Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the first quarter Helix Energy Solutions 2023 earnings conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone keypad. If at any time during the conference, you need to reach an operator, please press star zero. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded Tuesday, April 25th, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Brent Arriaga, Chief Accounting Officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today on our conference call for our first quarter 2023 earnings release. Participating on this call for Helix today are Olin Kretz, our CEO, Scotty Sparks, our COO, Eric Staffeld, our CFO, Ken Nykerk, our general counsel, and myself. Hopefully, you have had an opportunity to review our earnings press release and the related slide presentation released last night. If you do not have a copy of these materials, both can be accessed through the for the investor page on our website at www.helixesg.com. The press release can be accessed under the Press Releases tab and the slide presentation can be accessed by clicking on today's webcast icon. Before we begin our prepared remarks, Ken Nykerk will make a statement regarding forward-looking information. Ken?

During this conference call, we anticipate making certain projections and forward-looking statements based on our current expectations and assumptions as of today. Such forward-looking statements may include projections and estimates of future events, business or industry trends, or business or financial results. All statements in this conference call or in the associated presentation, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are made under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our actual future results may differ materially from our projections and forward-looking statements due to a number and variety of risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and factors, including those set forth in slide two in our most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and in our other filings with the SEC. You should not place under compliance on forward-looking statements, and we do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statement. We disclaim any written or oral statements made by any third party regarding the subject matter of this conference call. Also during this call, certain non-GAAP financial disclosures may be made. In accordance with SEC rules, the final slide of our presentation provides reconciliations of certain non-GAAP measures to comparable GAAP financial measures. These reconciliations, along with this presentation, the earnings press release, our annual report, and the replay of this broadcast, are available under the For the Investor section of our website at www.helixesg.com. Please remember that information on this conference call speaks only as of today, April 25, 2023. and therefore you are advised that any time sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of this call.

Good morning, everyone. We hope everyone out there is doing well. This morning we'll be reviewing our Q1 results, performance, and operations. We'll provide an outlook for the market and review our current guidance for 2023. Moving to the presentation, slides six through nine provide a high-level summary of our results and key highlights for the first quarter of 2023. Our first quarter results were largely as expected, with the backdrop of a strong global offshore energy market driving improved financial results that were negatively impacted by scheduled vessel recertification, maintenance, and project mobilization. Highlights for the quarter include strong winter utilization on the well enhancer and sea well in the UK. Full quarter of well intervention work at improved rates on both the CM Helix 1 and 2. Strong winter seasonal utilization and financial performance in robotics. Helix Alliance generated a solid seasonal adjusted contribution. Executing our first iPLOW project for the US East Coast Wind Farm project. completion of regulatory certification and maintenance on the sea well, well enhancer Q7000 and Q5000. And on the sales front, we secured our first Asia-Pacific wind farm trenching project offshore Taiwan and added an additional decommissioning project in Australia for the Q7000. Revenues for the quarter were $253 million, a decrease of $38 million from our fourth quarter results. We generated a net loss of 5 million compared to net income of 3 million in the previous quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was 35 million. During the quarter, our operating cash flow was negative 5 million, including 17 million of dry dock and recertification costs. We spent 7 million on CapEx, resulting in a negative 12 million in free cash flow. Our quarter results were significantly impacted by the regulatory certification and maintenance on four of our well intervention assets. In addition, the Q7000 spent 37 days mobilizing to the Asia Pacific region with revenues and costs deferred until project commencement. I'd like to thank our employees for their efforts with a solid start to 2023. Executing safe and efficient operations for our customers has always been our hallmark and our goal is to remain an established leader in the offshore industry. On to slide nine, from a balance sheet perspective, our cash balance at the end of the quarter was $167 million. At quarter end, we were in a net debt position of $91 million. In February, we were pleased to announce our share repurchase program. During the first quarter, we repurchased 660,000 shares of our stock for approximately $5 million. As we continue executing the program, We will balance the need to manage and fund our operations, capital spend including the alliance earn-out, maturing debt, and strategic investment opportunities along with the share repurchase program. We plan to generally align this program with our cash flow generation and initially target deploying 25% of our free cash flow, noting the seasonality of our business. I'll now turn the call over to Scotty for an in-depth discussion of our operating results.

