Good afternoon, all, and welcome to the Odfjell Drilling Q2 2023 Results Call. My name is James Crothers, investor relations officer, and I'm joined today by our Chief Executive Officer, Kjetil Gjersdal, and Chief Financial Officer, Frode Syslak. It's been a busy quarter for our company, and we're delighted that you've chosen to join us today. Before we begin, your attention is brought to the important information slide of our presentation, which we invite you participants to read in full. Today's presentation and all of our quarter results documents are available on our website and on Euronext as well. Our call today will begin with Kjetil going through our key highlights from the quarter before going through our operational performance and forward backlog. Frode will take you through our financial results and our updated dividend policy before Kjetil concludes.
With that, I'll pass over to Kjetil, who'll summarize the quarter.
Thank you, James, and good, good afternoon, everybody. Q2 has been another busy quarter for our business, with many key workflows successfully completed. One such activity which we successfully completed during Q2, this refinancing has diversified our capital structure sources and removed any significant maturities until 2028. It has also supported the company's future growth strategy and has given us additional flexibility going forward. This completion of the, the refinancing actually gives the company the longest runway that we've seen in at least a decade. Importantly, and as I will come down to later, the refinancing has facilitated our new shareholder distribution program, which we are very pleased to announce today. Our backlog remains strong at $2.2 billion, with new contracts agreed across our fleet, with the company securing additional firm backlog on the Deepsea Aberdeen and Deepsea Stavanger.
In addition, we also secured new contracts for our managed fleet, specifically for the Deepsea Yantai and Hercules units. Finally, our financial utilization was for the eighth quarter in a row above 97%, this quarter at 98.2%. All right, we then move on to our financial results, and as you can see, we are really beginning to see the value of the work we've been putting in for the past few months and years. Our second quarter revenue was at $184 million, contributing to a first half 2022 revenue of $355 million. This is a 12% increase compared to the first quarter in 2022.
Similarly, our EBITDA was $85 million during the quarter, resulting in a first half EBITDA of $158 million. This is a 7% increase compared to the first half of 2022. Following a securing of the revolving credit facility on the Deepsea Stavanger as part of our refinancing, our available liquidity is now increased to $249 million, $117 million of which is cash. Our net debt has been reduced to $645 million, and our equity and leverage ratio are 57% and 2.2x respectively. Taken all together, our financial results point to a healthy and growing business. It's also worth bearing in mind that these results come from strong operations on contract values that were agreed during extremely tough times for our industry.
As we progress to newer, newer contracts, work our through, a way through these legacy contracts, we look forward to seeing our average day rates increasingly. Turning to our operations, as many of you will be aware, we had six of our units on contract throughout the quarter. In addition, the Deepsea Mira began operations offshore Namibia towards the end of the period. As of right now, however, this has increased, with all of our fleet now on contract across the world, and they're all working for Tier 1 customers on some of the, I would say, most exciting projects globally. This is in fact the first time Odfjell Drilling has had eight rigs active at once. This is, of course, a great accomplishment for us. Moving on to our backlog.
As mentioned before, we have a total revenue backlog of $2.2 billion. $1.7 billion of these is firm and $500 million is in options. As per previous quarters, all of our own fleet was on contract throughout the period, as were two of our managed units, the Deepsea Yantai and the Deepsea Bollsta. The Deepsea Mira began operation in the final weeks of June. I'm gonna go through each specific rig, starting with the Deepsea Atlantic, that remained on contract with Equinor during the period, working on Johan Sverdrup Phase 2. It will continue to do so until early first quarter of 2024, where it will begin a new contract with Equinor for various work on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
The rig will also go through its SPS around this time. As previously announced, we will install a new BOP on the Atlantic at the same time as we do the SPS. The Deepsea Atlantic has firm contract backlog secure until mid-2026, where it has priced options for 3 wells before going on to unpriced options, which extend into 2029. The price of these unpriced options will be mutually agreed with Equinor prior for them to be prior to being exercised. Moving on to the Aberdeen, that was working on the Breidablikk field for Equinor during second quarter. It will continue to do so until third quarter in 2023, where it will briefly go on to drill several wells on the Svalin field at an increased day rate, as it was announced during the quarter.
