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Earnings Call: Q1 2022

May 19, 2022

Operator

Hello, and welcome to Seadrill's first quarter 2022 results call. My name is Alex, and I'll be coordinating the call today. If you'd like to ask a question at the end of the presentation, you can press star one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, you may press star two. I'll now hand over to your host, David Warwick, Director of Investor Relations at Seadrill. Over to you, David.

David Warwick
Director of Investor Relations, Seadrill

Thank you, Alex. Good afternoon, everyone, and good morning to our participants in the Americas. My name is David Warwick, and I am Director of Investor Relations at Seadrill. I'm delighted to welcome you to today's earnings call for the first quarter of 2022. I would like to start by introducing you to the Seadrill team on today's conference call. Simon Johnson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Grant Creed, EVP and Chief Financial Officer, Tyson DeSousa, VP and Group Controller, and Leif Nelson, EVP and Chief Operating and Technology Officer. I will shortly hand over to Simon, who will profile the new emerged and transformed Seadrill. Grant will then take you through our performance in Q1 in the context of our recent restructuring before handing back to Simon for a general market update. Following this, we will be inviting questions from industry and sell-side analysts.

For those joining us via conference call, you will be able to access a copy of this presentation via the Investor Relations section of the Seadrill website. Please note that this conference call is being recorded and a webcast replay of the call will be made available on our website in due course. Before we commence, I would like to notify you of the disclaimer statement on slide two. Simply put, we will be referring to forward-looking statements related to the business and the company that are not historical factors. Such statements and assumptions are based upon current expectations and are therefore subject to certain risks and uncertainties. There are many factors which could cause actual performance and results to differ materially. For further information, please take the time after the call to read this disclaimer and refer to the Q1 earnings report released earlier today.

On that note, I will hand over to Simon.

Simon Johnson
President and CEO, Seadrill

Thank you, David. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining Seadrill's first quarter earnings call. As we commence formal proceedings, I think it's important to outline Seadrill's current position following the restructuring which we completed in February of this year. This restructuring has fundamentally transformed the company and positions us exceptionally well for opportunities within our industrial space. Firstly, we have simplified and streamlined our corporate structure. All of our owned and operated rigs now exist in a single collateral package versus the 12 silos that we had previously. The managed rigs and strategic joint ventures have been examined and ranked. These sort of activities will continue to be part of the Seadrill franchise, but they will be standalone activities conducted on an arm's-length basis with no financial dependence on or a course to Seadrill.

We will increasingly be focused on ensuring that these activities have strategic merit and deliver meaningful synergies and benefits, or they will be monetized. Substantial progress has been made in rationalizing our existing fleet. We've high-graded our asset base with a view to location, specification, and future contract opportunities. We'll be continuously assessing our fleet through time to ensure that we are open to both sale of existing assets and purchase of new assets in accordance with the strategy mandated by our board of directors. As we emerge from the restructuring process, we find ourselves with a materially strengthened balance sheet, having reduced liabilities by almost $5 billion and raised $350 million of new capital. Our improved financial position provides us with the means to support the further growth and development of the business.

Finally, we have a newly constituted board of directors with broad-ranging corporate expertise and industry experience, which will guide Seadrill as we move forward. The board is chaired by Julie Robertson, a drilling industry veteran with a long history at Noble, culminating in her roles as Executive Chair, President, CEO. Our audit committee is chaired by Mark McCollum, who served as the Weatherford President and CEO, and also at Halliburton, where he was the Chief Financial Officer. With the restructuring complete, we are now entirely focused on executing and delivering on the plan and offering a clear pathway to investability and equity liquidity via our re-entry to the capital markets in both Norway and New York, which Grant will touch on later. Seadrill owns 21 rigs across all market segments and manages nine further rigs on behalf of others.

Our active floater portfolio comprises six dual-activity drill ships and one cylindrical semi-submersible, all of which are currently located or will soon be going to work in the Golden Triangle delineated by Angola, Brazil, and the Gulf of Mexico. In Seadrill's harsh environment portfolio, we presently have two rigs deployed in Norway, both of which are currently under contract. These comprise a sixth-generation dual-activity semi-submersible and a high-specification CJ70 jackup. In the shallow water, we own seven premium benign jackups operating in the Middle East. Furthermore, we have an additional three jackups that have recently been awarded contracts in the region and are en route to Lamprell Shipyard to undergo reactivation and contract-specific upgrades, demonstrating the positive tailwinds that Seadrill continues to experience in this segment. The firm term of each of these contracts is three years, with expected commencement in the first half of next year.

