Good morning, and welcome to the Core Lab Quarter 1, 2024 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Larry Bruno, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Nick. Good morning in the Americas; good afternoon in Europe, Africa and the Middle East; and good evening in Asia-Pacific. We'd like to welcome all of our shareholders, analysts, and most importantly, our employees to Core Laboratories' First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. This morning, I'm joined by Chris Hill, Core's Chief Financial Officer; and Gwen Gresham, Core's Senior Vice President and Head of Investor Relations. The call will be divided into 6 segments. Gwen will start by making remarks regarding forward-looking statements. We'll then have some opening comments, including a high-level review of important factors in Core's Q1 performance. In addition, we'll review Core's strategies and the 3 financial tenets that the company employs to build long-term shareholder value. Chris will then give a detailed financial overview and have additional comments regarding shareholder value. Following Chris, Gwen will provide some comments on the company's outlook and guidance. I'll then review Core's 2 operating segments, detailing our progress and discussing the continued successful introduction and deployment of Core Lab's technologies, as well as highlighting some of Core's operations and major projects worldwide. Then we'll open the phones for a Q&A session. I'll now turn the call over to Gwen for remarks on forward-looking statements.

Before we start the conference this morning, I'll mention that some of the statements that we make during this call may include projections, estimates and other forward-looking information. This would include any discussion of the company's business outlook. These types of forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to materially differ from our forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, as well as other reports and registration statements filed by us with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Our comments also include non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included in the press release announcing our first quarter results. Those non-GAAP measures can also be found on our website. With that said, I'll pass the discussion back to Larry.

Thanks, Gwen. Moving now to some high-level comments about the first quarter of 2024, Core continued to build on the operational momentum established over the past few quarters. Revenue was up 1% compared to Q4 of 2023, outperforming the seasonal decline of 4% to 7% that often occurs for Core Lab between Q4 and Q1. For the full company, ex-items, operating income for the first quarter was $14.9 million and operating margins were 12%, flat to Q4 of 2023 and again, overcoming the typical seasonality that has historically impacted Core's business at the start of a new calendar year. First quarter 2024 U.S. land completion activity was down approximately 11% compared to Q4. However, Core's U.S. completion diagnostic services increased quarter-over-quarter as operators continued to see the benefit of evaluating various ever more complex completion designs. In addition, U.S. product sales also outpaced completion activity, growing 7% sequentially, reflecting improved market penetration. Production Enhancement revenue, operating income and operating margins all improved sequentially despite lower U.S. land completion activity compared to Q4. For Q1, operating margins in Production Enhancement ex-items were 8%, up from 6% in Q4. Over in Reservoir Description, revenue was flat sequentially. Here again, this performance overcame the seasonality that typically occurs between Q4 and Q1. Disruptions to crude oil transportation tied to the Middle East and Russia-Ukraine conflicts persisted in the first quarter of 2024. These produced some headwinds for assay work on crude oil and derived products in the affected regions. First quarter 2024 operating margins ex-items, for Reservoir Description were 14%, down slightly from Q4. As noted, demand for rock and fluid analysis across our global client base continues to rise and more projects are progressing from the planned and committed phase into the early stages of execution. In line with our stated financial…

Thanks, Larry. Before we review the financial performance for the quarter, the guidance we gave on our last call and past calls specifically excluded the impact of any FX gains or losses and assumed an effective tax rate of 20%. So, accordingly, our discussion today excludes any foreign exchange gain or loss for current and prior periods. Additionally, the financial results for the first quarter of 2024 include a charge of $3.5 million for non-cash stock compensation expense associated with the future vesting of performance shares for certain employees who have reached eligible retirement. We also recorded $2.6 million of costs associated with exiting and consolidating some of our facilities and employee severance. These items have also been excluded from the discussion of our financial results. So, looking at the income statement, revenue was $129.6 million in the first quarter, a slight increase from $128.2 million in the prior quarter and $128.4 million in prior year's first quarter. We would normally experience a seasonal decline in revenue moving from the fourth quarter into the first quarter. However, increased demand in both the U.S. and certain international regions for reservoir rock and fluid analytical programs and completion diagnostic services offset the seasonal decline. Of this revenue, service revenue, which is more international, was $96.5 million for the quarter, up 2% sequentially and up 6% from last year. Demand for our laboratory-based reservoir rock and fluid analytical programs continues to improve and is expected to continue growing globally with stronger growth in certain international regions. Some of the sequential growth in the first quarter is also associated with several large well-completion diagnostic projects, which were completed during the quarter. However, our crude assay services in some international regions continue to be impacted and disrupted due to the ongoing geopolitical conflicts in the…