Thanks, Owen, and good morning, everyone. Firstly, I would like to thank our teams offshore and onshore for another well-executed quarter. There has been a huge positive shift in the market compared to one year ago. The teams have reacted well, securing high utilization, as well as contracting some longer-term projects with improved rates and conditions. We continue to hold strong and sound relationships with our employees, partners, and clients. Market conditions are much improved. Going forward, we have much stronger backlog than we've seen in recent years, and very good visibility for the next few years. All of our businesses are well positioned for 2023 and beyond. In the first quarter of 2023, we continued to operate globally with minimal operational disruption, with operations in Europe, West Africa, Asia, Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico, and off the US East Coast. We continued to operate at high standards with strong uptime efficiency for the quarter. Moving on to slide 11, during the first quarter, we produced revenues of $250 million, resulting in a gross profit margin of 6%, generating a gross profit of $15 million, producing EBITDA for the quarter of $35 million, a significant improvement against $150 million of revenue and $3 million of EBITDA in the first quarter of 2022. During the first quarter, the One Intervention fleet achieved utilization of 80% globally, down quarter over quarter due to the paid transit at the Q7000 to the APEC region and the scheduled regulatory maintenance of the Q7000, Q5000, seawell and well enhancer. We achieved 79% utilization in the Gulf of Mexico, 97% in Brazil, strong winter month utilization of 81% in the North Sea and 41% utilization for the Q7000 on its paid transit to the APEC region. The Robotics Division chartered vessel fleets achieved high utilization of 91% of the quarter, operating five vessels, working 295 vessel days between ROV support, trenching, renewable works globally, and working on multiple renewables projects in Europe, Asia, and the US East Coast. The Helix Alliance fleets achieved 86% utilization for the liftboats, 39% for the OSVs and the crewboats, and the Energy Service Division achieved 77% utilization with the P&A systems 1,039 operational days working for numerous clients in the Gulf of Mexico, and 44% utilization on the cool tubing systems of 238 days. Due to the seasonal conditions, the free diving support assets achieved 31% utilization, and the heavy lift barge was mostly seasonally warm stacked as expected, conducting a short project achieving 14% utilization. Slide 12 provides a detailed review of our well intervention business in the Gulf of Mexico. The Q5000 had utilization of 59% with all available working days contracted prior to undertaking its scheduled regulatory inspection in the first quarter. The vessel performed well conducting production enhancement work on four wells in ultra deep water working under a multi-year campaign for Shell. The Q4000 had increased utilization of 100% in the quarter. the vessel completed a two-well production enhancement scope for one customer, followed by a single-well enhancement scope for another customer, and then ended the course of completing a two-well abandonment campaign for another client in ultra-deep water. Positively going forward, absent the Q4 fails in dry docking Q2, we expect both vessels with high utilization with contracted or awarded work into the Q4, and already have work awarded in 2024 with good visibility of potential further activity with steadily increasing rates. Both key vessels continue to operate under the integrated Helix SLB Subsea Services Alliance package. In February, managed out of the Gulf of Mexico office, one of our newly acquired 10K subsea IRS systems commenced mobilization for an 18-month contract in Australia. Moving to slide 13, our North Sea Well Intervention business had a very strong first quarter considering the seasonal winter months. with solid utilization for both vessels in the UK. A huge improvement to achieve an 81% utilization compared to 13% in Q1 of 2022. The Q7000 was under paid transit to APEC region and completed dry dock in late March. Subsequently, the vessel continued its mobilization to New Zealand via Australia. The oil enhancer performed very well and achieved 87% utilization in Q1. The vessel performed production enhancement works on three wells for two customers and then completed abandonment operations for five wells for three customers. The sea well had a good quarter with 76% utilization. The vessel performed decommissioning works on numerous wells for several customers, also utilizing our diving services. Utilization for both vessels was impacted by approximately one month of combined planned maintenance during Q1. The North Sea market continues to improve. Our business is seeing much improved utilization and achieving higher rates. The seawall is fully contracted for the year and has recently contracted a 180-day decommissioning project in the Mediterranean, keeping the vessel contracted until the end of Q1 of 2024. And the well enhancer is contracted for all of 2023 also. Both vessels have already been awarded multiple scopes for 2024 with further increased rates. As mentioned, the Q7000 completed its pay transit to Malaysia to undertake dry dock that commenced in early February. Upon completion, the vessel commenced its paid transit to New Zealand to commence a contracted well abandonment campaign. The vessel is then scheduled to carry out paid transit to Australia to undertake work in the second half of 2023 for a seven well abandonment campaign for Cooper Energy and then contracted further work for two clients possibly pushing the schedule into Q1 of 2024. The Q7000 is then contracted for 12 months plus options