Earnings Labs

Noble Corporation Plc (NE)

Q4 2017 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 22, 2018

$50.76

-5.30%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. My name is Kim, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Noble Corporation Fourth Quarter 2017 Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. Thank you. Jeff Chastain, Noble Corporation's Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Jeffrey L. Chastain - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Okay. Thank you, Kim, and welcome, everyone, to Noble Corporation's fourth quarter and full year 2017 earnings conference call. We appreciate your interest in the company. In case you missed it, a copy of Noble's earnings report issued last evening along with the supporting statements and schedules can be found on the Noble website and, again, that's noblecorp.com. Before I turn the call over to Julie Robertson, I'd like to remind everyone that we may make statements about our operations, opportunities, plans, operational or financial performance, the drilling business, or other matters that are not historical facts and are forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which are posted on our website, discuss the risks and uncertainties in our business and industry and the various factors that could keep outcomes of any forward-looking statements from being realized, including the price of oil and gas, customer demand, operational and other risks. Our actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements, and Noble does not assume any obligation to update these statements. Also note we are referencing non-GAAP financial measures in the call today. You will find the required supplemental disclosure for these measures, including the most directly comparable GAAP measure and an associated reconciliation, on our website. And, finally, consistent with our quarterly disclosure practices, once our call has concluded, we will post to our website a summary of the financial guidance covered on today's call. And this will include first quarter and full-year 2018 figures. Now, with that, I'll turn the call over to Julie Robertson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive of Noble.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to review fourth quarter and full year 2017 results with you this morning. And I want to begin by welcoming you and thanking you for your interest in and support of Noble. I've been fortunate to meet many of you at one time or another during my years at Noble and I look forward to meeting many more of you in the weeks and months ahead. Frank and open dialog with access to our leadership team remains an important value in our investor outreach. Before making my prepared comments, I want to introduce the members of the Noble management team participating on today's call. In addition to Jeff, I'm joined by Adam Peakes, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Robert Eifler, Vice President and General Manager of Marketing and Contracts; Bernie Wolford, Senior Vice President of Operations. In keeping with our best past practice, after I provide some opening comments, Adam will cover the financial review, which includes our initial comments on 2018 guidance and Robert will follow with some color on the offshore market and an update on the Noble fleet. I will then close with some final thoughts that include 2018 priorities. The five of us will be available at the end to address your questions. Despite a challenging industry backdrop, it's clear we did a number of things well in 2017. But before we get into that, I first want to express my appreciation and gratitude for the dedication and commitment shown by our rig crews and our global shore-based personnel for all they do. From an operating perspective, in 2017, we established a record low for total fleet downtime at 3.2%. You'll recall that we began the year with a 4% expectation for fleet…

Adam C. Peakes - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you, Julie, and good morning to all. I also want to express my congratulations and my appreciation to our global workforce for their excellent performance in 2017. I'll begin this morning by expanding on some of the important operational and financial points noted by Julie. We reported total fleet downtime for the year of 3.2% compared to 4.3% in 2016, representing the third consecutive year of improvement and the lowest annual downtime result in almost two decades. Said another way, our revenue efficiency for 2017 was very strong at 98.6%. Also contract drilling services costs declined 27% from 2016 costs, as we remain vigilant in our efforts to align these costs with prevailing industry activity levels. It is also worth noting that capital expenditures of $111 million continued an annual decline following the timely conclusion of our newbuild projects, helping to secure another year of strong free cash flow generation of just under $240 million before principal debt repayments. And, finally, we maintained a comfortable level of liquidity, closing the year at approximately $2.5 billion, including cash of over $660 million. With regard to our liquidity, in December 2017, we announced a new five-year $1.5 billion unsecured revolving credit facility. I'll cover this development in more detail in a moment. In early 2018, we completed a $750 million senior guaranteed notes offering and a concurrent tender transaction. These important financial initiatives reinforce our strong liquidity position going forward by significantly reducing annual debt maturities over the next five years. I'll provide further details on all of these points in a moment after a review of the fourth quarter results we issued yesterday afternoon. I'll also offer you some color on the net favorable items in the quarter in addition to an explanation of certain line items on the P&L…

