Tenaris S.A. (NYSE:TS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Luca Zanotti: All right. Thank you, Frank. Good morning. Look, I need to go back to what Paolo expressed at the beginning. When you look at the different factors, you see that the market absent to a decrease in rig activity should remain pretty balanced. Now there are factors like Paolo was mentioning before, like some imports that we’re seeing coming in lately. But we do believe that these are going to be dissipating over time because if you look at the origins of these imports and the supply chain that is behind it, you really see that maybe they are not that sustainable going forward. But again, absent a decrease — a significant decrease in rig activity, which at this stage, we don’t see. You look at other factors like the minimum.

If you take XTO, for example, big operator in Permian, they are saying that they’re going to rebuild the inventory. Then you start looking at the domestic production. When you see a domestic production and you split it seamless in near value. You see that the seamless is capped. Maybe there can be some capacity creeping here and there, but there’s not much they can go — we can go. And the seamless is limited and constrained by labor shortages. So overall, I believe that, again, absent a decrease in rig activity that we don’t see. There are reasons to believe that the market is going to be balanced going into 2023. Obviously, the back half with some more, let’s say, volatility that we need to contemplate going forward, and we’re going to have time to do that.

But overall, I stick to what Paolo said at the beginning.

Frank McGann: Okay. Thank you. That’s really helpful. If I could follow up just with a question on the pipeline activity. The pipelines in Argentina that you mentioned, the gas pipeline has a number of phases and the first phase obviously seems to be the one that you’re talking about, the 200,000 to 250,000 tons this year. Well Phase 2 and then the third of the final big extension, when would you expect to see volumes from that? And secondly, in terms of the oil pipeline activity in Argentina, the expansions of the main pipeline that goes to the Atlantic Coast, are you involved in that at all? Is it very significant? And I know there are some early discussions about a major additional pipeline that could be built 250,000 barrels a day over the next three, four years. Is that something that looks like it could happen? And when might that affect your volumes?

Paolo Rocca: Thank you, Frank. But for — I would say that, for sure, Argentina will develop a substantial infrastructure. To bring gas and oil to the coast, but this will happen over the years. Now the timing will be affected by the political volatility and the ability to finance some of these pipelines. It is possible that the second stage of the pipeline from Vaca Muerta to Buenos Aires would be started within 2023. It’s possible, but will require financing for the entire project. This is not sure. I mean, there is movement on this side, but it’s not sure that the financing will be organized within the coming few months. For sure, it’s a project that makes sense considering the declination of the gas supply from Bolivia and this is one project.