...Welco`me to the Archer Q1 2022 earnings release call. Throughout the call, all participants will be in listen-only mode, and afterward, there'll be a question and answer section. Today, I'm pleased to present Dag Skindlo, CEO, and Espen Joranger, CFO. Please go ahead with your meeting, Dag.
Thank you, Aaron. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining this conference call for the Q1 2022. Archer's Chief Financial Officer, Espen Joranger, is joining me on the call today. In today's call, I will touch upon the key highlights and summarize Archer's operations for the Q1. Espen will thereafter walk us through the financial section and the 2022 outlook. Towards the end of the call, we will open the line for questions. Moving to slide 2. I would like to note that the information provided in today's call includes forward-looking statements as well as non-GAAP financial measures. Forward-looking statements do not guarantee future performance and involve risk and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from our projections as a result of certain risks and uncertainties.
Further information about these risks and uncertainties are set forth in our most recent annual report for the year ending December 31, 2021. Next slide, please. Revenue in the quarter of $219.1 million is a decrease relative to the Q4. Compared to Q1 2021, revenue increased by $6 million. The reduction in revenue compared to Q4 is primarily driven by a reduction in our reimbursable revenue compared to the previous quarter, but both our well services and platform drilling division had a reduction in activity compared to the high activity in Q4 last year. On the back of reduced activity and revenue, our adjusted EBITDA came in at $21.1 million, in line with our own expectations.
The reduction compared to the previous quarter was primarily driven by reduced contribution from the well services and platform drilling, following reduced activity and revenue. Excluding the cost requisitions, the need was flat in the quarter. Furthermore, excluding acquisitions, our net interest-bearing debt is down $19 million year-over-year, demonstrating that we deliver on our commitment to be cash positive. We are pleased to report net profit for the quarter of $13.9 million, which corresponds to $0.09 a share. Espen will shed some further light on the balance sheet and the P&L towards the end of the call. Slide four, please. So far this year, we have secured substantial backlog through contract extensions by Equinor and Pan American Energy for our oil tools, platform drilling, and land drilling divisions.
The contract extension from Pan American covers 4 drilling rigs, 13 workover units, and 13 pulling units. The extended contract secures 2 additional years of operation. Pan American has the flexibility to adjust the level of activity up and down during the contract terms, but based on our current activity outlook, the total revenue of the contract extension is estimated at $275 million. The improved terms of the remaining contracts should provide a basis for us to lift the margins in our Argentinian operation. During Q1, Equinor exercised its extension option for the platform drilling contract currently held in Norway for 12 of their platforms for an additional 2 years. This secures an estimated $565 million in additional backlog for Archer.
As we announced this morning, our well services division was awarded a two-year contract extension of their frame agreement with Equinor, which covers plugs and abandonment services, fishing, and downhole mechanical isolation equipment. Given the current activity level, we anticipate that the extension will add roughly $60 million in additional backlog. The total backlog secured through these three extensions add up to roughly $900 million. We believe these awards are achieved on the back of our customer focus, dedication to safety, efficient and cost-effective operations, as well as the commitment to our own and our customers' ESG roadmap. The substantial additional backlog gives us good visibility on revenue and activity in the next two to three years. Slide five, please. During the Q1, we acquired Ziebel AS for a bit more than $1 million on a debt and cash-free basis.
Ziebel is a technology company focused on providing high-value fiber optic measurements and innovative conveyance to improve reservoir recovery and performance. In their distributed fiber optic technology, Ziebel uses distributed acoustic sensing and distributed temperature sensing in an integrated manner to provide easily understandable output products for our customers. At the core of their technology is a composite carbon rod, which deploys the fiber optic strand securely into the wellbore. The Z-Rod technology is comparable and complements the unique carbon rod conveyance provided through Archer's ComTrac technology and is therefore a strategic good fit for us. Slide six, please. Following several quarters with strong increased activity, this quarter was slower compared to the preceding quarters. Revenue in the quarter decreased by $11.7 million, which also led to a reduction in our EBITDA.
The reduction appears substantial when compared to Q4, but we need to remind ourselves that Q4 was exceptionally strong for both oil fields and wireline. We further note that the Q1 is traditionally slow in wireline and oil tools due to weather conditions in the North Sea and a shorter than normal quarter. We also saw several planned jobs in Norway, UK, and Africa being postponed to second half of the year. On the back of reduced activity, we are disappointed with the reduction in EBITDA quarter-over-quarter. We incurred $800,000 in exceptional charges, primarily related to the use of overtime, which was required to cover COVID-19 related sick leaves for offshore crews. We do not anticipate similar costs going forward. Finally, the EBITDA was hampered by costs associated with cross-training of our personnel, which we will benefit from later this year.
On the operation side, we highlight the mobilization of our ComTrac unit to the Middle East, where we are preparing for operations in the Q2. In addition to the Equinor contract extension, Oiltools secured frame agreement with OKEA in Norway and with Woodside and Santos in Australia. Moving to Slide 7. Revenue from platform drilling, engineering, and our modular rigs reduced by $21 million compared to the previous quarter, of which $16.4 million is related to reduced reimbursable revenue. When adjusting for the reduction in reimbursable revenue, which has no margin, reduction in revenue over the quarter was $4.5 million, mainly reflecting a shorter quarter. Following reduced activity, combined with less performance bonus, the adjusted EBITDA came down to $10.9 million in the quarter, a reduction compared to Q4 of $1 million.