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you, Adam, and good morning to everyone. We completed another challenging year in 2017 with excellent contracting performance booking $855 million in new contracts, as Julie mentioned previously. The contracts we secured in the fourth quarter have provided a positive start to 2018. And although challenges will persist in our industry, we believe that a broader recovery will become increasingly evident during the year. Today, I'll expand on our recent contract awards, address the outlook for those rigs in our fleet with current availability and offer a perspective on the offshore market with comments on regional activity. Our contracting successes in the fourth quarter of 2017 and into the early part of 2018 provided further diversification of our customer base and expanded our geographic footprint. The awards included, in the Eastern Hemisphere, the high-specification jackup, Noble Tom Prosser, with a drilling assignment offshore East Timor with ConocoPhillips. The rig is expected to begin the estimated 200-day program early in the second quarter of 2018 and we'll position the rig well to compete for follow-on work in Australia and elsewhere in the region. This rig, along with other units in our JU-3000N class of jackups, has distinguished itself in the market through operating efficiency, solid uptime and safety performance. In the North Sea, the jackup, Noble Hans Deul, which was named Shell's Rig of the Year on three occasions during its highly successful campaign on the technically challenging Shearwater platform, will begin a new contract with Spirit Energy, also in the North Sea. The contract is expected to commence in early April 2018 with an expected completion in October. The rig's strong operating history, HPHT experience and safety performance have generated notable demand among North Sea customers. And we remain confident about securing follow-on drilling assignments. Also, as we confirmed…

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you, Robert. I want to close my prepared comments this morning by highlighting our belief that there are now more visible and encouraging signs pointing to industry improvement than we have seen since 2014. Crude prices, which remain volatile, have shown meaningful appreciation since 2017. This price improvement, together with the significant progress our customers have made in reducing offshore project costs, are in part responsible for a growing number of offshore opportunities as project planning intensifies and new programs commence. As Robert noted, we're witnessing an increase in jackup rig requirements in the North Sea, Middle East and Asia while in the floating rig fleet, growing opportunities are apparent in the Gulf of Mexico, South America, and Africa. At the same time, we see access improving for promising offshore operating areas around the globe which represent longer-term opportunities. Although the market for offshore rigs remains highly competitive, we're confident that a demonstrated preference by customers for premium, high specification jackups and floating rigs with proven performance records and experienced and highly qualified crews will continue and lead to improving opportunities in 2018. These same operational qualities were key factors when in 2017 ExxonMobil selected our drillship, the Noble Bob Douglas, to provide drilling services on their Liza project offshore Guyana where we expect a successful start-up in April. As you might expect, our priorities in 2018 start with remaining true to what we do best, continuation of strong operational execution. Improving rig operational efficiency will remain our focus as we further evaluate new processes and procedures. In addition, we will focus on penetrating some of the emerging regions I mentioned a moment ago where we see exceptional resource potential and high customer interest. Finally, we will maintain our long-standing focus on strong financial discipline. In support of this priority, our new five-year credit facility and the reduction in debt maturities over the next five years have enhanced what was already a robust and comfortable liquidity position. A firm foundation for growth is in place at Noble supported by our demonstrated excellence in all phases of our business: operations, commercial and technical, safety, environmental, and financial. For all the reasons noted today, we believe Noble represents a compelling opportunity for increased shareholder value as the offshore industry approaches its next period of growth. Thank you again for your participation this morning and your continued interest in Noble. I will now turn the call back over to Jeff.

Jeffrey L. Chastain - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Okay, Julie, thank you. Kim, let's go ahead and begin the Q&A segment of the call. So if you'll assemble the queue, we'll take the first question and we'll take questions up to the top of the hour.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your first question comes from the line of Sean Meakim with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Sean C. Meakim - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Good morning, Sean.

Sean C. Meakim - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

So, I appreciate all the detail around the fleet. I guess we've been just trying to think about the Croft and the Madden and the opportunities that we have out there. Just could you give us a sense of the minimum tender duration that you'd be willing to bid for those two rigs specifically? And I guess I'm just curious if that changes if you're looking at tenders outside of the Gulf of Mexico.

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Sure. Yeah. Sean, this is Robert. So, we kept those rigs warm stacked for a reason. We can get them back into the market quickly and for a lower cost than had we cold stacked them. So that reduces any sort of minimum term that we would consider. I would say that we probably look at follow-on opportunities as much as we look at initial term for those units. As we mentioned in the script, we are hopeful about the future of that market going forward and there are a number of opportunities out there, mostly short-term today, but also with some longer-term opportunities emerging that we think would be good fits for the rigs. And to your second question, there's work both in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, but also internationally and we're looking at all of it.

