Noble Corporation (NYSE:NE) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

We are mindful of the whitespace in managing costs in the meantime. And I think, in particular, the Norway class vessels, we now have visible demand in 2024. It doesn’t meet the total supply from what we see today. But it’s also still too early on a sales cycle for even for CJ-70 to fully understand what the back half of 2024 is going to look like. And so, we stick to the view that late 2024 is going to bring back the demand for our CJ-70 fleet. Those are the most capable rigs, Norway class jackups. They will contract before and stay active longer than other Norway class rigs because of their performance capability. And they also have the ability to work in certain transitions and waters that would otherwise go to harsh semis. And that’s very much a dynamic that’s too early to conclude today, but does exist as a pocket of demand for those rigs in 2024 and onwards.

So that was a bit of a rambling answer, Greg. I think to sum it up. Neither UK nor Norway class rigs, we are actively seeking to relocate. We will always remain economic, though.

Operator: Our next question comes from Eddie Kim from Barclays.

Eddie Kim: So very constructive outlook for the floater market, which would suggest that the day rates continue to move higher throughout the year. I need to start with a leading question, but do you think it’s likely that we’ll see a floater fixture announced later this year with a five handle? And how do you think about contracting strategy in this type of environment? Because I would think you’d want to maybe sign shorter contracts today in anticipation of higher day rates maybe 12, 18 months from now. And it may be the one-well contract for the Faye Kozack at $450,000 a day was evidence of that, though I might be reading too much into that.

Robert Eifler: Look, I think there’s some things that have to fall in place. In the near term, I think we’re actually going to see a bit of a wide range of fixtures here even among seventh generation rigs. You’ve got some rigs, as I mentioned in the script, that are coming into the marketplace that were previously sidelined. And those can carry some slightly different economic motives behind them, which is fine and expected. We’ve said that for a couple of years. So, I think with that at play, the fact we’re experiencing this right now with all the short term contracting, you do get whitespace in schedules. And so, I think with those couple of dynamics, people managing time between contracts, et cetera, you are going to see a range of fixtures in the near term.

But I think very much what I laid out in the script and what we see in terms of very tangible demand, coupled with some of this project sanctioning coming through, like we’re hopeful this year, puts us on a path to $500,000. And I don’t know that that rate is going to be paid in 2023 for anybody. But I think there’s very much a path where we could see a fixture this year that’s above $500,000 and even more confident in that if you include kind of a total contract value analysis of what an operator ultimately is going to need to pay for a rig this year. As it relates to our strategy, we’ve been very lucky to have these contracts in Guyana with Exxon, where we have had long term visibility for four of our top drillships. And also, of course, we only have the Meltem cold stack and then the Scirocco which is 6G cold stack.