During February and early March, we incurred the standard additional costs related to overtime to cover COVID-19-related sick leave offshore, which we cannot recover from our clients. The extraordinary, extraordinary overtime amounted to $1.6 million in the quarter. On the operation side, we are pleased that our customer, OMV, has added additional work scope for Emerald in New Zealand, and requested an additional well to be drilled while the modular rig is in New Zealand. This additional revenue will benefit the second half of 2022. Slide 8, please. Our revenue for land drilling was stable at $58 million in the Q1, while the adjusted EBITDA came in at $5.7 million. We incurred a total of $2.5 million of exceptional charges in the quarter, resulting in an EBITDA of $3.2 million.
The exceptional charges related to severance payment, cost of idle personnel, and COVID-19-related disruptions to operations due to the sick leave. During the quarter, the Argentine government reached an agreement with IMF on their debt, and on the back of that, approved the construction of a necessary gas pipeline that will transport gas from Neuquén to Buenos Aires. This should lead to increased drilling activity as the transportation of gas has been a bottleneck for years. With that, I hand over the words to Espen, who will take us through the financials in greater detail.
Thank you, Dag. Looking at slide 9, we see that our total revenue for the Q1 amounted to $219.1 million, compared to $213.4 million last year, an increase of $5.7 million. When netting off the reimbursable revenue, we see that the operating revenue increased by $1.7 million compared to Q1 2021. For the quarter, the adjusted EBITDA was $21.1 million, $0.4 million lower than the corresponding quarter in 2021. As Dag has mentioned in the previous slides, we incurred exceptional charges for the quarter amounting to $4.9 million. This was considerably higher than anticipated. The majority of these costs are related to COVID-19, in particular to the use of overtime to compensate for the offshore sick leave.
We experienced around 10% sick leave for our offshore crews in the North Sea during the quarter, leading to more than $3 million of additional overtime costs in the quarter to replace offshore employees on sick leave. In the Q1 of 2022, we recognized impairment charges of $5 million for the Argentine rigs that have been idle more than five years. In relation to our acquisition of Ziebel, we recorded a preliminary gain on a bargain purchase amounting to $9.2 million. In our other financial items, we include the mark-to-market value adjustment of our interest rate caps. Following the substantial increase in forward rates, the value of our interest rate caps increased by some $13 million in the quarter.
We are pleased to report a net profit of $13.9 million in the quarter, largely driven by the mark-to-market adjustment of our interest rate caps and the gain on the Ziebel acquisition, offset by the impairments as mentioned above. Slide 10, please. Total assets increased by $52.3 million in the quarter, mainly explained by the increase in cash from the drawdown of our loan facility during the quarter. On the liability side, the biggest difference is the reduction in accounts payable of $7.4 million since the last quarter. Net interest-bearing debt came out at $508 million, which is a modest decrease compared to year-end ... and largely explained by the final installment relating to the DeepWell acquisition, as well as settlement for the Ziebel acquisition, which totaled roughly $7 million.
The increase in equity is a result of the profit for the quarter, as well as the foreign exchange effect on goodwill. The book value of our equity is $103.3 million at the end of March. We continue to preserve our liquidity and have access to $106 million in available liquidity, which includes undrawn and committed credit lines. Slide 11, please. To sum up, our Q1 was a quarter with high exceptional costs, primarily as a consequence of operational challenges related to sick leave arising from the last wave of COVID cases. We do not anticipate that these costs will be recurring in the next quarter in this magnitude.
These additional costs will have an impact on the reported EBITDA for 2022 as a whole, and primarily bridge the difference between the guided EBITDA communicated in our trading update earlier this year, and the revised guiding we present today. 2022 is turning out to be a transition year for Archer, where our main clients in the North Sea are drilling fewer wells due to maintenance of platforms, and our clients in Argentina are holding back drilling activity, pending the agreement with the IMF and the construction of the recently approved gas pipeline from Vaca Muerta to Buenos Aires. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been a wake-up call for the energy security within our core markets. This, in combination with underinvestment in new oil and gas developments, puts pressure on oil and gas prices, which incentivize investments going forward.
Looking beyond 2022, we remain optimistic on the market fundamentals for Archer's activity and operations. As we see it today, we now expect both revenue and EBITDA to be modestly higher in 2022 than in 2021. We revised down our CapEx guiding from 3%-4% of revenue, to roughly 3% of our revenue, and continue to expect that we will generate positive cash and reduce our NIB year-over-year. Looking into 2023, we believe the activity for Archer's operations will expand. We believe that operators' plans for increased drilling in the North Sea, the positive development in Argentina, as well as general increase in oil and gas activity, will positively impact Archer's revenue and EBITDA into 2023. With that, I will hand the call over to the operator for any questions. Thank you.
Aaron, will you please open the line for questions?
Thank you, Espen. If you do wish to ask any questions, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your questions, you may do so by pressing zero two to cancel. There will be a brief pause while questions are being registered. So once again, zero one on your telephone keypad now to ask any questions. As a reminder, zero one for questions. There are currently no questions. Thank you.
We appreciate everyone joining us for this quarter's call, and we look forward to speaking to you next quarter. Thank you, and have a good day.
This now concludes our conference call. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect the line.