Precision Drilling Corporation

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Precision Drilling Corporation 2020 First Quarter Results Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants' lines 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 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Mr. Dustin Honing, Manager, Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Daniel, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Precision Drilling's first quarter 2020 earnings conference call and webcast. Participating today on the call with me are Kevin Nebu, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Carey Ford, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Through our news release earlier today, Precision reported its first quarter 2020 results. Please note these financial figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated. Some of our comments today will refer to non-IFRS financial measures such as EBITDA and operating earnings. Please see our news release for additional disclosure on these financial measures. Our comments today will include forward-looking statements regarding Precision's future results and prospects. We caution you that these forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. Please see our news release and other regulatory filings for more information on forward-looking statements and these risk factors. Kevin will begin today's call with an overview of Precision's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Carey will then discuss our first quarter financial results, followed by Kevin's operational update and outlook. With that, I'll turn it over to you, Kevin.

Good afternoon, and thank you, Dustin. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been profound. As a global population, we share the health risk anxieties for ourselves and our families. We are all managing the stay-at-home orders, the travel bans, and living through the resulting economic downturn and job losses. The same applies to precision. We rely on highly trained teams of 15 to 25 people, the rig crews, working in close quarters to execute our business. As an essential service, our people are required to work, yet they must also deal with the same personal concerns, health risks, contact risks, and family anxieties we all face. This weighs heavily on our people, and I am deeply proud of the highly professional attitude and exceptional level of performance they continue to demonstrate in these challenging times. Now, you may recall on Precision's fourth quarter mid-February earnings call, we identified the potential risks and impacts Thank you very much. We have avoided any interruptions in our service. We've experienced no rig shutdowns and no work-related virus outbreaks. I want to thank all the people of Precision who have worked safely and productively through this troubling period, fully sustaining our services to our customers as an essential component of the global energy supply infrastructure. Now, as the world responded with all the measures to flatten the curve and limit the spread of the virus, we expected oil demand destruction. We expected reduced commodity prices, reduced customer demand. However, we did not anticipate the second compounding Black Swan event, the OPEC Plus breakdown, and the oil price war that led to negative WTI prices at the end of the prior forward contract period. Nonetheless, we responded quickly and aggressively, implemented a series of business measures, which Carey will outline shortly. All are focused on preserving cash, embracing precision for an extended and deep downturn. We believe these measures, which will save precision in excess of $100 million in cash outflows this year, and most of these measures are sustainable through the downturn, will position precision as a leader and stronger driller for the inevitable recovery. I do want to express my best wishes for a full and speedy recovery to anyone who is exposed to or affected by the COVID-19 virus. I also want to express my sadness to the thousands of oil field workers, including those from Precision, who, through no fault of their own, have lost their jobs, in some cases their careers and their livelihoods. It's my expectation that we will look to be a track back many of those Precision people when this industry recovers. I'll now turn the call over to Carey Ford to discuss our second quarter results and the cost-saving initiatives.