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spk08: Thank you. Good morning and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this presentation of CDG's first quarter 2023 reserves. The call today is hosted from Paris, where Mrs. Sophie Zierkia, our Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Jerome Cerf, our Group CFO, will provide an overview of the quarter reserves, as well provide comments on our outlook. Let me remind you that some of the information contains forward-looking statements, subject to risk and uncertainties that may change at any time, and therefore, the actual results may differ materially from those that were expected. Following the overview of the quarter, we will be pleased to take your questions, and now I will turn the call over to Sophie.
spk00: Thank you, Christophe. Good morning and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for participating in this Q1 2023 conference call. We move now to slide five. Let me start with some general comments on the evolution of our businesses and market environment during the quarter. Overall, commercial activity was strong across all our businesses and geographic locations this quarter. Exploration activities are picking up as clients are increasingly looking for new advantage reserves with lower breaches in prices and lower emissions, including IOCs, which we hadn't seen much of in 2022. To respond to projected supply-demand balance, our clients are also continuing to accelerate their field development programs. Many of our clients today are starting to face lack of resource challenges after downsizing their organizations and losing geoscientists to low-carbon divisions. We have seen the strongest increase of activity in the Gulf of Mexico, Norway, and the Middle East, which all have been very active, and we all started to see increases in other parts of the world including Asia-Pacific. Offshore, particularly offshore deporter, is attracting a larger share of E&P investments, and as such, high-end geoscience is increasingly required to de-risk subsurface and operational risks. We are well-positioned to support our clients with our high-end technology and integrated capabilities. I am pleased to report that our core business and technology development efforts, as well as our investments in our beyond the core business initiatives, have paid off. We saw the recent award of three very large integrated imaging projects for NOCs, and also achieved our first signature for a commercial HPC and cloud solution services contract outside of the energy industry and academic world, which is a real milestone in the establishment of this new business. We also delivered our first Gulf Coast U.S. CCUS screening study during the quarter. Overall, Q1 was a solid start to the year, with improving performance across three business lines. Geoscience revenue was $79 million, up 5% year-on-year on external revenue. The level of order intake at the end of the quarter was up 31% year-on-year, and this doesn't include the large integrated projects that we were awarded in April. Earthdata had a good quarter thanks to stable aftersales at $13 million and high pre-funding at $35 million. On a pro forma basis, adjusting for the sale of our U.S. land library, aftersales were up 36%. Sensing and monitoring had a better quarter thanks to the early delivery of a set of streamers in a market environment that tends to be lumpy and still driven by significant runoff orders. Large tenders in the Middle East and North Africa for land and OBN equipment are positive signals for active Q2 and Q3 quarters. Overall, our Q1 revenue reached $210 million, up 37% year-on-year. Segment EBITDA was $66 million, a 31% margin, and up 71% year-on-year. Net cash flow was $1 million. Now on slide seven. DDE segment revenue was solid this quarter at 144 million, up 21% year-on-year, with growth in both geoscience and earth data. Profitability was impacted by our compensation for underutilization of vessels. Moving on to geoscience on slide 8. Geoscience external revenue was $79 million in Tier 1, up 5% with growth coming from all regions. The market is strengthening with a higher level of bid submissions worldwide. Backlog is up 22% year-on-year, thanks to order intake value being up 31% from Q1 last year, tracking back to 2019 levels. As mentioned, this increase in backlog doesn't include the three large multi-year integrated projects that were recently awarded to CGG by three different national oil companies. Overall, we see the size and content of projects significantly increasing, with more demand for advanced imaging technologies together with integrated geoscience services. Historically, NOCs have asked for higher levels of integrated services in their projects, but we are starting to see a similar trend with independents and IOCs who are short of resources and trust our highly data-driven products. The total production per head KPI continues to strengthen, and is now above 2019 levels. While we also are looking to increase our headcount to respond to higher demand for our services, we have gained in efficiencies and are increasingly using advanced AI-driven algorithms to perform some