Dolphin Drilling As

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Dolphin Drilling Q3 Report 2025 webcast and conference call. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speaker's presentation there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question please press star 1 and 1 again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast during the conference, please type it into the box and click submit. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, John Oliver Bryce, CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good afternoon. My name is John Oliver Bryce and I am the CEO of Dolphin Drilling. Today we're going to run through our Q3 earnings call and helping me do that on this call is Dolphins CFO Ingolf Gillestad. So let's move on to slide two and you can see our company disclaimer. I ask you to pay attention and read that. On to slide three and here's the agenda for today's earnings call. Firstly, we'll kick off with some key financials and some company updates. Then we'll talk about our rig fleet. Then we'll talk about the rig market that we operate in. And then we'll have a summary, a roundup. And as part of that roundup, we'll also have a Q&A session. So slide four then into the key financials. Slide five. Right. Overall, it was a good quarter with good operational performance and also some positive company development. All of these contributing to Dolphin's continued turnaround. Okay, financially, despite good operational performance and good respective financial efficiency, the group results were detrimentally affected by the fact that the PBLJ rig was out of action on a planned shipyard rig survey for a large part of the quarter. As such, the company made an EBITDA loss of $4.7 million last whereas the company made an EBITDA profit of circa $10 million the previous quarter when the PBLJ and the Blackbird worked continuously for that quarter. Expenditure-wise, the company focused on cost control, and I'm very pleased to say that we achieved material reductions in both overhead and rig operating expenses. In terms of contract backlog, we had success during the quarter there too, booking $100 million of new firm work. That now gives the company an overall backlog of $264 million in firm and $353 million of optional work. Linked to the new contract backlog is work for the Borglund Dolphin, which has been warm stacked since it last worked in Norway. This new work will see the Borglund reactivated and return to operations, adding a new revenue stream to the company. And finally, the PBLJ successfully completed its rig survey project in Norway and returned to the UKCS. And this is very positive. as the rig's long-term commitment with Harbor combined with low and stable OPEX and minimal CAPEX will help to generate a strong cash flow for the company going forward. Okay. On to slide six, and looking at the financial highlights in more detail, I'm going to hand over to our CFO Ingolf. Ingolf, can you comment on this slide?

Many thanks, John. Today, we published our financial report for the third quarter of 2025. The following is a brief overview of our preliminary financial performance, rig uptime, principal developments throughout the period, as well as significant events subsequent to the quarter end. For a comprehensive review, please refer to the full report issued earlier this morning. Our financial highlights for the quarter reveal total revenues of $37.7 million, as earlier guided, with the PBLJ rig being out for a scheduled survey for part of the quarter. However, we are pleased to report of higher earning efficiencies of 95% and 93% for the two rigs. Another key event for us was the announced contract award for Borglund, and this contract adds $60 million to our backlog. Finally, we achieved cost reductions mainly to our overhead and continued to push for efficiencies throughout the organization. Post-quarter end, we have had several important updates. Firstly, we negotiated and agreed a payment plan related to a larger HMRC tax claim in the UK. And thereafter, we announced an equity offering, providing for a gross $15 million in new funding to the company. And finally, last week, we informed of a contract extension for the Blackford with Oil India. These developments support us delivering on our promises, turning around the company with focus on reducing uncertainties and to provide stability to our drilling operations. Next page. Looking at the P&L for Q3, the company achieved total revenues of $37.7 million, with the substantial amount linked to Blackford. We have said a couple of times PBLJ underwent a scheduled rig survey for much of the period. So the rig only had 32 days on the charter. While our third rig, Borglund, remained idle throughout the quarter. On the positive side, earning efficiencies improved quarter over quarter. Rig operating expenses reflect higher costs during the rig survey as expected. And Blackford cost on par with previous quarter and Borglund inlay up at a lower cost. General and administrative expenses were sharply reduced through tight cost control. This period then results in an EBITDA shortfall of $4.7 million. Nevertheless, we report of making progress in operational efficiency and cost discipline. Blackford delivered improved operational performance, evidencing 99% uptime for September and 93% over the quarter, as we had some disruptions in July due to repair. PBLJ, with its shortened period of contracted days, this quarter had strong uptime. Net financial costs include interest expenses and refinancing costs. The income statement comparisons shows a decline in net income loss from Q2 to Q3, reflecting some financial improvement, but a loss was expected as we had only black for generating earnings for most of the quarter. On to the next page on the balance sheet. The overview highlights a cash position of $28.9 million. supported by refinancing activities, including new debts and equity. Accounts receivable increased due to the timing of revenues from Blackford and the $10 million contribution from Harbor related to the PBIJ rig survey. Other current assets include debt service coverage, prepayments, and mobilization costs. On the non-current asset side, they rose due to the rig survey investments increasing PBLJ book value with $25 in the quarter. Accounts payable and liabilities remain elevated, reflecting pending payments for the survey completion. Debt amortization scheduled or detailed with less strain on the company in the coming months. Turning then to the next page and over to John.