Further, the Deepsea Aberdeen will drill the Svalin wells, and before returning back to the original Breidablikk wells, and then going on to priced options around mid-2025. While these options are priced, there is a market link to the final value. Given current market price, we expect this to be in excess of $400,000 a day before any bonuses and fuel incentives on top. These options extend until the end of 2026. The Deepsea Stavanger was working on various exploration projects with Equinor during the second quarter, and it will continue to do that until at least the end of 2024. Hereafter, it will start its SPS, and thereafter begin its contract with Aker BP.
This contract with Aker BP is firm, and the price is operated within a range, where there is a floor and a ceiling pricing model. Again, giving prevailing market rates, we expect to see fair- final day rates towards the ceiling of this contract. And I'd also like to mention that we, we, we have yearly escalations on that ceiling, starting from when we signed the contract. The Deepsea Nordkapp was operating with Aker BP during the second quarter in the Alvheim area. Nordkapp will continue to work with Aker BP until the third quarter in 2024, where it will then go into a, onto a brief priced option period before moving on to priced options, with a sort of similar floor-ceiling model that we have on the Stavanger.
If we look at the managed fleet, the Deepsea Antares was working throughout the second quarter on various projects in Norway and has a firm backlog until the end of 2024. The Deepsea Bollsta was drilling in Namibia with Shell, who also exercised several options for continuous use of the unit during the second quarter. The Bollsta has a firm backlog until mid-2024 and options which cover the unit until early 2025. The Deepsea Mira completed its stay at the yard before moving into a location in Namibia with TotalEnergies towards the end of, of, this, or towards the end of the second quarter. The Deepsea Mira has a firm backlog now until early 2024, with options which extend until mid-2024. Finally, the Hercules completed its SPS program here in Norway and moved offshore Canada towards the end of the quarter.
As you, many of you know, when upon completion in Canada, it goes, that rig also goes to Namibia. I'm sure also many of you noticed that recently we secured another contract for the Hercules. It will then go back to operations in Canada. As announced, this contract has a implied day rate of around $500,000-$520,000 per day. That was the backlog, we then move into the market outlook. We continue to see the existing supply and demand dynamics persisting, which, which continues to result in increasing day rates. We saw this recently with the award of several contracts at around $500,000 a day, we also saw more units leaving Norway.
In addition, commodity prices have been strong during the second quarter, macroeconomic indicators continue to support the demand for our services. The supply of units remains tight, we still struggle to see any new capacity meeting demand. Currently, there are 12 floaters active here in Norway, at the moment, we see requirements for a further four to six units from 2025 and onwards on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Overseas demand in places like West Africa, Canada, Australia, and Brazil continues to draw units away from places like Norway, we see no reason in the short to medium term for this to change. Also, in the UK, we are encouraged by recent governmental support of the oil and gas industry, which we expect to continue under the current and opposition governance.
With that, I will now pass the word over to my CFO Frode , who will take you through our financial results of the quarter.
Thank you, Kjetil. Let us start with the P&L statement on page 11. We have a record strong quarter with good cost control, high utilization, and high performance incentives. Two out of four managed units were fully operational through Q2, resulting in an EBITDA of $5 million from the external fleet. The own fleet segment delivered an EBITDA of $83 million. After corporate overhead, the group EBITDA was $85 million, taking our last 12 months EBITDA to $319 million. Remember, we are still operating on low legacy day rates. The net result of $11 million in the quarter is impacted by currency loss of $7 million and non-recurring expenses of $5 million related to the refinancing. The net interest costs for the quarter was $14 million. Moving to page 12 and the balance sheet.
Following the refinancing, we have a solid available cash of $249 million. The last tranche of the refinancing will be available shortly. This will release another $30 million of liquidity, taking the available liquidity to $280 million pro forma for June. We see continued deleveraging of the balance sheet with limited utilization of our newly established revolving credit, reducing the net interest-bearing debt to $645 million as of the end of the quarter. The leverage ratio is at a very comfortable level, given our strong backlog, with a leverage ratio of 2.2 versus 2.4 per first quarter. Turning to page 13, we saw a strong cash flow in Q2, with net cash flow from operations of $66 million after interest and tax.
