Good morning. This is the conference operator. Welcome, thank you for joining the Saipem first half 2023 results presentation. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and 0 on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Alessandro Puliti, CEO and General Manager. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you. Good morning. Welcome to Saipem First Half 2023 results presentation. I'm here with our CFO, Paolo Calcagnini, and with the rest of Saipem's top management team. I'm also pleased to have here in the room, Alberto Goretti, who recently joined us as Head of Investor Relations. Let's start with the financials. Q2 was another quarter of strong delivery, driven mainly by our offshore business. In the second quarter, we delivered a robust revenue growth of 70% year-on-year and 7% quarter-on-quarter. EBITDA growth was even stronger than revenues, at 48% year-on-year and 15% quarter-on-quarter. In the second quarter, we achieved an improved EBITDA margin of 7.9%, reflecting better profitability of some of our business lines, as well as a better mix of activities.
At the end of June, we had a net cash position of EUR 34 million, and a net debt position post lease liabilities of EUR 288 million. Order intake in the second quarter was also robust, at EUR 4 billion, a strong increase compared to the 2.7 billion in the first quarter, and implying a book-to-bill of 1.4 times. In summary, the second quarter of 2023 was another quarter of progress and financial growth, continuing in delivering our strategic plan. Now let's expand a bit more on the main achievement in the first six months of 2023. The financial results are robust, both revenues and EBITDA level, and continue to improve year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter, in line with the 2023 guidance.
Operating cash flow was positive, both in the first and the second quarter, contributing in maintaining a stable net debt despite the cash outflow related to the backlog review. In addition, we have further strengthened our balance sheet structure with two new facilities that entered into effect in June, for a total of EUR 860 million. The EUR 390 million such facilities was disbursed, while the EUR 470 million revolving credit facility is undrawn. Our EUR 500 million bond, maturing in September, will be repaid using our available cash, which will lead to a further improvement in the average debt tenor. From a commercial standpoint, we keep winning orders with the right mix. The majority of the total order intake in the quarter is in offshore, the segment that historically have recorded the highest margins.
Out of the total EUR 6.7 billion award in the first half, around 10% is in low or zero carbon activities, in line with our commitment to the energy transition. We continue to receive quality orders from clients with whom we have long-lasting relationships, both national and international oil companies in our core geographic areas and countries. As far as operational are concerned, we are progressing well on wind offshore project execution, further reducing the risk of some of the critical projects that were part of our backlog review. In particular, after completing the Seag reen project in Scotland, we significantly accelerated on the NnG project during the second quarter, reaching an overall progress of 94%. Now I will hand over to Paolo for a review of the financials results.
Thank you, Sandro. Thanks, everyone, for joining the call today. First, it's worth noting that we had no special items in the first half of this year, and while in the first half of 2022, we had EUR 20 million of non-recurring costs. Second, we reported a net result of EUR 40 million, almost entirely achieved in the second quarter. This is the first positive quarter at net income level since late 2019, and the best quarter at the net income level since 2017. Revenues were up 38% year-on-year to EUR 5.3 billion, and margins have grown 56% to EUR 410 million.
Before diving into the business line results, I would also like to share two or three pieces of information in relation to these numbers. First is that the revenue growth has been consistent across all key geographies, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, and Americas, witnessing an healthy market demand, a smooth group-wide operations, and the ability to ensure an effective supply chain. Second, if we compare the 2022 and 2023 numbers in a like for like basis, I mean, net of the adjustments made in 2022, the EBITDA growth would have been 68% versus the 56% you see in the chart.
Now, moving to the reporting segments, let's start with the asset-based services, which aggregates the offshore engineering construction and the offshore wind activities. This is a business line that has contributed the most to the increase in the group results, both in terms of revenues and margins. Revenues are up 30% year-on-year to EUR 2.6 billion, and margins increased by EUR 96 million, or 59% year-on-year, and 24% over Q1, reaching EUR 260 million. A few additional comments on the asset-based performance. Performance improvements have been robust and balanced across geographies, projects, and key clients, and we see it as a strong signal of a high quality growth of the business line.
