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Operator
Good morning. Welcome to the Independence Contract Drilling fourth quarter and year end 2016 financial results conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. (Operator Instructions). Please note that today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Philip Choyce, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead sir.
Philip Choyce - EVP, CFO
Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss ICD's fourth quarter and year end 2016 results. With me today is Byron Dunn, our President And Chief Executive Officer. Before we begin I would like to remind all participants that our comments today will include forward-looking statements, which are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. A number of factors and uncertainties could cause actual results in future periods to differ materially from what we talk about today.
For a complete discussion of these risks, we encourage you to read the Company's earnings release and our documents on file with the SEC. In addition, we refer to non-GAAP measures during this call. Please refer to the earnings release and our public filings for a full reconciliation of adjusted net loss, EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA, and for the definitions of our non-GAAP measures. With that I will turn it over to Byron for opening remarks
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
Thank you Phil. Good morning everyone, and thanks for joining us today. I'll provide some color on ICD's fourth quarter, and follow with thoughts on what we expect during the first quarter of 2017, and the overall environment we anticipate during the year. Phil will provide details on our fourth quarter financials, and then we will take questions from call participants. The last two years have been brutal on the energy and energy services industries, and tough on ICD. As the historic downturn in commodity price and rig count progressed throughout 2016, US field activity levels plummeted and the North American land rig count was decimated to about 400 rigs, an all-time industry low.
ICD entered 2016 with 11 rigs operating, but had dropped down to 4 by June of last year. However, during the fourth quarter of 2016 was saw stabilization of commodity prices and improved levels, in the formation of a bottom in North American rig activity, all-in-all we believe that the fourth quarter of 2016 marked the end of the epic energy downturn, and the beginning of a return to a more balanced supply/demand, and global oil and gas pricing dynamic.
We believe a significant by-product of the commodity price collapse we have lived through, is the acceleration of technological innovation in drilling, completion, reservoir management, and production and logistics, across the global E&P industry, and in particular, within ICD's target markets. Application of new technologies in the shale serves to rationalize the cost structure of the E&P and service industries, and has produced a very efficient and fast responding environment. We believe this has resulted in a permanently lower commodity floor-ceiling price structure. So the last three years have been nothing less than the fall of the old order, and the emergence of technological innovations, creating new market leaders in both the E&P and energy services industries.
ICD intends to be a market leader in this new emerging order. Not the largest contract drilling company, but the best. It is a good time to be an industry innovator. ICD outperformed the contract drilling industry through the downturn in utilization, and we believe in true day rate, nevertheless the downturn took a toll on ICD's operational tempo. As the full scale of the energy industries collapse manifested, our management team took proactive steps to rethink how we define work, how we do work, and to restructure and remap rig build, field maintenance, and operations processes. This resulted in a much more efficient current and future ICD structure. Although when we return to growth, reramping of ICD operations will reverse some of these structural cost modifications, the majority of the cost reductions we have implemented are relationally permanent.
Some specific metrics I would like to comment on include, SG&A and construction overhead. We restructured our organizational chart, right-sized our senior management team, and increased synergies across our rig construction, field and support operations. As a result, we have eliminated approximately $5 million of SG&A and fixed construction overhead costs from our Company, when compared to our cost structure that was in place in 2015. We have streamlined our field operations, and focused on eliminating costs, such that our fully burdened operating costs per day will run around $12,500 when our rigs reach full utilization. Achieving significant cost efficiencies took the dedication and enrollment of our entire employee base.
It's worth the pointing out that ICD employees implemented material, organizational, and cost reductions without sacrificing operating performance. Across our fleet every one of our rigs operated at less than 2% downtime in 2015 and 2016, even during the second half of 2016, when we more than doubled our operating fleet in less than three months.
Today ICD has a more dynamic and seasoned workforce than we ever have. Robust utilization through the downturn allowed us to keep our most talented and experienced people. I am proud to say even though we were forced to furlough staff during the downturn, virtually all have returned to work at ICD. We expanded and solidified our customer base and the geographic reach of the operations. Although the Permian remains the focus of most of our fleet, we are a leading driller in the Haynesville. By the end of March we'll have rigs operating simultaneously in 3 of our 4 target market regions, the Permian, Eagle Ford, and Haynesville. In the past year, we added several new customers, all large publicly traded or private E&P firms, that are well capitalized, have aggressive complex pad drilling growth plans, pay for quality, and drill through cycles.
