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Oceaneering International (OII) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

Logo of jester cap with thought bubble with words 'Fool Transcripts' below it
Logo of jester cap with thought bubble with words 'Fool Transcripts' below it

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Oceaneering International (NYSE: OII)
Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call
Feb. 14, 2019 11:00 a.m. ET

Contents:

  • Prepared Remarks

  • Questions and Answers

  • Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good morning. My name is Stephanie, and I will be your conference facilitator. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Oceaneering's fourth-quarter 2018 conference call. [Operator instructions] With that, I will now turn the call over to Mark Peterson, Oceaneering's vice president of investor relations.

Mark Peterson -- Vice President of Investor Relations

Thank you, Stephanie. Good morning, and welcome to Oceaneering's fourth-quarter and full-year 2018 results conference call. My name is Mark Peterson, Oceaneering's vice president of corporate development and investor relations. This is my first earnings call in my new Investor Relations role, and I look forward to working with everyone in the investment community.

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Today's call is being webcast and a replay will be available on Oceaneering's website. Joining us on the call are Rod Larson, president and chief executive officer, who will be providing our prepared comments; Alan Curtis, chief financial officer; and Marvin Migura, senior vice president. Before we begin, I would just like to remind participants that statements we make during the course of this call regarding our future financial performance, business strategy, plans for future operations and industry conditions are forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our comments today also include non-GAAP financial measures.

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Additional details and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in our fourth-quarter press release. We welcome your questions after the prepared statements. I will now turn the call over to Rod.

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, and welcome to the Valentine's Day installment of our call. Today, I'll focus my comments on our performance for the fourth-quarter and the full year of 2018, the market outlook for 2019, the business segment outlook for the full year and first quarter of 2019 and our commitment to capital discipline and generating positive free cash flow in 2019. Now moving to our results. In our press release for the fourth quarter, we reported a net loss of $64 million or $0.65 per share on revenue of $495 million.

These results included the impact of $71 million of net adjustments, primarily related to $76 million of pre-tax goodwill impairment in our Subsea Projects segment. Adjusted net income was $7.3 million or $0.07 per share. Overall, our adjusted operating loss of $20.7 million and adjusted EBITDA of $31.1 million were in-line with our expectations. And we are pleased to report continued growth in our Advanced Technology segment, where we achieved record earnings.

Looking at our business operations for the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter, our adjusted operating income was $19 million lower than that of the immediately preceding quarter due to reduced profit contributions from each of our energy segments, most notably in our Subsea Products and Subsea Projects segments. The decline in the financial performance of our energy segments was somewhat mitigated by the strong quarterly profit contribution from Advanced Technologies. For ROVs, operating income was down resulting from an approximate 8% reduction in revenue on 8% fewer days worked. Our fleet utilization for the fourth quarter was 52%, down from 56% in the third quarter.

The quarterly decline in the utilization percentage of our ROV fleet was primarily attributable to seasonality associated with the global vessel market. Our fleet use during this period was 67% in drill support and 33% for vessel-based activity, compared to 59% and 41% respectively last quarter. During the fourth quarter, we added two new ROVs to our fleet and retired six, ending the year with an ROV fleet size of 275 vehicles. At the end of December, we had ROVs on 91 or 62% of the 146 floating rigs under contract.

This compares to our 61% drill support market share at the end of September. During the quarter, we were on 7 of the 14 rigs whose contracts ended or terminated early and 6 of the 10 rigs that were awarded new contracts. Now turning to Subsea Products. Our fourth-quarter operating results were lower than that of the third quarter as a combined result of the Panama City manufacturing facility being off-line for several weeks due to Hurricane Michael and the execution of lower-margin work in our service and rental business.

Just as an update, I am happy to report that our Panama City facility is fully operational and the final repairs to the building will be finished without further interruption to our manufacturing operations. Our Subsea Products backlog at December 31, 2018, was $332 million, compared to our September 30, 2018 backlog of $333 million. Our book-to-bill ratio was 1.1 for the full year of 2018. Sequentially, Subsea Project's operating results declined during the fourth quarter.

The decline was principally driven by the seasonal decrease in intervention, maintenance and repair, or IMR, and survey activities. Additionally, our Renewables business unit experienced a lull in activity and contract awards. Looking at Asset Integrity, operating results were lower as a result of a seasonal decrease in activity. As mentioned, our non-energy segment Advanced Technologies achieved record operating income during the quarter.

