Borr Drilling Q1 2025 Earnings Report

Borr Drilling EPS Results

• Actual EPS: -$0.07
• Consensus EPS: -$0.03
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$0.04
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Borr Drilling Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $217.50 million
• Expected Revenue: $231.17 million
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$13.67 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Borr Drilling Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2025
• Date: 5/21/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, May 22, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 9:00AM ET

Borr Drilling (NYSE:BORR) operates as an offshore shallow-water drilling contractor to the oil and gas industry worldwide. The company owns, contracts, and operates jack-up drilling rigs for operations in shallow-water areas, including the provision of related equipment and work crews to conduct oil and gas drilling and workover operations for exploration and production. It serves oil and gas exploration and production companies, such as integrated oil companies, state-owned national oil companies, and independent oil and gas companies. The company was formerly known as Magni Drilling Limited and changed its name to Borr Drilling Limited in December 2016. Borr Drilling Limited was incorporated in 2016 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Borr Drilling Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Total operating revenue declined by $46.5 million quarter-over-quarter, resulting in adjusted EBITDA of $96.1 million for Q1.
• Operational performance remained robust with technical utilization at 99.2% and economic utilization at 97.9% for active rigs.
• The operating rig count ramped up from 16 to 22 rigs in Q2, as three suspended rigs in Mexico resumed operations and the Vale, Arabia One, THOR and RAN commenced contracts.
• Liquidity strengthened through collection of ~$120 million in receivables, $10 million in mobilization fees plus $35 million post-quarter, leaving $170 million of cash and $150 million undrawn on the RCF (total $320 million).
• The Board suspended the dividend to reinforce the balance sheet amid uncertain market conditions and support long-term value creation.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Boro Drilling Limited Q1 twenty twenty five Results Presentation Webcast and Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer session. You.

[Operator]

You wish to ask a question via the webcast, please use the Q and A box be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Mr. Patrick Schorn, CEO. Please go ahead.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

Thank you. Good morning and thank you for participating in the Boar Drilling first quarter earnings call. I'm Patrick Schorn and with me here today in London are Bruno Moran, our Chief Commercial Officer and Magnus Fowler, our Chief Financial Officer. Next slide please. First, covering the required disclaimers.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

I would like to remind all participants that some of the statements will be forward looking. These matters involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in these statements. I therefore refer you to our latest public filings. Next slide please. Our first quarter results were largely as expected, reflecting the impact of temporary rig suspensions and preparatory work for upcoming contracts.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

Total operating revenue declined by $46,500,000 quarter over quarter, resulting in adjusted EBITDA of $96,100,000 for the period. During the quarter, we averaged 16 active rigs out of our 24 rig fleet. Despite the lower activity level, operational performance remained robust with technical utilization at 99.2% and economic utilization at 97.9% for our active rigs, a reflection of the continued strength and efficiency of our operations. On the safety front, I'm pleased to report that several of our rigs received industry and customer recognition for outstanding safety performance. Notably, the grower was awarded Qatar Energy's HSE award for 2024 and the Prospecta One received the 2024 Best Safety Performance award from the IADC North Sea Chapter.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

In Thailand, Boar Drilling received PTT EEP's CEO Safety Excellence Award for the second consecutive year. These achievements are a statement to the commitment and professionalism of our crews and I congratulate and thank the entire team for their efforts on safety. Looking at the second quarter, we are seeing a meaningful ramp up of activity. Three suspended rigs in Mexico have resumed operations, while the Vale and Arabia One have both commenced their contracts. In addition, the THOR and RAN have secured new contracts starting this quarter.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

As a result, our operating rig count has now increased to 22, laying the foundation for stronger financial performance in the quarters ahead. Our liquidity position improved during the quarter, supported by the collection of approximately $120,000,000 in outstanding receivables from Mexico and $10,000,000 in mobilization fees for the Vale. Following the quarter end, we received an additional $35,000,000 in mobilization fees related to Vale and the Arabia One. While we continue to pursue several opportunities in 2025, our commercial efforts are now increasingly focused on 2026. Our rigs in Mexico represent a significant portion of our available days in 2026 and beyond.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

The combination of increased activity in Q2 and the advancement of private investment projects in Mexico are positive for future rig demand and extensions across our fleeting country. In light of uncertain market conditions, the Board has decided to suspend the dividend to further reinforce the balance sheet and enhance long term value creation. While we are not issuing specific EBITDA adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2025, we are however confirming to be comfortable with the current Bloomberg consensus estimate of approximately $460,000,000 I'll pass the call now to Magnus for the first quarter financial commentary.