Our expanding backlog of term contracts with these customers illustrates their high regard for ICD's operations, the value we provide from a safety and operational efficiency perspective, and their commitment to partner with us. We continue to set records for our customers, in drilling longer, more complex wells from their larger pads. For one Permian customer on a 5-well pad, every well we drilled was over 4 miles in total depth. The main takeaway I would like to leave you with, is from any perspective, ICD exited the downturn a much stronger company than when we entered.
Looking forward by March 2017, we will have more rigs operating than ever before in Company history, with every available rig in our fleet contracted, and we're in discussions with multiple customers regarding the recommencement of our build program, and the resumption of ICD's growth arc. Funding a resumption of our growth strategy is supported by the term structure of our contract fixtures, with recent contract signings and full effective utilization of ICD's fleet, we strategically set up a staggered term contract expiration matrix throughout 2017 and early 2018. This provides ICD a defensive offensive dynamic. The backlog provides foundational support to fund completion of the final reconversion, and the next 200 series new builds under our revolver. Simultaneously, staggering contract expirations across 2017 and early 2018, allows us to capture further day rate improvement as contracts roll and re-rate.
I would like to talk about day rates a little. First, to make sure that we are talking apples-to-apples, I will always refer to pure rig day rate at the margin, not some number that conflates multiple services at rig level with day rate, or some blend and extend combined result, based on historical contract relationships, or any premutation or combination of loosely related rates the contract drilling industry reports as revenue per rig, or under some other moniker.
We believe that such reporting by the industry is confusing, non-transparent, and obscures the ability of the financial community to understand true rig economics, and the temporal path of true rig day rates. In addition, these opaque metrics tend to get picked up and discussed as day rate, which they are not. As we have discussed with you on several previous calls, in an improving market cycle, increasing contract tenor will be observed first, which we're seeing, followed by day rate improvement.
Today real day rates for true pad optimal rigs have in fact begun to move higher, driven by what we believe is the full utilization of true pad optimal rigs across the North American industry. Marginal day rates on new fixtures for 1,500 horsepower, true pad optimal rigs, have moved from the mid-teens to the high-teens, with continued upward momentum. Assuming commodity pricing remains intact, we would expect to see day rates to continue through the $20,000 per day threshold in 2018.
One caveat that I want to make you aware of, as we look forward to 2017 margin at the rig level, is a tightening labor market for rig crews, as rigs go back to work. At ICD we protected our rig level senior leadership and expertise throughout the downturn, but are seeing a tightening market for the quality of employee we want as a new or inexperienced hire. Many members of the oil service work force made a decision to exit the industry during the downturn, and will never return. As energy industry conditions improve, the North American industry will be required to train a new entry level group. One impact of this will be ICD's carrying a larger number of new employees in training than we have previously. This is a new development, and I can't fully quantify for you at this point, but it is not going away soon.
I'd also like to comment on rig supply. Recent comments by competitors seem to have established finally, that the debate about the superiority of pad optimal omni directional walking rigs is over and done with, and that omni directional walking systems are superior to all other moving systems, on all but the smallest pads. As a result of this acceptance, there are projects underway to upgrade or refurbish older legacy rigs, to some type of walking system, and in response to this, some analysts have raised concerns that these projects provide a large supply of pad optimal rigs at a low cost base. We completely disagree, and think that this analysis does not hold up to scrutiny in a deeper dive.
If you recall at ICD we had three 100 series rigs, that featured virtually every attribute of pad optimal systems, except they did not walk. We spent hundreds of engineering hours and designed a working snap-on, bolt-on set of walking shoes, which were Omni directional, not just XY. However we also found significant issues driven by the tradeoffs inherent in modifying a highly engineered system, to function in a way that it was not originally designed for, and after further testing and review, we determined that retrofitting equipment not originally designed to walk was non-competitive and non-economic. We cut the clad-on shoe system up for scrap.
At ICD all three of our 100 to 200 series conversion features a brand new Omni directional substructure, capable of walking over raised well heads, and with a BOP handling system. We repopulate that new high tech sub, with a new grasshopper, articulated flow line and drilling equipment, such as mud pumps and the AC-VFD from the older rig. The end result is a true pad optimal omni directional walking rig. No cut corners. To briefly address the many problems associated with retrofitting aging equipment, merely clamping a walking system on a dated rig of any design, introduces center of gravity problems, set back problems, flow line and fluids control issues, electrical and cable tray grasshopper issues, such that the legacy skidding or non-moving rig becomes after a retrofit, a very limited capability walking rig, with pad size, setback, and surface hole spacing, and geometry problems.
