Helix Energy Solutions (HLX) Reduces Deepwater Costs Through Well Intervention and Displays Acquisition Potential

February 25, 2013

Helix Energy Solutions (HLX) specializes in deepwater well intervention and possesses three of the world’s six vessels. This cost-cutting technology recently became widely accepted among majors, and Helix continues to add technology to its fleet of vessels that is in extremely high demand, says Trey Stolz, Managing Director of Oilfield Services Research for IBERIA Capital Partners.

“The industry has come out with specialized well intervention vessels that cost significantly less per day than a drilling rig and are more suited to the well service tasks. That’s what Helix specializes in. Helix provides the platform by which another service company, such as Schlumberger (SLB), could service a well in the deepwater,” said Stolz.

The ramping up of deepwater activity primes Helix for increased interest in its services, especially from NOCs in frontier regions. Stolz adds that HLX‘s potential earnings growth and simplified assets make the company attractive to larger players in the industry.

“We are looking at significant earnings growth as you add assets in over the course of 2013. Then in 2015, [Helix] can add the Q5000, a very large well-intervention vessel. It looks like they’ll have the Q6000 coming in 2016, and they can potentially add a Q7000. It’s a great space to be in, and they’ve got great growth prospects. They are also packaged up nicely to be a nice buyout target, so for all those reasons we like Helix over the next 12 months,” Stolz said.