Once these contracts are underway, we will operate seven units directly and have a further three units under bareboat charter in the Arabian Gulf. The remaining two stacked units in Seadrill's fleet are the West Eclipse, a sixth-generation semi-submersible, and the West Prospero, a benign-environment jack-up. We'll continue to monitor the market, but will only reactivate these assets should we obtain significant term and the opportunity that meets or exceeds our strict investment thresholds. For the nine rigs we manage, two are owned by Ship Finance International Limited and will be handed back to the owner around Q3 of this year. Five are jack-ups owned by SeaMex, and two are modern high-specification, seventh-generation drillships owned by Sonangol, but operated under our strategic joint venture in Angola, Sonadrill.

Focusing on our strategic positioning, you can see that our portfolio remains globally diversified with a strong presence in the most important drilling regions, which allows Seadrill to tightly manage our operating costs and overheads and to focus on delivering premium returns. We have well-established client relationships forged over many years of successful global operation with major IOCs, NOCs and independents. With the support of these partners, we are continuing our strong growth in the countries that form the so-called Golden Triangle. We believe these to be the best deep water drilling basins with excellent infrastructure, world-class reservoirs and low lifting costs. We anticipate that the Gulf of Mexico, Angola, and especially Brazil, will prove to be the most resilient markets through time and will provide the backbone for future growth.

Our commitment to these regions is crystallized by our status as a leading international contractor in Brazil and the top operator of rigs in Angola. In Brazil at the end of 2021, we were awarded contracts for the West Jupiter, West Tellus and West Carina, which will go on contract in Q4 of this year and will operate alongside the West Saturn. We are ideally positioned for extensions and recontracting from Petrobras and other IOCs active offshore Brazil. In Angola, not only do we have the largest fleet presence, but importantly, we benefit from an attractive strategic partnership with Sonangol. In addition to our deep water and harsh environment footprint, we also enjoy a strong position in the Arabian Gulf, particularly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, two critical markets in the region, which feature long-term concentrated jack-up activity.

These countries are critical to alleviating near-term energy security concerns, and their reserves and basin economics are among the most attractive on the planet. We foresee strong potential within this increasingly active region with demand presently outperforming market expectations. With a fleet that has shrunk through the restructuring and our attrition plan, clustering of rigs in the markets that we have chosen will be an important part of our commercial and operational strategy. This allows us to offer our clients more contracting options, reduces value leakage caused by rig relocations, facilitates the realization of economies of scale and the development of local content. Seadrill is very proud to be at the forefront of nationalization on the rig and in the shore bases where we operate around the globe. I would now like to hand over to Grant to talk you through the financial results.

Over to you, Grant.

Grant Creed
EVP and CFO, Seadrill

Thanks, Simon. Welcome to you all today joining the call. So to summarize Q1 at a high level, we had a very strong quarter from an operational perspective, with 99% technical utilization across the fleet. These solid operations were further evidenced by our HSE performance, where we recorded a TRIR of 1.61 for the quarter, surpassing the industry average of 1.75. This strong operational performance underpins strong EBITDA of $78 million for the quarter. We have a new look balance sheet, thanks to emergence from Chapter 11 and the requirement to perform what's known as fresh start accounting. On the commercial side, we continue to grow our backlog with a significant number of wins, which put our backlog at $2.8 billion today.

Simon will elaborate more on this a little later. Finally, we have provided guidance on our total revenue, adjusted EBITDA and capital expenditure for the full year 2022. We'll be providing further information on those forecast and metrics later in this presentation. Now, taking a closer look at our financials and starting with the revenue line. As mentioned earlier, technical utilization was very strong at 99%, which was broadly in line with Q4. You'll see that our revenue for the quarter stood at $293 million, which is slightly down from Q4. This slight decrease of approximately 4% was driven by rig activity, specifically fewer operating days during the period as a result of the following events. The West Hercules completed operations with Equinor in Norway and began preparations for its follow-on contract with Equinor in Canada.