of the previously people-intensive tasks. Moving on to slide nine. In geoscience, CGD has always pioneered new and disruptive technologies, like today with our unique Elastic 4-Wave Forming version. It is interesting to realize that today, the management of these technologies is utilized more broadly by all customer profiles and across all locations, such as offshore. Advanced technologies have been most required, but also now more and more in shallow water and even on land where precision matters. These advanced algorithms enable our clients to significantly improve their understanding of the subsurface, reduce risk, and increase their drilling success. The image you see here from southern Mexico is a clear example of improvements that technology can bring. The image offers a seamless view of the subsurface, from shallow water to transition zone and land, with many critical details. The project includes both onshore and offshore areas, covered by multiple ocean bottom cable and land serves. Land and transition zone four-way forming version is very challenging due to the limitation of input data. This is where TGD excels with our advanced technology and expertise. The financed image provides significant uplift over the 2021 legacy dataset. In Beyond the Core, CCUS screening and monitoring design are two areas with increasing demand. and we just completed a study in the Gulf of Mexico, which again, as mentioned earlier, saw first delivery in Q1. I am particularly pleased with the signature of our contracts with Biosimilintics. Bios technology is one of our target verticals for offering our specialized HPC and cloud services solutions. I will comment more on a later slide. Now going on to slide 10. In UAE during the quarter, We completed nearly all the processing of the largest ever OBN acquisition program. This OBN acquisition project covered a total area of more than 26,000 square kilometers. More than 2 million sensors were deployed, resulting in approximately 700 billion recorded seismic traces. This was a technological challenge that we stepped up to. and addressed thanks to our outstanding people and technology, supported by the largest HPC capacity in the industry. The project led to CDG winning another challenging imaging project, which entails the processing of the densest multi-component survey acquired in the world. On slide 11. Back to our new contract with biosimiletics. CDD will be the exclusive HPC cloud partner of Biosimiletics, a pharma software company that uses artificial intelligence to accelerate drug development. CDD will be providing Biosimiletics with a fully customized cloud HPC solution. Thanks to our experience of designing, developing, hosting, and optimizing scientific workflows on specialized HPCs at an industrial scale, we are very well positioned and have the unique expertise to optimize the required IT infrastructure and software to run more efficiently, allowing biosecurity analytics to scale up faster as well as increase their focus on their expertise while not being distracted by HPC optimization. We have other similar opportunities in our pipeline in biotechnology, generative AI, and with industrial companies faced with new or increasing HPC requirements. Moving on to slide 12 now with Earthdata. Earthdata cash capex was 28 million this quarter, down 15% year-over-year. In Brazil, we partnered with TGS in the Foz do Amazonas Basin. In the U.S. GOM, our re-imaging project continued to draw increased interest and pre-funding, and we continued the reprocessing of our stack size program. Pre-funding revenue was solid at 35 million, and came mainly from our Norway and Brazil projects. Aftersales were at 30 million this quarter, stable year on year, even with the divestiture of our US land library in Q4 2022, and were mainly driven by the US Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico is clearly attracting interest from an increasing number of clients, including the deeper and more complex areas that have been quite slow in the last few years. The basin does offer a secure and reasonably stable environment with a relatively lower emission profile and a clear go-to market, and hence why it remains a priority for many of our clients. Going on to slide 13 now. The EarthBaser team had a very active quarter with a few high-profile business initiatives, including a 2D Guyana reprocessing project, which is fully pre-funded by clients, the Suriname project, which we completed this quarter and is filling a data gap in the compellingly quarter area, and preparing for the start of our North Viking gravel east-west acquisition project, a continuation of this successful program. We also started preparation for the highly funded Haimdel Terrace OBN project. On slide 14. In the context of extending our Earth data library, our teams are building a unique comprehensive database of wells covering offshore Guyana, Suriname, and Equatorial Margin. 