estimated to commence subject to the schedule in Australia at the end of Q1 or early Q2 of 2024 for abandonment work with Shell in Brazil, including the paid transit to Brazil. So the Q7000 is now contracted well into 2025, and we already have visibility and work following on in 2025. Moving on to slide 14. In Brazil, we had good utilization of 97% in the first quarter. The CM Helix 1 was 94% utilized in Q1. undertaking work on the two-year decommissioning project for Trident, performing work on five wells in the quarter. The CM Helix II had a strong quarter with 100% utilization, completing production enhancement work on one well and decommissioning activity on four wells with Petrobras. As expected, 2023 is shaping up to be a far better year for us in Brazil compared to 2022, with both vessels being back to well intervention rates, and we are pleased to have three vessels contracted in the Brazil region in 2024 with the addition of the Q7,000 shell contract. Slide 15 provides detail of our well intervention fleet utilization. Moving on to slide 16 for our robotics review. Robotics continued their strong performance and had another good quarter, performing at high standards with strong utilization, operating five vessels globally during the quarter, primarily working between traction, ROV support, site survey work, and oil and gas and renewables related projects. Robotics continued to expand its service lines and geographical expansion in the renewables market, in Q1 adding two chartered vessels to the fleet and recently contracting two of the recently acquired trenching units off the US East Coast and in Taiwan. In the APAC region, the Grand Canyon II had 100% utilization in Q1. The vessel performed well on the long-term decommissioning project in Thailand. In March, one of the newly acquired T1400 trenching systems completed paid shipping to Singapore and commenced mobilization on the CM Tofez, a project-chartered vessel for a sizable estimated 200-day renewables trenching project in Taiwan. In the North Sea, the Grand Canyon III was utilized 76% in the quarter, performing oil and gas trenching projects for two clients, followed by an oil and gas ROV support scope. The vessel commenced a renewable trenching project at the end of the quarter for another customer. The Horizon Enabler had 13 days of spot vessel utilisation completing renewables trenching works for one customer. Both the trenching vessels in the North Sea have a strong backlog for 2020 trenching season with a mix of renewable and oil and gas trenching works. Due to our continued expansion in renewables, in February in the North Sea we chartered a smaller vessel, the Global Glomar Wave, to undertake site clearance, boulder and ordnance removal and site survey operations. The vessel agreement is a three-year charter with committed days each year. The vessel is currently working on an estimated 180-day ordnance removal project. In the USA, the Shida borderline, a Jones Act-compliant vessel was utilised 98% in Q1. The vessel performed works in the Gulf of Mexico to support a seismic node intubation project that should continue into Q3. On the US East Coast, the recently acquired iPlow trenching system was mobilised on a client-provided vessel and convinced work undertaken site clearance preparation for wind farm supports. again expanding the services that we offer in the renewables sector. Helix Robotics is performing well, and we have a good backlog and visibility globally in tightening markets, both in oil and gas and global renewables markets, and we're expecting strong performance in 2023 and beyond, and are enjoying our service and geographical expansion in the renewables sector. Slide 17 details our robotics vessels' already entrenched in utilization. Slide 18 provides an overview of our shallow water decommissioning and construction support service business, Helix Alliance, reported with our shallow water abandonment segments. Shallow water work tends to be seasonally affected in the winter months due to the winter weather conditions, leading to lower utilisation and seasonal stacking for some of our assets in the quarter. The offshore division had nine liftboats operating in Q1, with a combined utilisation of 86%, performing decommissioning services such as well abandonment and pipeline abandonment. Offshore also supplied six OSVs and one crew boat with a combined utilization of 39%. In Q1, the Energy Services Division had 1,039 days of operations or 77% utilization for the 15 marketable P&A systems deployed conducting decommissioning services. The division had 238 days of operations or 44% utilization for the six cool tubing systems. The diving and heavy lift division, due to the seasonal conditions, had expected low utilization of 31% across the three diving vessels. And the heavy lift barge was, as expected, seasoning warm spec for most of the quarter, undertaking one short lift project for one customer. Slide 19 provides detail for the Helix Alliance Vessel and Systems' recent utilization. Before I hand over the call to Brent, I would again like to thank our Helix employees and partners for producing the results in a good quarter, again with strong operational efficiency. 2023 is really shaping up well for Helix. We've added some new assets and added two chartered vessels that have led to service-guided geographical expansion. We are hiring new employees globally, and the market is much improved for all of our businesses, leading to strong utilization for our vessels that should lead us to produce a strong year. For the next few years, we expect to be in a strong position with some well-won long-term contracts, contracted high utilization for our spot assets, improving rates and generally better terms and conditions. I'll now turn the call over to Brent.

