5/22/2025

speaker
Conference Call Operator
Call Moderator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Bore Drilling Limited Q1 2025 results presentation, webcast and conference call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To answer your question please press star 1 and 1 again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast please use the Q&A box available on the webcast link at any time during the conference. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I will now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Mr Patrick Shorn, CEO. Please go ahead.

speaker
Patrick Shorn
CEO

Thank you. Good morning and thank you for participating in the Bore Drilling first quarter earnings call. I'm Patrick Shorn and with me here today in London are Bruno Moran, our Chief Commercial Officer and Magnus Fahler, our Chief Financial Officer. Next slide please. First covering the required disclaimers, I would like to remind all participants that some of the statements will be forward looking. These matters involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in these statements. I therefore refer you to our latest public filings. Next slide please. Our first quarter results were largely as expected, reflecting the impact of temporary rig suspensions and preparatory work for upcoming contracts. Total operating revenue declined by 46.5 million quarter over quarter resulting in adjusted EBITDA of 96.1 million for the period. During the quarter, we averaged 16 active rigs out of our 24 rig fleet. Despite the lower activity level, operational performance remained robust with technical utilization at .2% and economic utilization at .9% for our active rigs. A reflection of the continued strength and efficiency of our operations. On the safety front, I'm pleased to report that several of our rigs received industry and customer recognition for outstanding safety performance. Notably, the grower was awarded Qatar Energies HSC Award for 2024. And the Prospector One received the 2024 Best Safety Performance Award from the IADC North Sea Chapter. In Thailand, Bordrilling received PTT EEP's CEO Safety Excellence Award for the second consecutive year. These achievements are a statement to the commitment and professionalism of our crews. And I congratulate and thank the entire team for their efforts on safety. Looking at the second quarter, we are seeing a meaningful ramp up of activity. Three suspended rigs in Mexico have resumed operations, while the Valea and Arabia One have both commenced their contracts. In addition, the Thor and Ron have secured new contracts starting this quarter. As a result, our operating rig count has now increased to 22, laying the foundation for stronger financial performance in the quarters ahead. Our liquidity position improved during the quarter, supported by the collection of approximately 120 million in outstanding receivables from Mexico and 10 million in mobilization fees for the Valea. Following the quarter end, we received an additional 35 million in mobilization fees related to Valea and the Arabia One. While we continue to pursue several opportunities in 2025, our commercial efforts are now increasingly focused on 2026. Our rigs in Mexico represent a significant portion of our available days in 2026 and beyond. The combination of increased activity in Q2 and the advancement of private investment projects in Mexico are positive for future rig demand and extensions across our fleeting country. In light of uncertain market conditions, the board has decided to suspend the dividend to further reinforce the balance sheet and enhance long term value creation. While we are not issuing specific adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2025, we are, however, confirming to be comfortable with the current Bloomberg consensus estimate of approximately 460 million. I'll pass the call now to Magnus for the first quarter financial commentary.