We achieved a 70%-plus sequential improvement in operating income on a 6% increase in quarterly revenues due to a combination of completing certain jobs and closing out contracts in our entertainment businesses as well as improved performance in our automated-guided vehicle offerings. Unallocated expenses were in-line with our expectation. The goodwill impairment taken in our Subsea Projects segment was -- largely resulted from the protracted downturn in survey and vessel activity. During the fourth quarter, our capital expenditures totaled $26 million and our cash position remained strong at $354 million.

I'd now like to turn my focus to our results for the full year of 2018 compared with our 2017 results. The full year of 2018 unfolded largely as we expected, with increased levels of activity being more than offset by lower pricing for services and products in our energy-related segments. Overall, our 2018 revenues approximated those of 2017, with increases in ROV, Subsea Projects, Asset Integrity and Advanced Technologies being offset by a substantial decline in Subsea Products. Despite record results in our Advanced Technology segment for the year, consolidated adjusted operating results decreased $74 million, with the largest declines in our Subsea Products and ROV segments.

Operationally, each of our operating segments contributed positively to our adjusted EBITDA of $143 million and $37 million of cash provided by operating activities. We invested $109 million in organic growth and maintenance capital expenditures, resulting in a net-use of $73 million in cash. We continued to adapt to the challenges posed in our markets as we maintained our competitive position in a challenging offshore energy services and products market, achieved significant international expansion in our entertainment business and maintained our impressive safety record. We also continue to focus on identifying and driving efficiencies in cost and performance, all the while innovating to increase the value proposition of our services and products.

We're pleased with the notable achievements accomplished during 2018. We entered into our first era of contract with Equinor to provide a resonant battery-powered, remotely operated vehicle to support subsea inspection maintenance and repair activities. We expanded our capabilities in the renewables market through the acquisition of Ecosse Subsea Limited and increased associated ROV and survey activity in this market. We secured meaningful subsea umbilical and hardware contracts, highlighted by Equinor's Johan Castberg Project and Shell's Vito project, allowing us to achieve a book-to-bill ratio of 1.1 for the year.

We expanded our service offerings in Brazil by securing a contract with Petrobras to supply and operate three drill pipe riser systems for intervention and completion of operations. Our Advanced Technology segment achieved record annual 2018 operating income of $34 million, a 54% increase due to steady growth in our government business and a significant increase in activity in our commercial segment, specifically Entertainment. And we refinanced our $300 million term loan, providing us with an extended debt maturity profile, with our nearest maturity now in late 2024 and extended our revolver such that we now have $500 million of availability until November 2021 and $450 million of availability until January 2023. Turning to our 2019 outlook for the overall market.

Over the last four years, the offshore energy industry has undergone significant rationalization, resulting in structural cost reductions. We are encouraged that the projects that were not financially viable just a few years ago are now being sanctioned as a result of reduced breakeven costs. According to rights, the breakeven prices for Deepwater and Ultra-Deepwater developments have declined about $20 per barrel since mid-2015. Most analysts are expecting 2019 Brent crude oil pricing to be in the $55 to $65 per barrel range, which we think is strong enough to support an increase in activity.

Other analyst's data is generally supportive of increasing offshore activity levels. A few examples: CAPEX spending is projected to increase by a mid- to high-single-digit percentage in 2019; the contracted floating rig count has stabilized at around 150 rigs over the last few years, with many industry analysts projecting mid- to high-single-digit growth over the next few years. There were 287 Tree awards in 2018, and the forecast for 2019 is for a slight increase to 297. As many as 25 projects in water depths greater than 400 meters are expected to reach FID in 2019, up from less than 10 in 2018.

We agree with published reports that offshore production will continue to be a meaningful component of global supply, representing approximately 30% of total global supply for the foreseeable future. Offshore infrastructure continues to grow and age, which will require increasing amounts of intervention, maintenance and repair services. Our data shows approximately 5,400 wells installed and onstream in water depths of 400 meters or greater. Approximately, 20% of these wells have been installed for over 18 years and approximately 60% of the total have been installed for over 8 years.