Sean C. Meakim - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay, so pretty good flexibility for those, but then I guess if we contrast that with some of the cold stacked semis, like if you look at the Jim Day and the Danny Adkins, I guess, what's the framework that you think about reactivation and upgrades in order to put those rigs back to work?

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

So, those rigs have a future we believe. They have a rather unique drilling platform. They're extremely large and they can offer a few things to the market that's a bit different than some of the competition. We've looked at adding mooring systems to the rigs. And I think we've said before that we see certain regions that are a bit more semisubmersible-friendly as being some primary targets. So, we're continuing to evaluate opportunities. We have bid those rigs and we'll just have to wait to see what the future holds.

Adam C. Peakes - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Hey, Sean. It's Adam. And I'd just add a few thoughts to the answer. I mean, it is clearly fair to say that the Day and Adkins are farther back in the queue. And as you think about requirements to bring those back out, any rig that's going to be forced to have a reactivation spend in the tens of millions of dollars, you start becoming a lot more focused on what that initial contract looks like and how you recapture that spend. As Robert mentioned, the fortunate thing about the Madden and Croft is we don't have much in the way of incremental start-up expense or capital that goes into those. So those are a little bit unique animal. But even as we talk about the Boudreaux, there was some spend there to bring it out and we're very pleased with the contract and the work we have initially. But as much as anything, that's a statement on our belief and conviction that there's work thereafter. And so you think about the spectrum. I mean the Day and the Adkins, we absolutely believe there's work out there, but we're going to be even more disciplined just given the reactivation spend that would be required there.

Sean C. Meakim - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Got it. Okay. Great. Thank you for that feedback.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Haithum Nokta with Clarksons Platou. Your line is open.

Haithum Nokta - Clarksons Platou Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Clarksons Platou. Your line is open.

Hi. Good morning.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Morning, Haithum.

Haithum Nokta - Clarksons Platou Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Clarksons Platou. Your line is open.

I'll ask Sean's question on the drillships maybe kind of the opposite spectrum. You have the Croft and the Madden and you also have the Don Taylor coming available in about a year from now. Are you comfortable taking long-term contracts as well or kind of can you just shed a little bit of light of how you're thinking about securing longer-term backlog at this point as we're looking towards the recovery?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Haithum, I'll start and then turn it over to Robert. As you know, we've always seen our structure as a latter process. We try to have some things on long-term, some contract short-term, obviously, in order to take advantage of the uptick in the market. I think we see the Don Taylor the same way and you will see what comes available for it. We'll see what comes available for it. And so we'll look at opportunities in. But I mean we're open to both. Obviously, we do see the trend up in the market. So it's a – presents a different valuation for us, which is a nice thing to have. But we'll continue to manage our contracts as we have in the past and layer them in appropriately. Robert, do you want to add to that?

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Yeah. I'd say I think we're probably – in terms of where we are on the cycle, I think, we're probably at a point on the jackups where we are managing the term a bit more than we are in drillships right now. So what Julie said is absolutely correct. We would take long-term contract on the floaters where one presents itself presently and, as I mentioned before too, evaluating some shorter-term opportunities as well.

Haithum Nokta - Clarksons Platou Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Clarksons Platou. Your line is open.

Great. Thanks for that. And I guess curious on the cost guidance that you provided for the year. Does that contemplate reactivation of either of the Croft or the Madden or is that kind of with the jackups at full-ish operating cost and then the Clyde Boudreau working?

Adam C. Peakes - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Haithum, it does include some days in the back half of the year from either the Madden or the Croft. So there is some built-in for one of those rigs working.

Haithum Nokta - Clarksons Platou Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Clarksons Platou. Your line is open.