Margins were close to the 10% threshold in the six months, although already above 10% in Q2. This is notwithstanding the significant progress that Alessandro mentioned, made in zero margin wind projects, whose effect is still dilutive on overall margins of the business line. For the full year, 2023, we expect EBITDA margin to improve even further as we progress with the execution of all the acquisitions made mostly during the market downturn, and the start of the works on acquisitions that have been made recently with higher margins than in the past.
Moving to the offshore drilling at page nine of the presentation, revenues increased by 24% year on year, and the margins increased 64% from EUR 86 million last year to EUR 141 million this year, with an EBITDA margin, which is just below 8%. The performance improvement came mainly from two factors: the increasing market daily rates, which has been consistent both in deep water semi-sub and shallow water fleet.
Second, the higher contribution in 2023 of the new drillship, Santorini, that was acquired, if you remember, December last year, and the Perro Negro, that wasn't working in the first half 2022, while it worked fully in the first half of this year.
For 2023 and the remaining six months, we expect a substantial improvement in both revenues and EBITDA margins versus 2022, thanks to the strong market conditions and supporting daily rates, higher utilization of the fleet with a lower impact from cyclical maintenance on some of our vessels, and the increase in the fleet size, thanks to the recent DVD and jack-up additions that will enter into operations later this year. Moving to energy carriers, this is a business line that deserves a few comments.
If you look at the numbers, while revenues grew by 26% year-on-year, this is a signal of an important increase in the pace at which projects are being executed, and therefore, a signal of healthy operations across our portfolio, margins struggled to show a similar performance. These numbers do not come as a surprise for at least three reasons. The weight of zero margin projects coming from the backlog review is still material on overall revenues. This obviously is putting pressure on margins. Margins recovery takes more time in onshore, as project duration is longer than in offshore business. It takes more time to see the benefits of the new cycle.
Third, there are some key projects that either remain on hold this year, or in other cases, projects that positively contributed to the first half of 2022 have been terminated, and the main example is the Russian projects. On the other hand, we see the glass half full or three-quarters full, as we are making substantial progress on backlog review projects, and this is a precondition to return to healthy margins on the business line. For the full year of 2023, we foresee a growth of revenues with a positive EBITDA margin, although in the low single-digit area. I move to the P&L, to the P&L numbers.
As already mentioned, we didn't have any special items in the first six months, compared to roughly EUR 20 million of special items in 2022. Sorry, 2023 versus 2022. We are very pleased to report a positive net result of EUR 40 million, generated in Q2. As I said, it's the first positive quarter on net income level since late 2019, and the best quarter net income level since late 2017. We already went through the EBITDA numbers, I will spend a few words on what happened below the EBITDA. Net financial expenses were EUR 87 million. This is higher than the first half of 2022, although decreasing from Q1 to Q2.
We had EUR 52 million of financial expenses in Q1, down to EUR 35 in Q2. We had a decrease in interest and fees because of the higher costs in 2022 related to the financing package and the capital increase, which have been more than offset however by the higher expenses on FX hedging. The positive results, the equity investments gave a positive result this year, compared to a negative result 12 months back. This is consistent with the general trend of recovering margins on our portfolio. Moving to the net debt evolutions, this is a chart with a lot of numbers.
I think that all these numbers tell two stories. The first one is the net debt, net debt remained unchanged in the first six months of this year, and the same happened comparing Q1 to Q2. More important than the overall evolution is that we had a positive net cash flow from operations, you see it in the first three blocks of the chart, by EUR 142 million, driven by strong operational results and the reduction in the working capital. Now, in the chart, for the benefit of clarity, we split the three components of the operating cash flow.
The first one, you see it in the first green block in the chart, is the net result that was positive for EUR 258 million. You have a positive contribution of EUR 107 million, which is the reduction in working capital from ordinary projects, with ordinary projects that refer to the non-backlog review portfolio. The cash outflow of the backlog review project that was EUR 223 million in the first six months. This is the progress reflecting the progress that we're making in the execution of the legacy projects.