So turning to our 2019 outlook for Oceaneering. We expect to generate positive free cash flow based on increased activity across all of our segments. Operationally, we anticipate all of our segments, with the exception of Asset Integrity, to generate improved results, with the largest increase in profitability occurring in Subsea Products and Advanced Technologies. For the year, we anticipate generating $140 million to $180 million of EBITDA, with positive EBITDA contributions from each of our operating segments.

At the mid-point of this range, our EBITDA for 2019 will represent an increase of about 12% from our 2018 adjusted EBITDA. This increase is based on the expectation of higher overall activity and stabilized pricing within our energy segments, modest activity improvement within our government businesses and improved performance in our commercial businesses. For 2019, we expect our organic capital expenditures to total between $105 million and $125 million. This includes approximately $40 million to $50 million of maintenance capital expenditures and $65 million to $75 million of growth capital expenditures, including the purchase of equipment needed to support the Brazil drill pipe riser contract awarded last year and the final payment to complete the Jones Act vessel, Ocean Evolution.

We expect to place the Ocean Evolution into service during the second quarter of 2019. Directionally in 2019 for our operations by segment, we expect within our energy segments, ROVs, Subsea Products and Subsea Projects to have improved operating results, with the largest increase in profitability occurring in Subsea Products. For ROVs, we project increased days on-hire in both drill support and vessel-based activities. Slight changes in our geographic mix are expected to result in a slightly lower average revenue per day on-hire.

We expect to sustain our 2018 fleet mix use of 64% drill support and 36% vessel support through 2019, as we see improvements to both the number of floating rigs under contract and increased vessel utilization. Our overall ROV fleet utilization is expected to be in the mid-50% range for the year. I want to highlight something that I talked about last year. For Oceaneering to maintain its leadership in ROV markets is important that we are positioned to quickly provide our customers with the value-added services they need.

As a result, the vast majority of our ROV fleet has been strategically deployed on drilling rigs and vessels across the world, with only about 15% of our systems being at Oceaneering facilities at any one time. In many cases, our systems may only have partial utilization during the year. We have decided to leave our systems on board, as we believe these assets are in the best position to return to work, even on short-term or call-out contracts. To illustrate this point, which we have referred to as churn in the past, approximately 85% of our ROVs earned revenue at some point during 2018, which is a slight improvement over the 80% we estimated in 2017.

We expect a similar result in 2019. Based on our anticipated level of utilization, combined with our fleet-use expectations, worldwide locations where ROVs may work and cost structure, we expect our ROV EBITDA margins to be in the high 20% range for 2019 overall. We expect to generally sustain our ROV market share for drill support. At the end of 2018, there were approximately 28 Oceaneering ROVs onboard 26 floating drilling rigs with contract terms expiring during the first 6 months of 2019.

During the same period, we expect to place 30 of our ROVs on 25 floating rigs beginning new contracts. For Subsea Products, we expect operating results to improve substantially as a result of securing good order intake in 2018 and early 2019. This backlog is expected to drive increased throughput within our manufactured Products business unit and higher activity levels and contribution from the services and rental unit. With increased overall activity and better absorption of our fixed costs, we anticipate that our operating income margins will settle in the mid-single-digit range.

Based on recent FIDs, current bid activity and anticipated award dates, we envision our book-to-bill for 2019 exceeding 1.0 again. For Subsea Projects overall, we expect to generate better operating results in 2019, with improvements in our survey and renewables business being modestly offset by reduced international and Gulf of Mexico vessel activity. The reduction in the Gulf of Mexico vessel activity is really due to the current absence of a large job to replace the Shell Appomattox work performed in 2018. Vessel day rates remain competitive but appear to have stabilized.

We also see some opportunities for margin improvement during peak seasonal periods. As mentioned, we expect to place the Ocean Evolution into service during the second quarter and continue to leverage our current arrangements with third-party vessel providers, which would give us the ability to react to changing market conditions with minimal charter requirements. For Asset Integrity, we project results to be relatively flat year over year as contract pricing remains competitive. For our non-energy segment, Advanced Technologies, we anticipate continued high demand and activity levels in our Entertainment business, improvements in our automated guided vehicle operations and modest growth in our government-related units.

