Bruce Smith
Analyst · Credit Suisse. Please proceed with your question
Thanks Paul and good morning everyone. In the third quarter, the fluid system segment generated total revenues of $139 million reflecting a slight decrease from the second quarter and a 45% decrease year-over-year. In the U.S. revenues were again impacted by the solid decline in rig tank. U.S. revenues were $65 million down 13% sequentially reflecting a modestly sharper drop rig tank decline over this period. The sequential decline was largely concentrated in two regions West Texas and the Northeast where key customers in both regions laid down rigs during the quarter and returned access product. Third quarter revenues were also impacted somewhat by operator's efforts to minimize expenditures through reduced well complexity and drilling debt. On a year-over-year basis, the U.S. revenues were down 59% compared to the 54% reduction in rig count. In Canada, despite the tepid seasonal recovery in activity, the revenues rebounded nicely from spring break-up more than doubling to $16 million in third quarter outpacing the Canadian rig count improvement. On a year-over-year basis, revenues were down 30% fueling significant better than the 51% rig count decline attributable to our continued gains in market share. Our EMEA region posted revenues of $41 million flat sequentially, as the market share gain in Kuwait was largely offset by a slowdown in the deepwater Black Sea project driven by the timing of customer drilling. Activity in Algeria also increased modestly in the third quarter as we continue to transition to the new contract. On a year-over-year basis, revenues from the EMEA region were up modestly despite the $9 million headwind from currency translation driven by the surge in U.S. dollar. Adjusting for currency, the region's revenue increased 27% over the last year’s third quarter roughly driven by revenue gains from new contracts. Our Latin America region posted revenues of $12 million in the third quarter relatively flat sequentially and down 39% year-over-year driven primarily by the strengthening US dollar against the Brazilian real. Currency translation contributed a $2 million revenue decline sequentially and a $7 million decline over the third quarter of last year. Although activity levels in Brazil remains soft, our Brazilian business unit was above breakeven for both the third quarter and year-to-date 2015. In the Asia Pacific region third quarter revenues were $4 million with a modest decline driven primarily by the strength in the U.S. dollar as customer activity levels have remained relatively flat. On a year-over-year basis the Asia Pacific region declined 42%, which includes a combination of customer activity declines driven by the weak commodity prices along with the headwind of a stronger U.S. dollar. The lower revenue levels have resulted in a small operating loss in this region for both the third quarter and year-to-date periods. On the technology front, while operators are continuing to favor low cost product offerings rather than value added technology, we’re seeing modest improvement in the North American market. Revenues from our family of Evolution Systems were at $25 million in the third quarter, including $24 million in North America. In addition, and in response to our customer's lean to drive efficiency, we have recently introduced fusion and new low solids brand based system into the Canadian marketplace. The early results are showing significant improvements in the rate of penetration as compared to more conventional fluids and we are encouraged and optimistic about the potential for this new water-based technology. As discussed previously, we expect the market for value added technology to remain soft until we see some improvement in commodity prices. As highlighted in yesterday’s press release, the third quarter included $2 million of employee separation cost as we continue to right size our North American workforce. In addition, we incurred a $400,000 charge associated with our Brazil inter-company debt restructuring. Adjusting for these charges, segment operating income was $1.2 million for the quarter just short of our 1% operating margin. Turning to our near-term outlook, we don’t see any meaningful changes and current activity levels over the next quarter. In the North American market, while October revenues are running modestly ahead of Q3 levels, we expect to continuing rig count declines as well as the typical seasonal slowdown in November and December to ultimately bring revenues to Q3 levels or below. Also in North America, we also expect activities to remain fairly stable. In our EMEA region we expect activity to continue ramping up in Algeria and we expect to see research revenue contribution from completion product sales in the Republic of Congo. These anticipated top line gains however should be largely offset by a continued slowdown in Petrobras activity in Brazil as well as softness in the Asia Pacific markets. In terms of operating income, we expect fluids to remain new of the breakeven mark to the fourth quarter. Depending upon the severity of the UN slowdown in North America that could commit at a small loss. And finally, I would like to take a moment to comment on our progress in expanding our fluids business into new markets. Strengthening U.S. dollar has served to reduce our international revenue by approximately $50 million to the first nine months of 2015 it’s important to highlight the underlying growth in several international markets which are key to diversifying and stabilizing our revenue stream. Despite the weakness in commodity prices globally, we’ve generated nice year-over-over growth in several key markets including Kuwait, the deepwater Black Sea and Algeria. In addition, over the past quarter, we’ve announced two awards which will drive further growth going forward. As I touched on a moment ago, the multi-year contract in the Republic of Congo is progressing ahead of schedule with our first product sales into this market expected during the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, the – well with – provides the unique opportunity to showcase our capabilities on a while that will set a – for ultra-deepwater drilling in the water debt of over 11 size in feet. As another step in our long-term strategy, I’d like to highlight a key addition to our team. As noted in the yesterday’s press release, we’re pleased to announce that that Tim Armand recently joined recently joined us as Vice President of US Offshore Operations. Mr. Armand joins Newpark with nearly 30 of experience. Tim's expertise particularly in deep water as a valuable assets as we look to continue our expansion into the deep water Gulf of Mexico. With that I'll now turn the call over to our CFO Gregg Piontek.