Earnings Labs

Noble Corporation Plc (NE)

Q3 2018 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 1, 2018

$50.76

-5.30%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.
Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning. My name is Devin, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Noble Corporation Third Quarter 2018 Earnings 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. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow up. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Jeff Chastain, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Chastain, you may begin your conference.

Jeffrey L. Chastain - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Okay. Thank you, Devin, and welcome, everyone, to Noble Corporation's third quarter 2018 conference call. We appreciate your interest in the company. A copy of Noble's earnings report issued last evening, along with all the supporting statements and schedules, and you can find that on the Noble's website and again that's noblecorp.com. Before I turn the call over to Julie, 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 and that includes the price of oil and gas, customer demand, operational and other risks. Our actual results could vary materially from these forward-looking statements, and Noble does not assume any obligation to update these statements. Also note that we are referencing non-GAAP financial measures in today's call. You will find the required supplemental disclosure for these measures, including the most directly comparable GAAP measure and an associated reconciliation on the Noble 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 that will review fourth quarter and full-year 2018 figures. So with that, I'll now turn the call over to Julie Robertson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive of Noble.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you, Jeff. Good morning, everyone and welcome to our third quarter call. Your participation and continued interest and investment in Noble is greatly appreciated. Following my prepared remarks, Adam Peakes, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer will provide further details on our third quarter results and update our final guidance for the remainder of 2018. Robert Eifler, our Vice President and General Manager of Contracts and Marketing will update you on our fleet including information on the recent contract awards for several of our floating rigs and a review of regional market opportunities. And Bernie Wolford, Senior Vice President of Operations will be available for further commentary, when we open up the call for questions. In addition to a review of our financial performance for the quarter, we want to bring you up-to-date on some encouraging developments at the company, that we believe further support the view that a broadening industry recovery is underway. Specifically, I point to the progress noted in our latest financial report, the steady improvement in our active fleet count and the excellent regional distribution of our assets. Collectively, these improvements are expected to strengthen our competitive position, as we approach 2019. Our third quarter results showed another strong performance by the company. Total fleet operating days improved 12% over the second quarter, which drove an 8% quarter-over-quarter increase in total revenues. Results for operating days and revenues extended a nice growth trend that has continued since the first quarter and both measures are now well off the lows for 2018. Fleet downtime was higher in the quarter following some repair days for the standard duty jackup at Noble Joe Beall, which was largely responsible for our downtime figure rising above our expectations. However, for the year, total fleet downtime remained at an…

Adam C. Peakes - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you, Julie. Good morning and welcome to everyone. Noble posted a very solid results for the third quarter, extending the favorable trend that we have shown throughout 2018 supported by strengthening industry fundamentals and Noble's excellent fleet composition and position. Our third quarter performance demonstrated impressive growth in fleet operating days, higher contract drilling services revenue and an improving EBITDA profile. I'll begin today with comments on some third quarter financial highlights including an explanation for variances as they relate to our third quarter guidance ranges for certain items on the P&L statement. I'll also provide some additional clarity on capital expenditures including those related to our purchase in September of the newbuild jackup, Noble Johnny Whitstine, and an update on our liquidity position and balance sheet. Then before turning the call over to Robert, I'll revisit our guidance for full year 2018 and provide some thoughts on the fourth quarter. For the third quarter, Noble reported a net loss attributable to the company of $82 million or $0.33 per diluted share. The reported results included discrete tax benefit of $25 million or $0.10 per diluted share, the result of a favorable adjustment to our deferred tax liabilities. Excluding the discrete tax item Noble would have reported a third quarter net loss attributable to the company of $107 million or $0.43 per diluted share. We've included a non-GAAP supporting schedule with our press release and the schedule can also be found on the Noble website at noblecorp.com. That schedule provides a reconciliation of non-GAAP numbers to net loss attributable to Noble Corporation to income tax provision, and to diluted earnings per share for the third quarter of 2018 and 2017. Addressing our third quarter operating highlights, I'll begin with contract drilling services revenues which increased 8% from the second…

