Noble Corporation

Thank you for standing by. My name is Carly, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Noble Corporation Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Ian McPherson, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and welcome everyone to Noble Corporation's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. You can find a copy of our earnings report along with the supporting statements and schedules on our website at noblecorp.com. We will reference an earnings presentation that's posted on the Investor Relations page of our website. Today's call will feature prepared remarks from our President and CEO, Robert Eisler, as well as our CFO, Richard Barker. We also have with us Blake Benton, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Contracts, and Julie Kolaja, Senior Vice President of Operations. During the course of this call, we may make certain forward-looking statements regarding various matters related to our business and companies that are not historical facts. Such statements are based upon current expectations and assumptions of management and, therefore, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. Many factors can cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements, and Noble does not assume any obligation to update these statements. Also note we are referencing non-GAAP financial measures on the call today. You can find the required supplemental disclosure for these measures, including the most directly comparable GAAP measure and an associated reconciliation in our earnings report issued yesterday and filed with the SEC. Now, I'll turn the call over to Robert Eifler, President and CEO of Noble.

Thanks, Ian. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call today. I'll open with a brief summary of our key three highlights and recent contract awards, then provide some perspective on the market outlook. Richard will provide more detail on the financials before I wrap up with closing remarks and move on to Q&A. During the third quarter, we earned adjusted EBITDA of $254 million generated free cash flow of 139 million dollars and received an additional 87 million dollars in net disposal proceeds we again distributed 80 million dollars to shareholders through our 50 cent quarterly dividend and yesterday our board declared a 50 cent per share dividend for the fourth quarter bringing total 2025 capital returns to 340 million dollars The highly competitive cash yield on our stock continues to be a critical component of our story as we traverse this mid-cycle lull for our industry. Before we discuss the market, I'd like to commend and thank our crews and operating teams for achieving excellent operational uptime and HSE performance. Aided by tools like our NORMS, Horizon 56, and operations performance platforms, Our teams have continued to push the envelope in technically challenging well construction and completion activities. In Guyana, our drill ships continue to post record-setting results within the Wells Alliance. We have now constructed over 200 wells in the basin, delivering 60% of the most recent 25 wells in under 35 days. In the U.S. Gulf, the Noble Black Hornet set a new benchmark in deepwater drilling operations. earning high praise from the customer for outstanding execution of MPD influx management on a complex exploration well. Nearby, the noble black lion recently performed the longest step out yet for BP in the Gulf at over 12,500 feet, which was also delivered well ahead of AFE. Results like these continue to be a defining success story for the deepwater industry and are leading the way in bringing deepwater sharply down the cost curve. and thereby structurally increasing the size of the prize. We've also had another solid quarter on the commercial front, with backlog increasing to $7 billion currently on the back of several key contract awards. First, the Noble Black Lion and Noble Black Hornet have both been extended by an additional two years by BP and the U.S. Gulf, extending the rigs into September 2028 and February 2029, respectively. These extensions are valued at $310 million per rig, excluding NPD services, and both come with an additional one-year priced option. These contract extensions further amplify the merits of the diamond acquisition, which has materially over-delivered on our original accretion expectations, as the legacy diamond rigs continue to perform and recontract at very high levels. We are thrilled to continue the Black Lion and Black Hornet's long-term assignments, which will now be approaching one decade in tenure. These long-duration engagements demonstrate the power of the deeply collaborative service posture that we've been working hard to cultivate over the past several years in order to drive value for our customers and earn their repeat work through dependable performance. Next, the Jackup Noble Resolute has been awarded a one-year contract with E&I in the Dutch North Sea at a day rate of $125,000. This contract is expected to commence later this quarter. And the Noble Interceptor has booked a five-month accommodation contract with Ocker BP in Norway, which is scheduled to start next August. Lastly, the 6G-Semi Noble developer has had an option exercised by Petronas for an additional well early next year, and the drill ship Noble Venturer was awarded a one-well contract from Omni in Ghana at a day rate of $450,000. This well is scheduled to follow in direct continuation of ongoing Tullow work in Ghana, which is expected to resume in its second phase within the next several days before the rig mobilizes to the U.S. Gulf for long-term work commencing in late 2027. Beyond these specific contract awards, the broader contracting and utilization trends in deepwater are showing gradual signs of stabilization and improvement. The committed UDW rig count of approximately 100 rigs and low 90% marketed utilization is in fact up slightly compared to recent quarters, despite some lingering near-term availability across several units with longer dated contract starts. Additionally, deepwater contracting momentum is on an uptrend with an average of 18 UDW rig years per quarter fixed in Q2 and Q3 this year, up 10% compared to the preceding two years. These are encouraging indicators there remains a significant number of additional fixtures anticipated over the next few months noble's backlog picture as summarized on page five of the earnings presentation slides shows 57 contract coverage across our entire fleet in 2026. when zooming in to our 15 high-spec drill ships we are now 70 booked for available days in 2026 excluding options however We have active conversations behind all of our available rigs in 2026, including the Jerry D'Souza, Viking and Black Rhino. And while we are also tracking the number of contract opportunities across the balance of the fleet with jackups and floaters. Securing additional work for these three drill ships is a key priority and our objective is to obtain 90 to 100% contract coverage across our 15 high spec drill ships by the second half of next year. On the jack up side, activity in the harsh environment northern Europe market has been stable at 28 rigs and marketed utilization at 90%. Flat was last quarter, with leading edge day rates for drilling programs in the southern North Sea holding flattish. Although the contracting environment has remained relatively subdued, we do have line of sight towards several opportunities that we hope to be able to book relatively soon. With the interceptors pending reactivation, we now have improving contract coverage for all five of our ultra harsh CJ 70 jackups as we progress through next year. While our six harsh rigs presently have limited contract coverage in 2026, we do expect this picture to improve based on several bidding opportunities currently in process. Overall, we are encouraged by the shape of things and the opportunity set at hand. which includes a broad range of UDW requirements throughout the Golden Triangle, Asia Pacific, Mozambique, Mediterranean, and the harsh environment basins. The pipeline for early 2026 jobs is still significantly more limited compared to late 26 and early 27. But at this point, we are not seeing indications of additional project or procurement deferrals. Assuming reasonably stable oil prices, The path toward a methodically tightening clutter market with deeper backlog appears to be on track. Now I'll pass it over to Richard to discuss the financials.