Faheem Gill submits:
I recently wrote about where we are in the energy cycle compared
to historical norms. One of the comments led me to look at drillers
in a bit more detail. As can be seen from the chart below of the
P/B cycle, the drillers still can get back to their average P/B ~4.
The chart looks similar to '96 to me.
Click to enlarge:
I've made my case for the Energy cycle in my previous article, I
feel that we are early in this cycle, and you can read the article
for more information. By the way, I would like feedback that is
both pro/con so that I may capture something I'm missing.
One of the comments stated that they would like to get more
information on sub sectors, so in this article I'm looking at the
suppliers of rigs, with a focus on off shore rigs with Shell's
recent announcement of a big find aside.
Overview
First I would like to give a brief overview as I understand the
space; if anyone has experience in this area, I would like your
input.
The offshore space includes Fixed Platforms, Mobile Storage
vehicles, Tension Leg Platforms (TLPs), Floaters (semi submersible
and submersibles), Jackups, Floating Production and Storage
Offloading ((
FPSO
)) ships. There are numerous other vehicles as well but I will not
go into those now.
|
Drillships
Benefits:
- Can move quickly from site to site as needed
- Can drill in deep water (water depth 3000m +)
Disadvantages:
- Not a good candidate for rough seas (it would be
interesting to see if there are any Drillships in the North
Sea)
- Capacity
(
Source
) |
|
Semi-Submersibles
Benefits:
- Can drill in (ultra) deep water 4000m+ (14,000 ft)
- These are huge, can work in harsh environments
Disadvantages:
- Large scale commitment, probably not used for
exploration
- Not as mobile
|
|
Jackups
Benefits:
- Low cost compared to alternatives
- High throughput is possible
Disadvantages:
- Shallow water drilling (400 ft water depth)
- More supply on the market leads to buyer power amongst
customers
|
Jackups can drill up to 35,000 ft. but are not suited for deepwater
drilling because they are limited to water depths of about 450 ft.
This is due to the fact they these ships have their legs 'jacked
up' and then plant them into the sea floor when they are ready to
drill.
Semisubmersibles or 'floaters' can move to a drilling site,
submerge pontoons which fill up with seawater and then
semi-submerge the drill ship into the site. Since the ship is not
physically in contact with the seabed it can operate in deeper
depths than Jackups.
Analysis:
As I start this analysis, I myself don't know which is a better
investment strategy. But my thought process is to look at the
offshore drilling sector, what are its drivers, how do these
drivers affect the Jackup and Floater segments and then pick my
equities.
In terms of drivers, I'm going to focus on three areas:
-
Price - in this instance this will be dayrates of rigs.
-
Volume- this will be rig utilization and what is forecasted
for rigs to go into contract
-
Growth- where is drilling going to commence and what type of
rig is better situated.
-
Costs- in this case, I am going to look at how much their
idled rigs cost the firm, cogs, and interest, for the sake of
making this article readable in one sitting, I'm going put this
in each company's analysis.
Investment Thesis:
Of the drillers, I am looking at the top two (Noble and Rowan)
vs. the bottom two (Seahawk Drilling, Hercules Offshore). These are
based on a quant screen that looks at historical financial and
accounting values: A score below 5.5 is good, 1 would be a buy, and
10 would be a short. Based on what I find in terms of drivers, I
will see if the quant screen and a brief analysis show a good stock
pick.
|
Symbol
|
Name
|
Analysts
|
Score
|
|
[[NE]]
|
Noble Corp.
|
41
|
3.48
|
|
[[RDC]]
|
Rowan Cos. Inc.
|
33
|
3.83
|
|
[[HP]]
|
Helmerich & Payne Inc.
|
23
|
4.31
|
|
[[ATW]]
|
Atwood Oceanics Inc.
|
17
|
4.76
|
|
[[RIG]]
|
Transocean Ltd.
|
43
|
4.90
|
|
[[ESV]]
|
ENSCO International
|
37
|
5.07
|
|
[[PDE]]
|
Pride International Inc.
|
34
|
5.31
|
|
[[DO]]
|
Diamond Offshore Drilling
|
35
|
5.59
|
|
[[PDS]]
|
Precision Drilling Trust
|
34
|
5.90
|
|
[[UNT]]
|
Unit Corp.
|
8
|
5.97
|
|
[[NBR]]
|
Nabors Industries Ltd.
|
29
|
6.41
|
|
[[PTEN]
|
Patterson-UTI Energy Inc.
