Pacific Drilling Eyeing ‘Attractive’ Contracts for New Drillships

Pacific Drilling S.A., an international drilling contractor focused on drillships, today, in its quarterly results release, reveals an optimistic forecast for the ultra-deepwater drillships market.

The company’s CEO Chris Beckett said, “We continue to see a marked customer preference for premium, ultra-deepwater drilling rigs as demonstrated by the latest fixtures. The bifurcation in dayrates and asset utilization between the latest generation, more efficient drillships and the older 5th and earlier generation rigs demonstrates the significant marketing advantage of operating a modern fleet.”

He added: “Through the first half of the year, our customers awarded drilling contracts to the latest generation rigs at a rapid pace, above that of the first half of 2012 in terms of rig years. We expect a continuation of this healthy market over the coming months and believe that this sustained growth in demand for ultra-deepwater drillships and the preference for the most modern rigs will yield attractive contracts for the Pacific Meltem and the Pacific Zonda [drillships].”

Revenue Up

Pacific Drilling announced revenue of $176.8 million for the three months ended June 30, 2013, as compared to revenue of $175.0 million for the first quarter of 2013 and $156.8 million in the second quarter of 2012.

Net income excluding charges related to the company’s debt refinancing for the second quarter of 2013 was $21.0 million or $0.10 per diluted share, an increase of $5.9 million, or 40%, over the prior quarter net income. The company reported a net loss of $45.6 million for the three months ended June 30, 2013, which included $66.6 million in non-recurring charges related to the refinancing of our Project Facilities Agreement (PFA). These non-recurring charges consisted primarily of $38.2 million in swap termination costs and a non-cash $27.6 million write-off of unamortized deferred financing costs. Reconciliations of net income excluding charges and adjusted EBITDA to reported net loss are included in the accompanying schedules to this release.”

Beckett commented, “We delivered a third consecutive solid quarter of results through a continued focus on operational uptime and optimizing drilling expenses. This bolsters our conviction that an exclusive focus on a consistent ultra-deepwater fleet of modern assets can yield industry leading operational and financial results. The projected cash flows generated by our fleet, plus the recent financial transactions that provide us with low cost, long term financing, give our company additional confidence in terms of our ability to start distributing dividends as early as 2015, while continuing to grow the fleet.”