[Magnus Vaaler, Chief Financial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Thank you, Patrick. The results for the first quarter were highly impacted by temporary rig suspensions and mobilization of rigs to commence contracts, which led to us only having 16 out of our 24 rigs working on average during the quarter. The total operating revenues were 216,600,000.0 a decrease of SEK46.5 million compared to the fourth quarter. Day rate revenues decreased by SEK22.6 million, primarily due to a decrease in the number of operating days for Arabia Two, Iran and the Thors, partially offset by an increase in operating days for Gerd, Gunlod and Vale. The overall decrease in day rate revenue also includes an $11,500,000 decrease in deferred mobilization revenue related to Arabia two due to the recognition of accelerated amortization of deferred mobilization revenue in the prior quarter linked to its contract termination in Saudi Arabia in Q4.

[Magnus Vaaler, Chief Financial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Bareboat charter revenue decreased by SEK17.9 million as a result of the temporary suspension of the rigs Galar grid in Gersimi in Mexico, who were suspended effective January 8. And management contract revenue decreased by SEK6 million due to the suspension of the Galar. Total operating expenses for Q1 were $156,800,000 a decrease of $5,100,000 compared to Q4. This is primarily due to $4,200,000 decrease in rig OpEx and $1,100,000 decrease in G and A. The decrease in Rig OpEx consists of SEK 10,200,000.0 of lower expenses due to the decrease in operating days, partially offset by a 5,200,000.0 increase in costs associated with Grid and Gersimi as a result of the company assuming their operating expenses and stacking costs during their temporary suspension period.

[Magnus Vaaler, Chief Financial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Prior to the temporary suspension and during operations, these costs are borne by the JV. Net loss for the first quarter was SEK 16,900,000.0, a decrease of SEK 43,200,000.0 compared to the net income in the fourth quarter and adjusted EBITDA was SEK 96,100,000.0, a decrease of SEK 40,600,000.0 from the previous quarter. Now moving into our cash. Our free cash position at the end of Q1 was SEK 170,000,000. In addition, we had SEK 150,000,000 undrawn under our RCF facility, resulting in total available liquidity of SEK $320,000,000.

[Magnus Vaaler, Chief Financial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Cash increased by SEK 108,400,000.0 in the quarter and compared to the comparison to the previous quarter. Net cash from operating activities was $138,700,000 which included approximately $120,000,000 in settlement of outstanding receivables from customer in Mexico and $10,000,000 of authorization fees received for the Vale. We paid $6,100,000 of cash interest and $16,900,000 of cash taxes. Net cash used in investing activities was $25,100,000 of which $25,000,000 related to cash used on jackup additions, primarily as a result of activation costs for the Vale and long term maintenance costs. Net cash used in financing activities was $4,900,000 and can be explained mainly by the $4,700,000 payment of cash distribution to shareholders.

[Magnus Vaaler, Chief Financial Officer at Borr Drilling]

And subsequent to quarter end, we have received approximately $35,000,000 in mobilization fees following commencement of the contract for the Arabia 1 and the Vale. With this, I will pass the word on to Bruno.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Thank you, Magnus. Let me start with our recent commercial highlights before moving on to the market trends. Year to date, Board Drilling has secured nine new contract commitments, adding two twenty one million dollars to our backlog at an average rate of $141,000 per day. We're pleased to see the continued execution of our commercial strategy. Since our last report, we secured high quality contracts at attractive day rates backed by our strong operational reputation.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