30 wells offshore Brazil, 7 wells offshore French Guyana, 17 wells offshore Guyana are included in this program, assuming this map. Thanks to our expertise and business best practices, data rights have been agreed with the local road users from each country and then cleaned, processed, interpreted, and integrated. This type of product has been welcomed by our clients, as they do not have the resources to secure the data, clean it comprehensively, and then analyze it with advanced ML and geoscience technologies. But this is key for their interpreters to gain the most accurate understanding of the new data. A Guyana-Suriname GeoWells database is part of a global program to gather relevant well data from around the globe to complement our geology and geophysical products, and continue to build expertise for our integrated projects. We'll move to sensing and monitoring with slide 15. A sensing and monitoring segment revenue was stronger this quarter at $66 million, up 95% year-on-year. This was mainly supported by marine sales at $34 million, which were higher than previous quarters as we delivered a set of streams to research vessels in Asia Pacific. Sales from beyond the core, which includes Geocom and the active defense sector, were also up at 12 million, mainly driven by our structural health monitoring business. At this level of sales, EBITDA of the sensing and monitoring business was breakeven. Slide 16. During the quarter inland, we delivered seismic equipment in North Africa, West Africa, and Asia. We see significant potential for our GPR 300 node, especially in the Middle East, where demand for marine node systems and high-end processing continues to accelerate. During the quarter, we also acquired a small French startup, Mofosense, which complements the structural health monitoring product portfolio of Assemble with a cable system and a digital twin offering. Let me now give the floor to Jérôme for financial comments.
spk01: Thank you, Sophie. Good morning and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I will now comment our Q1 2023 central results. Let me start with the overall Q1 activities. As mentioned by Sophie, our segment revenue was up 37% year-on-year at $210 million, driven by higher SMO sales. You may remember that SMO sales were the record low last year in Q1, as well as higher EDS sales coming from solid pre-funding revenues from Norway and Brazil. Overall, the respective cell contributions from the group's businesses were 38% from geoscience, 31% from EDA, totaling 69% for all EDA segments, and 31% from the SMO segment. SMO representing last year only 22% of all human revenues. Segment EDA was 66 million of 31% margin, This is up to 71% year-on-year. However, note that as expected, the fall through from increased revenues to EBITDA was negatively impacted by the revenue mix. Higher SMO sales bring in lower EBITDA margins than EDD. EBITDA was also negatively impacted by a higher compensation for underutilization of escorts versus last year in EDD. Regarding segment operating income, Q1 was $30 million dollars. or 6% margin. After ESRS 15 adjustment, Q1 operating income was 7 billion. Finally, net income was negative at 16 billion this quarter. Moving on to our cash flow. Q1 23 segment free cash flow was 2 million, so this is after a negative change in working capital of 4 million and capex of 52 million. Versus last year, working capital was impacted by lower collections of Q4 revenues, as well as higher end-of-the-course sales to be collected in Q2. CapEx was 52 million, plus 10 million versus last year, or 23% year-on-year, mainly from higher industrial CapEx related to the construction of the new HPC data center in the UK for 18 million. Research and development capitalized costs were 6 million and multi-client cash capex was 28 million, with a pre-funding ratio of 126%. Below the segment pre-cash flow, main cash items included plus 14 million of asset financing from the EU-UK data center, minus 12 million of lease repayment, and minus 6 million of cash costs linked to the share water idler vessel compensation. So Q1 2023, segment 3 cash flow was 2 million after a negative change in working capital of 4 million and capex of 52 million. But since last year, the working capital was impacted by lower collection of Q4 revenues, as well as higher end-of-the-quarter sales to be collected in Q2. Capex was 52 million, up 10 million, or 23% year-on-year. This is mainly coming from higher industrial capex related to the construction of the new HPC data center in the UK for 18 million. Research and development costs which are capitalized were 6 million for this table versus last year. And multi-client cash capex was 28 million with a pre-funding ratio of 126%. Below the segment free cash flow, the three main cash items were 14 million of asset financing or the new UK data center, minus 12 million of lead repayments and minus 6 million of cash costs linked to the Shearwater Eidol Vestal Compensation. Overall, we ended up Q1 with a net cash flow at plus 1 million. Moving on to the group balance sheets, the group liquidity amounted to 301 million at end of March, excluding 95 million of undrawn RTFs. Before IFRS 16, growth debt was $1.2 billion, and net debt was $905 million. After IFRS 16, net debt was $994 million. At the end of March 2023, the segment leverage ratio of net debt to EVDA was 2.4 times. I will now hand the floor back to Sophie for an outlook of 2023.