Net CapEx for the quarter was limited to $8 million, following grants from the NOx Fund of $13 million related to emissions reducing investments that has been made in previous quarters. Moving to page 14 and a few additional words on our security refinancing. Given our solid contract backlog and predictability of cash flows, we saw strong support from existing and new banks in the refinancing. Refinancing included close to $500 million of bank debt, whereof $175 million of RCF. In addition, we raised $390 million through a rated bond, which attracted strong, strong interest from investors. The diversified capital structure we now have pushes all significant maturities to 2028.
The refi has also significantly reduced the annual amortization schedule going forward, which together with rising day rates, increases the free cash flow generation, especially so when we complete our forthcoming SPS program. One key objective for our refinancing was to increase the capacity and flexibility for shareholder distributions. We have done that, we have removed any restrictions that previously linked dividends to net results. The refi enables dividends subject to an incurrence test of 3 times leverage, which reduces to two times leverage after November 25, and a minimum available liquidity of $150 million, reducing to $100 million after all four SPSs have been completed. This leads us to slide 16 on our updated dividend policy.
As you know, we have been working very hard through the worst downturn ever to keep our rigs contracted, reduce our debt, and position the company for the future, and we have done that without wiping out shareholders or creditors. Therefore, we are extremely pleased to now being able to announce our updated dividend policy and institute a quarterly dividend program. The dividend for Q2, now we're at slide 17. The dividend for Q2 will be $0.06 per share, with an ex-dividend date set to 1st of September, with payment being made around two weeks thereafter. Dividend is declared in US dollars, with payment being made in NOK, based on the exchange rate at record date. Kjetil, the word is now yours to, to wrap up.
Yeah, thank you, Frode. To summarize, this presentation, second quarter has been a very important quarter for the future of our company. You know, as a result of strong operations, a strong market, strong revenue generation, and a successful completion of our refinancing, we are able today to implement our quarterly dividend. This is a brilliant moment for us, and it is something we have the ambition to continue to grow in the medium term. Now, looking ahead, we expect higher day rates to persist for a long term and a continued interest from operator to use high-spec sixth-generation rigs. Looking specifically at ourselves, our forward backlog remains strong, and we have solid contracts booked for the years ahead. Our average day rate in the coming year quarters will continue to increase as we move on to higher value contracts.
With that, I will pass the phone call back to the operator and to James to begin the Q&A session. Brilliant.
Thank you. Thank you, Kjetil. Marian, our operator, I think you can begin the Q&A session.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question over the phone, please press star one on your telephone keypad. For your question from the queue, please press star two to remove yourselves. Again, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We'll take the first question from Fredrik Stene from Clarksons Securities.
Hey, Kjetil and team, hope you're well, and congratulations on getting the dividend policy in place here. That's good to see. I have a few questions that I want to touch on, if that's okay. The first relates to this dividend. By the way, like, my line was muted, at least when you went through slide 16. I'm not sure if that's only me or the rest of the world. For the policy here, the $0.06 that you've announced now for this quarter, is it fair to assume that that's a level that you will be, you know, giving out at minimum for the foreseeable future?
You're, you're talking about your ambition to, to grow this as well. you know, any color that you can give on in terms of how safe that... How much do you think it, it will be plausible to, to, to grow this as we go into 2024 and 2025 onwards?
Yeah. Now, as you know, we are still operating on legacy day rates for some time. We have our CapEx program that we are going through in 2023, 2024, and 14 to 2025. What we have done now is to institute a quarterly dividend at a level that we expect can be sustained quarter -by -quarter in this first phase. As revenue increases and CapEx commitments are reduced or de-risked, we clearly have an aim to increase that quarterly distribution in the medium term. Yes, the 14 point-
Thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Please, Fredrik, go ahead.