speaker
Magnus Fahler
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Patrick. The results for the first quarter were highly impacted by temporary rig suspension and mobilization of rigs to commence contracts, which led to us only having 16 other 24 rigs working on average during the quarter. The total operating revenues were 216.6 million, a decrease of 46.5 million compared to the fourth quarter. Day rate revenues decreased by 22.6 million, primarily due to a decrease in the number of operating days for Arabia II, Iran, and the TORs, partially offset by an increase in operating days for GERD, Gunnlad, and Bali. The overall decrease in day rate revenue also includes an 11.5 million decrease in deferred mobilization revenue related to Arabia II, due to the recognition of accelerated amortization of deferred mobilization revenue in the prior quarter, linked to its contract termination in Saudi Arabia in Q4. Bearable charger revenue decreased by 17.9 million as a result of the temporary suspension of the rigs Galar, Grid, and Gersimi in Mexico, who were suspended effective January 8. End management contract revenue decreased by 6 million due to the suspension of the Galar. Total operating expenses for Q1 were 156.8 million, a decrease of 5.1 million compared to Q4. This is primarily due to 4.2 million decrease in rig OPEX and 1.1 million decrease in GNA. The decrease in rig OPEX consists of 10.2 million of lower expenses due to the decrease in operating days, partially offset by a 5.2 million increase in costs associated with Grid and Gersimi as a result of the company assuming their operating expenses and stacking costs during their temporary suspension period. Prior to the temporary suspension and during operations, these costs are borne by the JV. Net loss for the first quarter was 16.9 million, a decrease of 43.2 million compared to the net income in the fourth quarter. And adjusted EBITDA was 96.1 million, a decrease of 40.6 million from the previous quarter. Now moving into our cash. Our free cash position at the end of Q1 was 170 million. In addition, we had 150 million undrawn under our RCS facility, resulting in total available liquidity of 320 million. Cash increased by 108.4 million in the quarter in comparison to the previous quarter. Net cash from operating activities was 138.7 million, which included approximately 120 million in settlements of outstanding receivables from customers in Mexico. And 10 million organization fees received for the Valley. We paid 6.1 million of cash interest and 16.9 million of cash taxes. Net cash used in investing activities was 25.1 million, of which 25 million related to cash used on jackup additions, primarily as a result of activation costs for the Valley and long term maintenance costs. Net cash used in financing activities was 4.9 million and can be explained mainly by the 4.7 million payment of cash distribution to shareholders. And subsequent to court rent, we have received approximately 35 million in mobilization fees following commencement of the contracts for the Arabia one and the Valley. With this, I will pass the word on to Bruno.

speaker
Bruno Moran
Chief Commercial Officer

Thank you, Magnus. Let me start with our recent commercial highlights before moving on to the market trends. Here today, Boredrilling has secured nine new contract commitments, adding 221 million to our backlog at an average rate of $141,000 per day. We're pleased to see the continued execution of our commercial strategy. Since our last report, we secured high quality contracts at attractive day rates, backed by our strong operational reputation. In Asia, the Scout received a binding LOA from Medco in Thailand for a 170-day program starting in October, following the completion of its current PTTB contract. The Tor has been awarded a 75-day contract with Vietso Petro in Vietnam, which has begun in late April. These allow the rig to return to work earlier than previously expected, and the rig is now contracted in Q3, and we're pursuing active opportunities for work for the Tor into 2026. In Mexico, the rig Galar, Grit, and Gersimi have been extended by a combined term of approximately 390 days. These extensions offset the suspension periods experienced earlier this year and preserve our regional backlog. Further, the Run has been awarded a 140-day contract with E&I in Mexico, which commenced in May. The contract includes options that could extend the rig into Q126. In West Africa, the Norva has received a letter of award for an 11-month program expected to commence in the second half of 2026. And finally, the Gerd has secured a one-year contract with Foxtrot International in Ivory Coast, expected to commence in Q4. These recent fleet developments, combined with the commencement of the contracts for the Vale and Arabia 1, have increased our operating rig count to 22 in May. Our 2025 fleet coverage now stands at 79% and an average day rate of 147,000. We're actively working with our customers on numerous opportunities, and based on advanced stage of negotiations, we expect the coverage to rise toward the -85% range in the coming months. Our 2026 coverage has also grown. We're now at 35%, an increase of 12 percentage points since our last report. In line with the normal tendering cycles for Jackups, we see an increasing number of tenders being launched for work in 2026, and our teams remain focused on firming up the coverage for the year. Additionally, several of our customers have expressed interest in discussing potential extensions to their existing contracts. We remain actively engaged with the customers and believe our strong operational track record, high-quality fleet, and incumbent status will support further progress in building our 2026 coverage. This includes Mexico, where we believe the resumption of work on our three suspender rigs, including the private investment project, should create a favorable environment for potential renewals. Looking at the broader market, Jackup utilization has remained steady. Modern rig market utilization sits at 92% relatively unchanged -on-quarter. Adjusting for the net impact of the Aramco suspensions, modern utilization still sits just under 90%, which we see as a healthy level. Recent changes in trade policies and OPEC Plus decision to unwind production cuts have introduced some uncertainty in price volatility in commodity markets. We're actively monitoring these developments and engaging with our customers to assess how these may affect future activity levels. Importantly, we continue to see Shell award our project as resilient. The projects are primarily related to brownfields, offering attractive economics at the current oil price and faster cash flow cycles to our customers. Despite the recent market volatility, Jackup tenders and awards have remained largely on track, as evidenced by our recent fixtures. On the rig supply side, this volatility continues to create a challenging environment for older Jackups with reduced contracting opportunities as customer preference for modern rigs persists. We see a resumption in rig retirement in 2025 and expect a strength to continue. Conversely, with a limited number of new builds in the pipeline and no immediate prospects for further deliveries, we do not anticipate any future additions in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, global demand outside of the Middle East remains resilient. Regions like West Africa, Southeast Asia, and Americas are gradually absorbing some of the excess capacity resulting from Aramco's recent adjustments. At the same time, recent fixtures suggest that Aramco may be preparing to secure additional long-term Jackup capacity and create an optionality. Current Jackup activity levels in Saudi Arabia are in the mid-50s, a level consistent with 2019. Looking at Mexico, recent developments clearly show the link between rig activity and production. Since Q4-24, PMAX partial reduction in drilling activities led to nearly 10% drop in production in this period. We're pleased that our three rigs have now resumed operations in May and are again contributing to Mexico's goal of restoring production to 1.85 million barrels per day. In short, while near-term volatility may continue, we remain confident in the long-term fundamentals for the Jackup market. We are consistently delivering our strategy, maximizing 2025 backlog and building 2026 coverage while supporting our customers through the dynamic market. With that, I'll hand the call back to Patrick.

