Bruce C. Smith
Analyst · Raymond James
Thank you, Paul, and good morning. In the second quarter, the Fluids Systems and Engineering segment totaled revenues of $202 million, a 6% increase over last year's second quarter and a 7% sequential decrease. North American revenues totaled $150 million, also up 6% over last year's second quarter and a 7% sequential decline. Due to the spring break-up, Canada experienced an $11 million sequential decline in revenue, reflecting a 61% drop from the first quarter levels. While this seasonal decline was significant on a sequential basis, the second quarter of 2012 revenue of $7 million is nearly double the level achieved in the prior year second quarter, reflecting our market share gains in this region. In the U.S., revenues were up 4% from a year ago and flat sequentially. We have continued to see the shift from dry gas to liquid-rich plays, with large year-over-year revenue declines in our East Texas and Rocky regions being offset by growth in our South Texas and Oklahoma business units. As Paul mentioned earlier, our operating income in the U.S. improved by $5.6 million sequentially, in line with our expectations stated on last quarter's call. We continue to be pleased with the North American market penetration of our Evolution system. Evolution revenues increased to $27 million in the second quarter, with the largest sequential gains coming from the Mississippian line play. Through the first half of 2012, our Evolution revenues are $50 million, reflecting a nice balance of activity across regions. One major milestone reached in the second quarter was the completion of our 1,000th well, 100 of them with one large independent operator. As Evolution continues to gain traction in the marketplace, we have seen greater levels of interest among the major IOCs. Having launched the system and penetrated the market primarily through smaller independents in 2010, we have now been receiving more inquiries from the major IOCs, which we believe is yet another affirmation of the effectiveness of our technology and its benefits. In addition, we are now looking to introduce Evolution into markets outside of North America, where we expect to have our first Evolution well by the end of the year. Now turning to our international business. Our Europe, Middle East and Africa revenues were down about 3% year-over-year to $25 million, which represented a 16% sequential drop. The decline was attributable to issues in North Africa, where activity was soft due to the timing of customer projects, and delays associated with a new 2-year contract with Sonatrach in Algeria. The lower revenues in the quarter combined with increased spending and preparation for the new contract contributed to an unusually low operating margin in the second quarter. The new Sonatrach contract is important for a couple of reasons. First, our market share with this NOC should increase from our current levels of 20-plus percent up closer to 30%. But second and more importantly, it demonstrates that Newpark can successfully compete with any of the large integrated service companies anywhere in the world. In Libya, while we expect to see offshore activity resume by year end, we do not expect any meaningful land activity until 2013. North Africa remains susceptible to political instability, and we have seen some of the fallout from last year's Arab Spring in the form of demand for higher pay in certain markets. In summary for our Europe, Middle East and Africa business, we expect profitability to rebound in the third quarter to a more historic level. In Brazil, revenues were up 3% year-over-year to $18 million and were down 2% sequentially. Our business in Brazil has stabilized and remains profitable. Recently, we signed a 2-year contract addendum with Petrobras to supply completion additives. This represents a new product line for us in Brazil and is a demonstration of our deepening relationship with Petrobras. Additionally, we expect to begin work offshore with an IOC in the third quarter. In the Asia Pacific region, revenues were $9 million for the second quarter, up 40% from the year ago period as the prior year included a powerful quarter following our April 2011 acquisition of this business. Sequentially, revenues rose by 4%. The 2-year Santos contract to provide fluids and services on Australia's northwest continental shelf started near the end of the second quarter, and we expect to see a more significant impact of this contract going forward. The Fluids segment reported operating income of $13.5 million in the second quarter compared to $20.8 million a year ago and $14 million in the first quarter of 2012. The operating margin for the segment in the second quarter was 6.7%, down from 10.9% in the second quarter of 2011 but up from the 6.4% we achieved in the first quarter despite the seasonal downturn in Canada. Improving our margins, particularly given the numerous difficulties we experienced in the first quarter, remains a primary area of focus. Our U.S. margins were negatively impacted in that quarter by several factors, as Paul mentioned previously. Although these issues remain, we are very encouraged by the improvements we've made during the second quarter. We've made good progress on increasing pricing on barite to offset the cost increases experienced in recent quarters, and our efforts in this regard continue. Barite costs appear to have stabilized over the last 3 months, in part due to the slowdown in North American drilling activity. Nonetheless, we will continue to work with existing and new suppliers to improve our cost position. Another challenge experienced in the first quarter was the influx of competitors moving from dry gas plays into the Mid-Continent region, negatively impacting our Mid-Continent completion services and equipment rental business. This area of our business is showing noticeable signs of improvement. Although revenues were still down $9 million year-over-year, they increased nearly $2 million sequentially, resulting in a $1.4 million improvement in operating income. While making notable progress, this continues to be a work in process. Looking forward, assuming the gas price remains at $3 levels and oil remains above $80, we are optimistic about the near-term outlook for the Fluids business. We expect the gradual recovery of our U.S. operating margins to continue, while the impact of new contracts in Asia Pacific and North Africa are expected to drive top line and operating margin improvements in each of these regions. Canada should also improve as drilling activity recovers from the spring break-up. However, to date, activities in Canada appear to be rebounding at a slower pace than we've seen in recent years. With that, I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Gregg Piontek.