Seadrill Limited 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Please go ahead. Hello and welcome to Seadrill's second quarter 2026 earnings call.

I'm Kevin Smith, Vice President of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations, and I'm joined today by Samir Ali, President and Chief Executive Officer, Grant Creed, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Jacob Taylor, Vice President Commercial. Our call will include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainty. Actual results may differ materially. No one should assume these forward-looking statements remain valid later in the quarter or year, and we assume no obligation to update them except as required by securities laws. Our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission provide a more detailed discussion of our forward-looking statements and the risk factors affecting our business. During the call, we will also reference non-GAAP measures. Our earnings release, furnished to the SEC and available on our website, includes reconciliations with the nearest corresponding GAAP measures.

Our use of the term EBITDA on today's call corresponds with the term adjusted EBITDA as defined in our earnings release. I'll now turn the call over to Samir.

Thanks, Kevin. Welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us. I'll begin with our second quarter highlights, including continued progress against our core priorities and our recent contracting successes. I'll then discuss the market backdrop and regional outlook before turning the call over to Grant to review our financial results and updated full year 2026 guidance. Second quarter financial performance was very strong, exceeding expectations. We delivered EBITDA of $144 million, underpinning our decision to raise full year revenue and EBITDA guidance. This marks our second guidance increase this year. The quarter also reflected continued execution against our core priorities: delivering safe, reliable operations, generating free cash flow, and capturing the upside ahead of us. Let's start with our first priority, safe and reliable operations. We delivered another solid quarter, achieving economic utilization of 96%. We also successfully completed the West Tellus reacceptance on schedule and on budget.

Seadrill's one team culture met all client expectations, and the rig has been successfully operating since mid-June. This is an important milestone. It marks the second of three rigs to roll off legacy day rate contracts and begin generating revenue at substantially higher rates. Safety remains our top priority. We are proud of the progress we've made, but we are never satisfied with standing still. By continuing to invest in training, knowledge sharing, and leadership development, we are building an even stronger organization for the future. I want to take this moment to remind our dedicated crews, everyone has stop-work authority and no task is worth compromising our high safety standards. Priority two, free cash flow generation. We remain on track to generate meaningful free cash flow in the second half of 2026.

With that visibility, we resumed shareholder returns during the second quarter, opportunistically repurchasing $20 million of shares under our repurchase program during the last week of June. Priority three, capturing the upside. Our recent contracting success strengthens 2027 revenue visibility and demonstrates Seadrill's ability to capture the upside ahead of us. Since our May call, we have added approximately $200 million of backlog, including new contracts and contract extensions on three rigs in the U.S. Gulf and Malaysia. In the U.S. Gulf, the West Vela secured a 12-month contract with Talos beginning in June 2027 in direct continuation of its current program. The award adds approximately $161 million to backlog, excluding additional services, and reflects the strength of our operational execution and customer relationships.

We are pleased to extend our partnership with Talos and thank the crew of the West Vela for their superior performance that is the foundation for what's next. Staying in the U.S. Gulf, the Sevan Louisiana has worked steadily throughout the year. The rig is expected to wrap up its current program with Walter Oil & Gas Corporation later this week, following the successful completion of earlier campaigns with Guardian and LLOG in July. We also want to recognize Harbour and LLOG for their continued trust in Seadrill. Earlier this year, Harbour and LLOG extended the West Neptune once again and selected the West Vela for a 270-day campaign beginning later this year. Harbour also contracted the Sevan Louisiana for a short campaign at the end of July, meaning they will have had all of Seadrill's U.S. Gulf fleet under contract in 2026.

We appreciate their confidence and remain focused on delivering safe, efficient, and reliable operations across every rig. In Malaysia, our customer recently exercised a priced option for approximately 75 days on the West Capella, extending operations into the second half of 2027. Turning to the broader market, the current tender pipeline points to a materially tighter environment in 2027. If these tenders convert into awards as expected, we believe drillship utilization could reach the mid-90% range by next year. Collectively, developments across strategic reserves, offshore investment, and exploration activity support our view of growing demand for deepwater rigs. The U.S. Energy Information Administration's latest outlook shows OECD inventories falling to their lowest levels since at least 2003, as supply disruptions accelerate stock draws.

Oil majors have also highlighted tightening supply conditions, with Chevron noting that supply crunch could soon be felt globally, and ExxonMobil noting that the U.S. is approaching unheard-of inventory levels. Wood Mackenzie forecasts offshore project FIDs to rise to $165 billion in 2027, representing a 132% increase from 2025, underscoring the strength of the offshore cycle. Further, we continue to see offshore exploration activity gaining momentum, driven by structurally higher oil price, energy security coming back into vogue, slowing non-OPEC production growth, and operators' need to rebuild reserve bases. Equinor validated this theme in its capital markets day in June, guiding to an international exploration budget for the first time and highlighting plans to step up exploration along the Atlantic margin, supported by its view that oil and gas demand will remain higher for longer.

Recent exploration announcements also reinforce this momentum, with TotalEnergies securing offshore exploration agreements in Egypt and Syria, Chevron signing an early exploration deal offshore Guinea, Exxon applying for new exploration permits offshore Guyana, and Repsol entering into an exploration agreement in Venezuela. Moving to the outlook for key regions where Seadrill operates. The U.S. Gulf remains in transition, with several drillships expected to become available before year-end. Seadrill is ahead of the curve by recently securing a 365-day contract at leading-edge day rates for the West Vela, bringing total year-to-date backlog added in the region to nearly half a billion dollars. The West Neptune is already contracted into late 2027 and is well-positioned for attractive follow-on opportunities. We remain confident that the supply-demand balance of drillships in the region will improve in 2027.

Our semi-submersible, the Sevan Louisiana, is also favorably positioned as market conditions in the U.S. Gulf strengthen into 2027. While we have a strong track record of winning programs with short lead times, visibility for the balance of 2026 remains limited. We will continue to manage the asset with commercial discipline while preserving flexibility. Turning to Brazil, Seadrill remains well-contracted in one of the industry's most important deepwater geographies. Recent multi-year awards and extensions reinforce our view that Brazil will remain a core source of drillship demand through the end of the decade. 25 drillships are currently contracted in the region, with only 3 expected to become available before the end of 2027, if options on a couple of rigs are exercised. A recent Petrobras prequalification exercise may be an indication of tendering activity to come.

We expect Brazil to remain balanced and competitive, with opportunities favoring rigs that align closely with customer needs and basin requirements. Following the completion of the West Carina contract at the end of June, we mobilized the rig outside of Brazil, consistent with typical post-contract process in the country. We are in advanced discussions for follow-on opportunities and remain confident in our abilities to secure work commencing in the first half of 2027. In Southeast Asia, a region we have repeatedly identified as a source of growing demand, momentum is building. A recent leading-edge fixture awarded for work commencing in mid-2028 is a positive data point. Customers' willingness to secure assets at leading-edge rates for future work is an indicator that the balance of supply and demand is expected to tighten. With limited drillship availability in the region, the West Capella is in a strong position to capture potential upside.

In West Africa, and particularly Angola, the Sonadrill joint venture continues to demonstrate the strength of our local partnership and the reliability of our operations, with all three rigs delivering technical uptime above 99% during the second quarter. Our near-term commercial focus is on the West Gemini, which is due to roll off contract later this year. While the rig is well-positioned for future work in Angola, we continue to market it across West Africa. We expect upcoming FIDs and tenders in countries such as Angola, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, and Namibia to absorb a meaningful share of available rig capacity. Bringing it all together, the broader deepwater market continues to tighten, supported by improving market fundamentals, rising offshore investment, and exploration momentum.