Overall, the operating cash flow, excluding the backlog review, was EUR 365 million in the first half, which in our view, is a very encouraging result. In any case, even including the backlog review effect, the operating cash flow was more than sufficient to sustain the CapEx made in the first half of this year. The last slide before I hand over to Sandro, referring to page 13, this is the debt structure of the group. Since the last results presentation in April, we had some positive news.
This is two new facilities that we signed in February and entered into effect in June, for a total of EUR 860 million. That brought the total liquidity at the end of June to EUR 3.4 billion. The two credit facilities were in EUR 390 million term loan, and the EUR 470 million revolving credit facility, which is currently undrawn. If we give a look at the chart on the left side, the available cash grew from EUR 1.45 billion at the end of March, to EUR 1.8 billion end of June. While the cash in joint ventures was substantially stable at EUR 1.12 billion, from EUR 1.16 billion in March.
On the right side, you see the debt maturities. I guess that the key message here is that our liquidity position is healthy and more than adequate to cover the debt maturities for at least the next two years. That, the EUR 500 million bond maturing in September will be repaid using the available cash, which, will lead to a further improvement in the average debt tenor of our capital structure. I will now hand over to Sandro for a few comments on the commercial and operational performance.
Thank you, Paolo. Now moving on the operational update. The order intake of 2023, year to date, reached EUR 7 billion, the bulk of which has been generated by the offshore market. In asset-based services, we received quality new orders from national and international oil companies across all our Core Geographic area and business segment. In drilling, we have recently acquired a 10-year contract extension for the jack-up Perro Negro 7 in Middle East, confirming the strong and long-term demand in this area. We have also acquired six month contracts plus options for Scarabeo 9 in the Mediterranean, and a two year contract for the seventh-generation drillship, Santorini. On energy carriers, which includes sustainable infrastructure, we have recently been awarded 2 additional railway project in Italy.
Consistently with the strategic plan, the low zero carbon project intake stood at 10% of the total of the first half of the year, and it has increased further, considering the above-mentioned railway projects in Italy. Regarding the prospects of the low carbon business, let me also flag out the letter of intent we received for a large CO2 carbon capture plant to be installed in an existing bio-cogeneration facilities near Stockholm. The plant will be able to capture 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year, and will be one of Europe's first large-scale facilities characterized by negative emissions. The letter allow us to proceed with early engagement in engineering and related activities, while the finalizing of the main terms of the EPC contract, we expect to be reached in Q3 2023.
Looking at the backlog, as you can see from slide 16, it reached a record level of EUR 25 billion, a 10% growth year-on-year. The increase is further confirmation of Saipem competitiveness, as well as of the positive market cycle. It is very clear our shift over the last 12 months toward the high margin of short segments, fully in line with our strategy, ensuring the full utilization of our fleet of construction and drilling vessels. Our backlog is well diversified across geographies, covers a substantial share of the revenues we expect for 2024 and 2025. Now let me give you an update on the offshore wind projects currently under execution. The majority of our offshore wind project has now been completed, namely, Saint-Brieuc, Fecamp, Formosa 2, and Seag reen. At this stage, three projects remains to be completed.
Dogger Bank in the U.K. is almost finished. Only one top side remains to be installed during the campaign planned for the spring 2024. In Scotland, the work on the foundation for the energy project is progressing well, with a strong acceleration in the second quarter. We will provide an in-depth view of the project progress in the next slide. Lastly, the manufacturing of monopiles at Courseulles-sur-Mer in Normandy, is at good stage in the view of the installation campaign, which is expected to start in late 2023. Let's have now a closer look to the progress we made on energy project. We had a significant acceleration of the execution, particularly in the second quarter. We have now done 52 out of 56 foundation for the jackets, drilling foundation all, and completing them with relative pile casing, almost finishing the riskiest part of our scope of work.