For 2019, we anticipate unallocated expenses to increase due to the expectation for higher projected short and long-term performance-based incentive compensation expense. As we reported in our earnings release, our unallocated expenses have been running at decreased levels over the last few years, as our financial results have not achieved performance targets, primarily due to the prolonged downturn in the offshore oilfield markets we serve. Based on an expected increase in offshore activities, a more stable pricing environment, realized benefits from ongoing cost and performance initiatives and continued growth in our Advanced Technology segment, we expect to achieve a performance targets for 2019 as well as longer-term. Therefore, as we reestablish accruals for our short-term and long-term incentive compensation programs, unallocated expenses are expected to average $35 million per quarter.

We anticipate our 2019 net interest expense to be higher as a result of full-year payments on our $300 million of senior notes issued in February 2018 and higher floating interest rates. In addition, we will not be capitalizing interest on the Ocean Evolution for the full year. We expect our 2019 income tax payments to be approximately $25 million. This represents taxes incurred in countries that impose tax on the basis of in-country revenues and bear no relationship to profitability of such operations.

At this time, we do not foresee realizing a current year tax benefit from our projected consolidated pre-tax loss. So any discussion of an estimated effective tax rate would not be meaningful. For our first quarter 2019 outlook, we anticipate our operating results and EBITDA will be substantially lower than our fourth quarter due to the combination of the increase in unallocated expenses I mentioned a short while ago and a lower operating income contribution from Advanced Technologies due to lower number of job completions and contract closeouts in our commercial businesses. We expect the combined results of our energy segments to be similar to the fourth-quarter results.

And now, turning to our commitment to capital discipline and expectation to generate positive free cash flow in 2019. We are now in the fifth year of a prolonged downturn in our oilfield businesses. Given the magnitude of the downturn, one of our primary focuses has been to maintain a conservative financial position. Early last year, we took proactive steps to extend our revolver and to defer debt maturities.

As a result, we have $500 million available under our revolving credit until October of 2021, and thereafter, $450 million until January 2023. With the refinancing of our $300 million term loan early last year, our nearest debt maturity is now in November 2024. At the end of 2018, we have $354 million of cash. Although, we are encouraged by improving market dynamics, we also realize that returning to mid-cycle activity and pricing may still take some time.

It is key that we preserve and improve our financial position so that we are well-positioned to support increased activity as the time comes. Although our planned capital expenditures are somewhat flat for 2018, a significant portion of our growth capital was committed to prior to '19, which includes equipment to support our Drill Pipe Riser contract in Brazil and the final completion payment related to the Ocean Evolution. We will be closely scrutinizing incremental maintenance in growth capital expenditures, focusing on opportunities that will provide near-term revenues, cash flows and returns. So to do the quick math for expected positive free cash flow, starting at $160 million of EBITDA, the midpoint of our guidance, subtracting $115 million of the capital expenditures, $38 million of interest, $25 million in cash taxes and then adding back $28 million in non-cash accruals in unallocated expenses brings us to $10 million of positive free cash flow for the year.

By generating free cash flow in this market environment and maintaining our current strong liquidity, we have ample resources to address future opportunities to improve our returns. In closing, our focus continues to be generating positive free cash flow in 2019, maintaining our strong liquidity position and improving our returns by driving efficiencies in cost and performance throughout our organization, engaging with our customers to develop value-added solutions that increase their cash flow and defending or growing our market share in each of the markets in which we participate. Finally, I want to thank our employees and the management teams for their continued hard work in transforming our business to succeed in the foreseeable market. We appreciate everyone's continued interest in Oceaneering, and we'll now be happy to take any questions that you may have.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

[Operator instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Kurt Hallead with RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Kurt.

Kurt Hallead -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst

Hey, good morning, everybody.

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning.

Kurt Hallead -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst

Thanks for all the details, really helpful. As usual, if you don't mind, though, I might want to just address one particular thing looking at your first quarter '19 guidance, if I may. In your commentary, you referenced a substantial decline in profitability. That's pretty clear.

The question then becomes that -- they might have asked this on some other conference calls -- how do you guys -- or what's your definition of substantially if I were to think about that in percentage terms?

Alan Curtis -- Chief Financial Officer

I think the easiest way to look at is, we're probably not going to give percentages, Kurt, at this point in time, but I think the area where our largest increase is, is quarter over quarter, it's going to be unallocated. I think I would look at that area, and I think we would discuss the Advanced Technology segment that would be down quite a bit from the quarter -- fourth-quarter results as well. I think all of the -- the sum of the total of the energy segments we see relatively in-line with what we had in fourth quarter.