speaker
Patrick Shorn
CEO

Thank you, Bruno. So in conclusion, in 2025, we've made solid progress expanding our contract coverage through a series of awards and we now expect to reach -85% coverage for the full year. While we're still actively pursuing near-term opportunities, our commercial focus is now shifting towards 2026. Our operating rig count has grown to 22 up from 16 in the first quarter, giving us a solid foundation for earnings growth in the quarters ahead. In Mexico, all of our rigs are currently active, including one under a private investment contract supporting PMAX's production initiatives. This returned to full operation positions as well for contract renewal discussions, with Mexico representing a meaningful share of our available rig days for 2026 and beyond. And while we continue to navigate some short-term uncertainty, the business we have built is resilient. The long-term fundamentals of the market remain strong and bore with its premium rig fleet is well positioned to capture future growth. Finally, in light of uncertain market conditions, the board has decided not to pay a dividend to reinforce the balance sheet and enhance long-term value creation. And with regards to adjusted EBITDA, we're on track to deliver 2025 consensus of approximately 460 million. Thank you, and ladies and gentlemen, we are now ready to go to Q&A.

speaker
Conference Call Operator
Call Moderator

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. Please kindly ask one question and possibly a follow-up question at a time to leave room for other participants. If you do have any further questions, you can please rejoin the queue. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the question box and click submit. We will now take the first question. From the line of Eddie Kim from Barclays, please go ahead.

speaker
Eddie Kim
Barclays Analyst

Hi, good morning. I wanted to start off in Mexico. I think many were surprised that your three suspended rigs have now resumed operations, especially given the challenges in that market. Is this a sign that Pemex is finally getting their act together or does it speak more to the quality of your rig specifically? And separately, you have two of your Pemex jack-ups coming off contract by year-end this year. What's the likelihood you think that those will be extended beyond that period? Thank you.