spk00: Thank you, Jérôme, and we are now on slide 22 with business trends. In Q1 2023, it became clear that the oil and gas industry's multi-year upcycle was starting to reach CGD's markets. Until recently, it was not certain whether exploration would benefit from increased industry spending. The latest research numbers for offshore exploration now show that exploration spend will increase both in absolute value of the number, above 20%, and as a proportion of the total E&P span, which is the first since 2015. IUCs, although more modestly, are starting to increase their exploration span, and in general are being limited by resource availability to ramp up work. With the highest-end technology, combined with the largest geoscience workforce across the industry, including a broad range of disciplines, and our leading imaging technology, CGD is the best positioned as a partner of choice to our client. Recent fluctuations in oil price is not expected to impact this favorable cycle, especially after years of significant underinvestment. Our clients have all lowered their break-even oil price, which allows them to take a longer-term view. After the GOM that was the first to pick up, we see substantial increase in activity in Norway and more recently in the Middle East. National oil companies have deployed ambitious seismic acquisition projects amongst the most advanced in the world and looks for best-in-class technology to extract the most value from the investments which CDG can provide. Geoscience activity is trending towards 2019 levels with higher demand for advanced technologies, OBN processing and large integrated projects. Demand for our Earth data should continue to be solid, sustained by bid rounds and clients looking to secure new positions as well as demand for our new portfolio as we continue to expand our CCUS library. The sensing and monitoring business should grow significantly in 2023, driven by solid demand for land equipment, node systems, and the promising Beyond the Core SHM business. I am very pleased with the progress of our Beyond the Core initiatives, especially CCUS and SHM, and also by the continued development of our HPC and cloud solutions business, and the recent award of the HPC contract with Biocinematics. In this context, I am confident in our ability to deliver our 2023 financial objectives, and I am increasingly positive in the longer term outlook for CDG. Thank you for your interest, and we're now ready to take your questions.
spk07: Ladies and gentlemen, we now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 1 on your telephone. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 1 1 again. We are now taking the first question. So please stand by. And the first question from Jean-Luc Romain from CAC. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
spk06: Good afternoon. I have two questions, if it's possible. The first is on SMO. Do you think the start of increasing deliveries for land products to the big Middle East land surveys will start in Q2, or is it more a second half story? That's the first question. And the second question is about the Earth data investment in carbon capture. Would you accept to isolate what was dedicated to the investment which was dedicated to CCS characterization? And how do you see it evolving as we are seeing large companies purchase lots of rights specialized especially for this thing in the recent years?
spk00: Well, thank you. Good evening, Jean-Luc. So first a question on SMO in terms of the Middle East land surveys. I think you're referring to the Saudi tenders, which still haven't been awarded. And right now our provisions are for equipment deliveries to be between 2-2 and 2-3. But if you remember, there are two land crews and three OBN crews. to be delivered, and of course, you know, we'll be competing on some of those with competitors. But we have right now are planning for deliveries in Q2 and Q3, but it should have been awarded by now, and it's still getting delayed. On the Earth data side, in terms of CCUS investment, call it a single digit, right? It's in the million dollars, so it's not hugely significant. And also keep in mind that we can sell our data, our seismic data as is, and this is what we did last year. Most of our sales last year were really relative to existing seismic data we had. So for now, we're constructing data packages with data that we already have, and that's really a single-digit number in terms of million dollars.
