CARBO Ceramics Inc. reported a GAAP net loss of $17.0 million, or a loss of $0.74 per share, on revenues of $73.3 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2015. This net loss includes $7.6 million, or $0.33 per share, of after-tax costs primarily associated with slowing and idling production.
CEO Gary Kolstad commented, “We are pleased to see our ceramic proppant sales volumes increased 7 percent sequentially, despite an average North American rig count that declined 40 percent sequentially. The industry environment remains extremely challenging, but we are making progress in several areas. We continue to create opportunities to help E&P operators make better wells through the application of our existing and new technologies, thereby increasing estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) and lowering their finding and development costs.
“CARBO expanded the boundaries of proppant technology as we successfully employed KRYPTOSPHERE HD and SCALEGUARD technologies in a challenging deep well environment, the Lower Tertiary formation in the Gulf of Mexico. Both of these technologies, KRYPTOSPHERE and SCALEGUARD, continue to garner interest across a number of the oil and gas plays in the industry,” he said.
“Developing and delivering leading technologies is a core focus of CARBO,” he said. “Incorporating these technologies into our Design, Build, and Optimize the Frac platform allows E&P operators to increase well production and EUR. This synergistic platform is being recognized within the E&P community as it helps lower finding and development costs, reduce costly workovers and minimize lost production. The deployment of new technologies during the second quarter is a testament of E&P operators’ desire to improve reservoir recovery.
“We continue to execute on our cash preservation and cost reduction efforts. Idling our production facilities over the last quarter to lower inventory, along with our cost reduction efforts, has reduced working capital, produced positive operating cash flows and helped maintain the strength of our balance sheet. Toward the end of the second quarter, we started bringing production back online, albeit at reduced levels. We are also pleased that we reached an agreement with our lender to amend our credit facility and believe it should provide the additional flexibility needed to navigate the downturn,” Kolstad concluded.