Thanks, Scotty. Moving to slide 21, it outlines our debt instruments and their maturity profile as of March 31. Our total funded debt decreased to $267 million at quarter end with semi-annual MARAD payments. 2023 converts with remaining principal of $30 million mature in Q3 this year. Moving on, slide 22 provides an update on key balance sheet metrics. including cash, liquidity, long-term debt, and net debt levels at year-end. With cash of $167 million, our net debt position was $91 million. At year-end, under our ABL facility, we had no borrowings outstanding and $80 million of availability, with resulting liquidity of $247 million. I will now turn the call over to Eric for a discussion on our outlook for 2023 and beyond. Thanks, Brent.

As you've heard this morning, we've had a solid start to 2023, and the offshore market continues to show its strength. We're maintaining our guidance for 23, revenue of $1 billion to $1.2 billion, EBITDA $210 million to $250 million, free cash flow generation of $110 to $150 million, with the capital spend expected to be $50 to $70 million. Based on our first quarter results and on the strength of the market, we are currently trending towards the higher end of our guidance range. These ranges include some key assumptions and estimates. Any significant variation from these key assumptions and estimates could cause our results to fall outside the ranges provided. Our quarterly results are likely to continue to be impacted by the seasonal weather, North Sea and Gulf of Mexico shelf, primarily the fourth quarter. In addition, the timing of our vessel maintenance periods and project mobilizations will cause variances between quarters. Overall, we expect the second half of 2023 to be stronger than the first half, with the third quarter likely being our strongest quarter. Providing key assumptions by segment and region, starting on slide 25, first with our well intervention segment. The Gulf of Mexico is expected to continue to be a very strong market, with improving rates and expected strong utilization on the Q4000 and Q5000. Q4000 is currently in dry dock and expected to last approximately 75 days. In the UK North Sea, both vessels have contracted work into Q4 with the seawall having worked into Q1 of 2024. Both vessels completed short maintenance periods in Q1. Activity levels in the North Sea well intervention market continue to be robust. The Q7000 is currently in Australian waters mobilizing for its TUI New Zealand project The project is scheduled to start mid-Q2. The vessel has contracted work in the APAC region into late Q4 or early Q1 of 2024. In Brazil, the CM Helix 2 is contracted into mid-December of 2024 with Petrobras, and the CM Helix 1 is contracted, performing well-abandoned work for Trident into Q4 of 2024. Moving to the robotic segment, side 26, The robotics segment continues to benefit from the tight market where both oil and gas market and the renewables market are actively competing for assets. In the APAC region, the Grand Canyon II contracted to perform decommissioning and ROV support work in Thailand into the second half of 23 with expected good utilization for the balance of 23 in that region. In addition, one of the recently acquired T1400 trenchers is being mobilized for contracted projects in Q2 and Q3. The North Sea, the Grand Canyon III is contracted to perform trenching work with expected strong utilization for 2023. The Horizon Enabler with its flexible charter has trenching projects in Q2 and Q3. The Glomar Lave, recently chartered for site clearance and UXO removal, is forecasted to have good utilization. In the U.S., Shalia Borland is working in the Gulf of Mexico performing ROV survey work with opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. East Coast. The vessel is expected to have strong utilization for 2023. And the recently acquired I-PLAUS completed a site clearance project off the East Coast of the U.S. For production facilities, the HP-1 is on contract for the balance of 23 with no expected change. We have expected variability with production as the Droschke Field continues to deplete. Maintenance work was completed on the Thunderhawk production facility in mid-April, with the field coming online late April. Continuing on slide 27 for our shallow water abandonment segment, the Sheltie Commissioning Market continues to be active. We expect the Marine Offshore Division to maintain good utilization of eight to nine lift boats with some variable seasonality on the OSV and crew boats. The Energy Services Division should have strong utilization for 12 to 15 P&A spreads and one to three cold tubing units during 2023. There is seasonality in the diving and heavy lift division where the epicudrine is currently idle with limited near-term opportunities. We do expect an active season during Q2 and Q3. Moving to slide 28, our CAPEX forecast for 23 is heavily impacted by the dry docks and maintenance periods on our Q vessels. The Q7000 and Q5000 completed their maintenance period, and the Q4000 is currently on the blocks. With a heavy regulatory year and inclusion of Helix Alliance, our CAPEX range for 23 continues to be in the $50 to $70 million range. with a significant amount expected here. Our cash spend in Q1 was approximately $24 million. The majority of our CapEx forecasts continues to be maintenance and project related, which primarily falls into our operating cash flows. Reviewing our balance sheet, our funded debt of $267 million at March 31st was expected to decrease by $34 million during the balance of 23 with scheduled principal payments. I'll skip the remaining slides and leave them for your reference. This time I'll turn the call back to Owen for further discussion of our outlook and for closing comments. Owen?