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

So I think the math kind of falls out.

Kurt Hallead -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst

OK, got it. Appreciate that additional color. Now just in terms of the -- if I take a look at the ROV business, there's obviously been a -- I think we counted something like 20, 25 floating rigs that have -- are effectively on the way back into the market after being beached for a couple of years. I know in the last conference call, you mentioned some challenges relating to having to go from short-term work to short-term work.

Any additional color beyond what was provided maybe in your press release? Are you seeing maybe more extended durations, or if not, can you talk us through how you are kind of managing those short-term switches to maximize your profitability?

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I think one of the things is it's -- while it's not a huge change, we are seeing slightly longer commitments and it is -- it's going the right direction. And then from a management standpoint, I mean, one of the things that we're doing is, we really like our position. We really like having units on rigs because it gives us preferential opportunity to have -- we're already the cheapest option if we're already there -- that's where you -- when we talk about having some of these small opportunities to increase price, that's probably where they're going to happen is where we're already forward position. But on the ones where we switch, one of the things that we're -- just like everything else is, we will make sure that we've got a great ROV, something that's ready to go and fully operational.

But if we start to see need for people asking for upgrades or additional capabilities or other things, that's where we're going to have to be very diligent about passing those costs onto our customers because if we do that more often and every time you move, somebody asks for something extra, you have to make sure we collect for that. And that's one of the best ways to mitigate some of that switching cost.

Alan Curtis -- Chief Financial Officer

Yes. And, Kurt, just from a margin perspective, our guidance is in the upper 20% range for EBITDA margins, which is consistent with kind of what you saw us report in Q3 and Q4. So Kurt, we, we do see that it's not dropping any further in our guidance but we don't a significant appreciation at this point in time.

Marvin Migura -- Senior Vice President

And, Kurt, this is Marvin. While rig contracts have been a short duration, let's just remember that most short-duration rig contracts last longer than the vessel churn that we really see the activation and deactivation of short-term work for the vessel call-out market. So even if rigs stabilize, we've still got that extra cost that we're trying to cover in the margins, as Alan has alluded to what they're going to be. But until we see a more sustained level of offshore activity, we've got starts-and-stops on a lot of boats around the world.

Kurt Hallead -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst

All right. Thanks. Appreciate that.

Operator

Your next question comes from Scott Gruber with Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Scott Gruber -- Citi -- Analyst

Yes, good morning.

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Scott.

Alan Curtis -- Chief Financial Officer

Good morning.

Scott Gruber -- Citi -- Analyst

Thanks for all the -- and the cash items. One follow-up there. With the top-line growing in 2019, can you talk to your ability to limit working capital expansion to ensure positive free cash generation?

Alan Curtis -- Chief Financial Officer

Yes, I think what we're looking at is, we are going -- we have some performance improvement plans in place looking at our receivables that we feel very confident about. We also look at a lot of the larger contracts that we're looking at have a progress payments associated with them as well that won't require our funding of those. So we feel pretty confident that we can grow the top-line without having to grow receivables.

Marvin Migura -- Senior Vice President

And as we mentioned, Scott, so much of the revenue growth is coming from products, which is the big contracts, and that's what Alan just discussed that we're being very diligent in our contracting terms to make sure we're not going out-of-pocket or trying to go out-of-pocket as little as possible for big-ticket items.

Scott Gruber -- Citi -- Analyst

Got it. And then, Rod, I wanted to ask about a few your non-oilfield technologies which are very interesting. You noted performance within your automated guided vehicles business improved during the quarter. Can you provide some color on roughly what percentage of your Advanced Technology segment do the ATVs represent today? Where they stand from a margin standpoint relative to segment margins?

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

So it's still -- we don't break it out. But it's still the little brother to Ocean -- or to the Entertainment group. But let me give you a little bit of color, Scott, there is one of the things we've done so well in the entertainment business that you've seen -- you've really seen us take advantage of in the last year or two is that we've gone with some really great standard products that then we're able to make a very small changes to the platform to capture some of these large contracts and in doing so, we've just got the deliverability much higher than it was in the past. And so we're learning that same -- and when we're working that into the same sort of methodology in the AGV business as well, and that's part of that improvement that we're already starting to see as this -- the standard products that we can deliver quickly with very low risk and very low uncertainty, and that's what's really driving that performance.