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you, Adam, and good morning to everyone. Fundamentals in the offshore drilling industry continue to improve during the third quarter; leading to what I believe is clear evidence of a broadening recovery. I'll speak to some of that evidence this morning as well as detail our recent contracting success in improving prospects for certain rigs in our fleet with near-term availability. Lastly, I'll provide an update on the opportunities in various global offshore regions. During the third quarter, it became increasingly evident that more customers were focused on floating rig needs. Industry wide, tendering activity is on pace to outperform 2017 by 15% to 20% and the global decline in backlog days per floating rig appears to have stabilized according to IHS. Although contract durations remain short, crucially we anticipate that the last of the top tier drillships under long-term warm stacked will return to active status in the coming months which could be a catalyst for pricing improvement. Noble was an active participant in this third quarter ramp up in customer activity which I'll cover in a moment. Also, jackup activity which has shown improvement all year remained strong in the third quarter with an expanding number of tenders outstanding across a broadening base of regions. Jackup demand remained especially strong in the Middle East and in the North Sea, where we have begun to see a gradual lengthening of contract durations. Industry wide marketed utilization of the premium jackup fleet operating in the North Sea improved to 89% compared to 83% one year ago. This building capacity constraint in the premium jackup sector continued to be supportive of higher day rates. I now want to address some recent contract awards for our fleet beginning with our floating rigs. During our second quarter call, we noted a reactivation…

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you, Robert. Noble has worked very hard to maintain its state of excellence and continual improvement in three areas: operational execution, financial discipline, and strategic positioning. I believe our focus on these key factors along with our dedication to client satisfaction that comes from superior operational performance is producing real value that will become more apparent as industry fundamentals continue to improve. Our strategy of operating a mixed fleet of premium rigs has facilitated our ability to capture the early rewards provided by recovering industry. As previously noted, our premium jackup fleet is currently fully committed and there are strong indications for steady to higher demand going forward. Utilization of our floating fleet is on the rise with almost 90% of our marketed fleet now under contract. Also, our fleet is increasingly located in the offshore regions, where customer demand is expected to increase with 85% of our jackups located in the North Sea and the Middle East and nearly 70% of our floating units in the areas of Western Hemisphere where they are accessible to some of the industry's most prolific and highly sought after ultra-deepwater prospects. These include areas offshore Brazil, Mexico and the Guyana Basin. Finally, and with regard to operational readiness, we believe our commitment to a defined process of continual maintenance and asset preservation through the cycle has positioned our premium rigs with a level of preparedness that supports faster and lower cost reactivations as well as smoother startups. For all the reasons I've noted this morning, we enter 2019 with rising optimism and we are confident in our ability to continue our long-term success in the offshore drilling industry. Noble is strategically positioned to address expanding customer needs and we will continue to evaluate suitable acquisition targets that deliver compelling value. Thank you again for your interest in Noble, and I'll turn the call back over to Jeff.

Jeffrey L. Chastain - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Okay. Thank you, Julie. Devon, we're ready to go ahead and begin the Q&A segment of the call. Would you please assemble the queue? Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Certainly. Your first question comes from the line of Sasha Sanwal from UBS. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Sasha Sanwal - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst

Thank you, and good morning.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Good morning, Sasha.

Sasha Sanwal - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst

Yes. So just to start off of – I just want to ask you a question about M&A, so it certainly seems to us that Noble has had a slight preference for jackups over floaters. I mean, I think it makes sense just given what we've seen over the last couple of years, but just as the outlook for floaters specifically in terms of demand and then maybe day rates starts to get better. I just want to understand how that might change?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Sasha, we're open to acquisitions of any type of multi-type of assets. As you know, we believe in our mixed fleet of assets and we'll continue to pursue opportunities on both fronts. Granted, if we can – we're looking for the right things that fit our strategic design, our strategic outlook and if they're accretive and will provide a good result for shareholders, we are open to floaters, as well as jackups.

Sasha Sanwal - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst

Great. That's helpful and just on the floating side, I think, the street has a lot of visibility, just on the open demand, but something that his less visibility and is just the direct negotiations that – that you guys are getting. So I just wanted to see if you can just get an update on how maybe the pace and the level of urgency in some of those direct negotiations has changed over the last – developed in the last couple of months? Thank you.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Okay. Well, I'm going to pass that to Robert to respond.

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Sure. So you know, the right negotiations always been a part of the contracting process. They dropped off essentially to zero through the depths of the downturn. And we have seen a slight uptick here recently probably a few different drivers for that. Importantly, probably independents starting to look to some of the drilling plants for 2019.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from Sean Meakim with JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Sean C. Meakim - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Thanks. Hi, good morning.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Good morning, Sean.