In addition, 37 jackets out of 56 have been installed, and the activity for the remaining 19 is progressing well. We have achieved a 94% overall progress, and our scope of the project is expected to be completed in December this year. Lastly, our client has recently started the installation of the wind turbine generators on the tripod foundation jackets that we delivered, as you can see from the picture in the slide. Let's now have a look on what we see in terms of commercial pipeline for the next few quarters. The volume on near terms opportunity is now worth EUR 53 billion, representing an 83% growth versus one year ago. This confirms that the market remains very strong and active, with many opportunities to be addressed.
Within this pool of opportunities, around 60% and 67% is offshore, coherently with our commercial refocus toward the higher profitability segments. We are quite confident around the robustness of the buoyant market upcycle. In this regard, I would like to draw your attention to the long-term charter contract we have recently signed for a latest generation deep water, heavy lift and pipe-lay vessel, that is named JSD 6000. The contract is a five year duration plus two option of one year each, the vessel is scheduled for delivery in second quarter of 2024. This is an important addition to our fleet of higher technology vessels and fully in line with our strategic plan, it can be used to execute projects already acquired, as well as an enabler for future opportunities. Let's now turn to the final slide of the presentation.
This slide concludes our presentation and summarizes the main messages I would like to leave with you. Financial performance continue to be positive and well in line with the strategic plan targets, backed up by the restarting of an important investment cycle by our customers. New awards are improving backlog portfolio quality in line with the plan. In E&C offshore, this is already visible in the financials, as the average duration of the offshore contract is relatively short, whilst the positive financial impact is yet to materialize on the onshore business as these projects have a much longer lead times. Backlog review projects are progressing according to plan and gradually exiting from our portfolio. Our volume of activity is growing, but we are maintaining a strict working capital discipline.
Finally, all of the above leads us to confirm the guidance we gave in February, both in terms of 2023 financials as well as our longer term business plan targets. This concludes our presentation, I will now turn to the operator to open the Q&A session.
Thank you. This is the chorus call conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Guillaume Delaby with Société Générale. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. I'm going to be a little bit greedy this morning. Four quick questions with quick answers. First, two for Paolo. Regarding energy carriers, you mentioned that energy carriers could be, should show some positive EBITDA in the coming quarters of 2023. First, did I understand correctly? This is my first question.
I said that we expect positive, a positive EBITDA for the full year increased revenues year-over-year.
Okay. Second point, still for you, Paolo, please. You made EUR 15 million on the investment. I guess this should not be replicable in the coming quarters. What is the outlook for investment revenues in the coming quarters? Because EUR 15 million was a big number.
Well, when you, when we say investment, it's mostly joint ventures, so it's projects.
Yes
... that we do with other partners, where we are not consolidating the numbers from an accounting perspective. They are reported as results from equity investments, but in fact, it's projects where, for example, we have minority stakes. For the remaining of the year, we expect a positive result. Even though you cannot expect a huge number, it's gonna be still positive, but, you know, you cannot expect to multiply that number by, I don't know, three, four. It's gonna be positive, higher than first half, but it's not a huge increase in the second half compared to the first one.
Thank you, Paolo. two quick question, maybe not as quick, for Alessandro Puliti, regarding your Sweden BECCS contract. Tell me if I'm wrong or right. I think it is the it's going to be the largest unit in the world. Correct me. Second point, I would like to know what is the main competitor for BECCS carbon capture? I have in mind SLB, Microsoft, Chevron. Maybe if you can give me one or two other name. My last question, very quickly, just would like to know the JSD 6000 vessel. Who are you chartering it from? Was it the old Petrofac vessel? Thank you.
Okay, I will give you some color on this activity we just acquired in Sweden. This is a bio-cogeneration project, and why? Because it is full with biofuels, and this is why it is bio. This is the reason why capturing CO2, it leads to negative emission. In terms of size of the plant, it is one of the most sizable plant in the world. It is not the biggest in the world in terms of carbon capture. Certainly, it is one of the highest capacity that will be installed in terms of carbon capture. Competitors, there are our usual competitors.