Thanks, Eric. As you've heard, 2023 has started well. Helix is currently exceeding our initial 2023 expectations. Our initial guidance for the year was $210 million to $250 million EBITDA. And while it may be too soon to update the guidance due to the normal gives and takes of the remainder of the year, we can say that we're currently trending toward the upper end of the guidance. Q1 is typically a bit messy. It's impacted by how much of the prior year's clients' budgeted work carries into the new year, how early the new year's budgeted work begins, and how much maintenance work on our assets is scheduled. Of course, offshore work is always impacted due to the seasonality of the weather. This is also why we historically scheduled dry docks and related CapEx expenditures for Q1. The negative impact to our quarterly free cash flow is just a timing issue resulting from the front-end loading of this CapEx. The year-over-year comparison of Q1 results demonstrates that demand is strong and increasing, even while we incurred a meaningful amount of scheduled maintenance during the quarter and the Q7000 was in transit from West Africa to Asia Pacific region. Results were positively impacted by having our two vessels in Brazil back on multi-year contracts doing well intervention work at better rates. These and other rates were agreed prior to the surge in demand. The contracts do have escalating rates built in and future pricing of options means we expect to see continued improving results over the next few years. Rates for our intervention services continues to improve as rig rates continue to increase. We're seeing strong demand for our services to maximize existing production. Decommissioning work in general also continues to be strong, especially in the Gulf of Mexico shelf as a result of increasing number of mature fields reaching the end of production and the strong desire to see oil fields abandoned in an environmentally safe manner. On the renewables front, we see steadily increasing demand. This industry has been led by the UK, Norway, and the EU, but on a global basis, many regions are now launching lease sales for future development. The time lag from lease sales to actual work can be as long as five to seven years, which indicates that this should be a growing market for many years to come. We expect contributions to our returns from this market to grow with the market over time. Overall, we expect to be strongly free cash flow positive for the foreseeable future. Our current course is to first, build cash to be able to cash settle our remaining debt on maturity. Second, continue to execute the share repurchase plan as announced and in line with our free cash flow generation. And third, assess our options for growth beyond the operating leverage of our current assets. A key to growth in a cyclical industry while generating a strong return on capital is timing. We plan to be patient and selective as we explore opportunities. We believe there will be select potentials for growth within the three buckets of our business model. First, maximizing remaining reserves. Second, decommissioning. And then third, offshore wind support. All three are poised for sustainable growth in the years ahead. We look forward to continuing to execute on what is shaping up to be a strong 2023. We believe we've positioned ourselves well to capture the current market, be opportunistic about future growth, and continue to deliver value to our shareholders. Eric?