Thank you, Engel, for that overview of the Q3 financials. On to section two, the rig fleet overview. Looking at slide 10, we can see the company's fleet here. And this is three units that we own and operate, three semi-submersible drilling rigs. These units can operate globally and can efficiently undertake both drilling and P&A activity. And the units are rated for harsh environment basins such as the North Sea. So if you're looking at the slide from left to right, we start with the Blackford. This is an Acker H3 semi-sub, which has been significantly upgraded. And this unit is suitable for deep water. In the middle, we can see Borgman, which is also an Acker H3. This has had a significant upgrade to its top side also, including a ram rig drilling system being fitted. This unit is suitable for mid-water. And then the last unit on the right-hand side is the PBLJ or the Paul B. Lloyds Jr. It's also known as, and this is an Acker H4, a later design. And this unit is suitable for mid-water. And these units then are considered reliable workhorses within the industry and give customers a safe, efficient, and competitively priced rig solution. So that's the fleet. Going to slide 11, we can look at the contract status of these units. We can see that two of the units are on contract with a third about to be reactivated. So going through them one by one, the PBLJ is currently on contract to Harbour Energy in the UK and that unit is undertaking both drilling and P&A activity. It has a firm contract which runs to 2028. And at the end of that firm period, we then have five one-year options to extend with Harbour. So a long runway with the Harbour and the PBLG. Next is the Blackford. And this is currently on a contract with Oil India in Indian waters, close to far to the east near the Andaman Islands. And this is undertaking drilling activity. And we have a firm contract, which has recently been extended, taking us to mid-26. And then lastly, we have the Borglund, which is currently birthed in Las Palmas. And reactivation work will now ramp up in preparation for its new contract in late 26. And that contract is with Repsol for P&A activity in Spanish waters. So that was an overview of the rig fleet and the contract status. If we go on to slide 12, then we're going to touch on the market that we operate in. Looking at slide 13, then. So if we look at this, we can see some supply and demand rig data on the UKCS. And the reason we're looking at this UKCS is this is traditionally one of the biggest markets for word semi-subs, and this is the sector that Dolphin operates in. So looking at the supply side on the left of that slide, we can see some data here from IHS and Arctic. And within this data, we can see a steady and pretty dramatic reduction in rig supply since the crash of 2014. The majority of the fleet in the UK has been scrapped from a high of 24 units back in 2014 to five units now. And that's with a further four being scrapped just last year. We can also see that there's consistently been an underutilized fleet, and that's the difference between the contracted rigs shown in the black and the available rigs shown in the gray, even with this reduction in demand over the last 10 years. And in 2025, however, we can see a slight uptick in this fleet utilization, and you can see that clearly in the green line, indicating a potential cycle change. So that is the supply side. So let's look at the right-hand side of the slide, and this is more to do with the demand. What we can see here is a very large number of work requirements for both development drilling and P&A. And if you put this all together, this represents almost 20 years of contracted work up to the period of 2023. So the conclusion from this data is that in the UK, demand will exceed rig supply unless There are new rig entrance, and we see that as unlikely, or projects are cancelled or deferred. In the event of a hot market unfolding as a result of this likely imbalance, there is an obvious opportunity for rig owners to leverage the position with regards to day rigs. So, that was the UK CS. Let's go to the next slide, which is 14, and looking at the global supply of more semi-submersibles. And we can see from this slide that there are only 14 left. And just a bit of context, there was circa 100 moored semi units back 10 years ago. But the crash of 2014 has seen the majority of the global fleet scrapped. We can see at the top of that slide, five units in the UK, as we've previously discussed in the slide 13. The remainder of the rigs are a similar vintage to Dolphin's fleet and the stuff in the UK, and the rigs in the UK, I should say, and most of those are located in Asia. It's worth noting, though, that there are other more semi-submersibles not shown on this global supply, but they are in the Caspian, and that's landlocked, or they're in China, and these rigs generally don't travel or can't travel, and therefore we see the global available fleet as the 14 shown there. Alternatives to moored semis could be the more expensive DP units, which operate in a more lucrative, higher day rate sector. So it's unlikely we'll see these compete with dolphin. And in theory, drillers could bring in more supply with building new moored rigs, but we see that as very unlikely because the market doesn't support that kind of capital investment. So the takeaway here is that just like in the UK, the global fleet of moored semi submersibles is very tight. with real barriers to entry and very unlikely to see new entrants either from the higher segment of DP rigs or any new builds. So let's have a quick look and summarize today's call. Look at slide 15, 16. Q3 was a good quarter for the company. We significantly increased our backlog with wins on two rigs. We significantly reduced our uncertainty, and that was done through completing the PBLJ on budget and back on revenue. We also made an agreement with the HMRC, so we know what the roadmap to repayment looks like there. And also we know what we're doing with Borglund rig in its future. So we significantly reduced uncertainties. We also shored up our liquidity with continued support from our largest shareholder in a subsequent event equity raise. And then finally, what we can say is that we continued the company's turnaround and positioning it now as an attractive platform for strategic growth. So that's the summary and that concludes our Dolphin Drilling Q3 earnings call. And now what we'll do is we'll go to the operator to field some questions.

Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the box and click submit. We will now go to our first question. One moment please. And your first question today. comes from the line of Frederick Stenner from Clarkson Securities. Please go ahead.

Hey, Tim. I hope you're having a good day so far, and thank you for taking my question, or questions, I have to say. First one, just wanted to touch upon the Blackford. You recently extended that into May next year, but it seems like the rest of the option period has now lapsed. so just wanted to hear your thinking around you know potential downtime on that rig what are fair assumptions and also with the SPS coming up in 2027 how you find that will you kind of you know fast forward it on the back of the oil in the contract or will you wait until you have you know, further secured commitments that can justify that type of investment before you'll do it. Any call would be appreciated. Thank you.

Okay, Fredrik. Thanks very much. Can you hear me okay on my comms here? Yeah, you're fine. Okay. So a few questions in there. So this extension basically represents Oil India's options. So this is them exercising the options. we have an approximate date when the rig will complete operations, but that could change depending on the operational activity. So we know it's towards the end of Q2. It probably won't be minus that, but it could well be plus that, just the way that operations pan out. So that's when the end date of oil in India is going to happen, somewhere towards the end of Q2, but it might creep. What comes next? We're marketing it very hard, specifically in Southeast Asia, so India and Southeast Asia. There are requirements for rigs at the moment, and we see more on the horizon. very positive about opportunities for the rig in that region. Ideally, we would like continuous contracting for the unit, and we'll strive for that. And even if there's an opportunity which has a gap, we'll see if we can negotiate no gap or a smaller gap. But we're aware that there could be a gap. Now, you also mentioned about the SPS. due until 2027, but we could take a view on doing the SPS early if we secure a long-term contract after oil India, and let's just say the customer's preference is not to have an SPS in the middle of it. So, basically, we have a rough idea when the rate's going to come off. We're actively marketing the unit. There are opportunities. the SPS date that we know when we have to do it, but we could bring it forward if that suits our contract that we managed to secure for the unit. So hopefully that addresses your question.

Yeah, no, thank you very much. On to another theme, there's been some, you know, call it news items with the Labour government in the UK lately around oil and gas leases and what's going to be allowed and not allowed, etc. And I think some oil companies have at least appreciated that there is some clarity, but on the other hand, there seems to be only a limited number of types of leases that will be allowed under this plan. Not that I'm an expert on it, but I was wondering if you had any have had any recent client discussions about how that might impact rigged demand in the UK going forward?