|
26
|
6.52
|
|
[[PDC]]
|
Pioneer Drilling Co.
|
10
|
6.55
|
|
[[PKD]]
|
Parker Drilling Co.
|
6
|
6.66
|
|
[[VTG]]
|
Vantage Drilling Co.
|
4
|
7.17
|
|
[[UDRL]]
|
Union Drilling Inc.
|
7
|
7.21
|
|
[[HERO]]
|
Hercules Offshore Inc.
|
20
|
7.34
|
|
[[HAWK]]
|
Seahawk Drilling Inc.
|
5
|
7.55
|
Price
From Rigzone.com as well as company data, one can get the
monthly dayrates for rigs. For Jackups and Floaters you can see how
water depth is the key driver for revenue. As shallow wells are
drying up (Hubbert /Peak Oil) new finds will be in harsh areas such
as deep water.
Click to enlarge:
NE is able to command a premium compared to its peers not just in
the shallow water (Jackups) but also with its semisubmersibles as
well.
RDC is a pure play Jackup firm with its Gorilla lines commanding
a premium in areas such as the North Sea. Those products seem to
have a competitive advantage and it will be interesting to look
into this a bit more.
HAWK was a spinoff from PDE and looks like HAWK's Jackup fleet
is a bit older than its competitors. Most of their Jackups are cold
stacked and those working are generating $30,000 - $50,000
dayrates. Their water depth is in the 200' - 300' range.
I didn't include HERO since they didn't publish their rates,
what they did publish was whether their Jackups are working or not
(cold stacked). Forty eight percent of HERO's Jackups are not
producing, and 2/3 of their Jackups have a water depth of less than
200'. If you extrapolate their dayrates based on its competitors,
HERO's Dayrate range would be between $15,000 - $50,000.
Data for these charts above was compiled from company websites
and rigzone.com.
Click to enlarge:
Source: ODS Petrodata
Dayrates are showing a slight rebound, companies like NE should be
able to keep their premium pricing as NOCs and super majors come
back with large finds/projects.
Volume
Volume- this will be rig utilization and what is forecasted for
rigs to go into contract
Click to enlarge:
Source: Rigzone.
As can be seen in the chart above, Jackups are underutilized,
primarily due to a large supply of Jackups and more exploration
happening in deeper waters. Thus Drillships and Semis are leading
the utilization rate - firms like RIG have been busy!
What will grow the demand for off shore drilling?
Growth
The picture below shows the number of active platforms in the
Gulf of Mexico, as these sites dry up, one would guess that the
next phase would be to move further out.
Click to enlarge:
announced
Deepwater Nautilus)
Click to enlarge:
Deepwater Nautilus ((
RIG
))
Some of the major finds lately in the Gulf of Mexico have been
deep water (3000 m +) and according to Tony Hayward, CEO of [[BP]]
:
There's a floor now of $60 to $70 a barrel.
If the oil price fell materially beneath that floor for any
period of time,
investment in these new sources of supply would stop (deepwater
and shale oil).
This has been backed up with GOM discoveries increasing as oil
prices increased from their recent bottom in the late 90s.
Click to enlarge:
Catalysts
:
I see a couple of catalysts that will move the sector:
-
Upgrades. With a large number of analysts covering it seems
reasonable for upgrades to come as the cycle turns (NE though
has a lot of strong buys, RDC has mostly holds).
-
Consolidation. With SII's buyout recently, companies in the
$10B market cap could be buyout candidates.
-
Crude oil run up to $90 +.
-
Brazil, Gulf of Mexico, West Africa finds continue to be big
and plentiful.
Risks:
-
One of my classmates stated that oil is hitting a technical
head and shoulders pattern and should face some headwinds in
the near future. The recent turmoil could be Greece/flight to
quality of the USD, or could be more severe. I will address
this in another article. But commodity price risk is a big
risk.
-
NOCs like Pemex having strong negotiating power, they can
try to drive down dayrates. I don't see this as a big risk.
Click to enlarge:
So before I start the company analysis, I would feel comfortable
with my screen results of NE, RDC as the top picks. In fact on
3/26/10, I put in an order for PUTS on HAWK ($20), sadly my price
was too low and as the stock dropped 5% those puts went up in value
by 20+%.
Next time… next time…
Disclosure:
None yet. Will buy NE equity, puts on HAWK
See also
China LianDi's Big Opportunity
on seekingalpha.com