Thanks, Owen. Operator, at this time, we're ready to take any questions.

Perfect. If you would like to register a question, please press the 1 followed by the four on your telephone keypad. You will hear a three-tone prompt to acknowledge your request. If your question has been answered and you would like to withdraw your registration, please press the one followed by the three. Our first question comes from the line of Greg Lewis. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hey, good morning, everybody. You know, guys, hey, thanks for the updated detailed guidance. You know, I typically wouldn't ask this question because you kind of addressed it. You know, but just given some of the weakness in the stock today, you know, Eric and Owen, you made some comments about, you know, kind of trending towards the high end of the guidance, realizing we haven't changed it. Could you maybe give us a little bit of color around why we're kind of expecting now trending towards the higher end of the range? Just was it incremental workbook to better pricing, maybe getting a better handle on costs? Any kind of color you can give us around that?

Yeah, I'll go ahead and start off. I think there's a few drivers which we tried to highlight in our slides. I think first, I think we've been able to secure additional work. I think we had two big contract wins here in the first quarter with the signing of the trenching project in Taiwan, and of course, being able to fill in a gap on the Q7000 in the Australian market. I think those are definitely improvements. I think overall, though, what gives us confidence in why we feel that we're trending towards the upper range is the continued strength of the market. We're still seeing rates improving, obviously not at the pace of last year, but we're still seeing a steady increase improvement there I think we're in conversations where our customers are making plans for 2024 already and and to a certain extent where our assets or our utilization is filling out quite extensively in 23 I think so all those things are really helping us trend towards the upper end of the range I don't know Owen if you have anything to add

No, just simplification. At the time of giving guidance, it's all a function of utilization and rates. And both right now with what we're booking in the second, third, and fourth quarter, utilization-wise and rate-wise are exceeding the assumptions that we made in our initial guidance.

Great. And then around pricing, clearly last year was a nice monster move higher than Things definitely seem to be trending in the right direction. You did mention that we are starting to look at, not even look at, we actually are taking some work, some contracted work into 24. Any kind of loose, rough estimates you can give us around how the pricing dynamic is evolving in 24 versus where we are today? Okay.

I'll take that. So first of all, in Brazil, the contracts for the two vessels are fixed, so there's not much we can do in Brazil. But North Sea, we have been awarded work, and the price has been increased, an increase in sort of 15% to 20% year over year. In the Gulf of Mexico, we're still increasing pricing. Every tender that goes out, there's a bit of an increase on the pricing, and we're securing work. So Gulf of Mexico and North Sea wellness prevention markets, we're definitely seeing a year over year increase. In robotics, the trenching market is very robust thanks to the renewables expansion, and so we're increasing pricing there. Supply and demand issues mainly, but in the robotics and renewables market, vessels have just been taken up because it's expanding globally, and we're seeing that our services are required an increase in pricing.

Yeah, and then I did want to just kind of touch on that, the horizon enabler, which is on that flexible contract, It seems like the renewables, I guess we'll just broadly call it, the offshore renewables market is continuing to improve. Obviously, your vessels are keeping busy. Is there any thoughts about maybe, or I'll ask it this way, is management worried about vessel availability? on the chartering inside to do work as kind of we look out over the next 12 months?

No, I would say that we're quite well covered for the assets that we have, and we have options going into 2024. Remember, last year we took the charters on the Grand Canyon vessels out for five years, so we have solid pricing and cost base for the Grand Canyon charters. We have an option on the sheet of board along going into 24-25. We have an option on the horizon enabling going into 25. So we're quite well set. We will be on the look for further vessels as the U.S. market increases.

Okay, and that was kind of what I was getting at, not your availability. I'm saying, like, as you look at the potential, the projects that are out there and work you want to go win, it almost looks to me like you're going to – have to go out to the charter end market to bring in another vessel or two?

