Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. (NYSE:HLX) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Owen Kratz: Right. That does not include any anything other than continued operations from our current assets. It doesn’t include any acquisitions of production or other impacts that may also increase it. So, that’s why we said greater than 10%.

Luke Lemoine: Okay. Alright. Perfect. Thanks Owen.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Greg Lewis with BTIG. Please proceed.

Greg Lewis: Yes. Hi. Thank you and good morning everybody and thanks for taking my questions. I was hoping that you could talk a little bit more about the shallow water abandonment market. I guess one question was the handful of assets you purchased, I guess it was like $6 million. Were those acquired from existing, I guess competitors, or were those – was that new equipment that was ordered and you took delivery of?

Owen Kratz: That was – no, we are not looking to add capacity to the market. That was an acquisition from an existing competitor. It was very attractive because it also came with quite a number of offshore workers and people are the biggest bottleneck to your ability to cover greater market share in this market. So, adding the people would be actually more important than adding the equipment.

Scotty Sparks: 65 regional employees that, that division had we managed to hire 62 of those people direct. So, it’s a really good win for us.

Greg Lewis: And then just – and just as we try to piece together the fragmentation of the shallow water market and realizing it’s also geographic specific. Do you see as this market unfolds, and obviously, you guys are in a pretty great position from a balance sheet and liquidity and cash, could there be opportunities to do more such similar? I mean you did mention potential for – or that the guidance was exclusive of any acquisitions. Is this an area where the company could continue to look to grow over the next 1 year to 2 years?

Owen Kratz: Yes. I think we will keep a close eye on the market and talk to all of our major clients. One of the advantages that we have is that we already have the systems and our policies in place that qualify us to work for the majors, which are the recipients of the liability as it were from the Fieldwood and Cox bankruptcy. So, depending on their demand and if it gets to the point where we are exceeding our capacity to supply, then there are opportunities that we could look at.

Greg Lewis: Okay. Super helpful. And then just one more for me. Realizing that – when we talk realizing that sometimes well intervention assets have to compete against offshore drilling rigs, a big theme across the drilling space has been white space and idle time as rigs look to get back to work. It’s interesting because when we listen to you, it doesn’t seem like we are really facing – it doesn’t seem like the well intervention assets are facing much white space. Is that – I guess my question is, are we starting to see drilling rigs kind of look to take some of the short-term well intervention work, or is the white space that we are seeing in offshore drilling really transient and rigs aren’t looking to compete against your well intervention assets?

Scotty Sparks: So, I will take that. I think that there are certain rigs that are entering the – on the decommissioning market. There has been a couple of contracts awarded in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, a couple awarded in Australia, but we are expecting high utilization for all of our assets in ‘23 and as we go into ‘24. And you also have to look at it geographically, we don’t really compete with rigs in the North Sea. For instance, our vessels are very specific to the type of work that happens in the North Sea being neither enhanced and older wells in the North Sea. So, there is a few contracts that have been awarded, but I wouldn’t say it’s greatly impacting us, and we are expecting a good utilization through it.