M. Kevin McEvoy
Analyst · Brian Uhlmer with Global Hunter
Good morning, and thanks for joining the call. I'm happy to be here with you today. Our record first quarter EPS of $0.47 was above our guidance range of $0.44 to $0.46 and was up over 20% compared to the first quarter of 2011. Year-over-year, all of our business segments achieved higher operating income led by remotely operated vehicles. We are well-positioned to participate in the next growth stage of Deepwater and subsea completion activity. And our outlook for 2012 remains very positive. We are maintaining our 2012 EPS guidance range of $2.45 to $2.65, another record earnings year. For our services and products, we expect continued international demand growth and a moderate rebound in overall activity in the Gulf of Mexico. Yesterday, we announced an increase in our regular quarterly cash dividend to $0.18 from $0.15 a share. This underscores our confidence in Oceaneering's financial strength and future business prospects. I'd now like to review our first quarter oilfield segment results. Year-over-year, ROV operating income improved on the strength of higher demand in most areas of the world, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico and off West Africa. Our ROV days on hire increased 17%. Sequentially, operating income declined slightly due to geographic mix changes and normal seasonality. Our fleet utilization rate during the quarter was 79%, up from 71% in the first quarter of 2011 and flat with the fourth quarter of 2011. We continue to expect that our fleet utilization for the year will be 80% or more. Operating margin during the quarter was 29%, the same as a year ago and last quarter and slightly down from the 30% average last year. We continue to anticipate our ROV operating margin for the year 2012 may be slightly higher than that of 2011. During the quarter, we put 5 new ROVs into service and retired 2. At the end of March, we had 270 systems available for operation, up from 260, a year ago. Three of the new ROVs went to work on board vessels, and 2 went into drill support service on rigs. Our fleet mix during the quarter was 78% in drill support and 22% on vessel-based work, the same as last quarter and about the same as the 79-21 split in the first quarter of 2011. We still anticipate adding 20 to 25 vehicles to our ROV fleet in 2012, 15 to 20 during the remaining 3 quarters and we presently have contracts for 19 of these. Some of these expected start days could, however, slip into 2013. Now turning to Subsea Products. Year-over-year, first quarter operating income increased on higher demand for tooling and our Subsea Hardware. Primarily due to project timing, operating income declined sequentially on lower demand for Subsea Hardware and Installation and Workover Control System, or IWOCS services. Consistent with our expectation, products operating margin of 17% for the quarter was less than the 18% result for the first quarter of 2011, 21% of last quarter, and 18% for all of last year. For the year 2012, Subsea Products margin may be slightly lower than 2011 due to an anticipated change in mix. However, we continue to expect a record segment operating income for the year. Our Subsea Products backlog at quarter end was $402 million, up from $382 million at the end of both March and December of 2011. Year-over-year, and sequentially, the backlog increase was attributable to tooling. Since the end of the quarter, we announced the award of Petrobras' Whales Park Umbilical Contract that added $70 million to our products backlog. As for our remaining business operations for the first quarter. Year-over-year and sequentially, Subsea Projects operating income was higher, due to the commencement of field support vessel services contract with BP offshore Angola. The improvement was also partially attributable to the addition of the Ocean Patriot to our Gulf of Mexico fleet and our field operations in Australia acquired with the AGR FO in December 2011. Year-over-year, asset integrity operating income improved on higher international service sales. Sequentially, operating income was about the same. Compared to prior periods, asset integrity operating income margin declined. This was due to a low profit contribution from the operations acquired with AGR FO and poor execution on a project in the U.S. The low profit contribution from the acquired operations was attributable to seasonality, integration costs and operational inefficiencies. We anticipate this segment's margin will return to the historical double-digit range in the remaining quarters of this year. When we combine the Subsea Projects and asset integrity contributions made by the operations we acquired with AGR FO, the results were slightly below expectation. Not surprisingly, we have hit a few snags as we climb the learning curve on integrating such a diverse operation into Oceaneering. However, we continue to gain confidence that the acquired operations are a good fit and will achieve the expected economic return. In summary, our first quarter results were above our expectations, and we look forward to realizing another year of record EPS performance in 2012. Our focus on providing products and services for Deepwater and Subsea completions, positions us to participate in a major secular growth trend in the oilfield services and products industry. We were pleased with our cash flow generation capability as demonstrated by $116 million of EBITDA during the quarter. Capital expenditures for the quarter totaled about $93 million, of which $62 million was invested in ROVs and $9 million was spent on the acquisition of a U.K. inspection company. Now let's talk about our 2012 EPS outlook. As I stated earlier, we are reaffirming our 2012 EPS guidance range of $2.45 to $2.65. Compared to 2011, we expect all of our operating business segments will achieve higher operating income in 2012; ROVs on greater service demand off West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico; Subsea Products on the strength of higher tooling sales and increased throughput at our Umbilical Plants; Subsea Projects on the international expansion of our deepwater vessel project capabilities working for BP offshore Angola and a gradual demand recovery in the Gulf of Mexico; asset integrity on higher