Greetings, welcome to the Nine Energy Service Earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Guy Sirkes. Please, you may begin.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Nine Energy Service Earnings conference call to discuss our results for the first quarter of 2023. With me today is Ann Fox, President and Chief Executive Officer. We appreciate your participation. Some of our comments today may include forward-looking statements reflecting Nine's views about future events. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These risks and uncertainties can cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. We advise listeners to review our earnings release and the risk factors discussed in our filings with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason. Our comments today also include non-GAAP financial measures.
Additional details and a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are also included in our first quarter press release and can be found in the investor relations section of our website. I will now turn the call over to Ann.
Thank you, Guy. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our first quarter results for 2023. Revenue for the quarter was $163.4 million, which fell between our original guidance of $160 million-$165 million. We generated adjusted EBITDA of $25 million, reflecting an adjusted EBITDA margin of 15%. ROIC for the quarter was 16.2%. The company's net loss included the impact of fees and expenses incurred in connection with its public offering of units and other refinancing activities in January. As most of you are aware, we have seen a softening in the market in response to the decline in natural gas prices over the past several months, resulting in a decrease in activity and pricing thus far in 2023 versus Q4 levels.
At the end of Q1, the U.S. rig count was down by 24 rigs since the end of Q4. During Q1, the rig count in the Northeast was relatively flat but was down close to 10% in the Haynesville. We anticipate continued rig declines in the Haynesville in Q2, which will impact our revenue. There are near-term concerns around global economic uncertainty. However, market fundamentals support a positive outlook for the energy sector, and an especially cold winter or some other geopolitical event could change the near-term outlook very quickly. On the operations side, we estimate the average frac crew count today is between 250 and 275. EIA reported completions were down by approximately 3% quarter-over-quarter, and new wells drilled decreased by approximately 1%. Our cementing service line continues to be a strong performer.
As a reminder, cementing has very few competitors for the more complex horizontal cementing jobs. Almost 100% of the wells drilled in U.S. land require cementing of the wellbore. Additionally, we have some of the most technically advanced slurries in the industry. We are in the process of working on a more environmentally friendly option. Even with the potential pullback in the Haynesville activity, we still have an opportunity to take share in the horizontal lateral completions in this basin. We remain very excited about this service line. I continue to believe we have one of the top completion tool portfolios in the U.S. Despite declining activity, we increased the total number of dissolvable Stinger plugs sold by approximately 23%, due in large part to a significant international order and increased completion tool revenue by approximately 7% quarter-over-quarter.
We continue to be positive on the outlook for the adoption of the dissolvable plug. However, near term, with the pullback in activity, specifically in the gassy regions like the Haynesville, where dissolvables hold a high market share, near-term sales of dissolvables could be slowed. Wireline remains fragmented and highly competitive, and a significant percentage of Nine's wireline revenue comes out of the Northeast, where we have had some pricing pressure with the decrease in natural gas prices. Wireline plays an important role in both the R&D and sales process for completion tools, as well as establishing a strong relationship with our customers and gaining intelligence on the types of completions operators are running. Coiled tubing is performing well considering market conditions and our exposure in the Haynesville. Company revenue for the quarter was $163.4 million. Net loss was $6.1 million.
Adjusted EBITDA was $25 million. Diluted earnings per share was negative $0.19. ROIC for the quarter was approximately 16.2%. I would now like to turn the call over to Guy to walk through detailed financial information.
Thank you, Ann. As of March 31, 2023, Nine's cash and cash equivalents were $21.4 million, with $26 million of availability under the revolving ABL credit facility, resulting in a total liquidity position of $47.4 million as of March 31, 2023. On March 31, 2023, the company had $72 million of borrowings under the ABL credit facility. Q1 results also include fees and expenses incurred in connection with the company's January refinancing. During the first quarter, revenue totaled $163.4 million, with adjusted gross profit of $36.3 million. During the first quarter, we completed 1,029 cementing jobs, a decrease of approximately 3% versus the fourth quarter. The average blended revenue per job decreased by approximately 1%.
Cementing revenue for the first quarter was $62.5 million, a decrease of approximately 4%. During the first quarter, we completed 5,455 wireline stages, a decrease of approximately 7%. The average blended revenue per stage increased by approximately 5%. Wireline revenue for the quarter was $29.6 million, a decrease of approximately 2%. For completion tools, we completed 32,219 stages, a decrease of approximately 1%. Completion tool revenue was $37.8 million, an increase of approximately 7%. During the first quarter, our coiled tubing days worked increased by approximately 12%, with the average blended day rate decreasing by approximately 17%. Coiled tubing utilization during the quarter was 64%. Coiled tubing revenue for the quarter was $33.5 million, a decrease of approximately 7%.
During the first quarter, the company reported general and administrative expense of $19.7 million. Depreciation and amortization expense in the first quarter was $10.3 million. The company's tax provision for the first quarter of 2023 was approximately $0.9 million. The provision for 2023 is a result of our tax position in state non-U.S. tax jurisdictions. The company reported net cash provided by operating activities of $4 million. The average DSO for Q1 was 54.2 days. CapEx spend for Q1 was $5 million, and our full year CapEx guidance is unchanged at $25 million-$35 million. I will now turn it back to Ann.