Also want, wanted to touch a bit on, on coal consolidation, which is a, a theme that's been recurring for, for quite a few years. You know, when you, when you walk through your fleet status here, you have good coverage on your own, on your own fleet, with options and price ranges that at least initially, I think will, will end up being quite favorable. Even though they're, they're good rates, but they'll actually end up being favorable for, for the operators. In my view, it's sensible that they will end up taking those options.
To kind of play the market, when you're talking about, you know, incremental demand in Norway, for example, from 25 onwards, I'm looking at your managed fleet here, and, and for many people have speculated in maybe there is something to, to be done here at some point in time. I think your previous answers have been in around, you know, that, that M&A would only make sense if possible, to do something bankable here. With your refi, you've, you've obviously shown that you, you can bank these type of assets, and, and the only thing that really remains now is long-term contracts.
I guess this, the question here, was quite long, but what I'm wondering about on call is, one, what's the type of opportunities that you see for this managed fleet in terms of long-term contracts? And two, do you think the time to potentially act on consolidation is getting closer based on the recent developments in credit markets and market prices in general?
Yeah, Fredrik, I can answer that. Yes, you know, we, we think, we think the units that you mentioned, including some of our own, you know, are well positioned to, to, to enter into, to new favorable contracts, at, at levels that, that goes up from, from today's level. You know, we continue to explore what's out there. This is an extremely flexible fleet. It can go-- It can work in Norway. It is built according to Norwegian reg- regulations. It can work in deep water, and, you know, it, it gives us a broad spectrum of opportunities to explore, and, and we're very positive about the, the opportunities that, that are out there for these units. When it comes to-...
I guess your question is around growth M&A. You know, we, we, we, we still think there's room for consolidation in the, in the industry, and, you know, we are aiming to be an active participant in these discussions. However, I would like to emphasize that, you know, for offshore drilling, any consolidation would need to be meaningful on relative valuation and from a dividend per share perspective. It is worth remembering, however, that the forward revenue projection from our book day rates will, will of course, also lead to future growth in revenue. Yeah, maybe not too much news there, Frederick, but we are still sort of very much on the ball here.
All right. I appreciate, all the commentary, and wish you a good day. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thanks, Frederick.
Thank you.
As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one. There are no further questions on the phone. I'll hand over to James for any webcast questions.
Thank you. I see we've had a question from Sanchez, who said, "Good morning, congratulations on the refinancing. My question is about the growth strategy the company wants to follow. I guess the company would focus on, on Tier 1 assets. And seeing the increase in day rates and the lack of availability in the future, these rigs, how do you, you see attractiveness to buy these assets now? Any comments would be really helpful." I suppose we've, we've covered that already, but if you have any further comments on that, we can take that now.
No, but I... Yeah, it, it's pretty much what Frederick asked about. But yeah, it, I would say that this is, of course, very interesting times, and we continue to explore what possibilities are out there. We have, we have a- I think we position our, our, our company well, you know, we, we now have the flexibility to look into these opportunities that are out there, and, and we will do so.
Thank you. We, we also, certainly I had a question from, from an investor in regards to share buybacks and our position on that, and how we might sort of fit that into our, our distribution policy going forward.
Yeah. We definitely see the merit in doing share buybacks from a general perspective, and we have that in our toolbox for the board to consider going forward. However, there is a slight concern that a share buyback will reduce the free liquidity in the stock, which again, could be negative. As of now, we see cash dividends as the preferred shareholder distribution mechanism. We also expect the cash dividends to broaden the investor base in the company going forward, and by that, also be helpful for the equity valuation.
Great. Thank you. I think, I think that covers all the questions we've, we've had submitted. I suppose we can start to wrap up the call. So yeah, thank you all for joining and for your continued interest in the company. If you have any further questions or would like to get in touch, please do get in touch with, with myself directly, which, using my email address, which is on the website and on the, the final slide of our presentation. As a reminder, our next financial calendar item is our Q3 quarterly results, on the second of November, which is not far away. We look forward to speaking to you all again at that point. Thank you, operators. I, I think we can close the call now.