a few months ago. The strong progress that we made on all three components of our plan I want to remind you of, from costs and controls to commercial strategy and capital structure. And finally, we achieved stronger performance in the third quarter largely due to accelerated execution on cost reductions and efforts to fortify our core business and top line results. This is aligned with our focus to achieve profitable growth and improve returns on capital for Baker Hughes. Again, I want to thank you all for joining us and have a good rest of your day.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This concludes the program and you may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day.