speaker
Patrick Shorn
CEO

Yes, thank you, Eddie. So I think it is maybe a combination of a few aspects here. I think firstly, I think there's a very strong realization in Mexico that with very low or no activity production takes a very strong drop to that. And there is a lot of work going on to make sure that activity plans are drawn up to make sure that additional production is created going forward, which means putting rigs back to work. Now clearly where we benefit is on one side on the quality of the rigs, but more importantly the well-construction work that we are involved in in Mexico has over the last few years demonstrated that we can generate some of the lowest cost barrels, drill very efficient wells, and have done this approximately just short of a hundred wells offshore at the moment. So I think that the concept work, I think that we have a fairly long history of performing well in the environment and being very cost-efficient, and therefore I think we are benefiting from being some of the, let's say, first rigs to go back. So I think that that certainly has helped us. Now as to your question regarding the contract extension, I think that that is something that we will be discussing with our customer and Pemex here over the following months. I certainly expect that we have good contract extension opportunities in Mexico. The exact size of that is difficult to estimate at this moment, but I'm sure that we get more clarity in that towards the later part of this year, and clearly based on the performance that we have had over the last three years in this contract, I would expect that we do reasonably well in that, but I'm very happy to kind of keep you up to date as soon as we have more information on that.

speaker
Eddie Kim
Barclays Analyst

Understood. Thank you for that. My follow-up is just on the uncertain market conditions you highlighted as the reason for suspension of the dividend. Could you just expand on this a bit more for us? Are you seeing customers in certain regions getting increasingly more cautious about the outlook in your conversations with them, and perhaps pushing back drilling programs, or does it reflect more of your expectations for further oil price declines due to OPEC, or maybe a combination of both? If you could just expand on that comment for us.

speaker
Patrick Shorn
CEO

Yeah, Eddie, I think it's a little bit more a macro situation where I think that we have all tried to get a good understanding of what the latest macro developments really are going to mean to the market. I mean, we have clearly had a lot of discussions around tariffs and what that might do to global GDP, and as a result to oil demand, counter debt, we have seen that demand has remained actually quite strong. Overall, we see a lot of customers that do relative short contracts. So from that, I can see that they are certainly keeping a little bit their finger on the trigger, which I think is understandable as there is just quite a few items on the uncertainty list. Now what we also see is that when it comes to 26 and beyond, there are some larger packages of work. I think when we start to see that being tendered and actively negotiated and ultimately being awarded, I think we start to all have a much better feel for it. So I think it is purely a question of trying to be cautious, making sure that we have options on what to do with the cash. As obviously dividend is not the only option that we have, but also working on the debt is at the moment quite attractive. So I think we want to make sure that we have all options open while remaining cautious for as long as the uncertainty persists.

speaker
Eddie Kim
Barclays Analyst

Great.

speaker
Patrick Shorn
CEO

Thank

speaker
Eddie Kim
Barclays Analyst

you very much. I'll turn it back. Thank you.

speaker
Conference Call Operator
Call Moderator

Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of the backer from Capital One. Please go ahead.

speaker
Doug
Capital One Representative

Thank you. Patrick, your commentary on Mexico sounds encouraging. Do you have any visibility on the option for the run to be exercised and then outside of Mexico, the prospector?

speaker
Patrick Shorn
CEO

Yeah, I'll turn that to Bruno. Thanks, Doug. I mean, we have indeed options there.

speaker
Bruno Moran
Chief Commercial Officer

Indeed, Doug. It's early days. The rig just basically just gone to work about a week ago, so we're still monitoring that. Conversations with the customer so far are encouraging, but we do see opportunities outside of that customer as well for the rig in Mexico. There's some other work with IOC that could potentially keep that rig occupied well into 2026. So we'll see. It definitely was a good timing to get the rig back to work. As we get closer to the end of 2026, we do see an outlook that is more favorable to see that rig continue to work. But I'll probably leave it at that. Early days, the rig just went to work. We're pretty happy with that.

speaker
Unknown Speaker
Participant

Fair

speaker
Doug
Capital One Representative

enough. Are you able to provide any color in which rigs are expected to increase the contract coverage to -85%? Are there one or two rigs or is it kind of a risk opportunity set?

speaker
Bruno Moran
Chief Commercial Officer

Yeah, we're looking at the moment about three of our rigs representing that gap at the moment, Doug. And we're encouraged, we're quoting that number out of the thin air. We do have very active conversations with the customers at the moment, including some non-binding LOIs that we're working to progress. I wouldn't want to share more details at this time, but I'm pretty convinced that in the next couple of weeks we'll be able to say something more about it. Sounds good. Thank you. Thanks for joining.

