China Oilfield Services Limited ($2883)

Distinguished leaders, investors and analysts, good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today for the China Oilfield Services Limited, COSL, First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. COSL is one of the world's largest integrated oilfield service providers. Our services span every stage of oil and gas exploration, development and production. Our operations are categorized into 4 segments: geophysical and engineering exploration, drilling services, well services and marine support services. By leveraging our integrated capabilities, we provide clients with full life cycle oilfield solutions. We remain highly responsive to evolving trends in the international oil and gas market while steadfastly prioritizing technological innovation as our leading strategic driver. We continue to refine our lean cost control measures and actively promote the synergy between domestic and international markets, the so-called the dual circulation strategy. We are committed to translating our premium equipment and technical prowess into a leading market position, striving to deliver robust performance to reward our shareholders and society at large. First please allow me to introduce the members of our management today joining us, Mr. Qie Ji, our Chief Financial Officer. Today's conference will consist of 2 parts. First, our CFO, Mr. Qie Ji, will provide an overview of the company's performance for the first quarter of 2026, and then this will be followed by a Q&A session. I will now turn the floor over to our CFO, Mr. Qie Ji.

[Foreign Language]

Thank you, Mr. Ji, for the presentation. We will now proceed to the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions]

So I am from Everbright Securities. I have 2 questions, starting by the first question. As we can observe that with China's national strategy of ensuring national energy security, COSL has seen increased production output as well as reserves, in particular, with remarkable achievements in the deepwater area and South China Sea. We have also seen that you have increased the utilization of your semisub platform in deepwater area in Q1. So the first question concerns, can you give us a guide on the day rate forecast and operational volume of your deepwater platform throughout the year? So that's the first part of the first question. And the second part is, how do you see your competitiveness against international oil service giants? And the second question is we have observed that oil prices have been skyrocketing since beginning of March and have remained at high level, in particular, given the high oil prices and given the current geopolitical conflict, China's national energy security becomes all the more important and a lot of other investors all agree that Chinese government will do more in safeguarding its national energy security. So the question is, how do you see the status quo of your operational volume and do you have any full cost for your operational volume down the road as well as the CapEx forecast? Do you feel the same as I have just introduced, in particular, how is your order reflecting such a new situation?

So you have touched upon 2 questions, 1 more concerning the macro side and other is more of about our forecast. I'll try to answer both of the questions briefly. So firstly, on how our deepwater platforms have been doing quite well. For the first quarter of this year, mostly benefiting from our overseas operations, especially operations in Brazil or part of Brazil, which have seen obvious clearly improved operational days because that platform would not become operational until September last year. As for the Chinese business, our Stanso platform's operational days or operational volume have maintained relatively stable as new prices become executed, while to be honest, some of the platforms have increased slightly. This offset the slight decrease of the actual operational days of our semi stock, which maintained the overall increase of our drilling platform services. As for the full year cost because we are waiting for the whole year cost from our clients, we maintain dynamic conversations with them hoping to satisfy their requirements of resources in either against the geopolitical situation in the Middle East or in the new era of the 15th 5-year plan period. As for the second question, I think that we still need to investigate and analyze how things change regarding the oil prices and regarding the Middle East situation because we are seeing spot prices as high as more than $110 or $120 and even higher. And at one time, WTI was even higher than Brent. However, over the past couple of days, we do see swaps went down to about $80 plus. So such volatility is -- has already become something that we can barely make any forecast about. I still believe that oil and gas suppliers will make sustainable and rational judgment on their part. As for domestic China situation, is working to become a leading supplier, contributing to oil and gas production increase in China domestic, and we have also seen that their crude output for Q1 increased and they contributed a large part of the output increase of crude oil coming from China. So again, to align with the first question, we will keep observing CapEx adjustment and whole year forecast adjustment made by, and we will provide resources to provide guarantees to their request. Thank you.

Lawrence from BOCI, Bank of China International. I also have 2 questions. The first question is that I was seeing that in the first quarter of your finance expenses, there was a large part of exchange losses. So can you walk us through to what extent or how large such losses and why there was such a loss? And secondly, I would like you to walk us through the income and profit performance of the third quarter.