Okay. Great. Thank you. I'll turn it back.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Gregory Lewis with Credit Suisse. Your line is open. Gregory Lewis - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Yes. Thank you and good morning. And hey, Julie, congratulations and good luck.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you, Gregory. I appreciate it. Gregory Lewis - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: I guess I have a big picture question. Over the last year, obviously there's been a lot going on in Noble. Noble's really hasn't come up much in terms of the M&A conversation that's been out in the marketplace. But I'm just kind of curious. As you think about the fleet, I mean, I don't think anyone argues the quality of the rigs whether they're jackups or floaters, but as we think about where Noble wants to be positioned as the cycle starts the turn, is the fleet of the appropriate size? Is there any area where maybe – do we need more jackups in the fleet? Do we need more floaters in the fleet? Just kind of curious how you think about Noble's fleet position in terms of size.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Okay. Thanks. I'll start and then ask others to add in their comments. We do think that our fleet is of a respectable size. We think it's of an appropriate size right now and certainly the quality to your point we agree with you on. As you know, we believe in a balanced fleet and always have in terms of jackups and floaters and we continue to see the market that way. So that will continue to be our focus going forward. In regard to your initial comment about M&A activity, we are certainly open to M&A. We believe M&A is good for this industry and necessary for this industry and we think that we'll see more of it going forward. But, again, it would need to be in line with our strategy, which, of course, is in regard to quality assets and high spec assets. So, as long as something would be along those lines, in a balanced fleet, then we would certainly be very open to it. But we think right now that our fleet is of a size that we can work with and we wouldn't want to get a lot smaller than we are right now, but we feel comfortable at this time. And I'll ask Adam or Rob...

Adam C. Peakes - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Yeah. This is Adam. I don't have a whole lot to add. I mean I think Julie hit the nail on the head in terms of our approach. The one other piece of context I might offer is it's probably fair to say for the last year or so we've been a little more inwardly focused just making sure that we had our shipping order and we were shipping away some of the priorities on the balance sheet. But, as Julie mentioned, we're big believers in the benefits of consolidation. We think it makes sense. We would like to participate in that if it makes sense for us strategically. We're in the fortunate position of we don't feel like we have to do something to improve our fleet or reposition the company. So we're going to be quite picky in terms of what makes strategic sense and make sure it's not something that is asset dilutive to what we're trying to accomplish. So we've been less vocal about it. We certainly want to look and try and see if there are opportunities to create value at this point in the cycle but we're absolutely going to be disciplined. Gregory Lewis - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Okay. Great. Thank you for that. And then just my other question just, clearly, when Rob went through his prepared remarks about opportunities in Brazil, opportunities in other parts of the Golden Triangle, maybe West Africa, I mean I guess as we look at the fleet today, Noble's not in either of those markets. It has been in the past but is not. Does that put the company at all at a disadvantage in trying to get those initial contracts that surface in those markets, just trying to understand that a little bit better?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Okay. We don't see that it puts us at a disadvantage. We still have good contacts in those regions. As you've noted, we've worked in there previously for long periods of time and we maintain contact and we're bidding actively into all the Golden Triangle related markets. I'll ask Robert if he has anything to add.

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

No. I think that's right. I think we're comfortable in each of those markets and we're bidding in each of them. Gregory Lewis - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Okay. Thank you very much.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you, Gregory.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Ian Macpherson with Simmons. Your line is open. Ian Macpherson - Simmons & Company International: Thanks. Good morning and I'd also like to say congratulations, Julie, on your appointment and...

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you, Ian. Ian Macpherson - Simmons & Company International: Yes. So I guess my first question is, well, there is a lot of information out there right now and it's mostly better news that demand is clicking globally. But there is also headwinds in the form of shorter backlogs, backlog exploration for the industry and we don't see the dayrates as much as we used to. And I wonder if you could help eliminate where we are with leading-edge dayrates for floaters and jackups as a broad proposition and if we could talk about both of them separately. Have leading-edge rates bottomed definitively? Do you think maybe for some classes like the sixth and seventh gen drillships which some of your competitors have been more cautious about, that they actually are going to have to go a little bit lower to clear the market before they begin to march up? And then similarly in prior cycles, jackups have tightened and inflected a little bit earlier than floaters. Does that playbook apply again in this cycle or jackups and floaters are more on the same synchronization? So I know that it's several parts, but I think the question is pretty clear, if anyone out there, Robert or Julie, would like to address that. Thanks.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

I'll start and quickly turn it over to Robert. First of all, your comment about backlog, as we mentioned at the beginning of the call, we've pretty much started 2018 with where our backlog was at the end of 2016. So, while we're burning through some of it, we're also replacing it, which we're very pleased about. So, we think we're in a very comfortable shape in terms of backlog. In terms of dayrates and bottoming out, they continue to be at a point where Noble is releasing the dayrates, granted, but we don't see them going particularly any lower as of right now. We haven't seen that in the market on either jackups necessarily or floaters, but I will turn over to Robert who can add more color.