In Asia, the Scout received a binding LOA from Medco in Thailand for a one hundred and seventy day program starting in October, following the completion of its current PTTP contract. The tour has been awarded a seventy five day contract with Vietso Petro in Vietnam, which has begun in late April. These allow the rig to return to work earlier than previously expected and the rig is now contracted in Q3 and we're pursuing actively opportunities for work for the tour into 2026. In Mexico, the Riz Galar, GRYT and GERZME have been extended by a combined term of approximately three ninety days. These extensions offset the suspension period experienced earlier this year and preserve our regional backlog.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Further, the run has been awarded a one hundred and forty day contract with ENI in Mexico, which commenced in May. The contract includes options that could extend the rig into Q1 twenty twenty six. In West Africa, the Norva has received a letter of award for an eleven month program expected to commence in the second half of twenty twenty six. And finally, the GERD has secured a one year contract with Foxtrot International in Ivory Coast expected to commence in Q4. These recent fleet developments, combined with the commencement of the contracts for the Vale and Arabia 1, have increased our operating rig count to 22 in May.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Our 2025 fleet coverage now stands at 79% at an average day rate of 147,000. We're actively working with our customers on numerous opportunities and based on advanced stage of negotiations, we expect the coverage to rise towards the 80% to 85% range in the coming months. Our 2026 coverage has also grown. We're now at 35%, an increase of 12 percentage points since our last report. In line with the normal tendering cycles for jackups, we see an increasing number of tenders being launched for Work in '26 and our teams remain focused on firming up the coverage for the year.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Additionally, several of our customers have expressed interest in discussing potential extensions to their existing contracts. We remain actively engaged with the customers and believe our strong operational track record, high quality fleet and incumbent status will support further progress in building our 2026 coverage. This includes Mexico, where we believe the resumption of work on our three suspended rigs, including the private investment project, should create a favorable environment for potential renewals. Looking at the broader market, jackup utilization has remained steady. Modern rig market utilization sits at 92%, relatively unchanged quarter on quarter.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Adjusting for the net impact of the Aramco suspensions, modern utilization still sits just under 90%, which is we see as a healthy level. Recent changes in trade policies and OPEC plus decision to unwind production cuts have introduced some uncertainty in price volatility in commodity markets. We're actively monitoring these developments and engaging with our customers to assess how these may affect future activity levels. Importantly, we continue to see shallow water project as resilient. The projects are primarily related to brownfields, offering attractive economics at the current oil price and faster cash flow cycles to our customers.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Despite the recent market volatility, jackup tenders and awards have remained largely on track as evidenced by our recent fixtures. On the rig supply side, this volatility continues to create a challenging environment for older jackups with reduced contracting opportunities as customer preference for modern rigs persist. We've seen a resumption in rig retirement in 2025 and expect this trend to continue. Conversely, with a limited number of new builds in the pipeline and no immediate prospects for further deliveries, we do not anticipate any future additions in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, global demand outside of Middle East remains resilient.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Regions like West Africa, Southeast Asia and Americas are gradually absorbing some of the excess capacity resulting from Aramco's recent fleet adjustments. At the same time, recent fixtures suggest that Aramco may be preparing to secure additional long term jackup capacity and create an optionality. Current jackup activity levels in Saudi Arabia are in the mid-50s, a level consistent with 2019. Looking at Mexico, recent developments clearly show the link between rig activity and production. Since Q4 twenty twenty four, Pemex partial reduction in drilling activities led to nearly 10% drop in production in this period.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

We're pleased that our three rigs have now resumed operations in May and are again contributing to Mexico goal of restoring production to 1,850,000 barrels per day. In short, while near term volatility may continue, we remain confident in the long term fundamentals for the jackup market. We are consistently delivering our strategy, maximizing twenty twenty five backlog and building twenty twenty six coverage, while supporting our customers through the dynamic market. With that, I'll hand the call back to Patrick.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

Thank you, Bruno. So in conclusion, in 2025, we've made solid progress expanding our contract coverage through a series of awards and we now expect to reach 80% to 85% coverage for the full year. While we're still actively pursuing near term opportunities, our commercial focus is now shifting towards 2026. Our operating rig count has grown to 22, up from 16 in the first quarter, giving us a solid foundation for earnings growth in the quarters ahead. In Mexico, all of our rigs are currently active, including one under a private investment contract supporting Pemex's production initiatives.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

This return to full operation positions us well for contract renewal discussions, with Mexico representing a meaningful share of our available rig days for 2026 and beyond. And while we continue to navigate some short term uncertainty, the business we have built is resilient. The long term fundamentals of the market remain strong and Borg with its premium rig fleet is well positioned to capture future growth. Finally, in light of uncertain market conditions, the Board has decided not to pay a dividend to reinforce the balance sheet and enhance long term value creation. And with regards to adjusted EBITDA, we're on track to deliver 2025 consensus of approximately $460,000,000 Thank you.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

And ladies and gentlemen, we are now ready to go to Q and A.