Sevan Louisiana completed operations with Walter Oil & Gas and began preparation for its follow-on contract with Eni, and both of those were in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The West Bollsta completed its contract with Lundin Energy in Norway, and has since been handed back to the rig owner. These were partially offset by full quarter of operations for the West Gemini and the Sonangol Quenguela commencing its maiden contract. Both of these with TotalEnergies in Angola. Moving on to the EBITDA line. The aforementioned activity items had a negative impact on EBITDA compared to the prior quarter, to the tune of approximately $13 million.

This was largely offset by lower operating costs and SG&A costs, mostly related to lower COVID-19 expenses and contributions from our ongoing cost savings initiatives. That means from an operational perspective, EBITDA was more or less in line with the prior quarter. However, you'll see that adjusted EBITDA for Q1 stood at $78 million compared to the $98 million we reported in Q4. The 20 million delta was primarily the result of non-recurring items recorded within other operating items in Q4 2021. These one-time items included a large insurance rebate of $20 million and gains on related party settlements of $30 million. The final point I'll mention on EBITDA is that we did also benefit from certain one-off non-recurring gains of approximately $12 million in Q1 this year relating to emergence from Chapter 11 and fresh start accounting. That addresses performance to the EBITDA level.

Items below EBITDA worth mentioning include a $3.6 billion entry to record restructuring-related transactions, such as extinguishment of debt and fair value adjustments to the balance sheet. We also incurred interest expense post-emergence. Finally, a $2 million gain on sale of the West Venture. This sale was part of the rig disposal program where we identified 11 rigs for recycling or sale for non-drilling purposes. This program was completed in Q2 this year with the sale of the Sevan Driller and Sevan Brasil. Moving to slide 8 then. You'll see we have a new-look balance sheet. Key points to note are the following. First, it reflects the extinguishment of debt and raising of new capital at emergence from Chapter 11. Next, US GAAP requires us to perform what's known as fresh start accounting, which essentially fair values the balance sheet at emergence.

The important thing to note in relation to this fair value calculation is that it's a zero-sum exercise, which according to US GAAP, is required to align with the restructuring plan value, which was set by our advisors middle of last year at an enterprise value of $2.1 billion. These adjustments mostly impacted carrying values of our rig assets and interest-bearing debt liabilities on our balance sheet. Then we have deconsolidated Paratus Energy Services since our ownership in that entity was diluted from 100% to 35% during the restructuring. As a reminder, this is the entity that was formerly known as NSNCo and holds ownership interest in SeaMex, Seabras Sapura, and Archer. Final point to note on the balance sheet is we have substantially eliminated long-term lease liabilities, which have financed in respect to the Taurus, Linus, and Hercules.

Our revised capital structure is summarized on the right of the page. It essentially consists of a second lien take back debt facility maturing in June 2027. This was $686 million in March 31 after accruing interest from emergence until the quarter end. We have a first lien, $300 million new money facility maturing in December 2026. $175 million of this is a term loan, which was drawn at the end of the quarter. In addition, we have a $125 million revolving credit facility, which is undrawn. Finally, there's a $50 million unsecured convertible bond, which is convertible at the option of the holder into 5% of the diluted equity of the company with maturity 2028.

I mentioned earlier that the fresh start accounting exercise impacts the carrying value of our debt. We have fair valued the debt and recognized a premium of approximately 5% or $43 million. A reconciliation for the par value to the balance sheet is set out in note 18 to our Q1 financial statements, which were published today. To sum up the capital structure and the net debt position, total carrying value of interest-bearing debt at March 31 was $954 million, with unrestricted cash of $393 million, and restricted cash of $160 million. In short, the restructuring completed in February has provided Seadrill with a substantial reduction of liabilities and ample cash liquidity. Moving to slide nine, we have provided guidance on our total revenue, adjusted EBITDA and capital expenditures for the full year 2022.