speaker
Conference Call Operator
Call Moderator

Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Fredrik Sten from Clarkson Securities. Please go ahead.

speaker
Fredrik Sten / Fedor Chamas
First: Clarkson Securities Analyst (Fredrik Sten) | Second: Triton Partners Representative (Fedor Chamas)

Hey, Patrick, Bruno and Magnus. I hope you're all well. So, I want to touch a bit upon liquidity in general, because at least from the discussions that I've had with clients recently, I think it's very, very thematic. And some of this ties to Mexico, Pemex and the lack of just payment visibility from them. And the second comes to 2026 coverage and beyond. And you've obviously given good commentary on that already. But I was hoping that you could potentially provide a bit more color on how you see your own liquidity situation going forward. And by extension of that, how you feel your kind of position to call it weather, short to medium term storm. And also if you envision to touch the RCF either this year or next year in some of the more adverse scenarios that you might be running within your own sensitivity analysis. Thank you.

speaker
Patrick Shorn
CEO

Very good. I'll ask Magnus to comment on that.

speaker
Magnus Fahler
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you. Thanks for the question, Fredrik. I think we're in a good position going into this year with almost 80% of our days covered at just below $150,000 per day. So it's a very solid, solid day rate as the fundamental of our liquidity going into the year. And also, as you see, Bruno here is now starting to fill up the beginning of 2026 also with backlog at rates that are above our cash break even rates, which are de-risking, I think, our liquidity. Any liquidity issues for us. We have received $120 million payment from Mexico so far this year, which is about one year of receivables or earnings. So that's obviously also very, very positive and fills up our bank account. We do expect that Pemex should go back to regular payments now throughout in 2025. Invoicing seems to be progressing as planned. And the thing that we are seeing is that Mexico should come back to their regular payments that they have shown over the past few years up until mid last year, I would say. So all in all, I think the base case looks very, very solid. I do not foresee any reasons for drawing on the RCF as long as collections come in with the forecast that we are currently seeing. That being said, in scenarios where there are delays in payment from our customers or that we have experienced before from Mexico, we have the RCF of $150 million, which provides us with additional comfort there. I would also maybe lastly add that when you saw the regular payments stopped from Pemex last year, we were also able to find alternative ways of getting paid with this financing or factoring agreement, which released almost 75% of our receivables on the balance sheet from Pemex. So I think we have a lot of opportunities to also demonetize on the receivables should not the base case go through.

speaker
Patrick Shorn
CEO

Maybe I can add a few things because, Frederick, of course, it starts all with proper quality of revenue. And I think we have shown that we can generate that in 24, where we ended up with $500 million of adjusted EBITDA. We are indicating a number now that is along the lines of Bloomberg consensus for 25 or 460 million, where you also see that we are still in an environment where it's very competitive and where jobs are not easy to find. We're able to continue to fill up the coverage for 25 as well, up to what we have indicated, the 80 to the 85%. We have no different intention to do with 26. So you see that we have 35% at a very decent day rate. If you think about what Mexico represents on top of that, it's about 20%. So you could say that with that, you're already starting to talk, getting to the 55 to 60% of coverage. And we intend to continue to fill that throughout the year and try to be getting the right balance as we get this year between pricing and utilization. And I think as long as we can continue to be very focused on starting off with the right quality of revenue and keeping the costs under control, then I think with the efforts on collections, we can do a good job on liquidity as well. At least that's what we've been doing so far. And we intend to approach it no different for 26.

speaker
Fredrik Sten / Fedor Chamas
First: Clarkson Securities Analyst (Fredrik Sten) | Second: Triton Partners Representative (Fedor Chamas)

That's very good, Kohler. Thank you. And I think Patrick, you kind of started to touch upon my follow-up here, because as you're building either the rest of 2025 and also through 2026, and then maybe this one goes to Bruno first. The first part of that would be the discussions with your clients. Are you still able and confident that you can secure premium rates or rates with a premium above market for your high-spec capabilities? Or are you in the current market getting pushback on that? I guess what you've signed so far proves that you can, but interested to hear how that's looking forward. And maybe for Magnus on the cost side also in the context of liquidity here, if you're faced with idle time on some of these rigs, that pertains to Arabia too and more for that matter, how quickly are you able to ramp costs down and up if there's open capacity in between contracts? Thanks.