Okay. Thank you very much for asking the questions. Regarding your first question about our finance costs, Indeed, in Q1 2026, we have exchange losses to the amount of around RMB 300 million, RMB 303 million to be more specific, which is RMB 208 million higher than the same period last year, mainly because of the accounting denomination currency that we use, and we have the business savings with overseas subsidiaries and the balance contributing to such number that you have seen is not necessarily a result of our increased business scale overseas. However, as we keep dealing with our overseas intermediary, the balance and the numbers will be always be there. Thank you. Well, to elaborate further on this question, we are very much aware of either exchange profits or losses as a result of the situation that had just introduced and how it affects or even disturbance, the operating performance of the company. We are even bothered by that. So we are currently examining and looking at some possible solutions to take measures at the right time. We choose the timing to take measures. For the purpose of closing any influence on the normal operation of the company as a result of such FX exposure arising from accounting treatment. Measures include, but not limited to adjusting the functional currency that we use in bookkeeping. Thank you. And then when it comes to a specific breakdown of our revenue and the profitability, so on the whole, things are better than expectation. In terms of segment breakdown, for our journey service, domestic and overseas revenue operating margin and operate profits, all 3 are better compared with the same period last year. In terms of the well services, domestic and overseas with especially overseas revenue performed better than expectation. Operating profit margin reached around 18%, 18% and both domestic and overseas well service revenue and profit have increased year-on-year. As for geophysical and vessel service, both performed stable. Thank you. And to add 1 more thing about the operating profit, so for the first quarter of this year, operating profit of COSL reached RMB 1.53 billion, an increase of 22% year-on-year. Both domestic and overseas have increased to 20% year-on-year, which means that the company's normal operations have been rather good excluding or aside from whatever impact that we suffered from the exchange losses.

Bei Na Yan from CICC. I have 2 questions. The first question is about your jack-up because I've noticed that your jack-up platforms utilization days in Q1 of this year went down a little bit because of some scheduled repair and maintenance scheme. So the question is, after the maintenance and repair complete, do you see their utilization base increase in Q2 compared with this quarter? And my second question is about your business in the Middle East, because we do see some pull in the operation of some contractors in the Middle East in March. However, starting from mid-April, a lot of the contractors have recovered their operations. So I wonder how that will impact your Middle East operation?

So to firstly answer your first question, indeed, in Q1, our jackups repair days have increased significantly compared with the same period last year. Such repair has already been planned for by the company. And you will find that throughout the year of this year, there will be more repair days, scheduled repair days of our platforms compared with previous years. And for Q1, mostly such repairs are concentrated in our jack-up platforms domestic and our semisubs repair have maintained stable. But you will also find that whatever impact the increased repair days of our platform has on our company's revenue has already been offset by the high day rate of China jackups and semis and the execution of the highway rate in Norway and increased the part contribution by Turkiye. Thank you. There is 1 more thing I want to add for your first question because there is a part about our repair plan for Q2. Such plan will be very much aligned with the operational plan of our clients. So that's about the first question. As for the second question, the situation in the Middle East, the war occurred or took place in the Middle East on the 28th of February, so in Q1, the situation didn't impact us in -- didn't impact us in a major way. However, we do gradually start to feel such impact starting from mid or late March, specifically our jackup and semisoft in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait maintained operational and keep charging. However, the land rigs in Iraq have been affected by the decreased output in Iraq and such impact is already being felt. Thank you. Then regarding your question about the Middle East changing situation, we basically will take 2 measures in response. One is to try to scale up our businesses in the Middle East. Let me give you some examples. We have recently secured a long-term, large value contract for our well service in that region. And also, we have secured a turnkey or EPC contract for our drilling service in Iraq. In addition to that, given our global landscape, leveraging such advantage as a global player, we try to have opportunities in Iran as well as in America as the EPC contractor. We already see progress in both fronts. The increased bidders we hope can helpfully offset the impact as a result of Middle East. On the other hand, we keep a close eye on the Middle East situation and make plans so that we are always ready when our clients are ready to resume their operations in that region. In other, thirdly, we will seek opportunities as maximum as we can try to replace some of the players.

[ Lin Yang ] from Gousen Securities. My question is, I noticed that a couple of days ago, COSL announced a cooperation framework agreement with a player in Kazakhstan, because when it comes to the Middle Asia, COSL is a new player or Middle Asia features new in your global landscape. So can you walk us through the overall market of oilfield services in the Middle Asia or specifically in Kazakhstan? And I would appreciate it very much if you can give us more details on when do you expect the cooperation become more of a substantiality?

Thank you for the question. Due to the limitation of my professional knowledge, I can only share with you to the best of my knowledge for COSL and for Middle Asia or Central Asia has been an area that we have left for a long time and the reentry into this place is something of significance. So not too long ago, the Chair of the Board, Mr. Zhao, went personally to Kazakhstan to sign the cooperation framework agreement that you have just mentioned which will add a very promising point to the global landscape of COSL. So we did -- we do have conducted some preliminary investigation into the basic overall reserve situation of that country, and we find that mostly the reserves are in the not-flat area and very much prone to extremely cold weather. So the plan will mostly request efforts by our colleagues from the cementing business area, directional drilling, LWD, and their colleagues specializing in other areas to work together. We are currently having discussions on doing some -- on creating operational plans for some wells. As more of the details of such plans are coming out, we will be happy to share with all of you more details. Thank you.

