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

And so, we’ve been fortunate not to be put really to as I think as crucial a decision around taking a strategy towards long term contracts or not at this point, but we’ve got right up there with the largest tier 1 fleet in the world. And we’d be willing to take one or two long term contracts at current day rate levels, which we can produce a significant amount of cash flow here at current day rate levels, even though we see a rising market. But I would say, Eddie, that our strategy thus far has been to take advantage of rising day rates and that’s been enabled by the visibility we have in the Guyana/Surinam region.

Eddie Kim: Shifting over to the SPSs, as you mentioned, you have a good number of rigs undergoing programs this year and next. Specifically for 10-year SPSs for one of your drillships, can you just remind us what the typical cost is for that and the approximate split there between OpEx versus CapEx?

Richard Barker: Look, obviously, it’s very rig dependent, but I think a good kind of rule of thumb from a capital perspective is probably €“ think about a range of $20 million to $40 million, obviously, very, very rig dependent. A lot of that is capital, but also there’s definitely an element of OpEx there as well. It’s just going to be very specific to the rig. I do think what’s important to note, and I referenced this in the script, was just the impact on top line, right. And so, for example, a 30 to 60 day SPS means you aren’t earning day rate for that period of time. And with rates north of $400,000 a day, I think that that can have obviously a material impact on the overall financial statements. So, I’d encourage you to think about it both, obviously, from a cost perspective, and, again, which is very, very rig dependent, but also the lost revenue, if you will.

Robert Eifler: Let me just add to that, if I could, Eddie, you’re going to see a pretty wide range. We’ve got an example of a rig in Guyana that came out for just 19 days to do its 10-year SPS at a cost €“ I think it’s just under $20 million total. Now, that was an instance where we were able to work very closely with our customer and plan out that SPS. In other instances, that’s just not possible to do. If you’re between customers and contracts, you can’t be quite as efficient. You’re not going to get the customer preceding the SPS to allow you to do some of the onboard work that would make you more efficient. And it’s hard to actually sign a contract when you have the SPS in the way and you’re trying to manage a shipyard project timing on top of rolling between customers. So, you just kind of see a range and that’s why Richard says it is very rig dependent.

Operator: Our next question comes from Kurt Hallead from Benchmark.

Kurt Hallead: It’s a great summary. Really appreciate the color commentary. So, my follow-up here would be on CapEx and the CapEx guidance that you provided, not just for this year, but obviously over the course of the next few years. I’m going to make an assumption here that, at least for 2023, your CapEx guidance does not assume any costs associated with the activation of the Meltem. Maybe let’s start there. Is that fair?

Robert Eifler: Correct. Yes, that’s right.

Kurt Hallead: Of the potential activation costs of that $100 million, right, you mentioned you’d want a significant portion of that upfront. And I know there’s going to be some probably horse trading between what kind of terms you can get, what kind of day rate you can get, what you want, but at a bare minimum what would be acceptable in terms of upfront payment to activate the Meltem?