speaker
Bruno Moran
Chief Commercial Officer

All right, Fred. So in terms of your question, it's probably difficult to provide a single answer to that and whether we can get a premium on every job going forward. I think it depends a lot on the specifics of the project. We're obviously very well aware of the value that we bring to the customers with our high-end rigs, offline capabilities and features like that. And to the tune that we know we create value for our customers, we think it's fair that we continue to claim a bit of a premium for those rigs and have been doing so for a while now. That all said, as we've been repeating for the last couple of quarters at the moment, coverage is obviously just as important, if not more important, than the premium. So we keep an eye. When we deliver value for the customer because of project specifics, we certainly are very keen and driving to get that. And I think we have continued to do so. Maybe a bit more on projects that are a bit more cookie cutter where we don't necessarily add an immense amount of value to the customer. And then we compete with the market trend. So we're comfortable with that. I think what is important is that the quality of our fleet still means that a lot of our customers default back to us and look at us as kind of the preferred alternative. And that should give us a chance to fuel up that coverage better than our peers or in a faster pace than our peers. And that's really the focus that we have at the moment.

speaker
Magnus Fahler
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, then what's your question on cost side of things when we have our rigs stacked? We currently have our rigs warm stacked, so they are relatively easy to get back to work. As you saw from the rigs that we have suspended in Mexico and Iran, we keep warm enough that there will not be a lot of cost to bring the rigs out. And I would say a typical stacking cost for those rigs are in the mid twenty thousand dollars per day, approximately. The exception is obviously the VAR, which is a new build coming out of the shipyard where we can actually have a lower cost while it's sitting idle. And that's more in the area of fifteen thousand dollars per day. So if we look at stacking periods of up to more than one year, you would probably go into a cold stacking mode where you need to do more preservation. But you could also have a lower per day cost while stacked. But we have not gone to those stages yet, as we are very optimistic that we actually will get work for them in less than one year.

speaker
Fredrik Sten / Fedor Chamas
First: Clarkson Securities Analyst (Fredrik Sten) | Second: Triton Partners Representative (Fedor Chamas)

All right. Thank you so much for comprehensive answers. That's it from me. Have a good day. Thank you. Thank you.

speaker
Conference Call Operator
Call Moderator

We will now take the next question from the line of Greg Rossi from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

speaker
Greg Rossi

Morning, everybody. I guess good afternoon for you. Just just can you talk a little bit about the Saudi market? Just you mentioned on the long term demand there that we've been hearing that's been out in the press about about rates potentially being dropped. Could you help us understand what you're seeing and how that may be affecting the Saudi market and just other adjacent markets?

speaker
Patrick Shorn
CEO

Sure, Bruno. Could you take that Saudi question?

speaker
Bruno Moran
Chief Commercial Officer

Sure. And thanks, Greg. Looking at the Saudi market, and we mentioned in the earlier remarks, we saw obviously over the cycle Saudi going from about 50 rigs to 90 rigs. And then following the suspension, we're now back down to levels in the 50s. So activity level offshore is now back at the same level as 2019. As we understand the land operation in Saudi has seen a significant reduction in activity as well. Clearly, the kingdom at the moment is resolving for cash. They seem to think that there is production available at their fingertip and I think optimizing that has been in the forefront. Now, interestingly, the last couple of quarters, there's a few things that would indicate that we could be at a trough and possibly working towards the reverse. So one of those indications has been the increased interest from Saudi about lump sum term key projects offshore. They've been quite successful with that onshore over time, not so much offshore. And now they seem to be exploring those opportunities or wanting to discuss these opportunities with the service companies and consequently the the jackup provider. So let's see how things mature over time. And then equally, they've been now securing long term rigs for some of the rigs that long term contracts or some of the rigs that had been previously suspended in the part of the kingdom, indicating that they're starting to build some long term capacity or potentially optionality. So that's that's what we see at the moment. When Saudis going to be back in the market, I think we will see. Certainly, we do feel that at the current activity level, going back to same levels of 2019, meaningful reduction activity are unlikely. And then we start to see some signs of that potentially reversing going forward. But we'll see time will tell. I'll probably leave it at that. I guess we try to predict a rumble steps in the past. And I think people have been proven wrong. So we'll just monitor that going forward.