Sean C. Meakim - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

So Julie, now you have the Croft, the Madden, and the Taylor are all active, obviously very good to see. So I'd like to hear just maybe a little more detail about how you plan to manage the tendering process as you're trying to secure longer-term work for these rigs beyond those current contracts. It seems like Noble Madden has the most options attached. And Robert indicated pricing improvement is expected in 2019, and just sort of some debate among investors about that, how do you balance the desire for term with rates that are still pretty anemic right now but sounds like you are optimistic that could be on the rise. How do you plan to balance those different demands?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Sean that's a question that we're all facing right now, across the space. But we talk about that daily. I mean we're not anxious to take terribly long-term right now at the current rate, but we do think that rates will improve in 2019. I know there is a lot of debate about that, but we believe that they're moving in that direction. Obviously, there is not that many top tier floating units that are still warm-stacked. So, we're getting things back to work and I think with that you'll start seeing some pricing pressure, so we increased hopefully day rates. But we're working hard on making sure that our contracting needs are going to meet our strategy and returns for shareholders, but we're careful about not going too long right now on anything and trying to look at options and maybe options that are priced against market conditions at the time that those options become available. Robert, do you want to add anything?

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

No, I think that that's just one of the things that we spend a lot of time evaluating here and it's a balance of course. And certainly as you get into late 2019 and 2020, we have expectations that prevent us from accepting current market pricing out in that timeframe.

Sean C. Meakim - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Okay. Thank you for that. I appreciate the feedback. And then, I was thinking about the new Whitstine rig, there is the sister rig that's available to you. What's the decision-making process on hitting the bid for that option? I guess, I am thinking about would you want to have a -- would you secure contract in advance or something close to it? I mean, effectively are you able to market that rig now before you commit capital to it?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

We are and yeah, we're obviously would much rather prefer to exercise that if we have contract in hand or at least a strong line of site to a contract. But yes, we are able to market that rig and we feel certain that it's an opportunity that we might have here going forward, but we'd certainly prefer to have strong line-of-sight on something before we exercise that.

Sean C. Meakim - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

And would the return hurdles look any different than for the first one?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

No. The return hurdles, like we said, the construct of the second unit is very similar to the first one and it would not look any different.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Kurt Hallead with RBC. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi. Good morning.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Good morning, Kurt.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

So I wanted to see if we can get a read on the magnitude and direction on leading edge dayrates for both the floater and jackup market. Obviously, the utilization activity has been increasing here. And maybe, can you guys give us a sense on the context both kind of short duration programs and how that may compare or contrast to the leading edge pricing dynamic for some programs that might start in late 2019 or into 2020?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Okay. We'll turn that over to our resident expert, Mr. Eifler.

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Sure. Okay. So I think separate that between jackups and floaters. On the jackup side, we've seen in certain markets, a tightening throughout the year. And we have seen I think part of the North Sea was a leading market there and we've seen prices tick up markedly through the course of the year there, and we expect that to continue. I think it's important that there is a bifurcation right now between the more premium jackup segment and the more standard jackup segment; and we've spent a lot of time trying to target opportunities that use our jackups to their full capacity. We're proud of what we've targeted and we have seen some meaningful improvement through the rest of this year. For us, and you asked about later starts, for starts out in 2019 and 2020 on the jackup side, we're watching the market closely and we're a bit hesitant or having a more difficult time pricing out, out in that timeframe right now. I do think things will improve from here to there. On the floater side, I think in the near term, there is still chasing utilization in the very near term. As I mentioned in the call, I think at the top tier drillships segment, you will see some improvement in 2019 as that relatively small segment tightens. And I think that the whole space is having a lot of difficulty pricing 2020, 2021 and beyond. We certainly want to maintain dry powder for an improving market there.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Okay. Appreciate that color. And maybe, Julie, there has been the reference to acquisitions, and you mentioned you're open to both floaters and jackups, so when you look at the -- and when your team looks at the rigs that are potentially available in the marketplace, is there a skew, maybe a near-term skew more toward jackups than floaters?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

No, Kurt, there's really not. I mean, we think that there's any number of compelling opportunities that are out there, and may be out there. And we look closely at all of them across the class of assets. So, as long as assets that will fit into our strategy, and will provide a return to shareholders, we are open to all.