As you can see here, we've indicated a total revenue range of $1.04 billion-$1.11 billion. An adjusted EBITDA range of $240 million-$280 million. Finally, a CapEx guidance of $320 million-$360 million, which includes long-term maintenance costs, which are capitalized as indicated on the slide. I think the revenue and adjusted EBITDA items are relatively straightforward, but I'll add in respect to the CapEx guidance, two points. One, that the majority of this relates to the reactivations, upgrade, and operations preparation for the drill ships in Brazil and the three jackups going to the Middle East.

Second point is the three jack-up reactivation and upgrade projects are expected to straddle the year-end, which means timing of when these costs are actually incurred could materially impact the level of capital expenditure recognized in 2022 compared with the guidance provided. We have assumed here in our guidance estimates that 85% of the CapEx on these projects is incurred in 2022, and the remaining 15% in 2023. We'll continue to provide updates regarding this on quarterly basis. It is also worth reminding you at this point that we completed the relisting of Seadrill on the Euronext Expand, a junior exchange of the Oslo Børs on 28th of April. As we make a return to the capital markets, we hope that this guidance is helpful as analysts and investors take a fresh look at the new Seadrill.

We do intend to uplift our share to the main market of the Oslo Børs as soon as we meet the necessary uplisting requirements. We are also targeting a dual listing in New York in Q3 of this year. We have enjoyed reconnecting with shareholders, investors, and the wider public markets in the U.K., Europe, Nordics, and the U.S. over the last few months. We look forward to Seadrill once again being listed in both Oslo and New York, and continuing our long history of strong engagement with the investor community. I'll now hand back to Simon to cover the market outlook.

Simon Johnson
President and CEO, Seadrill

Thanks, Grant. Significant disruption to the energy markets, you know, spurred on by the war in Ukraine and the global supply chain crunch, has put into perspective the need for secure, reliable, and affordable sources of energy. The effects of these disruptions are being felt right across the globe, and they have led to a substantial spike in oil and gas prices. Driven by higher oil prices, E&P companies are set to record new profit benchmarks in 2022. Despite the resurgent demand outlook and robust cash flow generation, exploration production investment has only shown a modest uptick to date. Many oil and gas companies have reshaped their portfolios and shifted priorities. There's been a powerful change in how oil and gas companies are approaching the investment allocation process, particularly considering the vast under-investment within the sector with focus on project return timeframes and on returning capital to shareholders.

There are only a handful of E&P companies that are positioned to react swiftly to the recent oil price surge to provide much needed additional production. That being said, we do expect greater focus on exploration going forward. We're encouraged by the news of recent successful exploration campaigns in new frontiers such as Namibia and Suriname. In particular, Namibia has suddenly emerged as an exciting new frontier with two world-class discoveries by Total and Shell, estimated to be around 13 billion and two billion barrels of oil equivalent resources, respectively. Looking forward, we await news of our customers' capital budget process, which gets underway in the coming quarter. The industry has made a concerted effort to scrap old generational long-term stacked rigs.

We believe the supply of rigs will only continue to diminish as we do not believe that any more mainstream rigs will be built in the short to medium term. The challenging economics, clouded long-term demand visibility, and scar tissue of the contractor and vendor communities should act as a strong barrier to supply addition. With more disciplined behavior within the drilling contractor fraternity, supported by some recent consolidation, we have seen stronger day rates that we hope will return health to the sector and also facilitate a stable offshore drilling market going forward. This is evidenced in our recent high-value contract wins we've announced post-period in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Angola, and the Middle East.

While we're experiencing a recovery in the offshore drilling sector, we are also aware of the fact that we operate in a high-risk cyclical industry and cannot take today's favorable market conditions for granted. Nevertheless, we believe changes underway are fundamentally different from previous false starts. Moving on to slide 12. Looking at recent contract wins in more detail, you can see that we've secured over $550 million worth of contracts during the last month alone. In Angola, the West Gemini was awarded a contract by Total, which will be managed through our Sonadrill joint venture. The work will commence in direct continuation of the rig's existing contract, and at this time will be bareboat chartered into the joint venture. The firm term of the contract is around 18 months.