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

So, I think – let me answer your second question, Ian. So, I think jackups have bottomed and the floaters we're still kind of trying to see. If you look at the jackup market, when utilization started its uptick and there was a lot at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, I think, you did see kind of a flurry of a bit more aggressive activity by contractors trying to secure work to bridge over into a better time. I think that's possible in the drillship market as it becomes more evident. But I would note that pricing there has been fairly stable for quite some time now. And I anticipate, in general, to see discipline in pricing through the industry. Ian Macpherson - Simmons & Company International: Okay. Good. Thank you, both, for that. And then as my follow-up, assuming that we are getting into the stages of a reactivation cycle already with the Clyde Boudreaux and hopefully with the Croft and the Madden later this year, can you talk about the crewing up process? Are there challenges there? Are you finding it at this point easier to re-crew rigs than you have in prior reactivation cycles and at what point do you expect that to become a bottleneck?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Ian, I'll turn this over to Bernie to answer. But obviously we've preserved as many of our crews as we can. We've done a very good job at that. As you follow this industry for a long time, you know what we do. We bump people back to lower level positions in order to keep them and keep as many experienced people as we have. Right now, we believe we can crew up a number of additional rigs with experienced people who we've maintained in the fleet. We obviously maintain very good relationships with those who have had to be let go from the company, was with stacked rigs, but we believe we're in a very good position. But I'll ask Bernie to add some color to that.

Bernie G. Wolford - Noble Corp. Plc

Analyst

Yeah. Thanks, Ian. As we stand today, we've got the capacity to crew up four rigs with critical skill positions. We need to operate those rigs at a high performance level. Backing that up, we have the NobleAdvances Center as well and a crew familiarization program. So if we had to start-up as many as four rigs over the next 60 to 90 days, we would not struggle with that. Longer-term if the market continues to improve, clearly, we'll have to make some investments in training and some expenditures prior the contract start to bring crews on board and get them up to speed. But right now that's not a challenge at all. Ian Macpherson - Simmons & Company International: Okay. That's helpful. Thanks. And if I read between the lines, it does sound like the Boudreaux is a more expensive reactivation than you would anticipate for Croft or Madden. Is that correct?

Bernie G. Wolford - Noble Corp. Plc

Analyst

Absolutely.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

That's correct.

Bernie G. Wolford - Noble Corp. Plc

Analyst

For the Croft and Madden, we're looking in the $10 million to $20 million at the very tops, really towards the lower end of that range. And so the Clyde Boudreaux represents a higher cost. Also, we're upgrading several features on the Clyde Boudreaux, reactivating the dual activity capability and installing a new cyber drilling system. So, the cost on the Clyde Boudreaux actually reflects some upgrades as well. Ian Macpherson - Simmons & Company International: Got it. Okay. Thank you.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you, Ian.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Kurt Hallead with RBC. Your line is open.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open.

Hi. Good morning.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Morning, Kurt.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open.

Hey. Julie, I want to echo congrats as well. Well earned, for sure.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you very much.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open.

You're welcome.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open.

You're welcome. So, I just wanted to get a general sense. I want to make sure I heard something correctly on the call. I think there was some reference to some operators looking to book rigs now for projects that start in 2019. So, I just want to make sure, if I heard that correctly, number one, and secondly, if I did hear correctly, was that for the deepwater market or jackup market or both?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

You did hear that correctly. And well, I'll have Robert rephrase what he said earlier and we'll add some more detail to that.

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Sure. That specific comment was in reference to the jackup market in the North Sea. So, we've seen several tenders already out this year for work that starts in 2019.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open.

Okay. Okay. Great. So, second follow-up. I think if we rewind the clock, which I think most of us really don't want to do because it was a pretty nasty market environment for offshore drilling, whether it's comments that came out of today's call or some of your peers' call over the last week or so, just seems to me that we're starting to get more tangible evidence of a bona fide turn for offshore rig demand. So, Julie, given your experience in this business, how would you characterize the turn and how do you kind of see it playing out over the next 12 to 18 months?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Kurt, we agree that we don't want to turn the clock back and relive what we've had the last few years. But we do feel we do see a lot of optimism in the market right now. This is not going to take off like a hockey stick by any means. We think it will be slow and steady. But starting toward the end of last year, we did start seeing a lot of signs of improvement, a lot of bid activity, some longer-term contracts in certain markets, different markets opening up. The big lease sale in the Gulf; there's going to be a first lease sale offshore Peru and Argentina later this year. Lots of markets opening up that haven't been active in the last few years. We think Brazil will be getting back to where they'll be contracting more rigs. As was mentioned earlier, West Africa has some activity that we haven't seen in a while. So everything is looking up. Everything's looking very positive. We're feeling very good about this market. But, again, I think it's going to be a slow, steady incline into that, but we certainly see the incline and certainly are very enthused about what we see ahead of us. And I'll ask anybody here to add in?