Thank you, Chris. As 2024 unfolds, we will continue to execute our strategic plan of technology investments targeted to both solve client problems and capitalize on Core's growth opportunities. We will also remain focused on maximizing return on invested capital, generating free cash, and reducing debt. Core Lab maintains its constructive outlook on international upstream projects for 2024 and anticipate sustainable activity growth in the years ahead to support crude oil demand and energy security concerns. Year-to-date, crude oil demand is performing as expected with an increase in demand during the first 3 months of the year. For the short and long term, increased investment in the development of onshore and offshore crude oil fields will be required to maintain and grow hydrocarbon production. In the near term, crude oil markets remain volatile due to global recession fears and uncertainties related to ongoing conflicts in Russia-Ukraine and parts of the Middle East. As international activity continues to expand, committed long-term upstream projects from the Middle East, South Atlantic margin, certain areas of Asia Pacific and West Africa support year-over-year growth for Core Lab. International growth tied to areas related to the 2 geopolitical conflicts will be limited. However, we are achieving double-digit growth in other key regions and expect this to continue in future quarters. As such, we anticipate Reservoir Description's second quarter 2024 revenue to continue growing. However, as discussed, the geopolitical situation in Russia-Ukraine and parts of the Middle East continue to create volatility with respect to trading patterns and maritime transportation of crude oil and derived products, potentially impacting demand for the lab services Core provides to these markets. Turning to the U.S. Frac spread activity peaked in the fall of 2022. However, the declines experienced in the completion activity since 2023 appear to have stabilized. Core Lab continues to project completion activity in 2024 to remain relatively flat compared to last year. However, market penetration of Core's proprietary energetic system and completion diagnostic service technologies are projected to outperform activity levels. Reservoir Description's second quarter 2024 revenue is projected to range from $85.5 million to $88.5 million, with operating income of $12.7 million to $14.4 million. Core's Production Enhancement segment second quarter revenue is estimated to range from $44.5 million to $47.5 million, with operating income of $1.6 million to $2.6 million. In summary, the company's second quarter 2024 revenue is projected to range from $130 million to $136 million with operating income of $14.5 million to $17.3 million, yielding operating margins of approximately 12%. EPS for the second quarter is expected to range from $0.19 to $0.23. The company's guidance is based on projections for underlying operations and excludes gains and losses in foreign exchange. Our second quarter guidance also assumes an effective tax rate of 20%. With that said, I'll pass the discussion back to Larry.

Thanks Gwen. First, I'd like to thank our global team of employees for providing innovative solutions, integrity and superior service to our clients. The team's collective dedication to servicing our clients is the foundation of Core Lab's success. Looking at the macro outlook, the IEA recently updated its forecast for crude oil demand for 2024 to average a record high 103.5 million barrels per day. That's up by approximately 1.3 million barrels per day from 2023, even after assessing current global financial forecast. This continues to bode well for increasing demand for the Reservoir Description services that will be required to grow production and replace the natural decline of existing producing fields. As we look ahead, we see the long-term improvement in the international rig count over the past 2 years as a harbinger of an improving landscape for Reservoir Description, a trend that we project will play out for the next several years, particularly in the Middle East, North and South America as well as most other regions. Production Enhancement in addition to its exposure to the U.S. land market, also has expanding opportunities in international areas, such as with unconventional plays in the Middle East and emerging conventional plays in a number of regions. Furthermore, Core continues to expand its line of innovative offerings for plug and abandonment programs in mature offshore basins around the globe. Now let's review the first quarter performance of our 2 business segments. Turning first to Reservoir Description. For the first quarter of 2024, revenue came in at $84.2 million, flat compared to Q4 of 2023. Operating income for Reservoir Description, ex-items, was $11.4 million and operating margins were 14%, down fractionally from Q4. The slight decrease in operating margins reflected the operational inefficiencies caused by the ongoing geopolitical conflicts in the Middle…

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Stephen Gengaro with Stifel.

So, I guess a couple of things from me. The first would just kind of be to think about the R&D business and just think about the longer-term trends, and we're hearing a lot about strong offshore activity and international growth. What are you seeing there as far as sort of a multi-quarter outlook, and how should we think about your performance in that environment.

