Operator
Operator
Good day, everyone, and welcome to today's Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question-and-answer session. Please note, this call may be recorded. I will be standing by if you should need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Mr. Juan Pablo Tardio, Vice President and CFO. Please go ahead, sir. Juan Pablo Tardio - Chief Financial Officer & Vice President: Thank you, Tanisha. And welcome, everyone, to Helmerich & Payne's conference call and webcast corresponding to the second quarter of fiscal 2016. The speakers today will be John Lindsay, President and CEO; and me, Juan Pablo Tardio. Also with us today is Dave Hardy (00:52), Manager of Investor Relations. As usual and as defined by the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, all forward-looking statements made during this call are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties as discussed in the company's annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The company's actual results may differ materially from those indicated or implied by such forward-looking statements. We will also be making reference to certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as segment operating income and operating statistics. You may find the GAAP reconciliation comments and calculations on the last page of today's press release. I will now turn the call over to John Lindsay. John W. Lindsay - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Juan Pablo, and good morning, everyone. And thank you for joining us on the call this morning. Last week, a former oilman and well-known investor dubbed the American oil industry as dead in the water after multiple quarters of capital starvation and deteriorating rig counts. While we don't agree with the characterization of the industry being dead, that shoe may fit non-Tier 1 legacy, SCR and mechanical rigs in the U.S. We have long believed Tier 1 AC drive rigs, which constitute nearly 100% of H&P's fleet and 64% of the working industry fleet today, are the relevant rig assets for drilling horizontal wells in the U.S. land segment. After hearing many of the comments from this earnings season about the importance of Tier 1 rigs for drilling the most efficient horizontal wells, this appears to be the consensus view today. Since 2002, our strategy has been designing, building and operating Tier 1 rigs. Over the past five years, the industry has gone through an energy renaissance, and well complexity has dramatically increased right along with efficiency. H&P has led the way with innovative solutions that have set H&P apart from its peers, particularly in how we have leveraged AC drive technology. First, by taking ownership by internalizing expertise in the areas of equipment performance, capital repairs and where practical, vertical integration. Second, providing support services. Our electrical and mechanical staff enable us to leverage knowledge and life cycle learnings of equipment, and our performance groups are proactively engaged in helping our customers to lower total well cost. Finally, we are committed to a process I will call continuous evolution where in-house technical resources collaborate with their operational counterparts to enhance existing technology by adding new capability and functionality, as well as leveraging data more effectively to the benefit of both our customer and the company. As in the past, we will continue to invest through the cycles. We have had great success in partnering with customers and moving ideas quickly into operational deployment. We are developing solutions that will add incremental capacity and/or capability to address market requirements, and we can do this in a scalable and cost effective way by leveraging our uniform base of existing FlexRig designs to provide value for customers. We've also taken leadership positions in other areas. Our many firsts include integrated casing running services, scripting of wells for enhanced reliability and efficiency, enhanced software control capability, integrated stick-slip mitigation, and many other technology solutions that today are standard offerings. The industry has also formed a consensus view that 1,500 horse power AC drive Tier 1 rigs provide the best drilling performance for drilling the most challenging horizontal wells. H&P's fleet has over 30% of the estimated 700 rigs in the U.S. market today that fit that description. We believe H&P's rigs are strategically placed and ready to mobilize quickly. Let me use the Permian Basin as the example of strategically placed and ready to mobilize quickly. The Permian, by all accounts, is the premier basin in the U.S., and some would argue in the top three of oil basins in the world. No drilling contractor has a stronger Tier 1 footprint there than H&P. Today, we have a total of 39 FlexRigs on contract in the Permian, more than our top three peers combined. Additionally, we have over 60 idle FlexRigs available with 1,500 horsepower AC drive capability that are ready to work. Let me also make the point for ready to mobilize quickly. We've made prudent investments and taken great care to idle and maintain the FlexRigs properly. Field-tested processes are used to clean and preserve the equipment. In addition, the rigs have been assembled and maintained as needed so we are ready for the most efficient and cost-effective deployment when the market improves. For good or bad, H&P's Permian facility has become one of the photographic symbols of this downturn. And as many can see, our FlexRigs are standing tall and ready to go to work. We often get questions regarding how quickly we can respond to demand with our idle fleet of FlexRigs. We feel very confident we are positioned better to respond than others as a result of the