Kurt Hallead - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · RBC. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Okay. Great, thanks. Appreciate that.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you, Kurt.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jim Wicklund with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Radi Sultan - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Hey, good morning, guys. This is actually Radi on for Jim. I wanted to follow up on the direct negotiation conversations. I was wondering if you could speak to -- you said a high level, any key themes in your customer conversations, whether it's a preference for fixed rates over with market mechanisms or an increased willingness to maybe take multiyear terms or maybe anything on the distribution of commercial risk. I mean, any color you could provide there would be helpful.

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Well, I think on the floaters side, there is not a ton of long-term out there. Certainly, those that have term or have visibility into programs that start say 2020 or after, they are trying to lock in today's rates for sure, naturally. And so I think that's one of the main components of some of the direct negotiations is trying to lock in some of that today. Jackup side in certain regions, actually is more supply driven where line of sight on the best or preferred available units is tightening in certain other the regions and I think that's driving some of the conversations around the work starts in the out years. Radi Sultan - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Thanks. And then my second question was actually on the Day and the Adkins. I mean those rigs have been idle for several years now, but they are two big and very capable semis, which it seems like there actually is demand for it in today's market. I'm wondering as you head into your 2019 budgeting process, what the marketing strategy and the outlook is for those two rigs? I mean is it reasonable to assume that those two rigs come back in 2019 or is that more wishful thinking given where we stand today?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Radi, we have strong marketing prospects for those units. Like you said, they are good, big workhorse units that clients have always enjoyed operating. So, we have big expectations for those units in the years to come. I'm going to ask Bernie to add to that.

Bernie G. Wolford - Noble Corp. Plc

Analyst

Well, Radi, our focus there is -- starts with discipline. I mean there is a significant amount of capital required to bring those 2 units back out. We have bid those on opportunities very recently and we'll continue to bid those rigs. But we're looking for opportunities to justify the commitment of capital to those units. They are great units. They're actually ideal for some areas in South America. And the tenders that are currently out there suit those rigs very well. But we're going to continue to view that with an eye towards capital discipline and ideal returns and hold the dry powder while it still doesn't make sense.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Taylor Zurcher with Tudor, Pickering, and Holt. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Taylor Zurcher - Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Securities, Inc.: Hey, thanks. Good morning.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Good morning, Taylor. Taylor Zurcher - Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Securities, Inc.: Good Morning. Congrats on the Sam Croft contract. Robert, you obviously painted a pretty bullish picture as it relates to some of the visible tenders on the horizon, both on the floater and jackup side. On the floater side, I was hoping we could sort of triangulate what sort of follow-on prospects you're most focused on for the Sam Croft? Would those be and maybe the answer is everywhere, but the way you see it today, is that rig most likely to find follow-on work in sort of the Gulf of Mexico/Brazil Mexico region, or is the opportunity you said really wider than that?

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Sure. So, I'll first say that we had said before that we would only reactivate the rigs with line of sight in improving market and certainly that's what we see here. So, we're confident in the follow-on there. But essentially everything we're looking at is in the Western Hemisphere. Taylor Zurcher - Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Securities, Inc.: Okay. Got it. And then the second question you guys continue to perform really well on the revenue side and I know you have some performance incentives or bonus and clauses and therefore for some of the shallow rigs, the question is just on the rest of the fleet, do you have that a similar sort of mechanism in there for both the jackups and floaters in the rest of your fleet. And if so, are you realizing any bonus of revenues today or is that kind of a de minimis contribution right now?

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

It's the rest of the fleet is a de minimis contribution. We do have a few pieces of bonus pieces, and a couple of contracts or we have had, but it's de minimis at this point.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of David Smith with Heikkinen Energy Advisors. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

David Christopher Smith - Heikkinen Energy Advisors LLC

Analyst · Heikkinen Energy Advisors. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hey, thank you, and good morning.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Hi, David.

David Christopher Smith - Heikkinen Energy Advisors LLC

Analyst · Heikkinen Energy Advisors. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Congratulations to your marketing team. It looks like over 100% utilization of the market that drillships considering the two sublets that you capture, you know extra rate on?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you. We're very, very proud of the marketing team as well. Thank you.

David Christopher Smith - Heikkinen Energy Advisors LLC

Analyst · Heikkinen Energy Advisors. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Kind of a follow-up to the last question, just notice that the average drillship there went up, I think about 16,000 a day versus the prior quarter, didn't see much change in the fleet status report except for the Don Taylor going on standby in late August at a step-down rate. I was hoping you that if you can provide some color on the drillship dayrate increase?