The West Neptune secured a four well extension of around 200 days with LLOG in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, keeping that rig busy until around August 2023. The Sevan Louisiana secured a three well extension with a minimum duration of 105 days with Talos in the Gulf of Mexico. Three of our stacked jack-ups, the West Ariel, West Cressida, and West Leda, were awarded three year firm contracts with a leading operator in the Middle East. All three rigs are expected to commence operations between Q1 and Q2 of 2023. Seadrill continues to deliver commercially and has one of the highest backlogs among our peers. This reflects our focus on maintaining a high utilization across our fleet with quality contracts and counterparties. We have several rigs which roll off contract this year and are engaged in a number of encouraging conversations with customers.

We look forward to updating you all in due course as we progress. I spoke earlier about the recovering market and what it takes to operate in a cyclical industry. Having been through an extensive restructuring process, we monitor the health of the industry with close attention to detail and direction. The industry has, however, made substantial progress in generally taking the necessary actions required to underpin market stability, with consolidation continuing as a feature of that journey. The market has made concerted effort to address the structural oversupply of rigs, with over 120 rigs being removed from the global fleet over the last three years. However, there remain too many players in the market, and further consolidation is needed to ensure the resilience of the drilling sector. We are already beginning to see strides in the industry to help alleviate this point.

How does Seadrill fit into this? Well, we believe that we are uniquely placed as one of the few remaining integrated drilling contractors with a minimum efficient scale of operation to participate in the continuing industry consolidation in a meaningful way. To close on slide 14, Seadrill has a large fleet of premium and high specification drilling rigs with excellent diversification across asset classes. We are well positioned in key segments with a favorable outlook across all the geographic markets where we currently operate. We have forged strategic relationships with the best customers in the business through time and have built a formidable backlog of $2.8 billion. We have a significantly strengthened balance sheet and have ample liquidity following our restructuring process. Recent contract wins and improved market fundamentals will support us in driving value for our shareholders going forward.

We have a high performing sophisticated operational platform, and the company has a unique track record in the industry for creating value in what's a transforming offshore drilling market. With all these things in our favor, we have a unique offering to the investment audience. From shallow water to ultra-deep water in both harsh and benign environments, we are setting the standard in offshore drilling. We at Seadrill intend to play a leading role in the future of our industry while maximizing value for investors. That concludes our presentation, and I'd like to hand over now to the moderator and take your questions.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, you can press star one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, you may press star two. Please ensure you're unmuted locally when asking your question. Our first question for today comes from Vidar Lyngvær, from SpareBank 1 Markets. Vidar, your line is now open.

Vidar Lyngvær
Equity Analyst, SpareBank 1 Markets

Thanks. Congrats guys. Good to have you back. I first wanted to ask about the jack-up market. The jack-up activity is blowing up in the Middle East, and we're seeing jack-ups being reactivated left, right, and center to go down to work down there. We're also seeing new builds going towards the Middle East. That begs the question, how high can the rig count go? What do you see as the potential for rigs in the Middle East?

Simon Johnson
President and CEO, Seadrill

Yeah, great question, Vidar, and good to hear your voice. Look, at the moment, I think most of the activity in the Middle East is being driven by the activity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They are at around about 52 rigs right now. People are anticipating that they will be increasing the rig count here through current and potentially future procurement exercises to somewhere between 85-90 rigs. We don't know exactly. There are indications that could increase meaningfully beyond even those levels. Certainly the levels of tendering and contracting we're seeing is far surpassed our expectations and has obviously had flow on effects to other markets. I personally think that we're at around about 90% marketed utilization right now.

I think we're at a point where we're starting to run out of supply. That, you know, increasingly the units that are deployed into that particular region are gonna have to be sourced from the shipyards in the form of either, you know, assets that are being held in some state of distress or ones which haven't, you know, found an owner yet, for whatever reason. There is a floor. There's around about, you know, 20 units roughly out there that haven't yet found a home. I think that gives you some indication of where things, you know, might go in terms of existing supply that hasn't yet sort of found a contract.

It's very exciting what's happening in the jack-up markets. It's happened in a very short space of time. In my time in the industry, I haven't seen such a sharp contraction in that asset category. We've been tremendously encouraged by that. You know, we think that you'll start to see significant rate movements northwards. Current fixtures going forward, it's hard to see anyone fixing below $100,000 a day. Does that answer the question, Vidar?

