Juan Pablo Tardio
Analyst · Guggenheim Securities
Thank you, John. The company's fiscal 2014 record level of operating income at approximately $1.1 billion represents an increase of over 10% as compared to the prior year. And the corresponding record level of drilling activity at an average of 306 globally active rigs during the fiscal year represents a similar increase over the same time frame. We also announced a record level of 83 new FlexRigs with attractive long-term contracts during the fiscal year. Our quarterly operating activity also continued to grow at the end of the fiscal year. Following are some comments on each of our drilling segments. Our U.S. land drilling operations delivered $276 million in segment operating income during the fourth fiscal quarter, excluding the impact of abandonment charges related to decommissioned rigs and other used drilling equipment. The number of revenue days increased by about 3% from the prior quarter, resulting in an average of over 291 active rigs during the fourth fiscal quarter. Approximately 174 of these rigs were active under term contracts and approximately 117 rigs were active in the spot market. The average rig revenue per day slightly increased to $28,164. And the average rig expense per day also slightly increased to $13,170, resulting in an average rig margin per day of $14,994. As of today, and excluding the 9 decommissioned rigs, the 333 available rigs in the U.S. land segment include 298 active rigs, 32 idle rigs and 3 inactive rigs that are currently being prepared for transition to the YPF Argentina project. Of the 32 idled rigs, 9 are AC drive FlexRigs, and the remaining 23 idle rigs are SCR rigs. The 9 idled AC FlexRigs are all smaller FlexRig4M-type rigs in West Texas that are well suited for vertical wells and for shallower horizontal wells, but not designed to drill the more challenging, longer-lateral horizontal wells that are becoming more prevalent in the Permian. The 298 active rigs are comprised of 296 AC drive FlexRigs and two 3,000-horsepower SCR rigs. Included in the 298 rigs that are active today are 179 rigs under term contracts and 119 rigs in the spot market. The 9 rigs decommissioned in September, included all of the segment's SCR conventional rigs that had drawworks [ph] ratings of 2,000 horsepower or lower. Looking at the first quarter of fiscal 2015, we expect revenue days to increase by about 1% to 2% quarter-to-quarter. We expect our average rig revenue per day level to remain flat with a bias to a very slight upside. The average rig expense per day level is expected to slightly increase to roughly $13,250, partly as the result of rigs transitioning across regions as we reposition them in more attractive markets. We do, however, continue to expect a potential variance of a few percentage points given the slightly volatile nature of quarterly expenses. Regarding our U.S. land term contract backlog, we already have term contract commitments for an average of 177 rigs for the first quarter and a total average of over 160 rigs for all of fiscal 2015. The average quarterly pricing level for these rigs that are already under term contracts is expected to steadily increase by up to 1% to 2% during the fiscal year as some rigs roll off and newbuilds are deployed. Should spot pricing remain flat through fiscal 2015 as compared to the fourth quarter average of fiscal 2014, we would expect our total average rig revenue per day for the segment to also remain relatively flat. The quarterly average pricing for rigs in the spot market slightly increased from the third through the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 and is expected to continue to slightly increase in average during the first fiscal quarter. Nevertheless, spot pricing today is still a couple of percentage points lower as compared to pricing for rigs now working under term contracts negotiated over the last few years. Of the 15 contracted newbuilds announced since our last conference call in late July, 7 are going to the Permian, 4 to the Oklahoma Woodford, 2 to the Eagle Ford and 2 to the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale. Furthermore, 11 of the 15 have skidding systems suitable for multi-well pad drilling, and of these 15 rigs, 5 are FlexRig3s and 10 are FlexRig5s. Let me now transition to our offshore operations. Segment operating income declined from approximately $17 million to $15 million. The average rig margin per day declined to $22,385, and utilization remained flat at 89%. 