international service sales including the contribution of the operations acquired with AGR FO; and advanced technologies on an increase in entertainment projects and improved execution on U.S. Navy vessel service work. I believe we are well prepared for the opportunities we face in 2012 and have the assets in place to take advantage of growing international markets and resumption of non-drill support activity in the Gulf of Mexico. For 2012, we anticipate generating over $550 million of EBITDA. Our balance sheet and projected cash flow provide us ample resources to invest in Oceaneering's growth. Our CapEx estimate for this year, excluding acquisitions, is $200 million to $225 million. Of this amount, approximately $125 million is anticipated to be spent on vehicle upgrades and adding systems to our fleet. About $75 million is for enhancing our Subsea Products capabilities. Our focus in 2012 will be on earnings growth and investment opportunities both organically and through acquisitions. Moving on to our second quarter outlook. We are projecting EPS in the range of $0.64 to $0.68. Sequentially, we anticipate quarterly operating income improvements from all of our oilfield business segments: ROVs, due to an increase in fleet days on hire, seasonable -- seasonal pickup in demand for construction work, and growth in both domestic and international demand for drill support services. Subsea Products on the strength of a higher profit contribution from tooling sales, Subsea Projects on an escalation of work for BP offshore Angola and a seasonal demand rise in the Gulf of Mexico and asset integrity due to seasonal demand increase and improved execution. Looking beyond 2012, we remain convinced that our strategy to focus on providing services and products to facilitate Deepwater exploration and production remains sound. We believe the oil and gas industry will continue to invest in Deepwater, as it remains one of the best frontiers for adding large hydrocarbon reserves with high production flow rates at relatively low finding and development costs. A late 2011 industry report forecast total annual worldwide exploration and development spending to grow nearly 50% by 2015, while capital expenditures on Deepwater projects are expected to more than double. Therefore, we anticipate demand for our deepwater services and products will continue to rise and believe our business prospects for the next several years are promising. In the ROV market, I am going to focus on opportunities where our value-added service is recognized; for now, that means customers other than Petrobras in Brazil. At the end of the quarter, there were a total of 93 new floating rigs on order. 53 of these rigs are not contracted to work for Petrobras in Brazil, and we expect all of them will go to work for other operators. On these 53 rigs, 8 ROV contracts have been let, and we have won 7 of them, leaving 45 ROV contract opportunities left to be pursued outside of Petrobras in Brazil. At the end of March, 91 of the 131 high-spec drilling rigs, consisting of dynamically positioned fifth and sixth generation semis and drill ships, were not contracted to Petrobras in Brazil. We had ROV contracts on 69 of these, for a market share of 76%. If all 53 of the non-Petrobras rigs I mentioned are placed into service, this fleet of 91 will grow 58% to 144 rigs. Looking forward, we see no reason why we will not continue to be the dominant provider of ROV services on these rigs. An additional new floating rig has been ordered on spec since the end of the quarter. So with 54 rigs on order, not contracted to Petrobras in Brazil, the visibility of the secular growth outlook for this market remains very promising. Each additional floating rig represents an opportunity for us to put another ROV to work in drill support service. As the use of floating rigs grows, we believe it is inevitable that discoveries will eventually drive orders for Subsea Hardware to levels not previously experienced and demand for ROVs to support vessel-based activities will follow. Quest Offshore's latest Subsea Hardware forecast for the period 2012 to 2016 includes an 80% increase in tree orders over the previous 5 years. In 2012, subsea tree orders are projected to be about 560, an all-time high, eclipsing the previous record of 462 trees in 2006 by over 20%. While we don't make trees, orders for subsea trees drive demand for a substantial amount of the ancillary equipment that we manufacture. For example, Quest is forecasting nearly a 50% increase in umbilical orders in the 5-year period 2012 to 2016 compared to the prior 5-year period. Furthermore, renewed industry and regulatory emphasis on safe and reliable operations is providing us additional opportunities to demonstrate our capabilities. With our existing assets, we are well positioned to supply a wide range of the services and products required to support the safe deepwater efforts of our customers. We believe Oceaneering's business prospects for the long term remain promising. Our commanding competitive position, technology leadership and strong balance sheet and cash flow, enable us to continue to grow the company and we intend to do so. In conclusion, our results continue to demonstrate our ability to generate excellent earnings and cash flow. We believe our business strategy is working well over both the short term and the long term. We like our competitive position in the 2012 oilfield services market, and are leveraged to what we believe will to be a resumption of growth of deepwater and subsea completion activity. The longer-term market outlook for our deepwater and subsea service and product offerings remains favorable. Renewed industry and regulatory emphasis on reliable equipment and redundant safety features of deepwater operations has caused our customers to be even more focused on risk reduction. This elevates the importance of the utility and reliability of our ROV services and related product line offerings and reinforces the benefit of our value sell. For 2012, we are anticipating that we will achieve another record year of EPS performance. We think this distinguishes Oceaneering from any other oilfield service companies. We appreciate everyone's interest in Oceaneering. I will now be happy to take any questions you may have.