speaker
Greg Rossi

And just I appreciate all the all the commentary on liquidity and the prudency of suspending the base dividend. What what how should we think about shared buybacks? Is that that's a possibility in this environment or is that also off the table?

speaker
Patrick Shorn
CEO

Well, clearly, I think that that is something that at a certain moment is clearly attractive at where equity pricing is currently. I think that there is a variety of things that we can do. I think everything is on the table at the time that we have a good visibility on the cash coming out of the business. And that would include everything from buyback from retiring debt from straight dividends. I think that there is a whole slew of things you can think of that all will be appropriately evaluated and be looked at at what would be the most appropriate at that moment in time. But yeah, I think that there is nothing that is excluded. We will diligently work through it to make sure that we have the cash work in the best interest of the company.

speaker
Greg Rossi

Thanks for the time guys.

speaker
Conference Call Operator
Call Moderator

Thank you. We will now take the last question from the line of Fedor Chamas from Triton Partners. Please go ahead.

speaker
Fredrik Sten / Fedor Chamas
First: Clarkson Securities Analyst (Fredrik Sten) | Second: Triton Partners Representative (Fedor Chamas)

Yes, hi, here is a quick question about the backlog. How does the backlog work? Does it have a closing for termination for the GDN? Can the customers just stop the contract? Are there any penalty payments? Any callers about that would be great.

speaker
Bruno Moran
Chief Commercial Officer

Yeah, no problem, Fadi. And if you look at it, it's probably difficult to give you a single answer for all the contracts. But our contracts in its vast majority, probably close to totality at the moment, include, if it includes a clause for termination for convenience, it comes with a level of payout. That payout varies from contract to contract, but in general terms, it's equivalent to kind of the EBITDA backlog expectation of the remaining term. So if the customer decides to exercise that option, we do recover the profit expectation that we had for the contract. And that's the general terms for the contract. It varies a little bit from contract to contract, but they are fairly similar.

speaker
Fredrik Sten / Fedor Chamas
First: Clarkson Securities Analyst (Fredrik Sten) | Second: Triton Partners Representative (Fedor Chamas)

Okay, so just to double check, you say that the bulk of the backlog is kind of protected, i.e. even if oil prices drop materially, you wouldn't expect customers just to cancel contracts and you guys wouldn't get anything?

speaker
Bruno Moran
Chief Commercial Officer

That is correct, yes.

speaker
Fredrik Sten / Fedor Chamas
First: Clarkson Securities Analyst (Fredrik Sten) | Second: Triton Partners Representative (Fedor Chamas)

Okay, and then one quick follow-up is around the capex per rig. How do you guys think about it and how should we think about it? Like average capex per rig per year, can you also please give some guidance around that?

speaker
Magnus Fahler
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, sure. As you know, we've now, last year, filed out our new build program, so there's no further growth capex. And what we're left with then is maintenance capex, special periodic surveys, long-term maintenance. We have already indicated we expect around $50 million in 2025 on capex, which equates to around $2 million per rig. And I think that is a decent number to also use going forward for modeling purposes and into the next couple of years as well.

speaker
Fredrik Sten / Fedor Chamas
First: Clarkson Securities Analyst (Fredrik Sten) | Second: Triton Partners Representative (Fedor Chamas)

Right, thank you. Yeah, I think that is all from my side.

speaker
Patrick Shorn
CEO

Very good, thank you. Thank you, Kari. And I think with this we have come to the end of the Q&A session. Thank you very much for your attention.

speaker
Conference Call Operator
Call Moderator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Disclaimer

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