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Yeah, it's not necessarily driven by near-term market improvement. That's really a timing issue related to some of our legacy contracts and the special idle periods and then as you mentioned the sublets that fall within those. It's really more of a calculation than it is represented to of something that out of market that you don't know about.

David Christopher Smith - Heikkinen Energy Advisors LLC

Analyst · Heikkinen Energy Advisors. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Appreciate it. And a follow-up question. A couple of your peers that planned to merge will have a pretty dominant share of the U.S. Golf jackup market at least the ILCs. I know your current jackup fleet is very well located, but looking at M&A opportunities especially if you've found terms similar to your recent purchase, would you contemplate returning to the U.S. Gulf jackup market?

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Sure. Of course, of course, we would. I mean we're looking, as we said earlier, we're looking for opportunities and we believe there's any number out there. Frankly, right now, we have customers who are asking us to add to our fleet in order to bid on some of their jobs in order to help them fill their needs, because as you know we're a very customer-driven and focused organization. And if we can find opportunities that will help us profitably grow in a way that meets our customers' demands and shareholder returns and we are certainly open to that.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line Greg Lewis with BTIG. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Gregory Robert Lewis - BTIG LLC

Analyst · BTIG. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Yes. Thank you, and good morning, everybody.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Good morning, Greg.

Gregory Robert Lewis - BTIG LLC

Analyst · BTIG. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Rob, in your prepared remarks, you kind of mentioned the pickup in demand for the higher-end rigs. I guess what I would say is you and everybody, all the competitors have their own version of what sort of the premium rigs are (00:51:03) sort of the four Hyundai rigs. Could you talk a little bit about how big you think that market is in terms of what does Noble view as those top rigs? Is it 30, is it 40, is it 50 (00:51:15)? And then just in terms of the, you know, the Croft is on a short-term contract, just given that little that that tighter end piece of the market, are we starting to see demand come in since there is tightness for more longer-term contracts, where now that some of these rigs are now on these one-well contracts, the next contract is going to be something like two-years plus?

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Sure. So, let me -- the first question first. So what we define as top tier is equipped with two BOPs 2.5 million pound hook load DP3 and dual-derrick. We think that's a fair screen for the top attributes, of course, there's others you could throw in there and as you mentioned, there's a lot of different ways to define it. That puts you around 50 rigs or so. And we think that's a fair way to look at the very top tier. I don't think that the next round of tendering is going to go straight from this kind of short-term demand or seeing directly into multi-year contracting. And call it the mid-2019 period, I think we'll work through 2019 with a gradual increase in term.

Gregory Robert Lewis - BTIG LLC

Analyst · BTIG. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Okay. Great. And then, I noted it doesn't look like -- I know Petrobras has a couple of multi-year contracts in the market, we'll see when they actually get signed. Was that something that Noble looked at or it doesn't look like you guys are actively engaged in that bidding?

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Sure. So, yes, we are bidding with Petrobras. We entered Brazil in 1996, we've had up to nine rigs, we've got a very long history there with the Paragon move that our Noble's presence there stopped at the time, as far as rigs we maintained an office and we have people down there. We're very much plugged into Brazil and are very comfortable operating down there. We also see a whole lot of opportunity there in 2019 and especially going into 2020. So, yeah, we're very much a part of that market.

Gregory Robert Lewis - BTIG LLC

Analyst · BTIG. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Okay, great. Thank you.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thanks, Greg.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Mike Urban from Seaport Global. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Mike Urban - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

Thanks, good morning.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Good morning, Mike.

Mike Urban - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

So you talked about your optimism in Latin America and you just addressed Brazil. We have seen a bit of a pickup in the Mexican side of the Gulf of Mexico. The incoming administration there has said that they'll honor the existing leases and contracts and so it feels like those recent contracts you've seen have been related to kind of those original bed rounds. Are your customers – is there any caution there or sense of a pause there as Pemex and the regulatory environment gets sorted out under the new administration or they going to be full speed ahead?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

I think they are moving full steam ahead. We were not seeing any hesitation on our customer's parts. I think that a lot of opportunities, the lease sales were very proliferative as you know down there. So I think they're all moving full steam ahead. Robert?

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Yeah. I think, generally there's an understanding that with production decline there that regardless of administration in improving production profile there is a must for the country. So I think a lot of people fall back on that and continue to believe that work is going to move forward and opportunities are going to continue to move forward for independents and majors.