spk06: Thank you very much.
spk07: Thank you for your question. We are now taking the next question. Please stand by. The next question is from Kevin Rogers from Capital Chevrolet. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
spk09: Yes, good evening. Thanks for taking the question. So if I missed it, but I joined the call late, would you be able to provide me the backlog that you have maybe at the end of the quarter or maybe sooner at the end of April, and maybe some granularity on it, how much of this backlog will be converted into revenue in 2023, the level of commitment that you have currently on your multi-client CapEx plan, so any color on that side. And you concluded the conference call saying that you are more and more optimistic about, let's say, the short-term earnings, probably, and basically the Q1 is much better than what you guided. You were expecting to be in line with Q1 last year. You arrived well above that. So does it change a bit, not to term too optimistic, but a bit your expectation for the two years, meaning that you will not expect to arrive in the high end of the range that you were presenting us before. And comment also for the expectation for the .
spk00: Yeah, thank you, Kevin, for your question. I'll take the second question, and then I'll give the first question on the backlog to Jérôme. I think it's really too early. A quarter, as you have seen, remember last year, we were quite volatile from quarter to quarter, so we had a slow quarter that followed by a good quarter. And that's related to the lumpiness of the business, which is now actually in SMO and Earth data. But two of our businesses tend to be lumpy now. So I wouldn't draw conclusions just on the first quarter, and that's why we are reiterating our guidance. I think it's a bit too early to really draw a conclusion and make a trend. But definitely, in terms of a longer, mid- to longer-term view, I'm getting more confident at saying the IOCs are definitely resuming more exploration, which was a bit of a question mark even a year ago. So there are some positive trends that we're seeing in our market that finally the cycle seems to be climbing our way. And unlike previous cycle that we're starting with expiration, this is a different cycle where our clients will be more cautious around expiration. So it's coming our way. A bit early to draw conclusion, I would say let's wait for Q2 to have a better view. For now, we're sticking to our full year.
spk01: OK. Kevin, regarding the backlog, at the end of March, you're at 420 million, which is a 33% increase year on year. And out of this 420, about 300 should convert into revenues by end of the year.
spk09: Okay, and that basically must be the the certain equipment without the mega cruise in Saudi Arabia that you are still expecting in terms of final investment decision from the client and the commitment for preferencing on investment, right?
spk01: This is the overall CGT backlog that I gave you, which does not include the after sales, obviously. And indeed, the backlog does not take into account the mega cruise.
spk00: So there were what's not in there, three large projects that we won from NOCs on geoscience that came into April. We had orders as well that came into April, so of course that's not into it. But yeah, that's at the end of March. And keep in mind that the As much as I think on geoscience, the backlog is really a good indicator on how the year is turning out, and that's why we're publishing it, and it's definitely up, and it's tracking to 2019 levels. In SMO, typically we don't have a long visibility in backlog. We have about three, four months, and then Earth data is a little bit the same story. It's a little bit lumpy, so it's difficult to predict, but in general, we're certainly seeing some of the highest level backlog that we've had in many years.
spk07: Okay, thanks a lot. Thank you for your question. We are now taking the next question. Please stand by. And the next question is come from the line of from SG. Let's go ahead.
spk05: Yes, good afternoon. Maybe I would like to come back on your comments regarding exploration spending. Basically, during the Q1 call from SLB, they mentioned that what was new versus just a few months ago, that exploration was basically recovering. Could you maybe, because I missed some of the data points you provide, and also if you can maybe give some color, maybe one or two, let's say maybe clients' anecdotes that struck you, I would say, over the last maybe few months or few weeks, which basically confirm what you are saying on exploration. Thank you.