Vidar Lyngvær
Equity Analyst, SpareBank 1 Markets

It does. Great color. I agree, it's hard to see day rates not moving from here given the environment we're in. Another question from me, clarification on the CapEx, the $320-$360 for this year. Is it a gross figure or a net figure? I appreciate that, the mobilization expense and revenue is already excluded from that figure, but the $320, $360, any potential to get anything paid back on that?

Grant Creed
EVP and CFO, Seadrill

That's the gross expenditure, that's capital expenditure. Like you said, it does not include any items that's put on the balance sheet as mobilization expenditure. That's a gross number and is not netted against any mobilization income we receive from the customers. On the two big projects, you'll see in our fleet status report, we say that the three Petrobras contracts, we're collecting $45 million from Petrobras. On the three jackups, we're collecting approximately $100 million. That's not netted against those CapEx numbers you see.

Vidar Lyngvær
Equity Analyst, SpareBank 1 Markets

Great. That's where I was heading. Thank you, guys.

Simon Johnson
President and CEO, Seadrill

Thanks, Vidar.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Fredrik Stene of Clarksons Securities. Fredrik, your line is now open.

Fredrik Stene
Equity and Credit Research Analyst, Clarksons Securities

Hey, Simon and team. As Vidar said, nice to have you back among the others. Looking forward to following you going forward here. I think my question, you know, relates to your cold-stacked assets. Right now, you know, we can talk a lot about the market, good rates in the Gulf of Mexico. Golden Triangle looks solid for ultra-deepwater assets. As you just discussed, the markets for jack-ups is looking exceptionally strong as well, which I think means that for many cold-stacked assets could potentially go from something that has been viewed as a liability to something that now has a positive value.

I think also the you know latest and greatest takeaway from the transaction for some of your peers, which have sold jack-up assets for a considerable amount of money is a testament to that. I was wondering if you are able, since you are actively marketing these assets, are you able to kind of give me some more color in terms of what types of opportunities that you are looking for. What are these you know thresholds you are talking about. Do you have any specific you know term length, day rate, the combination of that or any sum that you would be willing to sell these assets for in the current state, should that be open an opportunity as well. Anything that you can give on the Prospero and Eclipse would be super helpful.

Simon Johnson
President and CEO, Seadrill

Okay. Yeah, thanks for the question, Fredrik. Yeah. Look, I mean, as you're aware from the prepared notes, you know, we're deploying a lot of capital across the company and with the rigs that we have reactivated, or intend to reactivate here in the near future. You know, we're mindful of that. I think as we look at the West Eclipse and the West Prospero, as you point out, our last two remaining, you know, stacked assets, I think we're gonna be increasingly conservative, in terms of what we need to make sense of reactivating those units. You know, we're gonna assess opportunities on a case-by-case basis. Our thresholds, for reinvesting in those units is high.

You know, there's one eye on the liquidity profile, which we have, and there's another eye on, you know, the development of the market and the competitive status of those two rigs relative to the rigs that are, you know, we're operating both in our fleet and across our competitors' fleets. Yeah, term is a necessity. We're looking for, you know, anything, you know, multiyear terms, you know, three years probably minimum for either unit. Increasingly we're gonna be looking for our customer to meet any capital and contract specific investment that's required up front. As we've exhausted our own, you know, organics or close, we haven't exhausted, but as we use our own organic sources of capital, you know, obviously we, you know, we're mindful about, you know, ultimate constraints in that regard.

We don't wanna borrow money to reactivate rigs. We want the customers to, you know, meet the challenge of getting those rigs back to work. You know, I would say to you that, you know, both of those rigs require large amounts of money for us to mobilize them into the active fleet. Are we open to, you know, selling those units? Yes, I think we are. If there's an attractive valuation. We don't have a for sale sign planted on either of them today. We would be willing to contemplate that. I think in terms of contract discussions for them though, for deploying them back into the active fleet, we have, for both of those units, a number of opportunities that we're in discussion on right now, that could see their reactivation.

I think that gives you a sense of where the market's heading, that even units with very high thresholds as those two, you know, they are of interest to customers as they look around the world and discover that there's less rigs available than they might have expected. Does that answer the question, Fredrik?