In addition since you have floor beams or a floor plate, you cannot walk over anything raised above the surface on a pad. The resulting retrofitted or refurbished legacy unit is not a pad optimal system, and we believe it won't be viewed as such by the NT customer base. As you all remember, ICD was formed as a growth company. The historic market downturn stalled that growth, but as we discussed with all of you two years ago at the beginning of the downturn, our Omni directional walking pad optimal rigs would be the last to go down, and the first to go to work during recovery, and that has been the case. Throughout the downturn we focused on making ICD more efficient, and in making preparations to resume our growth profile. And now today, we are reengaging ICD in a return to aggressive fleet and Company growth. I will now hand the all call over to Phil, to discuss the fourth quarter financial results in detail.
Philip Choyce - EVP, CFO
Thank you Byron. During the fourth quarter, we reported a net loss of $10.4 million, or $0.28 per share. Excluding noncash charges associated with equipment disposals relating to rig upgrades, and write-downs of assets held for sale to their estimated fair value less selling costs. Our adjusted net loss was $5.2.million, or $0.14 per share. Included in this net loss are approximately $930,000, or $0.02 per share of reactivation costs for 2 rigs mobilized during the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA including the reactivation costs came in at $2.6 million, and was $3.5 million excluding those costs.
The fleet generated 936 revenue dates, representing a 21% sequential increase from the prior quarter. This included 92 days earned on a standby without crew basis. Our marketed rigs achieved 78% utilization during the quarter, and we exited at 2016 with 92% of our marketed fleet under contract. Overall we recognized revenue of approximately $18 million. Pass-through revenues were approximately $900,000 during the quarter. Gross margin per operating day excluding reactivation and rig construction expenses was $7,543. Favorable compared to our expectations and guidance. Byron mentioned in his remarks that we expect our operating costs per day to coalesce around $12,500 a day, as we approach full effective utilization.
We did better than that in the fourth quarter. If you eliminate the positive costs per day impact from standby days, our normalized operating cost per day in the fourth quarter was around $12,000 per day. About half of that delta related to strong performance at our rigs, and the other half related to positive outcomes associated with property tax assessments and workers compensation matters. Reactivation costs for two idle rigs mobilizing during the quarter totaled $930,000. Rig construction costs that were expensed during the second quarter were $200,000. And pass-through costs were $900,000 during the quarter.
SG&A expenses were $4.3 million, including $900,000 of non-cash compensation expense. Cash SG&A expenses of $3.4 million were unfavorable compared to our guidance by approximately $1.2 million, or $0.03 per share. Due to the accrual of a full year of annual incentive compensation expense during the quarter. No incentive compensation expense has been accrued in prior quarters, as a result of depressed market conditions. Depreciation expense, interest expense, and tax expense all came in line with our prior guidance. At December 31st we had net debt excluding capitalized leases of $18.7 million. Our borrowing base under our credit facility was approximately $92 million, exceeding the $85 million of commitments out of the facility. Cash outlays for capital expenditures net of disposal and insurance proceeds were $3.8 million.
Looking at fiscal 2017, our approved capital budget is approximately $14.1 million, consisting of our final three 7,500 PSI lead system upgrades, equipment earmarked for future new build construction, increases to our capital spare inventories as we reach full effective utilization, and maintenance capital expenditures. This excludes the remaining incremental costs associated with completing our last rig conversion, and next two new builds, for which we are finalizing complete AFEs, for our Board to consider as market conditions continue to improved. The vast minority of our CapEx budget will be front loaded in the first half of the year. Our planned asset sales will offset these costs, as we realize proceeds on sales during 2017.
As Byron mentioned, subsequent to year end we assigned 6 new term contracts with tenors varying between 6 and 15 months, which have substantially improved our backlog compared to year end 2016 levels, and staggered our contract expiration throughout 2017 and into 2018. Our backlog at year end 2016 was approximately $42.5 million, and pro forma for these new contracts increased to $75 million. Approximately $62 million of the pro forma backlog is expected to be realized in 2017. The pro forma backlog is a mix of legacy term contracts, contracts signed during the fourth quarter, and of course the recently signed contracts.