[Operator]

Thank you. Star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press 11 again. Please kindly ask one question and possibly a follow-up question at a time to leave room for other participants. If you do have any further questions, you can please rejoin the queue.

[Operator]

If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the question box and click submit. We will now take the first question from the line of Eddie Kim from Barclays. Please go ahead.

[Eddie Kim, Vice President - Equity Research at Barclays]

Hi. Good morning. I wanted to start off in Mexico. I think many were surprised that your three suspended rigs have now resumed operations, especially given the challenges in that market. Is this a sign that Pemex is finally getting their act together?

[Eddie Kim, Vice President - Equity Research at Barclays]

Or does it speak more to the quality of your rigs specifically? And separately, you have two of your Pemex jackups coming off contract by year end this year. What's the likelihood you think that those will be extended beyond that period? Thank you.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

Yes, thank you Eddie. So I think it maybe a combination of a few aspects here. I think firstly, I think there's a very strong realization in Mexico that with very low or no activity production takes a very strong drop to that and there is a lot of work going on to make sure that activity plans are drawn up to make sure that additional production is created going forward, which means putting rigs back to work. Now clearly where we benefit is on one side on the quality of the rigs, but more importantly the well construction work that we are involved in Mexico has over the last few years demonstrated that we can generate some of the lowest cost barrels, drill very efficient wells and have done this approximately just short of a 100 wells offshore at the moment. So I think that the concept work, I think that we have a fairly long history of performing well in the environment and being very cost efficient.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

And therefore, I think we are benefiting from being some of the, let's say, first rigs to go back. So I think that that certainly has helped us. Now as to your question regarding the contract extension, I think that that is something that we will be discussing with our customer and Pemex here over the following months. I certainly expect that we have good contract extension opportunities in Mexico. The exact size of that is difficult to estimate at this moment, but I'm sure that we get more clarity in that towards the later part of this year.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

And clearly based on the performance that we have had over the last three years in this contract, I would expect that we do reasonably well in that. But I'm very happy to kind of keep you up to date as soon as we have more information on that.

[Eddie Kim, Vice President - Equity Research at Barclays]

Understood. Thank you for that. My follow-up is just on the uncertain market conditions you highlighted as the reason for suspension of the dividend. Could you just expand on this a bit more for us? Are you seeing customers in certain regions getting increasingly more cautious about the outlook in your conversations with them and perhaps pushing back drilling programs?

[Eddie Kim, Vice President - Equity Research at Barclays]

Or does it reflect more of your expectations for further oil price declines due to OPEC or maybe a combination of both? If you could just expand on that comment for us.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

Eddie, I think it's a little bit more a macro situation where I think that we have all tried to get a good understanding of what the latest macro developments really are going to mean to the market. I mean we have clearly had a lot of discussions around tariffs and what that might do to global GDP and as a result to oil demand. Counter that we have seen that demand has remained actually quite strong. Overall, we see a lot of customers that do relative short contracts. So from that I can see that they are certainly keeping a little bit their finger on the trigger, which I think is understandable as there is just quite a few items on the uncertainty list.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

Now what we also see is that when it coming to '26 and beyond, there are some larger packages of work. I think when we start to see that being tendered and actively negotiated and ultimately being awarded, I think we start to all have a much better feel for it. So I think it is purely a question of trying to be cautious, making sure that we have options on what to do with the cash as obviously dividend is not the only option that we have, but also working on the debt is at the moment quite attractive. So I think we want to make sure that we have all options open while remaining cautious for as long as the uncertainty persists.

[Eddie Kim, Vice President - Equity Research at Barclays]

Great. Thank you very much. I'll turn it back.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Doug Becker from Capital One. Please go ahead.

[Doug Becker, Co-Founder & Partner at Capital One Financial]

Thank you. Patrick, your commentary around Mexico sounds encouraging. Do you have any visibility on the option for the run to be exercised and then outside of Mexico, the prospector?

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

Yes, I'll turn that to Bruno. Thanks, Doug. I mean, we have indeed options there.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Indeed, Doug. It's early days. The rig just basically just gone to work about a week ago. So we're still monitoring that. Conversations with the customer so far are encouraging.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

But we do see opportunities outside of that customer as well for the rig in Mexico. There's some other work with IOCs that could potentially, keep that rig occupied well into 2026. So we'll see. It's definitely was a good timing to get the rig back to work. As we get closer to end of twenty twenty five and early in 2026, we do see an outlook that is, more favorable to see that rig continue to work.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

But I'll probably leave it at that early days. The rig just went to work. We're pretty happy with that.