I'll jump in here. I would say the market is very, very tight on the wind side and the oil and gas side. Vessels are just tight in all the classes. We feel like we're comfortably set, but we worry about vessel access both having too many and too few, depending on where we are in the cycle. Right now, I think we're comfortable It's going to be hard to add additional tonnage at a reasonable rate, so it depends on where the rates go in the market as to how much you could capture of the growth opportunity. Right now, I would say that we're probably sitting asset light compared to what we could work, but I think sitting asset light in a tight and rate-improving market is the right position to be sitting in.

And that's the reason why we just took the EC and topaz for the Asia trenching and also the Glamour Wave on the three-year contract to support our site clearance market. You know, we've been gingerly coming into the site clearance market, and we've seen that expand, and that's why we've gone all in on a three-year deal for the Glamour Wave.

Perfect. Okay. Hey, thank you very much for the time.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of David Smith. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. Thank you for taking my question.

Good morning.

So net debt near 90 million, you know, at the midpoint of your free cashflow outlook, you would be net debt negative by year end, you know, despite returning 25% of free cashflow through repurchases. So I wanted to ask how much flexibility there might be on that 25%, you know, uh, free cashflow return framework. and maybe how you see the trade-off between targeting net debt neutrality versus buying back your stock that looks to be approaching a low-teens free cash flow yield.

So, yeah, I think obviously on the numbers that you cited, I think you're directly correct. I think it's important that as we initiated our share repurchase program, we set an initial target of 25%. Obviously, that is something that we're going to monitor and manage. Obviously, there will be an opportunity to increase that. I think part of that is as we start generating our outlook for 24, and our cash position for 24. So it's an initial target that we put out there, David, and we'll continue to look at it as, you could say, our outlook and visibility continues to grow. And so I think there is room for, you could say, upwards revisions to that going forward. In general, I still think, obviously, we tried to outline the parameters that are important to us from a cash generation, cash management. We do have the maturity debt that we feel we need to be in a position to cash settle. We do have the earn out. associated with alliance which will be due in early uh in early uh 2024 and so we have these these competing needs for for our cash that we're balancing but we feel good about uh the position that we're in and the direction that we're going with with our cash and once again i think we'll have the opportunity to revisit our positions as we go forward i appreciate the color and if i could ask

A slightly long follow-up, maybe a little bit bigger picture question, but if I remember correctly, the original thesis for the heavy well intervention vessels is you could do the P&A and intervention work more efficiently than a rig. You could build a vessel at a discount to the rig and price it at a discount to the rig. I think you've demonstrated the efficiency improvement. Certainly, during the downturn, it looked like you were pricing the Q4 and Q5 at or better prices. than where market rates troughed for deepwater rigs. So I wanted to ask, with deepwater rig rates back into the 400 K per day plus range, should we think about the opportunity for the heavy well intervention vessel pricing to migrate back to that historical discount to the deepwater rigs? Or might there be an opportunity to close that historical discount just given the demonstrated efficiency advantages versus the rigs?

I'll take that. I think historically you'll find that during strong demand cycles, we are able to close that discount. In fact, for a brief period back in 2013, we were actually pricing at a premium to rigs because of our efficiency. But there's two components of the rate increases going forward that I'm looking at. One is in response to where the rig rates go, and I believe the rig rates are going to go higher, and therefore all of our spot rates can move higher. But then on top of that, we entered into these multi-year contracts and some MSAs giving pricing prior to 2022, which are at substantially lower than current market rates. So as those... and those contracts kick in each year, and then as those contracts roll over and we're able to price back to the spot market, then there's a substantial potential for rate increase for some of our main assets.

I'll just add, I think you're picking up on the heavy intervention rigs, but you should also think of the North Sea and the light intervention where our rates are substantially higher than rig rates purely because of our efficiencies. Rigs in the North Sea are generally moored, and they're probably at about 50 or 60% of the current rates we charter in the North Sea because of the pure efficiencies of not having to put out anchors and other services.

I appreciate that extra color.

Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of James Shum. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, everybody. Good morning. The midpoint of the robotics revenue guidance calls for an increase of about 9% or so this year. Can we expect a similar EBIT or EBITDA uplift in 2023?

I think overall, Jim, I think that our – I think that our – probably our EBIT would off the top of my head, more than likely be flat at best. I don't think you assume a dollar-for-dollar increase there.