From Bank of America. I have 2 questions. So for the first question, I would like to pursue further on the exchange losses because we know that the exchange profit or losses only transactional differences are recorded in your process. As for translational differences, such differences are recorded in your OCI. So I wonder whether the appreciation of R&D has affected your dollar-denominated contracts already signed? And also, I would like to ask because you mentioned that your semisub platform day rates have increased. So may I ask whether such increase is observed in domestic China or is it because you have made adjustments of your day rate because of the RMB appreciation trend that you'd expect will continue down the road? And 1 more part of the question is if RMB keeps appreciating whether exchange losses will keep being recorded in your profits in the future? And my second question is regarding your well service, can you walk us through a more breakdown of your revenue and profit in Q1?

So to answer the question, let me give you a very simple example using specific numbers, so that you understand it more easily. Let's assume that the parent company transmits USD 100,000 to its overseas subsidiary. So that USD 100,000 is reflected on the balance sheet of the parent company as RMB 700,000 if the exchange rate is RMB 7. In extreme situation, if the exchange rate goes to 6, which means on the balance sheet of the parent company, the RMB 700,000 becomes RMB 600,000 and RMB 100,000 is naturally recorded as an exchange loss. For the overseas subsidiary because the RMB 100,000 is not -- USD 100,000 does not change because everything is priced in U.S. dollars. In doing balance sheet consolidation, USD 100,000 can be balanced but that the RMB 100,000 as a result of exchange loss is recorded as a finance expense. So if say the R&D keeps appreciating against the U.S. dollar, the exchange loss that you will find on our balance sheet will expand as a result of the example that I just mentioned. So we are working on taking different measures, trying to narrow the RMB 100,000 exposure taking different means, for example, including narrowing it from RMB 100,000 to RMB 10,000 in order to minimize the impact. But if you take a look at a longer time frame, throughout the 14th 5-year plan period in between the 2 years of '21, '22, there was 1 year a major exchange profit and the next year a major exchange loss. But the overall impact on the company's balance sheet throughout the 14th 5-year time period was RMB 40 million. Thank you. As for the second part of the question, you have actually raised 3 questions. So on the second part of your third question regarding the semisoft, on the, day rate of our semi-sub for this year did not change in any major way. However, there will be indeed long term semis in domestic China, the day rate has increased significantly in Q1 and its utilization rate reached almost 100%, which greatly contributing to the revenue increase of our semisub. As for overseas semisub platforms because we have signed long-term fixed rate contracts with the clients, therefore, there wasn't any major change. As for the well service business segment, in Q1, the revenue was RMB 6.07 billion, an increase of 5% year-on-year, mainly benefiting from the integration trend of our overseas business which is growing very fast. In Q1, net margin was RMB 1.11 billion, an increase of 18% year-on-year. Both domestic and overseas have increased, especially overseas net margin has increased. As for well service margin rate in Q1, the margin rate was 18.2%, an increase of 2 percentage points year-on-year. Domestic margin rate exceeded 20%, becoming a main contributor of our profit margin increase in Q1, mainly because last year, there were certain one-off factors reducing our margin and such factors becoming absent this year contributed to the margin increase. Going forward, we will continue to work harder in securing new contracts for our well services. As mentioned, despite the wars in the Middle East, we still managed to secure on high-value, long-term contract for cementing service. I believe that the impact for -- all the impact there will be, such impact is only short term. As you can see, we still have well leader drill lock systems, operating simultaneously in Iraq, which will help us gain improving market recognition and help us accelerate our business scale up in Middle East. Thank you.

In the interest of time, this will be the last investor.

From Changjiang Securities. The question is about your shareholder return plan for the 15th 5-year plan period. Do you have any plans to increase your dividend payout to the shareholders?

Thank you very much for the question. Giving back to investors or investor returns, it is fair to say is the purpose and the center of focus of all the business and operational activities of the company. As you can see, the increased EPS is a reflection of the 20% net margin increase of the net profit attributable to the shareholders, which is a testament to the fact that we respect and give back to shareholders. So for the -- throughout the 14th 5-year plan period, you noticed that our revenue or our turnover increased from RMB 30 billion to RMB 40 billion and to RMB 50 billion, exceeding RMB 50 billion. We are still making plans and adjusting plans for the 15th 5-year time period. But the hope is that in the next 5 years, our revenue can achieve another milestone increase as we have seen before. As for the dividend payout, we, of course, hope to fully share our growth with shareholders. This is very much dependent on the business growth of the company and strong cash flow situation of the company and on the holder payout ratio, we will hope the payout ratio shall be stable with the increase. Thank you.

Thank you for the questions, and thanks to and the management team for the detailed insights. We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone for your ongoing interest in and support for COSL. Due to time constraints, this earnings conference call is now drawing to a close. If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out to our IR department at any time. This concludes our conference call for today. Thank you all, and have a nice day. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]