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

The only thing I would add very briefly is that all the forward indicators are up. So project sanctionings are up. Tenders doubled 2017 over 2016. All of that's very encouraging.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Your line is open.

Great. Excellent. That's all from me. Appreciate the color. Thank you.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you, Kurt.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And your final question comes from the line of Diane Molterbagen with Arctic (54:59). Your line is open. Ms. Diane (55:07), your line is open.

Jeffrey L. Chastain - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Let's go to the next question, please.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Howard Goldberg with Janney. Your line is open.

Howard Scott Goldberg - Janney Montgomery Scott LLC

Analyst · Janney. Your line is open.

In your press release, you talk about the Noble Globetrotter II, which appears to have earned both an active and an idle dayrate in the fourth quarter. I was hoping if you could say whether that continues into 2018 and what the amount of that double benefit, if you will, helped you buy in Q4?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Robert, do you want to...?

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Sure. So, we do get paid a standby rate of $185,000 per day for the underlying contract with Shell. Anything that we contract during 2018, we keep. We have not released what we were paid during the fourth quarter, so I apologize there. But I will say that we're happy with the work we secured in a relatively unique market and we're continuing to bid that rig for 2018 work in the Black Sea market and looking outside of it as well.

Howard Scott Goldberg - Janney Montgomery Scott LLC

Analyst · Janney. Your line is open.

Okay. And one last one if I could squeeze it in, if you could say what the exact amount of the backlog was at year-end? I appreciate it. Thank you.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

The backlog at year-end was about $3 billion.

Howard Scott Goldberg - Janney Montgomery Scott LLC

Analyst · Janney. Your line is open.

Thanks.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And we do have one final question from Haithum Nokta with Clarksons Platou. Your line is open.

Haithum Nokta - Clarksons Platou Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Hi. Thanks for taking my follow-up. I wanted to actually just ask about the GE Marine arrangement that you have. And, Julie, I think you mentioned at 20%, I think it was maintenance cost reduction, but can you just walk through a little bit of that and does that apply more to the floaters or the jackups or kind of anything around that as well, please?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

I'll have Bernie respond to that. It is 20% but on specific equipment items, not across the board on the entire rig operating cost. But I'll have Bernie respond to that.

Bernie G. Wolford - Noble Corp. Plc

Analyst

So, Haithum, thanks for the question. It applies to both drillships and jackups. So our pilot program will roll out on two drillships and two jackups. The first drillship is up and live and the remaining three assets will be up and live by the end of May. And we're concentrating initially on seven pieces of the most critical and most expensive equipment on the rig, things like thrusters, engines, straw works, mud pumps, pipe handling systems. And that 20% expected cost savings is as it relates to those particular pieces of equipment on the repair side. In addition to that, we hope to see the benefits on the reduced downtime side as well as we're able to predict failures before they actually happen and then schedule repairs of the critical path.

Haithum Nokta - Clarksons Platou Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Appreciate that. And is there any way to kind of help us figure out how much maybe that could drive the total cost savings? If it's just 20% on those seven key items or is that just kind of contemplated to be the start and eventually rolled out to more components on the rigs?

Bernie G. Wolford - Noble Corp. Plc

Analyst

It's definitely the latter. That's contemplated to be the start. That's kind of the low-hanging fruit and we will be rolling out to more and more assets, particularly control systems, where we can make quick and timely repairs of the critical path. With regard to giving a dollar indication, we've kind of chosen not to do that at the present time. I will let you know that the contracts are arranged in such a way that GE stands to get a bonus if we outperform our expectations and stands to be penalized if we underperform. So we're all very well aligned to squeeze the most cost out of this we can.

Haithum Nokta - Clarksons Platou Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Cool. Thanks so much.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thanks, Haithum.

Jeffrey L. Chastain - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thanks, Haithum. And with that, we're going to conclude today's call. We do appreciate everyone's participation and your continued interest in Noble. Kim, we appreciate your time as well in coordinating the call today. Good day, everyone.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.