Mike Urban - Seaport Global Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay. Great. My other questions were answered. Thank you.

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thanks.

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Thank you, Mike.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jon Evans with SG Capital. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Jonathan Richard Evans - SG Capital Management LLC

Analyst · SG Capital. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Can you just talk a little bit about, from the standpoint, your competitor that has a deal to build rigs et cetera with Saudi in the joint venture. If that takes slower than anticipate, what's your assessment of kind of the Middle East and the demand then for jackups? Does it just accelerate even more in the Middle East because of that if those rigs are slower to be delivered than anticipated?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Well, I'll start out and then I'll ask Robert to comment. We believe that's a market that's not just open for that joint venture, but certainly for other participants as well. We have a great relationship with Saudi Aramco and they have active tenders out currently. We believe any number of contractors are bidding on those. We think they'll continue to have rig needs that we'll all be part of in addition to the aero joint venture. But if the rig -- I really can't comment on, if they're on course right now for those rigs to be delivered on the schedule they have set forth, but I'm not sure it will change anything. I think that Aramco wants competition in that market and they'll continue to bring other players in.

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

No. I think if you see some delays there, you'll see Aramco simply bridging over to account for the delays with both the short-term contracts.

Jonathan Richard Evans - SG Capital Management LLC

Analyst · SG Capital. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Okay. Great. And then just from the standpoint of the other jackup that you have the ability to buy and put on contract et cetera, how would you fund that with the balance sheet, just the same way that you did this? You'd just hit cash and then have a deal with the financing or can you just talk a little bit about that?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

It's very much the same as we did with the first one, but I'll ask Adam to expand on that.

Adam C. Peakes - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Yeah. I mean we're really excited about not only the one we announced, but the potential to execute on the second one from both a purchase price perspective, but plug it right into a contract. And then the financing piece is an important piece. So it's pretty modest cash out the door up front and then a very attractive of four-year seller financing at a rate that is also very attractive. So we would think about that as the financing structure day one and then we figure out any other modifications we make to the balance sheet down the road.

Operator

Operator

Your last question comes from the line of Colin Davies with Bernstein Research. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Colin Davies - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Good morning. Thank you. Just curious around the Gulf of Mexico in particular. What the majors are doing there versus the independents? It seems interesting that a lot of these small well contracts are sort of independent led. What are the majors saying to you about that programs and perhaps with the lens specifically into the Gulf of Mexico?

Robert W. Eifler - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Yeah, sure. So I think everyone recognizes the Gulf as a low cost operating region, just driven primarily by existing infrastructure and general stability. A number of the majors who had taken a more portfolio approach, the rig contracting in the last upturn still have pretty significant portfolios of rigs. And so I think given that, you probably hear a little bit less than you might otherwise expect, because they've got great capacity and they've had that align for quite some time. There have been, as I mentioned in the notes, have been a little bit of consolidation and some changing hands of property and then some joint ventures and alignments that we think generally are positive for the region. And we think through 2019 and beyond that you'll start to see some slight incremental upticks in activity generally there. Colin Davies - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Yeah, that's great. And then just quick a little bit more of a strategic follow up. The opportunity to get the jackup out of the yard with the seller financing with the contract to back it, it's fascinating. Obviously you got the one more option on the next rig, but just more broadly as you scan the numerous newbuild projects and build rigs that are around the world and the market starts to strengthen, what further optionality do you have to expand that strategy or do you start to hit limits around perhaps the quality or spec of the rigs that are out there?

Julie J. Robertson - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Well, Colin, as we mentioned earlier we believe there are still a number of opportunities out there and we are looking closely at all of them. And certainly, there will be yards that will have varied degrees of different types of assets, different capabilities and we are going to look for ones that sit in well with our strategy and ones that could provide a good return for our shareholders that we have said triple times this morning. So, yeah, we look closely to all of it, we obviously have a very robust engineering team who can assess all the assets that are out there and we're looking at all opportunities and we believe there's lot of opportunities still remaining in the yards. Colin Davies - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: That's great. Thank you.

Jeffrey L. Chastain - Noble Corp. Plc

Management

Okay. With that we're going to close this morning's call. We appreciate everyone's participation and your continued interest. We look forward to possibly speaking with you over the balance of the year. Devin, we appreciate your time in coordinating today's call. Good day, everyone.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.