Pacific Drilling 1Q revenue boosted by Santa Ana drillship work

Offshore driller Pacific Drilling reported a loss of $96.1 million for the first-quarter of 2018, compared to a net loss of $99.8 million a year ago, and a loss of $129.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2017.

During first the quarter 2018 contract drilling revenue was $82.1 million, which included $6.2 million of deferred revenue amortization. This is an increased compared to fourth-quarter 2017 contract drilling revenue of $65.0 million.

Pacific Drilling said the revenue increase was due to the Pacific Santa Ana drillship operating for the full quarter under a contract with Petronas in Mauritania, as compared to only 12 days in the fourth-quarter 2017 when it started its contract on December 20, 2017.

Pacific Drilling CEO Paul Reese said the the company managed to reduce further reduced average daily expenses for operating rigs to $110 thousand per day. Reese also said that Pacific Sharav, the company’s only rig on a long term contract, “continued its stellar performance in some of the world’s most challenging well conditions by delivering 100 percent revenue efficiency for the quarter.”

The rig operates for Chevron in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and has a contract until September 2019, at a dayrate of $550,000. Worth noting this is Pacific Drilling’s only revenue making rig, as the Pacific Santa Ana completed providing services for a plug and abandonment project in Mauritania on May 7, 2018.

Pacific’s other five drillships are stacked either in Las Palmas, Spain, or in Ivory coast. The 2010-built Pacific Bora drillship has been awarded a letter of intent from Eni for drilling services in Nigeria.

Restructuring

As previously reported, on November 12, 2017, Pacific Drilling and its subsidiaries filed for relief under Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to “to optimize Pacific Drilling’s capital structure pending recovery in the floating rig drilling industry.”

The bankruptcy protection application was filed after Pacific Drilling’s holders a $439 million bond rejected the company’s request to extend the maturity date beyond December 1, 2017.

Pacific Drilling said on Thursday that under the Bankruptcy Code, it had the exclusive right to file a plan of reorganization under Chapter 11 through March 12, 2018.

“On March 22, 2018, the Bankruptcy Court approved our request for an order under which we, our secured creditor groups and our majority shareholder would take part in mediation before the Honorable James R. Peck, retired Bankruptcy Court Judge for the Southern District of New York. The scope of the mediation is to facilitate discussions among us and our stakeholders for the purpose of agreeing to the terms of a binding term sheet or restructuring support agreement describing a Chapter 11 plan of reorganization,” the company said.

The Bankruptcy Court last week approved the company’s request for an agreed order under which Pacific Drilling, its secured creditor groups and its majority shareholder agreed to extend the mediation and the exclusive filing period to June 4, 2018 without prejudice to seek further extensions of the exclusive period.

Offshore Energy Today Staff