8 platform rigs were active in the quarter, and our ninth platform rig commenced operations after the end of the fiscal year. As we look at the first quarter of fiscal 2015, we expect revenue days to increase by approximately 10%, along with a decline in the average rig margin per day to approximately $20,000. The expected lower daily margin is mostly a result of some platform rig maintenance considerations. We do expect some of our rigs to transition from platform to platform during the rest of the fiscal year, which will probably not impact utilization but is expected at this point to have a negative impact on our average rig margin per day during the following quarters, potentially bringing that average to levels under $20,000 per day. The timing, however, is not yet determined, and the full impact will also depend on evolving market conditions. We plan on providing more clarity during the coming quarterly conference calls as more information becomes available. Management contracts on platform rigs, however, continued to more favorably contribute to our offshore segment operating income. Their contribution during the fourth fiscal quarter was approximately $4 million and is expected to increase to $6 million or more during each of the following quarters. Moving on to our international land operations. Segment operating income reduced to approximately $6 million during the quarter. The average rig margin per day declined to $8,769, and quarterly revenue days slightly increased to an equivalent of about 23 active rigs. As of today, our international land segment has 23 active rigs, including 9 in Argentina, 5 in Colombia, 3 in Ecuador, 3 in Bahrain, 2 in the UAE and 1 in Mozambique. 8 rigs are idle, including 3 in Ecuador, 2 in Colombia, 2 in Tunisia and 1 in Argentina. An additional 6 rigs are -- already assigned to the segment are in various stages of transition from the U.S. to Argentina. For the first fiscal quarter, we expect international land revenue days and the average rig margin per day to be relatively flat as compared to the fourth fiscal quarter. As mentioned during our prior conference call, we believe that the margin weakness in the segment is temporary due to several rigs in transition. The first rig related to our 10-rig YPF project has already commenced operations. And the other rigs are in process of moving, with the last rig to spud in the third quarter. We would expect to see roughly 400 revenue days from these rigs during the second fiscal quarter and hopefully, twice as many during the third fiscal quarter. Their daily rig margins and contribution to the bottom line are also expected to improve as this long-term project is fully deployed during the fiscal year and transitional expenses are behind us. I will now comment on other corporate level details. Our capital expenditures totaled $953 million during fiscal 2014, and we expect capital expenditures for fiscal 2015 to be in the range of $1.4 billion to $1.7 billion, depending primarily on market conditions and incremental demand for additional new FlexRigs during the fiscal year. As was the case in the prior year, the fiscal 2014 total of $953 million was lower than expected, primarily as the result of on-time and underbudget delivery of new rigs during 2014, along with the timing of some spending that shifted to fiscal 2015. About 70% of the CapEx estimate for fiscal 2015 corresponds to our newbuild program, 20% to maintenance CapEx and the remainder to other projects. Net cash provided by operating activities was over $1.1 billion during fiscal 2014. Although we expect to generate an even higher level of cash from operating activities during fiscal 2015, we may need to externally fund a portion of our capital expenditures during the fiscal year. With a debt-to-cap ratio today of approximately 2%, we look forward to the possibility of taking advantage of our financial strength and increasing our debt level to help fund the company's continued organic growth. Especially considering that we have already secured customer commitments to sponsor the construction of 46 new FlexRigs during the fiscal year, all with attractive long-term contracts. Including these and other commitments, we already have secured term contracts for an average of approximately 180 rigs across our drilling segments during fiscal 2015, an average of 133 rigs during fiscal 2016, and an average of 100 rigs during fiscal 2017. Approximately 90% of these rigs correspond to our U.S. land segment and provide the company with the benefit of an average pricing level that is expected to generate rig margin per day averages that are higher than those reported in the segment during our most recent quarter. Given the continuing growth of our fleet, we expect our total annual depreciation expense to increase to slightly over $600 million during fiscal 2015. General and administrative expenses are expected to also increase to slightly over $140 million. Our effective income tax rate for continuing operations during fiscal 2014 was recorded at approximately 35.4%. We expect the effective tax rate for fiscal 2015 to be between 35% and 36%. As in fiscal years 2013 and 2014, we expect a continued deferral of income taxes during fiscal 2015 related to depreciation of property and equipment. As it relates to our investment portfolio, the holdings remain unchanged as compared to the prior quarter. And with that, let me turn the call back to John.