Following is a breakdown of how our backlog spreads out during 2017. First quarter 9.6 average rigs, of which 4 relate to legacy contracts. Second quarter 10.7 average rigs, of which 2.2 relate to legacy contracts. Third quarter 8.8 average rigs, of which 1.4 relate to legacy contracts, and fourth quarter 6.9 average rigs, of which 1 relates to a legacy contract. Byron discussed how we have staggered our backlog and spaced out when we roll off contracts. The following is a breakdown of the number of rigs that are currently scheduled to roll during 2017, for which we do not have signed contracts in place. First quarter, one rig. Second quarter, one rig. Third quarter, 4 rigs. Fourth quarter, 3 rigs. First quarter 2018, 2 rigs. And 2 of our rigs are contracted beyond the time period.
Some other items relating to our expectations for 2017. We estimate selling, general, and administrative expenses will be approximately $13.3 million, including non-cash compensation expense of $4 million. This will be front loaded a little bit, with noncash compensation expense tailing off considerably during the last two quarters as stock-based awards relating to our 2014 IPO fall off. We expect rig construction expenses during the year to be approximately $1.4 million. If we restart our rig construction program during 2017, these costs would again be absorbed as part of our rig construction efforts. We estimate annual depreciation expenses of $25 million, and our tax expense should be in line with 2016 amounts. For accounting purposes, we fully reserve deferred tax assets associated with our $88 million NOL, and other tax assets and liabilities. So we do not expect to recognize any tax benefits in periods in which we report a net loss.
Looking it at the first quarter of 2017, we expect our rigs will generate between 1,060 and 1,075 revenue days, of which 70 to 90 will be standby without crew days. We estimate our margin per day to range between $5,600 and $6,100 per day. A sequential decrease in margin per day relates to additional rigs activated at the end of 2016, under term contracts signed early in the fourth quarter of 2016. Known operational repairs to one of our rigs, that did not result in operating downtime, but will impact costs in the quarter by $300 to $400 per day. Costs and idle time associated with transferring one of our rigs between customers, and our expectations that our operating rigs will incur costs per day in the $12,500 range, as we increase our investment in new hire training. Also, as I previously discussed the fourth quarter benefited from favorable outcomes on property taxes and insurance.
With respect to the six new term contracts we signed, all of them included price improvements compared to the contracts that they were replacing. But very little of that will actually benefit the first quarter, as the new rates don't kick in until late in the quarter, when the original contracts expire. This margin guidance excludes reactivation costs. Today we have one rig reactivating during the quarter from standby status, and expect to incur a large portion of our reactivation costs during the quarter for our final idle rig that will commence operations during the second quarter. Under these perimeters we estimate reactivations costs during the first quarter to be $750,000. Which are additional costs not included in our margin guidance. With some additional reactivation costs for our final rig occurring in the second quarter as well.
We expect rig construction costs expensed in the first quarter to be approximately $300,000. These costs also are additional costs not included in our margin guidance. We expect SG&A for the first quarter toapproximate $3.7 million, of which approximately $1.2 million will be non-cash stock-based compensation expense. Depreciation expense should approximate $6.2 million, and interest expense should approximately $650,000. Similar to the fourth quarter, we expect to recognize noncash disposal charges in connection with decommissioned equipment related to our final 7500 PSI upgrades. Tax expense should be flat with the fourth quarter. And with that I will turn the call back over to Byron.
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
Thank you Phil. In closing I would like to thank all of ICD's employees wherever they may be. They are the people that make this organization what it is. I want to thank our investors, and those of you on the line. And with that, we can take questions.
Operator
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). Today's first question comes from James West of Evercore ISI. Go ahead.
Alex George - Analyst
This is Alex [George] on for Jim. My first is regarding the CapEx. How much would CapEx increase by if you do go ahead and finish the three rigs? Or Complete the first rig and then build two more?
Philip Choyce - EVP, CFO
I think that we talked about that being about $25 million, as we are kind of fine tuning our AFEs, we'll probably need to bring in some more capital, spare equipment, and things like that. Best estimate now $27.5 million, plus or minus a little bit to get those done.
Alex George - Analyst
Okay. So it would be incremental, correct?
Philip Choyce - EVP, CFO
Yes. That will include the incremental capital spares we might need to bring in.
Alex George - Analyst
Understood. My second question is on day rates. You can give us any qualitative color on the difference between day rates for the 15 month contract and the 6 month contract?
Philip Choyce - EVP, CFO
I think they're all kind of a blend. I don't think we were going --
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
There is not a lot of difference. Alex, the new contracts at the margin are all coming in in the high-teens. We haven't printed a 20, but they are coming in at the high-teens.
