Mark S. Siegel
Analyst · Joe Hill representing Tudor, Pickering
Thanks, Mike. Good morning, and welcome to Patterson-UTI's conference call for the second quarter of 2012. We are pleased that you are able to join us today. As is customary, I will start by briefly reviewing the financial results for the quarter ended June 30, and then I will turn the call over to Doug Wall, who will share some detailed comments on each segment's operational highlights as well as our outlook. After Doug, Andy Hendricks, who recently joined the company as Chief Operating Officer, will share some of his thoughts, and then I will provide some closing remarks before turning the call over for questions. Turning now to the second quarter, as set forth in our earnings press release issued this morning, we reported net income of $92.5 million or $0.60 per share for the second quarter ended June 30, 2012, and $190 million or $1.22 for the 6 months ended June 30. EBITDA for the quarter was $279 million. The financial results for the second quarter include a pretax gain of $27 million, or $0.11 per share related to the previously announced sale of our flowback operations and the auction sale of certain excess drilling assets. I'd like to start by saying that in the face of difficult market conditions, both of our core businesses performed well. In the case of drilling, average U.S. rigs operating and average margin per operating day were near our expectations, which was a significant accomplishment as rigs moved from natural gas regions to oil and liquids regions, and as decreasing oil prices caused customers to change plans with increased frequency. In the case of pressure pumping, performance exceeded our expectations. Revenues climbed by 15%, which was actually a lesser decline than we had expected, and EBITDA declined by only 10%, helped by cost controls which we have implemented. These accomplishments in operations were mirrored in 3 noteworthy achievements on the financial side. First, we sold our flowback business for $42.5 million; second, we issued and sold $300 million of 10-year 4.27% notes; and third, we completed share repurchases of more than 3% of our company's outstanding stock. In respect to the buyback, we saw an opportunity to capitalize on our undervalued stock and to use effectively the proceeds from the sales of flowback operations and other excess drilling assets. This repurchase was conducted under our previous share repurchase authorization. Today, I'm pleased to announce that our Board of Directors has increased the share buyback program to $150 million. Our balance sheet remains strong, and following the debt issuance, our debt-to-total capitalization ratio is only 19%. I will now turn the call over to Doug.