Sometimes we compete directly with the provider of the, of the technology. Sometimes we do apply our own technology that we are that we can offer on the market. I would say that our in this case, the competitors are the one that we use to compete in our onshore activities. The last the last question is regarding the new, the new lifting and installation vessel, JSD 6000. This is leased by ZPMC, and in this vehicle, yes, it's true that Petrofac has a has a minority stake in the in the vehicle that will lease this from to ourselves.
Okay, thank you very much, [Alessandro]. Very useful. Thank you.
The next question is from Alessandro Pozzi with Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Hi there. I have a few questions. The first one on the offshore, let's say, offshore operations in terms of EBITDA. You will have more, you know, offshore drilling and more vessels in the second half compared to the first half, and also probably utilization rates as well in the offshore E&C. I was wondering how we should think about the second half for the offshore activities compared to the first half, and whether, especially in offshore drilling, we will see higher average day rate on the back of new contracts that you have announced.
Also remaining in the offshore drilling, I was wondering if there is any update on any potential strategic partnership in offshore drilling, especially for the jackups there? Finally, the usual question on Mozambique, please, whether there is any update on the project? Thank you.
Okay, the first question, Paolo will answer. Then I will answer on the other question.
This is the way, Alessandro, you should think about the offshore operations is a performance going forward, closer to the second Q, rather than the first Q, where second Q has been already better in terms of revenues and then, and margins, and this applies both to drilling and E&C offshore. Yes, there is some increased capacity, especially in offshore, that will positively contribute to the overall numbers for drilling. Those vessels will enter into the fleet later this year, so you cannot expect a big contribution for 2023, but it's gonna affect the 2024 for sure.
In E&C offshore, we are working with the fleet at record level. Idleness remains very low. The second quarter is a good proxy, at least of in terms of level of activity of the pace at which we can deliver on offshore E&C. In relation to the margins, as I said before, the more new contracts enter into the execution phase, the more the margins will increase, since the old projects will leave the portfolio and will replace by new ones that are typically higher margin than before.
Just an additional information on the drilling fleet, we will have the Scarabeo 9 going the five-year recertification in the second half. This just to give you the full picture of the vessels that are working versus not.
Thank you.
Mozambique, I will leave the CEO to comment.
I'll conference call it up to yours, yeah?
Sorry? No, we didn't catch you.
Yeah. Pal energies conference call is right after yours.
Okay. Regarding, regarding the Mozambique, what I can tell you is that I personally visited the site last week. I spent a day in Afungi, directly in the site. What I could see and record with my eyes, is that the relocation activity is almost completed, and all the social sustainability activity that the Mozambique LNG joint venture is doing is really impressive. The second point is that we are working with Mozambique LNG JV for coming to the right price for the restart. This means that we have already had a very intensive round of renegotiation with our subcontractors.
There is some tendering activities, again, with subcontractors that is going on, and we expect to have results by the end of the summer, so this new tendering activity. All in all, what we can say that it is work in progress in Mozambique and progressing in the right direction.
Okay. Is it a full restart, potentially still at the start of next year, or maybe could be?
We, I cannot say a precise date.
Mm-hmm.
What I can tell you is that the work that has been done, as I repeat what I said before, in terms of the social sustainability, is impressive, and the work that we are doing in regarding coming to an acceptable cost for restart, is progressing, and I would say is progressing in the right direction.
Okay. Thank you. Just, I had another question on the potential partnerships in offshore drilling for the shallow water fleet. Is there any update there?
We are, we are keeping evaluating possible partnership, you know, especially for the shallow water drilling fleet. As I said before, this is an area where we achieved long-term contract order intakes that gives stability of revenues to this kind of business. This business remains an ideal target for possible part of monetization of its value in the near term. We are evaluating possibilities in this direction.
All right. Thank you very much.
The next question is from Massimo Bonisoli with Equita. Please go ahead.