Thank you, Guy. As you all know, recessionary fears in the global market are affecting commodity prices, which have been erratic over the last several months, with oil prices dropping $13 within 10 days in March, before surpassing $80 again within another 10 days in early April, following the unexpected OPEC production cut announcement, and have once again dropped into the low 70s. I do believe there will continue to be numerous factors that will impact commodity prices. However, I remain optimistic on the outlook for the energy sector, with both OPEC's and U.S. oil producers' demonstrated commitment to capital discipline. Our revenue will be impacted by lower activities, activity levels within U.S. gas plays.
Rig and frac crew counts are good indicators for both our revenue outlook and potential pricing leverage, so as market activity increases or decreases, so too will our revenue and profitability in conjunction with job count and pricing. We started to see pricing pressure from some customers across service lines in Q1, especially in the Northeast and Haynesville. We have purposely designed the business to be capital light, reducing capital allocation risk, as well as having service line, geographic and commodity diversity. For Nine, we are continuing to develop and look for new technologies to expand our tool portfolio, as well as constantly improving our current offerings. Within our service lines, we are ensuring our safety and service quality remains excellent. Activity levels thus far in Q2 are slightly down, and as I mentioned, we have begun to see some pricing pressure from select customers.
Because of this, we expect Q2 to be down slightly compared to Q1, with projected revenue between $158 million-$166 million. We also anticipate that adjusted EBITDA and our adjusted EBITDA margin will be down very slightly in conjunction with revenue and activity levels, as well as full quarter realizations and price reductions. Our priorities and goals are unchanged. We are focused on generating free cash flow, which would be used towards delevering. While 2023 has not been the growth market we anticipated, we have demonstrated we are able to capitalize on an improving market and the company will see financial impacts right away in conjunction with market changes. We will now open up the call for Q&A.
Thank you. We will now be conduct a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the questioning queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participant using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your headset before pressing the star key. One moment please while we pull for questions. Our first question comes from Waqar Syed with ATB Capital Markets.
Good morning. In terms of the CapEx guidance.
Good morning.
Good morning. The CapEx guidance, $45 million-$35 million range. Ann, are you leaning now more towards the lower end, you think, with the changed kind of outlook? Or you still think it could be, you know, midpoint or maybe even the higher end?
It's a great question, Waqar, and I think you'll see the team dial back, CapEx this year.
Yeah.
Yes, I think it's fair to say we will not be at the high end of that mark.
Okay. You know, you have, like, the cementing business is more leveraged to your drilling activity, and then all the other business lines are more towards the completion side of things. As you look into from an activity perspective, only, where do you see the more softness on the drilling side leveraged businesses or the completion leveraged businesses?
You know, I mean, that's a great question. I think part of this is conflated because of various levels of exposure inside the gas basins. You know, you saw that drilling activity come down 1% quarter-over-quarter according to the EIA. Again, it's a little conflated for us given where we have heavy exposures in the gas markets. I think it's still a strong cementing market out there. I think, you know, we are also watching that WTI price very carefully because we're, you know, concerned about our Permian operators. I think it's perhaps a little over-corrected at this point. Right now, if you think about the outlook, Waqar, it feels steady. We're staying slightly down because we're working with really small numbers here.
On the margin basis, that could be slightly down, but you're seeing a pretty flat revenue line. I hate to call it boring and plateaued, but it's relatively boring and plateaued right now. It's not that we see some large inflection down from here, nor do we see a large inflection up. It's just kind of a steady Eddie orderly market, if you will.
Your revenue guidance of $158 million-$166 million. Did I hear that correctly? $166 million at the upper end?
Yes.
What will drive it higher given all the indications are that, you know, you could have lower rig count in Q2, and we've already seen some cementing weakness. What's driving that upside to quarter-over-quarter?
You know, it could, it could be international markets, Waqar. You know, I think you're gonna see it relatively flat to Q1. Those international orders can be lumpy, and they can move things around.
Now, you had a decent order, in the Q1 as well. Is it now looking that it's becoming a lot more regular item on a quarterly basis, the international business?
You know, I don't wanna call it regular yet. What I'll tell you is the strategic objective of this management team is to get it to be regular. That is actively something we're working on. As you know, we are now running conventional tools in Abu Dhabi, so that's exciting for us. I wouldn't wanna tell the market this is regular because this is something that we are growing, and again, attempting to get to be a more regular weigh piece of our financials. Right now, I would not call it regular, and that's why sometimes this lumpiness is just hard to project.
Now you said that the most likely or in a way, like, likely case could be, like, you know, it's flat revenues. Now, if you assume flat revenues and you don't get that lumpiness of Q1 repeated into Q2 that you had in international business, in a way that you're indicating that the underlying North America business or U.S. business could potentially grow in Q2 versus Q1. Am I understanding it correctly?
