Donald Crist: Good morning, guys. In your commentary in the press release, you talked about many of the Middle East projects kind of moving into implementation now. Where are we in the other parts of the world from the implementation standpoint i.e. is Brazil and Guyana really kind of ramping up now in the Far East as well? Or where are we in the life cycle of those projects?
Lawrence Bruno: Yes. Don, I’d probably put them in that order, Middle East is the tip of the spear, and that’s across multiple countries in the region. And then I’d say, South Atlantic margin picking up for us. I would throw in also some West Africa work as well. And then I would say, lagging that a bit is Asia Pac, although we’ve got some pretty bright spots in Australia and Indonesia.
Donald Crist: Okay. And one question on the US, as basins mature, obviously, you go towards — from Tier-1 acreage towards Tier 2, Tier 3. Where are we in the life cycle particularly in the Bakken, but number two, in the Permian, are you starting to get some inquiries to evaluate kind of Tier 2 and Tier 3 rock in the Permian?
Lawrence Bruno: Yes. I mean we’ve got — because of the multi-company studies that we’ve done across all of the major unconventional basins in North America and in many cases, other parts of the world, we’ve got a pretty good sensibility of where the Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 rock is. And I’ve joked in the past that we sell that information where the good stuff is and where the intermediate stuff is and where the not-so-good stuff is. And clearly, there’s been a progression moving toward the latter stages of Tier 1 and into Tier 2 and in some cases, the lower ends of Tier 2 rock. I think if you look at production in a lot of the fields, the only one that’s really, in our mind, got some growth potential is the Permian. You have to dial that rock quality issue and also with things like lateral length expansion.
That third mile on oil wells — oil producing wells is becoming common practice. But the rock quality, clearly the best of the best has either been consumed or is rapidly being depleted across all of the basins. And now it’s more of an engineering and completion optimization program, which our Production Enhancement group will play into to try to get the most out of those rocks. I’d add a little bit more to that too and say we do see, from time to time, companies taking refreshed looks at restimulation refracs and things like that to try to go into some of the older legacy wells to try to get to unstimulated rock where the stages were very far apart. But I do think the growth rate — the key point here, Don, is the growth rate that we’ve seen in production in North America is either not going to continue or is going to be at a much lower pace.
Christopher Hill: Right. I think it’s fair to say, too, it’s still real early, but with some of the focus on capturing CO2. And as that becomes maybe more available, there might be opportunities — better opportunities to look at EOR-type projects and unconventionals, where the availability of CO2 may have been a limiting factor in that in the past.
Donald Crist: Right. And are you getting a lot of work in the Bakken to restimulate and try to go after that rock that maybe hadn’t been stimulated the first time?
Lawrence Bruno: Less so than in some of the other basins, I say, is a generalization. And I would add that some EOR programs that we validated in the lab have seemed to work better in some of the other basins than in some of the parts of the Bakken. But look, Bakken’s still a world-class field play and stratigraphic target. There’s going to be a lot of oil coming out of that. The rate of growth is going to be from where we are today, it’s going to be more determined by advancements in completion, technologies and things like that.
Donald Crist: Right. But I think they’re in the very, very early stages of kind of a refrac program in the basin if I’m reading that correctly, right?
Lawrence Bruno: I think that’s right. And I think it’s highly operator-dependent. I don’t believe I would — it’s proper to characterize that as a broad-based approach among a large number of operators to look at re-stimulation and EOR in that area yet.
Donald Crist: Right. Okay. I appreciate the conversation. I’ll turn it back.
Gwen Gresham: Thank you, Don.
Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Larry Bruno for any closing remarks.
Lawrence Bruno: Okay. We’ll wrap up here. In summary, Core’s operational leadership continues to position the company for improving client activity levels for 2024 and beyond. We have never been better operationally or technologically positioned to help our clients — global client base optimize their reservoirs and address their evolving needs. We remain uniquely focused and are the most technologically advanced, client-focused reservoir optimization company in the oilfield service sector. The company will remain focused on maximizing free cash and returns on invested capital. In addition to our quarterly dividends, we’ll bring value to our shareholders via growth opportunities, driven by both the introduction of problem-solving technologies and new market penetration.
