Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Marc Bianchi: Okay. The implication of this sort of leading-edge 40,000 or so. And, John, you made the comment about it, the term contract is being performance based and being able to kind of get to that 40,000. And if your costs are 16,500 , then we’re getting into the 23,500 kind of margin per day. At some point, once the fleet rolls. I mean, if I just carry this out, it seems like you could be there in the beginning of March 2024. I mean, is that the right way to think about where this ultimately goes? Or are there other puts and takes that you’d call out that maybe we shouldn’t model it that way?

John Lindsay: Well, those are the numbers. And, we are €“ again, we’re focused, as I said earlier on getting the averages for spot and term closer to leading-edge. What we haven’t said is, how many rigs are closer to that leading-edge? That is our focus. And so, again, the numbers are the numbers. So. Yeah.

Marc Bianchi: Yeah. Okay, well, just one more for me on the walking upgrade. So just doing 6 for North America at this point? What’s the scenario where you would be doing back on that sort of one per month cadence? And what should we think about that beyond 2023? Are you going to kind of turn the whole fleet over to walking at some point? Or what’s the long-term thought on that?

John Lindsay: Well, Marc, as you’ve heard us day before, I mean, you just look at the fleet that’s out there working today, and the lion’s share that are Flex 3 skid rigs. And you’re right, the 6 rigs, we’ve done 6 conversion to walking. But that’s really a function of customer demand. We’ve actually had more demand for FlexRigs, skid rigs, and we have walking rigs. So it’s all going to be dependent upon customer demand, the types of wells that are being drilled. It’s just really a wide range. The other 6 rigs that we are converting, those are the ones that are talking about sending to the Middle East. So we’re going to do what is in the best interest of satisfying customer demand and what’s in the best interest of shareholders. But, sure, it won’t be a conversion to the entire fleet, again, there are customers out there that all they use our Flex 3 skid rigs.

Marc Bianchi: Yep. Super. Thanks so much, John. I’ll turn it back.

John Lindsay: Thank you.

Operator: At this time, I’ll turn the call back over to John Lindsay, for any closing remarks.

John Lindsay: Thank you, Ashley. And thanks, again, to all of you for joining us today. We know there’s a lot going on. There’s a lot of priorities that are going on out there at this time of the year. So we really appreciate your time. I’ll tell you again that of the H&P team and I’ve said it and I’ll continue to say it, we’re laser focused on delivering value to customers and shareholders. We aim to deliver value to customers through top-tier performance, safety and reliability and to our shareholders. We’re going to continue to focus on improving our rig margins and grow growth in our returns on capital. So thank you again for your time, and have a great day.

Operator: Thank you. This does conclude today’s program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.

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