Unidentified Analyst : And given how we’ve already started spending on the rock vessel, will we be able to take money that we’ve already spent for progress payments and put that on that loan, or would only work on a go forward basis? No it’s up to 87.5% of those full value of the vessel is the loan that you can play for. And that’s what we put in for.
Unidentified Analyst : Okay, and then just kind of taken a 10,000-foot view of things just as it relates to the Army Corps, and the bids being released. I mean, it just seems kind of odd that — and I’ve covered the stock for a very long time, you would give lots of and I think even the previous management team, that was there would kind of give an expectation for the amount of bidding that would occur for the year. Some — most of it will get put out, and we went up certain percentage of it. And 2022, it didn’t really seem to be the case. And can you give us any more color as to why that happened. And it strikes me that too, because you also had a situation where the funding was there, there was — you kind of said the same script last year that you said this year in terms of appropriations, budget was higher than money never was left out.
Were there leadership transition issues there? Was there key people that were lost within the Army Corps, like, why did that happen? And I guess what gives us confidence that it’s not going to happen again this year, because it’s proving to be highly problematic. And you’re having to layoff workers, which you’ve probably voiced that to them, as a result of this.
Lasse Petterson: Yes. As I started my commentary about was that we, at the beginning of the year, we thought that we were in a good position, good backlog, the Corps had their budgets, and we will pass the pandemic issues. And, unfortunately, what happened was certainly the first 4.5 of the year there was very little work that was being bid and put out into the bid market. And the work that was being put out was majority was maintenance work, which carries the low margins. And there’s a different competitive environment around those projects compared to the larger capital projects. We have had, and we always have a very good dialogue with the Army Corps of Engineers. And I have numerous meetings with them. And one of the reasons that they are giving is that there was a continued resolution in place for the first half of the year.
So under our continued resolution, the Corps is limited in funding new projects. They can continue to fund ongoing projects. So that was one reason they gave, we are not under a continuing resolution this year. So the omniverse was fast. And the Corps has the money for this year. So that’s similar situation. And then the Corps is short on personnel, and also the federal agencies or partially back in the office. As a company, we have been back in office for the last year, because we saw that it’s very difficult to do larger projects and not being together as a team. We — movements in that during the year in the core. So I think we, we have a good dialogue, I think the setup for 2023 in different variants in 2022. And that gives me that confidence to believe that the bid market will recover, and also the mix will back to more capital projects.
Unidentified Analyst : Okay, thank you. And then just the last question, a couple of announcements over the last month or so, Qatar doing some pretty seemingly sizable long term, LNG contracts with China. We haven’t really been too involved in international dredging for a while now. Is that something that there’s a revenue opportunity there potentially redeploying some assets? The Middle East or is that not an opportunity?
Lasse Petterson: The short answer is versions over the next couple of years, there’s not an opportunity. I do see the domestic big market to hear to recover, I do see the need for our capacity here in the U.S. So we are not activity addressing or bidding international work, we are following the development. But, that international dredging market is competitive. And in order to address that market, we would have to have competitive and modern equipment to go to that market with. And at this moment, our investments are going into the U.S. offshore wind. That’s where we see the best opportunities.
Unidentified Analyst : Okay, and then just, I guess this will be my last question. How you guys define cold stack? How long does it take to get invest a lot of cold stack? And how long does it take to recruit that vessel?
Lasse Petterson: Well, it’s difficult to give the exact estimates. But once you have the cold stack the vessel, what you need to do is to get it back up and running again. And depending on the type of bids, this will be different, but and then you need to find the crews from we bid the work until we actually have to mobilize out on the field. So we have a couple of months. And that should be sufficient to get the dredge up and running and get the crew back on board.
Unidentified Analyst : Okay, thank you
Operator: Next, we have a follow up from the line of Jon Tanwantengfrom CJS securities, your line is open.
Jon Tanwanteng: Hi, guys, thanks for taking my follow up just a question on the bidding environment. I would have to assume that your competitors are hurting as well just that, given the amount of bids and work that’s out there. Is there any change to competitiveness of how you’re bidding? Obviously everyone has to deal with inflation and other prices and things like that. But obviously weather has been an issue. Are you seeing pressure on pricing? Or are you seeing a little bit more rationality just in terms of being able to take these things in that they’re the fact that the entire market?
Lasse Petterson: Yes, I think you can from a big market changing you can assume that there is pressure on the end of the market. So currently, but I the target market that we have these larger capital projects where we are the leading contractor and I think best suited to execute those projects. So, there have been some additional capacity added by competitors we have addressed that on earlier crops. We have seen a couple of property dredges come to the market and some new cutter dredges. Our fleet as we have it at this point in time we will have a very modern and efficient Hopper dredge fleet. Our current address fleet has been rationalized and also upgraded for productivity over last year’s. So we have a solid color fleet and the mechanical fleet is really a complimentary military the equipment to be used on larger projects in combination with cutters or hoppers.
And we have two of the most efficient mechanical dredgers in the U.S. So I think our competitive situation is strong and good going forward.
Jon Tanwanteng: Okay, great. Is the Galveston capacity spoken for when it comes to work for the rest of the year or do you still have scheduled fulfill on that particular dredge? And maybe the same question for the Ellis as well just given those will be the two biggest sources of earnings for you this year?
Lasse Petterson: Yes, the answer is yes. We have backlog to put her on to when she comes out
Jon Tanwanteng: Okay, great. Okay great, and the Ellis?
Lasse Petterson: Yes, this is going straight to work.
Scott Kornblau: Yes, the Ellis came out and it’s working right now and we have backlog on her already for the majority of the year. Still some fulfill and on the tail end but Ellis is in a good position right now with backlog.
Jon Tanwanteng: Okay, great. Just a question on the wind market follow-up. Do you have any expected timing for when the next couple of major projects will be released there and I’m going go to bed and work?
Lasse Petterson: Can you repeat that?
Jon Tanwanteng: Do you have any sense of timing for when you will be able to announce the next wind project awards?
Lasse Petterson: Well, I’m very hopeful that we can do that during the year.