Good morning, thank you for taking my question. I have only one question regarding and back to the question of Alessandro before. If I understood correctly, your guidance implies a flat EBITDA versus second quarter this year, while drilling should be improving in the second half. As you mentioned before, energy carriers is expected to be positive in terms of EBITDA. I struggle to reconcile the outlook. I mean, there should be a worsening of the offshore construction. If you can provide some color on that, please.
Well, if you are referring to drilling, indeed, we'll have the Scarabeo 9 undergoing the cyclical maintenance. This is a few weeks not charging any daily rates to clients. Even though in the same period that there are going to be other vessels entering into the fleet. That explains why you can expect overall positive results, but not the growth you may, you might have in mind if you take the Q2 and then multiply the Q2 by four or by three, and adding the results to the Q1, which is, I guess, the number you are referring to.
Very clear, Paolo. The second question-
at the Saipem 7000, by toward the end of the year, will enter into yard to complete the works to reestablish the full lifting capacity of the crane that was damaged in the incident last year. Just to complete the framework of the utilization of our vessel in the very end of the year.
Thank you. I'm very clear now. The second question on the remaining backlog review for the second half, considering that the first half was quite sizable.
If I understand, your question is, how much we expect to deliver on the backlog in the second half?
yes, sir.
We expect a similar number. Obviously, it depends on the number of conditions that are to some extent outside the certain control. First of all, weather conditions when we refer to the work in the offshore wind. This is to say that some works can be either anticipated or postponed based on the general conditions that we find when we work. It's not a linear, it's linear activity where you progress a certain percentage every week. Sometimes you go faster, sometime you go a bit slower. We expect to do similar numbers. That's the expectation.
Thank you again. I'm very clear. I'll thank you.
The next question is from Richard Dawson, with the Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you. My first question relates to the energy carrier segment. I appreciate there's a number of projects in there that are still running at those zero margins, but when can we expect those projects to no longer drive the performance for that segment? To put a different way, when do you expect those projects to complete? Secondly, my second question relates to the backlog. Last year, a significant backlog review was undertaken, but has anything similar been undertaken since then, or are you confident the project execution and margins within that backlog remain in line with your expectations? I know that it's clearly posted the offshore wind projects are completing according to plan, but what about the other projects? Thank you.
Okay. Mm.
The cycle for completing project on the onshore, as you know, is far longer than the offshore projects. While we will clear our backlog of offshore wind projects that were part of the backlog review almost by year end, because then will remain only one project to be executed at that point. When we focus on energy carriers, then we are to consider that our typical cycle of the project in this area is for four to five years. Just one year enough has elapsed since we had the backlog review January in 2022.
We will have at least another year and a half ahead of us, prior we clear all the backlog of the energy carriers of the project that were part of the backlog review. This is something that we have to that we have to recognize. Then the second question was on the backlog.
Yeah. If I understand the second question is, whether we see risks of a new backlog review, is that, is that correct? The quality of the audio was not perfect.
Yeah, no, that's correct. It's just to see if project execution and margins within the current backlog sort of remain in line with your expectations.
No, actually, the fact that we are making so much revenues, especially in energy carriers, but also in wind, and with margins that are very low, close to zero for energy carriers, but still in the positive area. In our view, it's a signal that while we deliver on those projects, there are no bad surprises when it comes to the overall cost. We see. When I said that we see the glass half full or three quarters full, is I meant precisely that progressing on the portfolio, especially on the backlog review, is the best way to de-risk the overall portfolio, especially the backlog reviews projects.
The more we progress and the more we make revenues, the stronger the signal that what we provisioned 1 year ago is sufficient to cover the full-time, full life costs of those projects.
That's great. Thank you very much.
The next question is from Peter Testa, with One Investment. Please go ahead.
Hi, and thank you. I'll go one at a time. Maybe just to follow on the topic you just discussed. I was wondering if you could give us any sense on the cash flow side, the extent that you think the cash flow outflow on the zero margin project should be in H2, and how much of the cash flow outlook is still left for 2024, please?
