The big opportunity for us that we’re executing on this year are these unconventional Tracer projects for a Middle East customer. I’d say that customer is very early in their development of their unconventional resource. And the opportunity there with – that’s really that period where utilizing Tracer Diagnostics in particular is very, very valuable for a customer to help them understand the resource and optimize their development plans. So, I think there’s a good runway there. Where we’ll probably need to support that development over time will be with additional operations personnel. Right now, we’re mobilizing people from North America, from Argentina, from China, to service some of that well work in the Middle East. So, we’ll probably need to make some more investments in personnel, both within our own headcount, but also some folks within our local partners.
And over time, we may look to make some strategic investments in the region as well, whether that’s what I’d call sort of a relatively light footprint Tracer lab or some other types of investment there. But we’d only do that once we’ve established the track record and have sort of several years of relatively robust revenue and earnings in those markets before we deploy additional capital into supporting that business.
Blake McLean: Got it. Thanks for walking through that in some detail. I’ve got just one more if you don’t mind. Could you provide a bit more color on the sleeve that you guys highlighted in your prepared remarks?
Ryan Hummer: Sure. I think you’re talking about the one in the US with the fiber optics, is that right?
Blake McLean: Yes.
Ryan Hummer: Yes. So, that’s a pretty interesting project. So, what we’re able to do there, the customer wants to run a fiber optic line in that well, and it’s – they’re really – it’s somewhat unique project, especially in the US where historically, water flood projects have used vertical injectors. This is an area that was developed horizontally. So, they’re looking to execute a horizontal water flood program and optimize that. The well that’s going to be installed will have a very large number of sliding sleeves, and it’ll have a fiber optic cable clamp to it. And part of the reason that the customer would use sleeves for that is, one, to be able to have as many well-known access points along that lateral, but more importantly, as opposed to if you were going to plug-and-perf that well, there’s a risk of having your perforation, if it’s not aligned properly, accidentally shoot that cable and cut off your ability to acquire the data.
So, we’re able to channel that fiber in between the ports of our sleeves to take that risk off the table. So, yes, the customer will benefit in a number of ways. And the other piece with that, by installing sliding sleeves and specifically our reclosable sleeves, if the customer sees water breakthrough in parts of that well that’s indicated by the fiber, what we can do is go in and help the customer manipulate those sleeves to shut off water breakthrough in certain areas and again, just maximize the value for that area through the deployment of the technology.
Blake McLean: Okay. Thanks for that detail, you all. I’ll kick it back to you all.
Operator: [Operator instructions]. And am showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the call back over to Ryan Hummer, CEO, for closing remarks.
Ryan Hummer: All right. Thank you, Justin. All right. On behalf of our management team and board, we’d like to thank everyone on the call today, including our shareholders, analysts, and especially our employees. I truly appreciate the tremendous work and dedication demonstrated by our team here at NCS and Repeat Precision as we implement our long-term strategy. We’re only as good as our people, and I believe we have the best team in the industry. Our team continues to provide excellent service to our customers and is developing new products and services that will enable our customers to be more successful. We appreciate everyone’s interest to NCS Multistage, and we look forward to talking again on our next quarterly earnings call.
Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