[Doug Becker, Co-Founder & Partner at Capital One Financial]

Fair enough. Are there are you able to provide any color on which rigs are expected to increase the contract coverage to 80%, eighty five %? Are there one or two rigs or is it kind of a risk opportunity set?

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Yes. No, we were looking at the moment about three of our rigs, representing that, gap at the moment, Doug. And we're encouraged, we're quoting that number not out of the team there. We do have very active conversations with the customers at the moment, including some non binding LOIs that we're working to progress. I wouldn't want to share more details at this time, but I'm pretty convinced that in the next couple of weeks, we'll be able to say something more about it.

[Doug Becker, Co-Founder & Partner at Capital One Financial]

Sounds good. Thank you.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Thanks for joining.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Frederic Sten from Clarkson Securities. Please go ahead.

[Fredrik Stene, Head of Research at Clarksons Securities]

Hey, Patrick, Bruno and Magnus. I hope you're all well. So I want to touch a bit upon liquidity general because at least from the discussions that I've had with clients recently, I think it's very, very thematic. And some of this ties to Mexico, Pemex and the lack of just payment visibility from them. And the second comes to 2026 coverage and beyond.

[Fredrik Stene, Head of Research at Clarksons Securities]

And you've obviously given kind of good commentary on that already. But I was hoping that you could potentially provide a bit more color on how you see your own liquidity situation going forward and by extension of that, if you or how you feel you're kind of positioned to call it weather, short to medium term storm and also if you envision to touch the RCF either this year or next year in some of the call it more adverse scenarios that you might be running within your own sensitivity analysis? Thank you.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

Well, very good. I'll ask Magnus to comment on that.

[Magnus Vaaler, Chief Financial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Yes. Thank you. Thanks for the question, Fredrik. I think we're in a good position going into this year with almost 80% of our days covered at just below $150,000 per day. So it's a very solid day rate as sort of the fundamentals of our liquidity going into the year.

[Magnus Vaaler, Chief Financial Officer at Borr Drilling]

And also as you see, Bruno here is now starting to fill up the beginning of 2026 also with backlog rates that are above our cash breakeven rates, which are derisking, I think, our liquidity liquidity issues for us. We have received SEK 120,000,000 payment from Mexico so far this year, which is about one year of receivables or earnings. So that's obviously also very, very positive and fills up our bank account. We do expect that Pemex should go back to regular payments now throughout in 2025. Invoicing seems to be progressing as planned.

[Magnus Vaaler, Chief Financial Officer at Borr Drilling]

And the signals that we are seeing is that Mexico should come back to their regular payments that they have shown over the past few years up until mid last year, I would say. So all in all, I think the base case looks very solid. I do not foresee any reasons for drawing on the RCF as long as collections come in with the forecast that we are currently seeing. That being said, in scenarios where there are delays in payments from our customers or that we have experienced before from Mexico, We have the RCF of $150,000,000 which provides us with additional comfort there. I would also maybe lastly add that when you saw the regular payments stopped from Pemex last year, we were also able to find alternative ways of getting paid with this financing or factoring agreement, which released almost 75% of our receivables on the balance sheet from Pemex.

[Magnus Vaaler, Chief Financial Officer at Borr Drilling]

So I think we have a lot of opportunities to also to monetize on the receivables should not the base case go through.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

Yes. Maybe I can add a few things because Frederic, of course, it starts all with proper quality of revenue. And I think we have shown that we can generate that in 2024 where we ended up with €500,000,000 of adjusted EBITDA. We are indicating a number now that is along the lines of Bloomberg consensus for 2025 of €460,000,000 where you also see that we are still in an environment where it's very competitive and where jobs are not easy to find. We're able to continue to fill up the coverage for '25 as well up to what we have indicated the 80% to 85%.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

We have no different intention to do with 26%. So you see that we have 35% at a very decent day rate. If you think about what Mexico represents on top of that, it's about 20%. So you could say that with that you're already starting to talk getting to the 55% to 60% of coverage. And we intend to continue to fill that throughout the year and try to be getting the right balance as we get this year between pricing and utilization.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

And I think as long as we can continue to be very focused on starting off with the right quality of revenue and keeping the costs under control, then I think with the efforts on collections we can do a good job on liquidity as well. At least that's what we've been doing so far and we intend to approach it no different for '26.