Fredrik Stene
Equity and Credit Research Analyst, Clarksons Securities

Yeah, no, that's very helpful color. Just as a follow-up on that, when we, you know, think about fleet size, efficiencies and all that, you talked a bit about M&A and your place in that M&A story. Would you, and I think it was mentioned, you know, you can do company transactions, you can do, you know, asset sale purchases. The M&A world is quite a scope of that can be quite wide in that sense. Have you made any considerations as to, you know, how would you know, prioritize, for example, doing single asset transactions or being part of M&A versus, or call it larger M&A transactions versus reactivating these assets? Are there any kind of preferred way to grow right now?

Will that still be depending on the liquidity discussions, as you say, organically might be a bit exhausted now, et cetera?

Simon Johnson
President and CEO, Seadrill

Yeah. Look, I'm keen to answer the question, but I'm reluctant to inform our competitors about our industrial strategy. I mean, what I would say, Fredrik, is that we're looking to preserve optionality and, you know, we are looking to participate either as an acquirer or an acquiree in merger opportunities that might arise. At the same time, we have been charged with continuing to develop the company organically through time and that may take the form of a small acquisition on either a company or an asset basis. We're surveilling the market at the moment for everything. I think a special part of the Seadrill DNA through time has been that we've been aggressive and present with all the opportunities that are presented to the market. We're continuing with that theme, frankly.

We're in a lot of conversations at the moment that could see us potentially add more units to the fleet. You know, we're gonna continue to survey the market for opportunities that make sense. What I would say is that we have very, very strict investment thresholds. Obviously, you know, when we're talking about acquiring new assets, there's you know, the need to finance those assets as well. I think generally speaking, the capital markets at the moment are developing nicely. If not today, then you know, maybe soon there'll be more options than there were a short while ago as to how potential acquisitions might be financed.

Fredrik Stene
Equity and Credit Research Analyst, Clarksons Securities

I really appreciate the color. Thank you, guys. I'll leave it at that, and speak soon.

Simon Johnson
President and CEO, Seadrill

Thanks, Fredrik.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Nilesh Patil of HSBC. Nilesh, your line is now open.

Nilesh Patil
AVP, HSBC

Great. Thank you. Hi, gents. Given the backlog and the market outlook, are you able to share any thoughts on where you think revenue and EBITDA will be sort of beyond 2022?

Simon Johnson
President and CEO, Seadrill

Well...

Grant Creed
EVP and CFO, Seadrill

Sorry, Nilesh, are you talking about our Seadrill forecast beyond 2022, or are you talking about the market generally?

Nilesh Patil
AVP, HSBC

Seadrill forecast beyond 2022.

Grant Creed
EVP and CFO, Seadrill

In 2022, EBITDA, it's really the geography that Simon was talking about earlier. We have two rigs, one managed, one owned in Angola that will earn good EBITDA from there. The Brazilian units, in terms of EBITDA, the new contracts are only really starting toward the end of the year and the existing contracts are this year. I wouldn't say, you know, those are on lower day rates. They're not contributing as much EBITDA this year. They will be going forward.

Of course, the four rigs we got in Saudi Arabia are currently this year earning good EBITDA and will do so even more going forward when we get the new three rigs coming on, as well as we hope to recontract those rigs and renew those contracts at higher rates. Qatar, the three rigs there on bareboat charters, I mean that's steady, just straight EBITDA on the bareboat charter, sort of $25,000 per day. Phoenix really is for this year and most of next year, the cash cow when it comes to EBITDA. It's on a day rate that's in excess of the market. It's at $360,000, where the market's currently at around $300,000 a day. That's earning...

That's probably our best, or it is our best earner this year and next. I think then that covers this year touching on next year. Well, and of course we've got the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and those two rigs in the spot market, and they are contributing significantly to EBITDA this year, and we expect to do so 2023 and beyond as well.

Simon Johnson
President and CEO, Seadrill

Yeah, Nilesh, it's Simon here. I'd also encourage you to look at our new fleet status summary as well. We're now publishing all of our rates and wins going forward, unless a customer has specifically requested that we not do that. That gives you some good color in terms of, you know, contract profile and day rates going forward.

Nilesh Patil
AVP, HSBC

Okay, thanks.

Operator

Super. Thank you. As a final reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, you can press star one on your telephone keypad. Okay, we no longer have any more questions. Thank you for joining today's call. You can now disconnect.

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