Precision Drilling Corporation (NYSE:PDS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Kevin Neveu : We had 12 rigs led contracts already in the month of January. So this year-to-date, — most of those are Haynesville type rigs. There are a couple up in the Northeast. The 12 existing rigs re-contracted with the same customers into current rates.

Cole Pereira : Okay. Got it. And on the share-based comp side, I mean, I kind of appreciate the plan is formulaic, but how do you kind of square the materiality for the perspective of shareholders? I mean realized cash share-based comp was 3/4 of your total debt reduction and share buybacks.

Carey Ford : Yes. So we haven’t disclosed the total cash share-based comp. We’ve accrued for it, and we’ve accrued out of the $134 million, there’s $60 million of that share-based comp is accrued for 2024 and 2025 payments. The rest of it is for Q1, and that’s going to be a mix of settlement and shares and settlement and cash. When we look at the alignment of the plan with shareholders, particularly the absolute return of almost 200% over the 3-year period and the performance versus the peer group of being the second highest out of 16 companies. And then the strategic objectives of achieving long-term debt reduction, we thought that it is aligned with shareholder interest, and I think that’s reflected in the share price performance.

Operator: Our next question comes from Andrew Bradford with Raymond James.

Andrew Bradford : Just curious about the — on the cost item in the U.S., the U.S. costs bumped up a bit sequentially. I saw it in your discussion that it was attributed to extra crews and slightly higher R&D. But so are we setting a new level here going forward? Should we be thinking about daily cost in the $18,000 plus range?

Carey Ford : Yes. So just to clarify, it would be — our NIM would be — repair and maintenance would be a driver to that. The driver of cost, primarily well over half of the cost increase over the past year has been wage increases in both Canada and the U.S. And so the cost bumped up a little bit more because of wage increases. And I do think that we might see fluctuations of $500, maybe $750 plus or minus where we came out in Q4 going forward. But I do think that the baseline has moved up a bit.

Andrew Bradford : And I assume that you have very little difficulty passing those costs straight through on the new contracts?

Carey Ford : On labor, it’s a pass-through, so no difficulty there. And then it’s our job to keep getting higher, there is to protect our margins and grow our margins, which is one of our goals for 2023.

Andrew Bradford : Okay. Okay. And then — so — with respect to the gas rigs rolling over, that’s a good accomplishment year-to-date with the toll rigs that renewed within the role in the context of the current market price. I’m just wondering as we look down through the year here, Kevin alluded to the idea that we might see even a flat rig count market. But let’s just for argument’s sake suggest that maybe we even draw a few rigs through the year through 2023. If somebody had that view, I appreciate that most of the rigs coming off would probably be the SCR or even mechanical rig variants. But I wonder if you could explain what sort of happens to the margin or what you think would happen at the margin to leading-edge rates in that set of site experiences.