investments made in the fleet as described. Whatever the demand might be going forward, we believe we can grow our market share in an improving market as a result of the mentioned characteristics, strategic placement and the ready state of our rig fleet. In addition to rigs being ready, an obvious need and a key advantage in ramping up activity is the availability of quality people. We have done everything in our power to keep our best people. Clearly in a downturn of this magnitude, it is impossible to keep everyone. Like all companies in the energy sector, we've had to make significant cuts in spending and personnel. It has been very difficult to say good-bye to so many, but we are thankful for having such great people today and look forward to the opportunity of bringing back to work many of those former employees once the cycle turns. Before turning the call back to Juan Pablo, I want to recognize that in the face of adversity, I've been very pleased with our folks' response in dealing with the downturn. Our focus has remained on doing the right things and retaining the right people to enhance our competitive advantages going forward. Juan Pablo? Juan Pablo Tardio - Chief Financial Officer & Vice President: Thank you, John. The company reported $21 million in net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2016. Compensation from customers corresponding to early termination of long-term contracts, once again allowed us to report quarterly profit. Nevertheless, market conditions continued to deteriorate and drilling activity for the company continued to decline. Following are some comments on each of our drilling segments. Our U.S. land drilling operations generated approximately $63 million in segment operating income during the second fiscal quarter. The number of revenue days declined by approximately 20% as compared to the prior quarter, resulting in an average of close to 106 rigs generating revenue days during the second fiscal quarter. On average, approximately 84 of these rigs were under term contracts, and approximately 22 rigs worked in the spot market. In addition to rigs that are no longer contracted and became idle during the quarter, several more rigs became idle that remain under long-term contracts and that are generating revenue days at standby-type day rates, protecting the expected daily cash margin during the term duration of the contracts. This increasing number of rigs with standby-type day rates represented approximately 17% of the rigs that were generating revenue days in the segment at the end of the second fiscal quarter. Excluding the impact of early termination revenues, the average rig revenue per day declined by approximately 1% to $25,931 in the second fiscal quarter, and the average rig expense per day increased by approximately 10% to $14,139, resulting in an average rig margin per day of $11,792 in the second fiscal quarter. The increase in the average rig expense per day was primarily attributable to the large number of rigs that became idle during the quarter, generating expenses related to personnel management and rig stacking, which were then allocated across a smaller number of revenue days for the quarter. It was not a surprise to see our quarter-to-quarter daily expenses increase as we had guided toward $13,600 per day for the quarter. But the increase was higher than expected as we experienced some unfavorable volatility during the quarter related to different type of expenses that we expect will return to more normal levels during the following quarter. The segment generated approximately $80 million in revenues corresponding to early termination of long-term contracts during the second fiscal quarter. Given existing notifications for early terminations, we expect to generate over $80 million during the third fiscal quarter, about $20 million during the fourth fiscal quarter, and over $40 million thereafter in early termination revenues. Nevertheless, about 60% of the mentioned early termination revenues that we expect to be recognized after the second fiscal quarter of 2016 are attributable to compensation that, as of March 31, had already been invoiced and collected and that is included in the current liability section of our March 31, 2016 balance sheet as deferred revenue. We cannot fully recognize the early termination revenue on a rig until all contractual customer options to take that rig back to work at full day rates have expired. Since the peak in late 2014, we have received early termination notifications for a total of 87 rigs under long-term contracts in the segment, up 10 rigs since our last conference call in late January. Total early termination revenues related to these 87 contracts are now estimated at approximately $460 million, about $88 million of which corresponds to cash flow originally expected to be generated through normal operations during fiscal 2015, $183 million during fiscal 2016 and $189 million after that. As of today, our 347 available rigs in the U.S. land segment include approximately 84 rigs generating revenue and 263 idle rigs. Included in the 84 rigs generating revenue are 77 rigs under term contracts, 72 of which are generating revenue days. In addition, seven rigs are currently active in the spot market, for a total of 79 rigs generating revenue days in the segment. Nevertheless, approximately 18% of these 79 rigs are now idle and on standby-type day rates, protecting daily cash margins under long-term contracts. Separately, the five rigs generating revenue and not generating revenue days include newbuild rigs with deliveries that have been delayed in exchange for compensation from customers. Looking ahead to the third quarter of fiscal 2016, we expect a decline in the range of 25% to 28% in the number of total