I think it's not ideal that the UK government and the budget decided not to reduce this very high level of taxation that we call EPL, or some people call the windfall tax, which is ending up with an effective corporation tax of 78% at the moment. That's a negative, right? But one positive that came out of the budget when the government said we're keeping the 78% is that at least they know what the future looks like so they can plan accordingly. Now, we have two types of rig activity in the UK. We have drilling and we have P&A. The budget will not affect P&A because that's just an activity operators have to do. So that, at the moment, represents the majority of rig demand is P&A here in the UK. When it comes to drilling... We have to wait and see. I guess all the operators are just sort of taking a view on it. But interestingly, one of the largest operators here in the UK, Serica, came out the same day, and the CEO made a statement saying, right, it's 70%, we're still drilling. So it's interesting that some operators have come out already and said, you know, at least we know what the future looks like. So I'd say it's wait and watch. And... But I'd say the signals are not overly negative at the moment, although we would welcome a reduction in the tax. So, yeah, I'd say it's kind of neutral, but we're watching it very closely.

All right. Thank you. And if I can get one last one in, please. You mentioned just on the end of your prepared remarks something about, you know, positioning yourself for strategic growth. Were you able to elaborate a bit on what you mean by that?

Yeah, so I guess you could look at 2025 as a sort of turnaround year for Dolphins. You know, fixing the house, getting all the rigs back to work, and, you know, looking at cost control. But, you know, we are certainly fixing the house. Now it's, you know, what do we do next? And it's how can we create value for the shareholders, further value for the shareholders? And one way of that is through M&A. But if we do evaluate M&A opportunities, we're very strict on this. Three things. First of all, any M&A, number one, has to create value for its shareholders. Number two, we have to understand the risk. And number three, if it's a rig acquisition compared to a merger, then it has to be tied to a contract or a rate of market. So, yes, we're looking to grow the company financially. Now that we're starting to stabilize it, but it has to be right for the shareholders. So it's a very generic answer. That's all I can give you.

That's completely fair. Thank you so much for answering all my questions. Have a good day. My pleasure.

Thank you. There are currently no further phone questions. I will now hand over to Ingo for the webcast questions.

Many thanks. Yeah, we have a couple of questions from the live event. One question for you, John. It's about the offshore moored fleet. Can you elaborate? How many units do you see being retired?

Well, I think it would be wrong of me to... to tell other drilling companies what they should do with their rigs. Uh, I think, uh, I think, um, there's some units which are oddballs with existing companies like Belarus and Noble. Uh, they've got some, some units which doesn't really fit with their fleet. So, uh, depending on their contract, uh, status and their view on the market, um, you know, those could be candidates that, uh, larger drillers might just think you know what just doesn't fit with our fleet apart from that I mean it looks like these units will just continue until they come to the SPS decision point and that's you know traditionally when the owners say look you know am I going to get five years at this is it worth reactivating and you know investing x million dollars in it for another five years so I think with the exception of those two big drillers who may just take a view and having I think all the rest of them will just, you know, this decision point will just pop up as and when the rest of the SPS is materialized.

Yeah, I can add there was a specific rig from Transocean being scrapped earlier this fall, and there was a couple of rigs leaving the rig segment also earlier this year.

Yeah, and I think just to answer that, that is exactly what I said. Those rigs were kind of oddballs within their fleet, and that's why the owners took a view to scrap.

Another question on demand. Africa, Asia, and UK. Is that those regions where you see the active tendering

at the moment yeah that's correct those are the those are the hot spots though um there they are you know there's we occasionally see uh inquiries from brazil as well but uh you've just named the main areas of activity for more mid water and more deep water rigs thank you um there are no other questions um live so i'll hand it back to to john for some final comments Yeah, okay. Well, thank you for listening in to the Q3 earnings. It was a good quarter, and that was possible due to the very, very hard work of Team Dolphin and the continued support of our main shareholder, Spellum Capital. So a good quarter, and hopefully we'll continue in the same direction. Thank you for listening in.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thanks for participating. You may now disconnect. Speakers, please stand by.