[Fredrik Stene, Head of Research at Clarksons Securities]

That's very good color. Thank you. I think Patrick you kind of started to touch upon my follow-up here because as you're building either the rest of 2025 and also through 2026, and then maybe this one goes to Bruno. First part of that would be, you know, the discussions with your clients, are you still able and confident that you can secure premium rates or rates without premium above market for your high spec capabilities? Or are you in the current market getting pushback on that?

[Fredrik Stene, Head of Research at Clarksons Securities]

I guess what you've signed so far proves that you can, but interested to hear how is that looking forward? And maybe for Magnus on the cost side also in the context of liquidity here, if you're faced with idle time on some of these rigs and that pertains to Arabia Two and VAR for that matter, how quickly are you able to ramp costs down and up if there's open capacity in between contracts? Thanks.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

All right, Fredrik. So in terms of your question, probably difficult to provide a single answer to that and whether we can get a premium on every job going forward. I think it depends a lot on the specifics of the projects. We're obviously very well aware of the value that we bring to the customers with our high end rigs, offline capabilities and features like that. And to the tune that we know we create value for our customers, we think it's fair that we continue to claim a bit of a premium for those rigs and have been doing so for a while now.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

That all said, as we've been repeating for the last couple of quarters, at the moment, coverage is obviously just as important, if not more important than the premium. So we keep an eye when we deliver value for the customer because of project specifics. We certainly are very keen and driving to get that and I think we have continued to do so. Maybe a bit more on projects that are bit more cookie cutter where we don't necessarily add an immense amount of value for the customer, we compete with the market trend. So we're comfortable with that.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

I think what is important is that the quality of our fleet still means that a lot of our customers default back to us and look at us as kind of the preferred alternative. And that should give us a chance to fuel up that coverage better than our peers or in a faster pace than our peers. And that's really the focus that we have at the moment.

[Magnus Vaaler, Chief Financial Officer at Borr Drilling]

And then what's your question on cost side of things when we have our rigs stacked? We currently have our rigs warm stacked, they are relatively easy to get back to work as you saw from the rigs that we have suspended in Mexico and Iran. We keep warm enough that there will not be a lot of cost to bring the rigs out. And I would say a typical stacking cost for those rigs are in the mid $20,000 per day approximately. The exception is obviously the VAR, which is a new build coming out of the shipyard where we can actually have a lower cost while it's sitting idle.

[Magnus Vaaler, Chief Financial Officer at Borr Drilling]

And that's more in the area of $15,000 per day. So if we look at stacking periods of up to more than one year, you will probably go into a cold stacking mode where you need to do more preservation, but you could also have a lower per day cost while stacked, but we have not gone to those stages yet as we are very optimistic that we actually will get work for them in less than one year.

[Fredrik Stene, Head of Research at Clarksons Securities]

All right. Thank you so much for comprehensive answers. That's it from me. Have a good day.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

Thank you.

[Magnus Vaaler, Chief Financial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Will now take the next question from the line of Greg Rodi from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

[Gregory Rossi, Director - FRG Americas at Bank of America]

Good morning, everybody, or I guess good afternoon for you. Just can

[Analyst]

you talk a

[Gregory Rossi, Director - FRG Americas at Bank of America]

little bit about the Saudi market? Just you mentioned, on the long term demand there, but we've been hearing, what's been out in the press about about rates potentially being dropped. Could you help us understand what you're seeing and how that may be affecting Saudi market and just other adjacent markets?

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

Sure. Bruno, could you, take that Saudi question? Sure.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

And thanks, Greg. Looking at the Saudi market, and we managed I mentioned in the earlier remarks, we saw, obviously, over the cycle Saudi going from about 50 rigs to 90 rigs, and then following the suspension we're now back down to levels in the 50s. So activity level offshore is now back at same level as 2019. As we understand the land operation in Saudi has seen a significant reduction in activity as well. Clearly, the kingdom at the moment is resolving for cash.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

They seem to think that there is production available at their fingertip and I think optimizing that has been in the forefront. Now interestingly, in the last couple of quarters, there's a few things that would indicate that we could be at a trough and possibly working towards a reversal. One of those indications has been the increased interest from Saudi about lump sum turnkey projects offshore. They've been quite successful with that onshore over time, not so much offshore. And now they seem to be exploring those opportunities on wanting to discuss these opportunities with the service companies and consequently the jackup providers.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