revenue days quarter-to-quarter. Excluding the impact of revenues corresponding to early terminated long-term contracts, we expect our average rig revenue per day to decline to approximately $25,000, partly as a result of the relatively high proportion of rigs generating revenue days under standby-type day rates. The average rig expense per day is expected to decrease to roughly $13,800. This expected decrease is primarily attributable to a greater proportion of rigs on standby-type day rates, which is partly offset by expenses related to the growing proportion of total idle rigs. Our third fiscal quarter average rig expense per day estimate also includes the impact of a relatively high level of expenses related to a significant ongoing reduction of field personnel positions and employee early retirements. Absent any additional early terminations and excluding the mentioned rigs for which we have received early termination notifications, the segment currently has term contract commitments in place for an average of approximately 71 rigs during the third fiscal quarter, 69 rigs during the fourth fiscal quarter, 63 rigs during fiscal 2017, and 33 rigs during fiscal 2018. The average daily margins for these rigs that are currently under long-term contract is expected to remain strong during the next several quarters as some rigs roll off and the remaining new builds are deployed. The average pricing today for the seven rigs in the spot market remains over 30% lower as compared to spot pricing at the peak in late 2014. Let me now transition to our offshore operations. Segment operating income declined to approximately $3 million from $8 million during the prior quarter. Total revenue days declined by about 6%, and the average rig margin per day declined by about 7% to $7,436 per day during the second fiscal quarter. Most of the rigs that generated revenue during the second fiscal quarter were rigs that remained idle on customer-owned platforms and are generating standby-type day rates. As we look at the third quarter of fiscal 2016, we expect quarterly revenue days to decline by approximately 8% as seven of our nine offshore platform rigs generate revenue days during the quarter. The average rig margin per day is expected to increase to approximately $8,000 during the third fiscal quarter. The expected decline in activity is attributable to a rig that was demobilized and stacked onshore during the second fiscal quarter. Management contracts on platform rigs continued to contribute to our offshore segment operating income. Their contribution during the second fiscal quarter was approximately $2 million. Management contracts are expected to generate approximately $3 million during each of the remaining two quarters of fiscal 2016. Moving on to our international land operations. The segment reported operating losses of approximately $2 million during the second fiscal quarter. The average rig margin per day decreased sequentially from $11,811 to $10,487 per day during the second fiscal quarter. Quarterly revenue days decreased sequentially by approximately 7% to 1,307 days during the same quarter. As of today, our international land segment has 14 rigs generating revenue days, including 10 in Argentina, two in the UAE, one in Colombia, and one in Bahrain. All 14 rigs are under long-term contracts. The 24 remaining rigs are idle. We expect international land quarterly revenue days to be slightly down by approximately 3% during the third quarter of fiscal 2016, and the average rig margin per day to slightly increase to approximately $11,000 per day. Let me now comment on corporate level details. Our strong balance sheet and high-liquidity position, along with our firm backlog of long-term contracts and reduced CapEx requirements should continue to allow us to return cash to shareholders by sustaining the level of our regular dividend payments as previously discussed. Excluding rigs with long-term contracts that have already been early-terminated and combining all three of our drilling segments, we currently have an average of approximately 99 rigs under term contracts expected to be active in fiscal 2016, 78 in fiscal 2017, and 47 in fiscal 2018. Our backlog level as of March 31, 2016 was at approximately $2.3 billion. Capital expenditures for fiscal 2016 are now expected to be in the range of $300 million to $350 million, as compared to our prior guidance of $300 million to $400 million. As mentioned in the past, we expect our total annual depreciation expense for fiscal 2016 to be approximately $580 million, and our general and administrative expenses to be approximately $135 million. The effective income tax rate for the second quarter of fiscal 2016 was 32.6%, and we expect the effective tax rate for each of the remaining two quarters of fiscal 2016 to be in the range of 33% to 36%. With that, let me turn the call back to John. John W. Lindsay - President, Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thank you, Juan Pablo. I wanted to mention a couple of comments before we open it up to Q&A. As you know, the U.S. land rig count today is comparable to the all-time record low that's reached in 1999, and some are comparing the cycle to the 1980s. Even with the recent oil price rebound of $45 a barrel, sharp reductions in personnel expenses and investments are continuing worldwide. With the market intelligence we have today, we expect to see further deterioration in terms of drilling activity during the third fiscal quarter. That said, we are seeing more indications that the bottom of the cycle is nearing. The question remains how quickly E&P companies gain enough confidence in the market to begin investing back into the business and putting idle FlexRigs back to work. And now, Tanisha will open the call to Q&A.