Sure. We made EUR 220 million of cash outflows in Q1. The projection for the full year was just slightly above EUR 400 million, the remaining for the second half is roughly EUR 200 million. That's the number you can have in mind. For 2024, we expect still EUR 100 million of cash outflows from the backlog review. It's EUR 200 this year, EUR 100 the next year.
Okay. For the backlog, or the value of the backlog that remains in this category for, say, offshore E&C and onshore E&C, can you give some sense of the value you would expect the backlog to remain in, at the end of the year?
Good question. I guess I will need to give you the numbers after the call, because I don't have the precise figures in front of me. I apologize for not giving you the straight answer, but we'll get in touch.
Okay.
soon after the call and share the numbers.
Thank you. That would be appreciated. The other question I had was looking at the activity in the offshore E&C and looking at the, you know, you listing essentially your largest vessels are winning contracts and business, which seems to be really the sweet spot. I was trying to understand if you looked at the quality of backlog for these vessels, the extent to which, you know, 23 might be still not less, not so optimal, but whether that mix is substantially changing in 24 and 25, in terms of, you know, I'm thinking, you know, things like the FDS 2, Saipem 7000, Castorone, you know, these are, you know, your core assets.
I'm just wondering whether you could give some qualitative discussion on how the contracts you're active on now versus what you're winning is changing the nature of utilization for these assets?
Okay. Clearly, clearly, as we said before, the backlog is covering already almost more than, I would say, 75% of the capacity of our fleet in 2024. That is already booked. We are almost 50% in 2025. What I can share with you is that in the next week, you will see the further project will join our portfolio. What will happen in 2024 is that we will have almost complete utilization of the fleet, both in terms of installation and pipe lay vessel, and I would say 100% of the fleet in terms of drilling.
Really, the addition of the JSD 6000, really it's the physical proof of the fact that we couldn't complete all the jobs for our client with existing fleet, but we took JSD 6000 to serve all the demand from our clients. This is the situation where we are in. Clearly, there is a tension. Basically, when JSD will exit from the yard, they will go straight, for example, to serve Lapa project in Brazil. Mm-hmm.
Okay.
That's the really, really the situation. Clearly, also, we expect an increase of marginality of this project as an effect of the increase of the balance between offer and demand in the market.
That leads to my last question, was if you could give some sort of sense, having, you know, learned the lessons of the past years and being in a different market, any sort of senses you can give in terms of how you've managed to evolve contract terms to manage risk?
Okay. I believe that you are referring to the wind, especially to the wind projects. Certainly, the lesson was very much learned, not only by Saipem, but I would say,
Mm.
The entire supply chain of the wind projects. The coming new projects, they will certainly have a better balance out between risk and reward between the developers and the supply chain. Simply because what happened to Saipem, but what happened also to many other important suppliers in the supply chain, is that what it has been awarded in 2019, 2020, and to partially also 2029, was not sustainable by the supply chain. Definitely, there is a rebalancing. Regarding the other contract, we are applying a different strategy that protects better Saipem by the complexity of the world which we are in.
We have much more reimbursable items in the new contracts we are taking. We introduce escalation price clauses, especially for all commodities, this to protect us in situation like we experienced just after the Ukrainian war, the cost increase and escalation. We have a general policy that we would like to go to enter EPC activities basically only if we have been doing a front-end engineering exercise ourselves. This is what is giving the EPC contractor the right protection against any surprise and engineering default is done by others, than not ourselves.
Would you say that those comments you made on reimbursable escalations, et cetera, also apply to the energy carriers contracts?
Definitely. They will apply to new contracts for energy carriers. This is a general policy, even more for energy carriers, because duration, as I said before, typical duration of a contract in energy carriers is longer than in the offshore business. These clauses are even more needed in the energy carriers business.
Thank you. Thank you very much for the color. Thank you.
just to have the information you asked for, in terms of weight of backlog review projects on the total of the backlog, the number is roughly EUR 3 billion. We still have EUR 3 billion of backlog reviewed projects out of the EUR 25.4 billion, which is the total backlog of the group.