And I would just say, more to come. That's what we're talking about in 2019 as well.

Scott Gruber -- Citi -- Analyst

And just, if I can sneak another one in. Can you just talk about where do you think, kind of, the growth potential for the AGV is as well as the people mover, the REVO-GT?

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I mean, the activity is -- or the application obviously, is very broad. And right now, a lot of our AGV business is pretty focused on the automotive industry -- automotive manufacturing industry. But between that and people movers expanding more to warehousing, actually taking a look at some projects where we're operating outdoors doing similar kind of work. That is almost unimaginable how a big that opportunity can be.

But it's just a matter of how quick the adoption rates are.

Scott Gruber -- Citi -- Analyst

Could you offer a guess in terms of kind of revenue size for the two over three to five years?

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I don't think I can get the timing right, Scott, but I just feel -- like I said, I think we're encouraged by the breadth of the market and we're just going to have to try to drive that rate of change as quickly as possible.

Scott Gruber -- Citi -- Analyst

Got you. We'll continue to watch. Thank you.

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks.

Operator

Your next question comes from Edward Muztafago with Societe Generale. Please go ahead.

Edward Muztafago -- Societe Generale -- Analyst

Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking a question here. I wanted to maybe think a little bit about pricing in the ROV market and if we look at what's been going on with the jack-up market and floaters, and I hate to draw parallels between different businesses here, but seems like pricing is moving at a little bit better rate than I think what a lot of us would have thought given the excess supply. Would you hazard a guess as to whether you think there's the potential for a similar dynamic in the ROV market? And are you guys at least seeing any evidence now that maybe it's a little bit easier to move pricing up than you would have thought?

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I don't see any huge opportunities there. What I would say is, we looked for places where the value is differentiated just like heavy-weather rigs, for example. We saw some great movement on heavy-weather rigs to use one of those analogies. And I think where we start to see that whether it's a remote operation, where we're uniquely positioned to have the closest back-up, the closest parts available, where we can really help to maximize sort of a value proposition, where we've got ROV and survey and tooling and communications on the rig.

Those opportunities, which obviously, stand out in remote places, I think those are some of the unique niches that we talked about that we try to put pressure on and we try to make those pricing moves. But again, as a percentage of the whole, they're not huge. So we'll just have to look for those to expand into other places.

Edward Muztafago -- Societe Generale -- Analyst

OK, that's helpful. I mean, there seems to be a bit of opining by the rig guys that there is a recognition that everybody's got to earn their cost of capital and that's sort of behind it, but time will tell, I guess. And then maybe as a follow-up, I just wanted to think about how the arrival of the Ocean Evolution, and of course, the Riser contract in Brazil sort of play into your growth outlook for 2019? And I think you said the Ocean Evolution starts in 2Q and I think the Riser contract starts in 3Q but not really clear how they're rated, if they're early in the quarter or if they're later [Inaudible]

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. So let me talk about it. I'll start with the Riser contract. The Riser contract really is going to, more than anything, is going to affect our CAPEX this year because the work doesn't start until late 2019, so in fourth quarter.

So that's more of a -- what we'll talking about CAPEX but we'll also be talking about building our relationship with Petrobras on the services side. So that's a -- that's a late year impact on the revenue side. For the Ocean Evolution, again, it's more of a cost shift. It's more of, when we talk about the interest and everything else, it's coming in there.

But when we talk about our revenue gains, we've been doing, I think, very good with the help of our third-party vessel suppliers at capturing whatever work we had available to us in the Gulf of Mexico through 2018 and before. So what we're talking about is actually doing more of that work on our vessel and then, using those third-party vessels to go out and capture any upside to that. So it doesn't -- I don't think it creates a huge top-line opportunity but it's going to definitely give us some capability improvement and some other things as we put our own boat to use.

Edward Muztafago -- Societe Generale -- Analyst

That's helpful. And does it then provide a little bit better cost absorption potential?

Alan Curtis -- Chief Financial Officer

I think what you see a difference in is we'll be showing depreciation versus a cash cost associated with that vessel.

Edward Muztafago -- Societe Generale -- Analyst

OK. That's helpful. Thanks.

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

With replacement.