Yes. So, we're certainly aligned with the folks that see a multi-year cycle unfolding. As we've talked about before, we tend to be a little bit not front of the cycle like the people involved in well construction. Our wheelhouse is really, as we move into appraisal, development and production, rather than exploration activity. And so we see that the growth opportunities for international have got us aimed at a double-digit -- low double-digit growth across most of the world. Unfortunately, we do have to dial in some of the difficulties we're encountering with the geopolitical conflicts on the planet. There was a Reuters story fairly recently, earlier this month that said that 14% of Russian refining infrastructure was shut down. Now we've got our own information from our folks on the ground there. And so, we dialed that in as well. But it is impacting crude oil trading and the assay work that goes with that trading and transportation. And so that's a bit of a headwind for us on the growth rate that we might expect for Reservoir Description for the full year.

I think that's right, Larry. There are definitely pockets that we've highlighted that are seeing very nice growth, but then there are other regions internationally where we're still expecting growth, but it may not be double digit year-over-year.

Yes.

Great. And then -- so, from like a bigger picture perspective and looking at the company over a long period of time, the cash generation historically versus today and just kind of comparing the differences, do you think it's -- is it just macro market driven that's the problem? Or is there something else that's kind of going on that is harder to put a finger on, that has an impact on sort of cash generation relative to kind of historical levels?

Yes. I think it's simple activity level and sort of our base operating cost that we need to maintain the global footprint and the expertise that our clients rely on Core Lab to be able to deliver. And so that's why we generate such nice incremental margins, particularly on the service side of the business. It's just an activity level sort of threshold. And as that grows, we'll produce nice incrementals. I think for all of 2023, incrementals in Reservoir Description were over 60% and maybe quite a bit better than that for the full year. And so, give us additional work that we see coming, that we're engaged in conversations with our clients on, that we know we've got samples coming into the facilities around the world, and we're going to turn that into nice profitability. And with that will come the cash flow.

Right. And the only thing I would add to that, Stephen, is like Larry is saying, Reservoir Description, margin expansion should fall to the bottom line and cash flow. There's not a lot of working capital other than accounts receivable. But as that mix gets a little bit stronger on the international, typically, we collect receivables overseas that takes longer than what you might see in the U.S. And then on our Production Enhancement business, we definitely don't turn our inventory at the same level as we used to. We carry more than we used to, still managing through longer lead times and things like that. But we're hoping that, that will continue to improve. And as we turn inventory more and carry less, I think some of that cash that's tied up in working capital will fall through.

Thanks. And if you don't mind, I can slide in one more. One of the things that has clearly been talked about by one of your competitors on Production Enhancement side has been kind of a divestiture of a business -- of their perforating business. And I was just curious what you see in the market on that perforating gun side? And if a divestiture like that, how you think that impacts the competitive landscape?

Yes. Well, I guess I'd sum it up with a colloquialism here. It's a pretty tough dog park in the product side of the U.S. land market specifically, but in completion products overall. It's crowded space. I think technological advantages that we bring to the market with our knowledge of the rocks allows us to innovate. I think it's generally a crowded capacity from a capacity perspective in terms of the products that are available out there. And so we like where we're going. I think it's going to be a challenging market in terms of margin progression for many people in that space.

[Operator Instructions] This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Larry Bruno for any closing remarks.

Okay. We'll wrap up here. In summary, Core's operational leadership continues to position the company for improving client activity levels for 2024 and beyond. We have never been better operationally or technologically positioned to help our global client base optimize their reservoirs and to address their evolving needs. We remain uniquely focused and are the most technologically advanced, client-focused, reservoir optimization company in the oilfield service sector. The company will remain focused on maximizing free cash and returns on invested capital. In addition to our quarterly dividends, we'll bring value to our shareholders via growth opportunities, driven by both the introduction of problem-solving technologies and new market penetration. In the near term, Core will continue to use free cash to strengthen its balance sheet while always investing in growth opportunities. So, in closing, we thank and appreciate all of our shareholders and the analysts that cover Core Lab. The executive management team and the Board of Core Laboratories give a special thanks to our worldwide employees that have made these results possible. We're proud to be associated with their continuing achievements. So thanks for spending time with us, and we look forward to our next update. Goodbye for now.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.