Eric, that's because less trenching work? Is that what's driving that?

I think there were some obviously increased costs that started flowing through our structure as we've added more charters. I think we naturally expected it to be a little bit more challenging with a few of the contracts that we were able to execute in 22 above improvements over our fixed pricing, and so we were able to get excellent margins. Some of that was a combination of better weather and better execution from our operations. As we planned and forecasted our 23, we assumed that area would more than likely be flat. We didn't necessarily expect to see improvements in those areas.

Understood. Thank you. From an earnings perspective, can we expect a sequential benefit for the Q7000 in 2Q? And if so, can you quantify that? I know there's a lot of moving pieces with MOB and DMOB and the accounting for that. So, I don't know if you could provide any help there.

So, yeah, the Q7 is going to, in general, have a lot of noise in our quarterly results. Here in the first quarter, no revenue, but we still had some costs flow through the P&L, our depreciation of some of our RMs. Here in the second quarter, we expected to start working in the May timeframe. And then from that standpoint, as we recognize the revenue, we're going to be recognizing our daily rate. plus the amortization of the deferred revenue and deferred costs. And so overall, it's going to appear with a very high day rate and a very high cost in our daily numbers. Overall, obviously we expect improvements to the overall Q7000 P&L performance quarter over quarter. And we expect to be in a position, obviously, of generating positive cash here as it goes to work.

Okay. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Don Crist. Please go ahead.

Good morning, gentlemen. How are you all today? Good. Thanks. I wanted to ask a bigger picture question. You know, we recently saw one of the drilling contractors sign a contract for P&A work, and that at least indicated to me that the market is really tight and should remain tight for many years to come. And I just wanted to ask about when you're having customer conversations out there, are they getting a little bit more desperate today to on work for 24 and 25 and more willing to sign contracts farther out than we were call it nine or 12 months ago today. How are those customer conversations going?

I think you're right. I think the customers are starting to worry about availability. They are looking for longer term commitments at today's pricing. Of course, the corollary to that is the contractors are a little worried about giving today's pricing in an environment where the rates are continuing to move up. Going into this year, we were willing to give rates for two years, but not beyond that because we didn't know where the market was going. As a result, we've got some contracts that are priced below the current market for the next couple of years. So we're sort of in that same boat. We're a bit leery about giving contract pricing too far out in this robust market, but you are right. There are a number of producers that are looking for a multi-year commitment on long-term contracts and just long-term priced MSAs.

So does that lend you to do more kind of variable rate or quarterly repricing contracts going forward? Is that what we should see on any new contracts?

It takes two forms. One, we can just set higher rates in the contract as the years progress, or you can pick a rate and tie it to an index. Those are the two main mechanisms.

Okay, I appreciate the color. It looks like there's several good years coming up. I appreciate the color. Thanks.

Thank you.

As a reminder, it is the one followed by the four on your telephone keypad to register a question. Our next question comes from the line of Samantha Ho. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Just a real quick one for me. I was wondering if you could maybe address the cost side of the equation a bit more. You know, maybe just even on the SG&A line, but also in terms of just what you're seeing on like labour and material and that good stuff.

Yes, so obviously the labour market is very tight at the moment. At the start of this year we implemented some good salary increases for all of our employees, both onshore and offshore. So our costs have increased, but that's also in line with pushing our rates up as well. Supply chain is also tightening. Those rates are going up, so we are definitely seeing an increase in cost, but we're countering that with an increase in rates.

And then I think on the SG&A side, obviously, I think there has been an impact, obviously, from the, you could say, inflation that's been seen out there. In addition to that, from our standpoint, we're going to see the full year impact of the acquisition of Alliance in our numbers. So overall, from a dollar standpoint, we do expect an increase. I think overall, we do focus on SG&A that's less than 10% of our revenues. I think this quarter we're just under 8%, and I expect it to be in that 8% to 9% range going forward.

Okay, that was it for me.

Thanks. At this time, there are no further phone questions. I'll turn it back to you speakers to continue the presentation or give any closing remarks.

Okay, thanks for joining us today. We very much appreciate your interest and participation and look forward to having you on our second quarter 2023 call in July. Thank you.

That does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please disconnect your lines.