Alan Curtis -- Chief Financial Officer

With -- replacing one that we were leasing.

Edward Muztafago -- Societe Generale -- Analyst

Yes, precisely.

Operator

Your next question comes from David Smith with Heikkinen Energy. Please go ahead.

David Smith -- Heikkinen Energy -- Analyst

Hi, good morning and thank you.

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, David.

David Smith -- Heikkinen Energy -- Analyst

So for the ROV segment, the numbers you provided I think implied drill support days that were up almost 5% in Q4 versus Q3, which is really impressive as the counts of floating rigs under contract, looks like it was down about 7% in that same time period. Just trying to reconcile that divergence? I assume market share is a factor but wanted to ask if there is anything anomalous in the quarter? Any shift in the number of rigs using two ROVs or anything else that might stick out?

Alan Curtis -- Chief Financial Officer

No, there's nothing materialistic like that, David. I think a lot of it was the seasonality associated with the vessels in Q4 and in Q3, and we expect to see the uptick in more drill rig days in Q4 based on the ones that we replaced on going to work.

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

So there is a moment in time when we do see that market share start to shift. I think you nailed that that's going to be the most meaningful change in the quarter.

David Smith -- Heikkinen Energy -- Analyst

That's great. And just wanted to confirm that I heard the answer to Kurt's first question correctly. Did you say unallocated expenses should be the biggest sequential impact in Q1 versus Q4?

Alan Curtis -- Chief Financial Officer

Between Advanced Technologies and unallocated are the two largest components.

David Smith -- Heikkinen Energy -- Analyst

OK, you didn't say that one was larger than the other?

Alan Curtis -- Chief Financial Officer

If I did, I did not mean to, not intentionally.

David Smith -- Heikkinen Energy -- Analyst

OK. Is it fair to think about the Advanced Technologies results more in-line with, kind of, Q2, Q3 levels from last year or should we be looking at something closer to Q1 levels from last year?

Alan Curtis -- Chief Financial Officer

No. Not -- closer to Q2. Yes. Be more -- but not going back to operating income contribution of Q1, David.

Correct.

David Smith -- Heikkinen Energy -- Analyst

That helps a lot. Thank you.

Operator

[Operator instructions] Your next question comes from Sean Meakim of the JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst

Hey, good morning.

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning, Sean.

Alan Curtis -- Chief Financial Officer

Good morning.

Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst

So on the free cash flow of target that you laid out there, just how much flex would you say is in the CAPEX budget? And do you think you'll be able to stay free cash flow positive if you end up at the lower end of the EBITDA range? I think you mentioned this -- I'm hoping also, as part of that -- maybe if you could just reaffirm the expected use of cash for working capital at the mid-point of the range. And then as we think about that lower end, could working capital be a source of cash if you look toward the lower end of that range? Just trying to think about how those flex points help us think about where you bought them out on EBITDA relative to free cash?

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I mean -- Sean, I would just say you got all the levers, right? And I think directionally, it would be hard to sum them all up. We've kind of spoken to -- we've got a good amount of flexibility in the CAPEX taking away the payments on the Evolution, taking away the -- what we have committed to the drill pipe riser and a couple of other contracts we have in place, but we do have some flexibility there. And obviously, we would expect working capital, if you get to the low-end of the range, to your point, you free up some of working capital. But I couldn't get you this -- I don't think I'd venture the sums because it's hard to know, if it goes down, where it comes from.

And sometimes, that makes it more difficult. Alan?

Alan Curtis -- Chief Financial Officer

Yes, I think on the CAPEX side, most of the $40 million to $50 million is obviously maintenance CAPEX and it's pretty hard wired, but we will be looking at everything that Rod said in the call that everything is going to be looking at for a return in near-term cash flows and even in that sector of spend. Looking at the drill pipe riser and the work associated with the Evolution, we gave you all a pretty wide range last time on the Q3 call on CAPEX for 2018, and it was at $100 million to $140 million because we didn't know the exact timing of when some of the payments on the Evolution and on the drill pipe riser long lead items would be made. So we saw that it could have been up to $140 million at that point in time, it came in at a $109 million. So I think that kind of speaks to those $31 million that -- as we've heard other people pulled money into '18 so they could show a year-over-year decrease.

We did not do that, we let the chips fall where they may. And so there was $31 million, it could have probably been pulled into '18 that rolled over into '19 and is part of our guidance range.

Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst

Got it. Thank you for that detail, that was really helpful. If I could maybe just talk about Subsea Projects a little bit. I was curious how you see the spread of potential outcomes for that business across '19, maybe between revenue and EBITDA, just given the moving pieces that could impact utilization and mix? I think you said earlier that some pricing improvement during the peak seasonal periods could be a benefit? Just maybe could you expand on that a little bit? And I'm trying to think about those moving parts and that segment and how wide the range can look in '19.

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I mean, I think, Sean, you're -- and I know why you asked the question because you're on to -- that's a big part of our upside always, right, is projects a good season, more IMR work, more intervention, that drives projects up, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico. And if it happens during the season, and a lot of these boats get used up, that's our -- kind of, that's our upside, a big part of it. So I think if we can see higher-than-seasonal -- expected seasonal activity, it gives us a chance to not just grow the top-line but also get those things at a better price. So it is a big part of it.

How much? I'm -- trying to quantify that swing, it's just really hard to do because it's activity and weather-dependent.

Alan Curtis -- Chief Financial Officer

Yes, I think when you look at projects, so much of it is call-out type nature of this year compared to last year. As Rod alluded to, we don't have the larger project in backlog going into the year. So this is one that if activity levels pick up in the IMR space, it could be good, but if the phone doesn't ring, it also has that impact as well.

Marvin Migura -- Senior Vice President

And let's remember that we have survey and renewables in our project business as well, and we alluded to a lull in the contracting activity in the renewables business unit. So the take-away from that is what Rod said that there's -- this is the one with kind of -- and Alan -- about short-term call-out work. All of this is -- let me say it another way -- a higher percentage of projects revenue is speculative as in, not fixed or booked going into the beginning of the year. So your crystal ball is pretty good, and we just go on numbers, and we've got a job by job and decide which ones we think will win, and that's how we come up with our guidance.

But a lot of activity can happen that we don't know about yet.

Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst

That's really helpful. And if I can ask just one more clarifying piece then. As you think about the mid-point versus the upside of the overall guidance, would you care to maybe force rank across the segments which has the most -- the biggest contribution versus the smallest to that potential upside, would we put projects into the top of that list?

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes, Sean, you know our business pretty well, so you look at the things that are like -- look at the service and rental side of products, that's -- that can surprise the upside. We start getting some of this work that we -- projects for IMR work, that hits high there. So really, those two are really the strongest ones to give us that positive upside surprise.

Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst

Yes, make sense. Thank you very much.

Operator

Your next question comes from David Smith with Heikkinen Energy. Please go ahead.

David Smith -- Heikkinen Energy -- Analyst

Thanks for lettime me back in. On Subsea Products, do you have the revenue split handy between manufactured products versus the risk and rentals or do we just need to wait for the 10-K

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

We'll wait for the 10-K.

David Smith -- Heikkinen Energy -- Analyst

All right, I appreciate it. And last is, you have a nice trio of umbilical awards announced last month, I think over $80 million of which, 70% was expected to be booked in Q4. Just wanted to double check if that was included? Because I guess, the implication is, other product orders were maybe on the low side of where they've been? So wanted to check that and also ask if there is anything that you were looking to book in Q4 that may have slipped into '19?

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. I mean, I think you got it. Those ones you've asked about, we've already booked. But as far as big things coming up and we alluded to it here when we talked about strong activity in early 2019, we were named in the recent Anadarko announcement for the Mozambique development as the preferred bidder.

So that's a very large contract for us, and that's part of what we've been talking about. Thinking it might have fallen into fourth quarter but now that it's dropped into first quarter of 2019 getting us off to a good start, at least as an announcement.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time.

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, since we don't have any more questions, I'd like to wrap up by thanking everybody for joining the call, and this concludes our fourth-quarter and full-year 2018 conference call. Have a great Valentine's Day.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 47 minutes

Call Participants:

Mark Peterson -- Vice President of Investor Relations

Rod Larson -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Kurt Hallead -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst

Alan Curtis -- Chief Financial Officer

Marvin Migura -- Senior Vice President

Scott Gruber -- Citi -- Analyst

Edward Muztafago -- Societe Generale -- Analyst

David Smith -- Heikkinen Energy -- Analyst

Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst

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