So let's see how things mature over time. And then equally, they've been now securing long term rigs for some of the rigs that long term contracts or some of the rigs that had been previously suspended in the part of the kingdom indicating that they're starting to build some long term capacity or potentially optionality. So that's what we see at the moment. When Saudi is going to be back in the market, I think we will see. Certainly, we do feel that at a current activity level going back to same levels of 2019, meaningful reduction activity are unlikely, and we start to see some signs of that potentially reversing going forward.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Time will tell. I'll probably leave it at that. I guess, we try to predict Aramco's steps in the past, I think people have been proven wrong. So we'll just monitor that going forward.

[Gregory Rossi, Director - FRG Americas at Bank of America]

And just, I appreciate all commentary on liquidity and the prudency of suspending the base dividend. What how should we think about share buybacks? Is that a possibility in this environment or is that also off the table?

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

Clearly, think that is something that at a certain moment is clearly attractive at where equity pricing is currently. I think that there is a variety of things that we can do. I think everything is on the table at the time that we have a good visibility on the cash coming out of the business and that would include everything from buybacks, from retiring debt, from straight dividends. I think that there is a whole slew of things you can think of that all will be appropriately evaluated and we looked at what would be the most appropriate at that moment in time. But I think that there is nothing that is excluded.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

We will diligently work through it to make sure that we have the cash work in the best interest of the company.

[Gregory Rossi, Director - FRG Americas at Bank of America]

Thanks for the time guys.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now take the last question from the line of Fadi Chamos from Triton Partners. Please go ahead.

[Fady Chammas, Investment Advisory at Triton Debt Opportunities]

Yes. Hi. It is for Fadi. Quick question about the backlog. How does this backlog work?

[Fady Chammas, Investment Advisory at Triton Debt Opportunities]

Does it have a clause for termination for convenience? Can the customers just stop the contract? Are there any penalty payments? Yes, any color about that would be great.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Yes, no problem, Fadi. If you look at probably difficult to give you a single answer for all the contracts, but our contracts in its vast majority, probably close to totality at the moment include if includes a clause for termination for convenience, it comes with a level of payout. That payout varies from contract to contract, but in general terms, it's equivalent to kind of the EBITDA backlog expectation of that of the remaining term. So if the customer decides to exercise that option, we do recover the profit expectation that we had for the contract. And that's the general terms for the contract.

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

It varies a little bit from contract to contract, but they are fairly similar.

[Fady Chammas, Investment Advisory at Triton Debt Opportunities]

Okay. So just to double check, you'd say that the bulk of the backlog is kind of protected, I. E, even if oil prices drop materially, you wouldn't expect customers just to cancel contracts, and you guys wouldn't get anything?

[Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer at Borr Drilling]

That is correct. Yes.

[Fady Chammas, Investment Advisory at Triton Debt Opportunities]

Okay. And then one quick follow-up is around the CapEx per rig. Like, how do you guys think about it? And how should we think about it? Like average CapEx per week per year? Can you also please give some guidance around that?

[Magnus Vaaler, Chief Financial Officer at Borr Drilling]

Yes, sure. As you know, we've now last year filed out our newbuild program, so there's no further growth CapEx. And what we're left with then is maintenance CapEx, special periodic surveys, long term maintenance. We have already indicated we expect around $50,000,000 in 2025 on CapEx, which equates to around $2,000,000 per rig. And I think that is a decent number to also use going forward for modeling purposes and into the next couple of years as well.

[Fady Chammas, Investment Advisory at Triton Debt Opportunities]

Got it. Thank you. Yes, think that is all from my side.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

Very good. Thank you, Thadde.

[Patrick Schorn, CEO at Borr Drilling]

And I think with this, we have come to the end of the Q and A session. Thank you very much for your attention.

[Operator]

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Patrick Schorn, CEO
• Magnus Vaaler, Chief Financial Officer
• Bruno Morand, Chief Commercial Officer

Analysts

• Eddie Kim, Vice President - Equity Research at Barclays
• Doug Becker, Co-Founder & Partner at Capital One Financial
• Fredrik Stene, Head of Research at Clarksons Securities
• Gregory Rossi, Director - FRG Americas at Bank of America
• Analyst
• Fady Chammas, Investment Advisory at Triton Debt Opportunities