That's primarily in energy carriers and execution in 2024, 2025?
Yes. It's mostly in energy carriers, and there's more piece in asset base, mostly wind.
Yeah. Very good. Thank you very much.
The next question is from Kevin Roger with Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. It's coming back on the energy carriers, please. If I well remember, in Q1, you were saying that 40% of the top line was made by the non-performing backlog. I was wondering if you can give us the color for the Q2, if you can help me to understand the performance because I understand that you are still impacted by the non-performing backlog. I would like to understand, first of all, is the non-performing backlog with a 0% EBITDA margin or less than that? If it's at zero, can you help me understand why the 60%+ backlog related to new orders is not generating more than 0.5% or 1% EBITDA margin because you are still close to breakeven?
It's trying to understand the dynamic around the weight of the non-performing. Is it 0% or less than that, and the margin of the new backlog? Just a technical question to understand the backlog coverage that you have for next year in energy carriers. This is lower at the end of Q2, that's at the end of Q1. Is it related to Mozambique, or what have been the dynamic also on the lower backlog coverage for next year, please?
The first question on the relative weight of zero margin projects on the energy carriers was 40% in Q1. The figure is not different in Q2. It's just slightly lower. Yes, you're correct. The remaining of the portfolio is still a low margin portfolio. If you run the numbers, the remaining portfolio has a single digit low single digit overall EBITDA margin.
Just if I may, it means that the non-performing is at 0%, and the performing is at one, something like that?
Yeah, roughly.
Okay, understood. Maybe for the backlog coverage next year, please?
Yeah, on the, Well, yes, the coverage for 2024, for energy carriers is a bit lower than it was in Q1. The reason being that we've been, as we said quite a few times, very selective in the new positions. Because we feel that we are acquiring. Well, we are following a very simple, even trivial rule, which is value over volumes. We want to acquire projects whereby we can increase that very limited margin that we are doing today.
Obviously, by being more selective, the volume of acquisitions is lower than in the past few years, but it's consistent with the strategy we're following in energy carriers.
Okay, understood. Thanks a lot.
The next question is from Daniel Thomson with BNP Paribas Exane. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Just one quick question on offshore drilling and related to the sort of escalation mechanisms we were talking about earlier. I mean, could you provide some color on the frequency of rate reviews within the longer-term contracts in offshore drilling? I mean, how frequent are these usually?
Does, you know, do the rates get fully rebased to current market conditions, or is there some sort of lag or index there? Just trying to gauge how exposed the rather fully booked portfolio is to the increasing day rate environment in offshore drilling. Thank you.
Okay. Offshore drilling, you see nowadays it is characterized by a heavy demand, a demand that many clients would like to cover by assigning long-term contracts, to secure the drilling activity for long terms. This clearly give us a good advantage because it gives security of revenues and income from activity, as you said, it exposed to some risk in case for whatever reason, the rate that we are fixing today, they can become lower than the market in the future. Normally, in this contract, we are running with fixed rates the first years of the contract, we keep an option to reopen negotiation according to prevailing market conditions.
This is the way we ensure those long-term contracts are following the market, the current market trends. Before we said that we got a 10-year contract on the shallow water drilling, but I would like to mention also the fact that we are currently under a negotiation with a client that we cannot disclose. Long-term contracts also for the deep water activities. This means that really there is a. When I say long-term contracts, we are speaking about five years plus contracts on deep water activity. That this means really that nowadays, operators are looking basically for securing drilling capacity in the future years, also for deep water.
Okay, that's helpful. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. For any further questions, please press star and one on your telephone. Mr. Puliti, there are no more questions registered at this time. I turn the conference back to you for the closing remarks.
We can close here the conference call. Thank you for all the participants. We remain in touch. In case there are further questions, our investor relations function will be happy to answer. Thank you all.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for joining. You may disconnect your telephones.