No. No, I think, you'll see that revenue line flatten out. If anything, you're gonna see full quarter realizations on some of that pricing. I think you're gonna see. I do think you're gonna see, some decrement to that EBITDA margin. It's just gonna be small because now we're inside of the law of small numbers and trying to project exact cost movements. We think it'll be flat to slightly down on the margin for the underlying North American business. You ask what could potentially pop the top line, that could be the lumpiness of a large international order coming in, which is what could give rise to a higher top line, which is which gives cause to the guidance of $158-$166.
Waqar, we are seeing, you know, pretty decent international revenues in both Q1 and Q2.
Okay.
It's just the exact cadence of them is lumpy. You know, I think we've got a, you know, good pattern here for Q1 and Q2.
Would you kind of break down what the international revenue contribution was, or is it in the queue anywhere?
We actually don't break that down, Waqar.
Okay. The, thanks. In terms of the cementing business, you mentioned that you're looking into some environmentally, you know, friendlier, I guess, cement. Your larger competitors have mentioned that they have some product in the marketplace. Could you maybe talk about the, you know, what you're working on and, you know, where do you stand in terms of introduction?
Yes. Yes, we've seen some of our competitors, our mega-cap competitors come out with a greener cement. We too are, we think we're ready to put that down hole and go to trial. I think the issue there is that you're gonna see operators demand to have something that is cost effective. It's not good enough for our mega caps or ourselves to develop a greener cement that's ESG friendly. It also has to be cost competitive. I think frankly, the market might be there on the technology, ourselves included, but we're not yet there on the cost. That is probably the second leg, and as you know, it's gonna take a bit of time to drive that down.
Yes, we are, we are ready to trial that. We're really pleased with our progress there. Again, I don't wanna paint that as something that's gonna take over the market until we can fundamentally reduce that cost because as you know, in North American land, it's gotta be good, but it also has to be cheap, especially right now.
Yeah.
with commodity prices.
Fair enough. Just last question here. You know, we've heard a number of drilling contractors report and guide, and we've also heard a number of pumping companies, you know, report and guide. There was kind of a little bit of, I would say mismatch between the guidance for some of the largest drilling contractors versus guidance from some of the largest pumping companies. In terms of kind of the weakness that they're seeing, like, you know, some of the largest drilling contractors were saying like rig count could be down or they could be down 10% quarter-over-quarter. While you didn't hear some, you know, the pumping guys were thinking more kind of flattish revenues. You know, when you look at your...
you talk to your customers, where do you come out in that kind of view in terms of completion versus drilling, given that you have both of exposures?
Yeah, I mean, I think, Waqar, it's all about absorption and uptake of basins that are levered more to black crude like the Permian.
Yeah.
I think, you know, some of the frack community is assuming that some of those frack spreads will be easily absorbed and moved into those basins. That's where I think we come back to, you know, those WTI prices, and what is that looking like for our operators. I think that is where you're seeing that debate is what happens there and whether those frack fleets can be absorbed. I think that's where the tension is between that drilling rig decline projected from those large drillers and where you're seeing frack fleets.
Okay. Well, thank you very much. Really appreciate the color.
Of course.
Thanks, Waqar.
Our next question comes from Ignacio Bernaldez with EF Hutton.
Hey, good morning. Thank you for taking my question today. I appreciate your time. I guess to start, could you just walk through how you're thinking about capital allocation through the rest of 2023, given what you're seeing in the market right now?
Yeah. Hey, Ignacio. For 2023, we're really gonna be focused on generating cash flow and delevering, you know, as Ann had mentioned previously. You know, it's not gonna be a growth year as we expected, so we're gonna see, you know, working capital be generally flattish. We're trying to manage CapEx down toward the midpoint or lower end of the range, and just overall use cash flow as we can to pay down our credit facility and improve liquidity and delever.
Perfect. That's really helpful. I guess when you think about the conversations you're having with customers at this point, you know, in terms of their sense of urgency about pricing, maybe some color on what they're saying and how those conversations are going.
It's a great question. I think, I would say there doesn't feel like there's anything urgent right now in conversations. I say that relative to previous markets that we've been through, where there's been a great deal of urgency. Again, I think you've got a lot of operators well hedged. This is maybe they're not rolling in as much cash as they were before. Some of them certainly, you know, more exposed than not to lower gas prices, perhaps some privates under more pressure. I wouldn't say there's any urgency to the conversation. I would say it's more trying to look at the current environment and getting some price from it, and some price relief from it. It feels more slow and methodical.
It feels less panicked to me than some of the markets we've seen previously. Again, that's why I use the word orderly. It's certainly not a growth market, Ignacio. This pricing pressure, again, it seems methodical, orderly, and much less kind of widespread than previous times where you've kind of just seen a market fall off a cliff. This is a weird little bit of stability here in the market that frankly we haven't seen for a long time. We've either seen very sharp declines or very sharp inclines. This is just as I said, it's a little bit of a plateau.
That's perfect. I appreciate the insight. Thank you so much for the time.
Of course. Thank you so much.
We are closing our question and answer session. Now, I would like to turn the floor back over to Ann Fox for closing comments. Please go ahead.
Thank you for your participation in the call today. I wanna thank our employees, our E&P partners, and investors.
This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a great day.