spk00: Yes, good evening Guillaume. Yes, I've been, of course, watching and listening to SLB comments carefully. I remember they made a comment in Q2 last year as well, and I remember my response was, oh, we're not really seeing the same thing. And keep in mind that they have a much broader exposure to the all-field service that we have. And as I suspected last year, the investments starting in the drilling. So the clients started to drill the exploration well because they wanted to keep their commitments and make sure they were able to keep their blocks. So that's how exploration started. And by the way, the numbers I was mentioning come from Reichstadt. And Reichstadt has been increasing their view on exploration, spent offshore pretty much every month between January, February, and March of this year because there weren't even three months of knowledge in the increase. So that's good news. So in terms of why we think it's coming our way finally, one of the indicators is the percentage, the mix in our Earth data sales. So this is something we've been monitoring since the COVID because definitely our mix of clients has changed. We had a feel for it, but when you look at numbers, it was striking. Without giving a precise number, the IOCs were divided by two. in our current mix. So basically it was NOCs, it was independent, we were losing by half, you know, the INCs. Now I wouldn't say they've come back to that same proportion, but they're definitely up somewhere halfway to where they were. So divided by two, so they've increased a significant portion in the mix of our data cells. I suspect the same would be true with our peers. Another one that perhaps you would see is the activity in the Gulf of Mexico. So there was that big round in March. A lot more active, higher bid submissions. Definitely another sign of how much companies were willing and the kind of blocks that they took. And then the other one as well is another one with some clients that haven't been active in years in the Gulf of Mexico, for example, are coming back. And another final data point is we're seeing more interest in our more frontier data from IOCs and clients in general. So we have data in Gabon, in Mozambique, and we haven't had much requests, and now we're starting to see requests that might be making deals over there.
spk05: Does that help? Okay.
spk07: Yeah. Merci, Sophie. Thank you for your question. We are now taking the next question. Please stand by. We have now Mr. Thompson from BNBA Paribas. Please go ahead.
spk04: Hi, good evening. Can you hear me now?
spk10: Yes. Yes.
spk04: Perfect. Okay. Yeah, I just wanted to confirm on the call what the charge was for the shareholder agreement this quarter and the expectation of that charge for the full year. And then just what was going into the increase in net debt quarter and quarter given the net cash flow was kind of neutral. Just a bit of color on that, please.
spk01: So the shareholder or the quarter between the penalty and the compensation for either base form is about $20 million.
spk10: Okay, and the expectation for the full year?
spk01: The expectation for the full year is more around $50 million. Okay, thank you. the cash impact, huh?
spk08: Yeah, but Daniel, this is the total cash impact, including $21 million for IBC, ISSL NAS compensation, which is... Which has already been provided for at the time of the deal, so it will not impact the net income. Yeah, yes. And then the $30 million cash costs, which are in the operational cash costs of the business lines.
spk01: And the NDABDA, which
spk00: Yeah, so Daniel, of course, this is what we're planning on, but obviously we're going to do everything to not have to spend money. So we're really working actively on projects and balancing whether we can find a good project to work on. Idle vessel compensation is a number that's there, and it's going to be there until the end of the contract in about a year and a half. and that's been provisioned for, and then we have to deal with the penalty for not using the 24 vessel months, depending on the quality of the projects that we're looking at.
spk01: Regarding the assets, it was only increased by the asset financing that we have with the for the construction of our new data center in the UK.
spk10: So, top of my mind, I think is around 27 million. Okay, got it. Thank you.
spk07: Thank you for your question. We are now taking the next question. Please stand by. The next question is from Baptiste Ledeck from HODL. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
spk03: Yes, thank you. Good evening. I have two questions. The first one is regarding the pre-funding rate, which was very impressive in the first quarter. What could be the best bet or guess for Q2 and the rest of the year? I tried the question. And the second one, is regarding your investments for the uk hpc data center you had 19 million dollars of capex industrial capex in q1 can you give us an idea regarding this when this data center will be on a startup mode and are you still comfortable with your industrial capex budget of 70 million dollars for 2020 Thank you.
