TechnipFMC plc (NYSE:FTI) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Douglas Pferdehirt: Sure, Kurt. So first and foremost, we are extremely respectful of our competition and respect what they do. We have chosen to take a different path. We started that an earn back in 2014 – or 2015, you could argue as early as 2014 in terms of the Subsea 2.0 engineering work that went into the development of the configurable system. But that led to a joint venture, which led to the creation of TechnipFMC back on the 17th of January 2017. It is really a combination. I mean, we are doing things differently. We believe it is better, but again, be respectful of what they are doing. And on top of that, we have built deep relationships with our customers where they know they can trust us and they know that we are focused on this business.

We are a pure play, this is what we do. We believe we do it very well, but we enjoy doing it, and this is what we want to do. And our challenge that we put in front of ourselves every day is to ensure that we create success for our customers and to make sure that the offshore market continues to economically be robust for them. And how do we do that? And this factors into maybe the second part of your question, is we do that by a relentless focus on certainty because what they are looking at right now is an economic view that yes, there is a capital cost to do the project, ,but it is the certainty in the delivery of the project and when the economics start to get negatively affected, it is when projects are delivered late. And we are out there giving our customers a value proposition with iEPCI 2.0 that is unique to our company, where we can give them first oil or first gas, up to a year earlier than the competition.

So not only does that have a significant impact on their project returns upfront, but then they trust that we will actually deliver it. And that is what we have built. We have done it consistently, and we will continue to do it consistently. And they have grown to acknowledge that. They see that we have done things differently. We are a very different company than we had been, like others, traditionally. We use that period of time of five to eight years to really redesign, reshape, reengineer the entire company to where we are today. That being said, I will close by saying, again, we are respectful of our competition. We are humbled by the trust that our customers place in us, and we have a relentless focus to continue to drive further differentiation or maybe using your analogy to deepen and widen the moat every single day.

Kurt Hallead: Great, that is awesome color. So one other thing that you flagged here today was this 20-year frame agreement with Chevron, I know that FTI has had frame agreements with major oil companies for periods of time. But clearly, you felt it was extremely important to highlight this one in particular. So is this – I guess, in your mind, do you think that this is a start of a trend where you are going to see more opportunities to have these extended frame agreements. Just to add a little more insight if you can on that, that would be great.

Douglas Pferdehirt: Sure. As you pointed out, we have a long history of deep and long relationships, many of which are exclusive with our company and have really built differentiation for us. We earn those every single day. But the reason specifically for calling out the Chevron frame agreement was because of the adoption of Subsea 2.0. So this is the first frame agreement with Chevron where they are going to the Subsea 2.0 configurable product family, which was a real highlight for us.

Kurt Hallead: Okay, sounds great. Thanks Dough.

Operator: [Operator Instruction] Marc Bianchi with TD Cowen. Your line I open.