spk00: Okay, good evening. Thank you for the question. So on pre-funding rate, it's very difficult to look at on a quarter-to-quarter basis. So really it has to be a four-year. And if you remember, we always said 70% to 75% budget-wise is what we're targeting. And, of course, we were trying to get as much as we can, and typically we've been getting 80-plus percent. And that would be our ambition. But in terms of commitment, we're saying we want to reach that 75% pre-funding. And we're taking this year a bit more cautious approach in terms of quality of the project and pre-funding. That's why you're seeing a capex a little lower on the Q1 and really pushing hard on the pre-funding. On the UK HPC data center, the project is pretty much going per plan. So there isn't any surprises on that project, and we're looking at a Go Live in September. So it's very advanced. I actually have visited it in January. It looks very impressive, and it can add to us, for us, about 100 petaflops. Remember, we're at 350 petaflops. So, yeah, no surprises on the budget, so we'll stick to our budget numbers. Then there is another number. Was there another question on how much? It's within the envelope that was planned. And it is a very large infrastructure investment. And the kind of investment that you do every 20 years, and we haven't done any such investment actually during my time. And so we've been living off really aging infrastructure and pushing it hard. So its infrastructure is different from actually the compute itself. And so what we're investing in is an infrastructure that will allow us to grow significantly our computing power.
spk10: Okay, thank you very much.
spk07: Thank you for your question. We are now taking the The next question, please stand by. The next question from Daniel Thompson from BNB Paribas.
spk04: Please go ahead.
spk07: Your line is open.
spk04: Hi again. Sorry, I just wanted to throw in another one there. On the sort of recovery in demand that we spoke about in terms of data from the IOCs and your other clients, Is there any sort of shape to late sales that we should anticipate going through the rest of the year? I know 4Q is normally a high point. Should we be assuming a gradual increase of a 2Q and 3Q with 4Q the high point again? Thanks.
spk00: Yeah, thanks for that question. I guess this is what you're asking. The question you're asking is the most difficult one to predict. If I look back at Q1, even some of those late sales appeared literally a few days before the end of the quarter, and a lot of it was driven by the Gulf of Mexico activity. So it really depends on where we or where the data is and where the client's interest is. Now, at the macro level, I would expect that the clients spend more money on after sales overall. Now, where does the money go? It will depend a little bit on the areas of interest from the client. I think we'll get a fair share of it because of our footprints and our position in some of the key basins where the clients will currently invest. So at the macro level, over the four-year, I would expect that we would see a good outcome. You have to, if you're going to look at year-on-year growth, at least the way we look at it, is last year there was a bit of exceptional associated with transparency. And in this specific case of CGD, we had land, and the land was about $18 million of after sales, right? But within that, you know, it's kind of correct for some of the exceptional and the land, you know, we definitely should see some growth. And the other data point I can give you is typically historically DDE, used to be tracking more or less the E&P capex dynamics. So it would be sort of the two of them together would kind of tend to follow E&P capex dynamics. And I see no reason it should be different. But the quarterly view is actually very difficult to predict. And right now, I don't have, for example, the visibility on Q2 after sales. I have the visibility on B2. on pre-funding because there's a certain level of backlog. And possibly it will get more pre-funding through the quarter on some of our ongoing projects, but typically the after sales are just more difficult to predict.
spk04: Yeah, no, I appreciate that. Thanks for providing what you can. Thanks. Sure.
spk07: Thank you for your question. There are no further questions at the moment. If you wish to ask a question, please press 1-1 on your telephone. There are no further questions. I will hand back the conference to the CGG team for closing remarks.
spk00: Yes, thank you very much. Thank you for attending and apologies for the complexities, the difficulties we've had with the connection. I hope we haven't missed too much of our of our talk, but yeah, and I look forward to seeing you one-on-ones, and thank you for attending, and have a good evening. Thank you, or a good rest of your day.
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