Alex George - Analyst
Okay. And you don't expect a 20 until 2018, you said, correct?
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
There are some 20s out there, and the 20s that we have observed in the market relate to larger equipment, of which there is a handful. So 2000 horsepower, some different characteristics, and there may be more out there, but that's where we have run into them. So we haven't seen anything printed at 20, in terms of a pure rig day rate, for the type of pad optimal equipment we put out.
Alex George - Analyst
Understood. Thank you, guys.
Operator
Our next question comes from Connor Lynagh of Morgan Stanley, please go ahead.
Connor Lynagh - Analyst
Thanks, good morning guys. Wondering if you could give us a little color, historically I would have thought of a new build not occurring below 20. Can you give us some color on how you're thinking about those new build contracts, and what sort of return on capital that you are targeting?
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
Okay, so for the first three, because we have spent a substantial amount of money, we're looking at the incremental, and those are the numbers that Phil gave you. I think what your question refers to is pure new builds?
Connor Lynagh - Analyst
Yes, exactly. What's your hurdle, in other words for the next three, versus these that are sort half of the CapEx?
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
Yes. Okay. So the next rigs we build are likely not to look like the rigs that we currently field. We talked about technology, and we talked about the market acceleration, and it's probable that as we go to megapads, we're going to be looking at things that have higher hook load, higher horsepower, some different attributes. So we really haven't, this is a work in progress, to the extent that we had demand for incremental 200 series rigs, and I think that is a probability. We've got that nailed, to the extent that the market bifurcates yet again, because of the development of megapads across the customer base. You have got to have a different type of equipment that is going to have a little higher incremental cost, and it will have different financial dynamics.
So what we look at generally is four to five year payback, it is a deep cyclical industry, and as you know there is a 6 month lag, between when we start and when we get a rig out, so what we will do is as we have done for as long as we have been in existence, which is if we fee comfortable with the market dynamics, we will build into it. So the current day rate won't be the day rate that we are anticipating, of course, across the term of a contract or fixture. Unless we were confident that day rates weren't going to move into the 20s, we wouldn't pull the trigger, but we also wouldn't be building against economics based on current day rates, because of the nature of the cyclicality of the market.
Connor Lynagh - Analyst
Yes, that is fair. Given your view that this is a relatively short cycle in the industry these days, how do you think about how fast that you would build, and how large you want to be, and if you had to handicap it. If day rates do move into your 20 per day range, how many new builds would you expect to build in 2018?
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
So, I don't know the answer to that. But I tell you we do that what we have said all along, and what we have maintained, is that our intermediate term goal is to be a 40 rig company, and we will do that as quickly as we can, prudently.
Connor Lynagh - Analyst
Understood. Thanks a lot, guys.
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
You bet.
Operator
(Operator Instructions). The next question comes from Kurt Hallead of RBC, please go ahead.
Kurt Hallead - Analyst
Good morning.
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
Hey, Kurt.
Kurt Hallead - Analyst
Just real quick, on again the pricing dynamic. You've done a lot to explain some of the elements, and I guess I'm just trying to connect the dots in the context of my understanding that these pad optimal high spec rigs are effectively sold out. If when you pick up these, you are looking for the most efficient asset and none are available. I guess I'm a little bit surprised that pricing isn't more firmly in the 20s, especially on new contracts? Any thoughts on that?
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
Yes, sure. Things don't happen in lock step. Contracts fall off at varying rates. And so, it's not a stair step. It's more of a process. But the process is solidly upward.
Kurt Hallead - Analyst
Okay. All right. Appreciate that. And so, you guys have been kind of at the leading edge of developments in the land drilling business since you went public. I wanted to get your perspective on what you think the next leg is? There has been some discussion among one of your peers about the prospect for autonomous drilling, and what do you think about that? Do you think it's feasible, and do you think that ICD will be a participant in that segment?
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
I think it's feasible, I think the E&P industry would like to go that way. I think there are significant tradeoffs when you start making those decisions. There are two main drivers for that type of design. One would be to get people out of harm's way. And the second would be to minimize unscheduled downtime, maximize efficiency, and so on. So I think it is an admirable goal, and something we have talked and thought about, and if we go to a new rig design, it's something we would if not incorporate immediately, make provisions to incorporate in the future. But it is, there are some limitations I think to the equipment that is available today, that has, the bugs have to be worked out. So in terms of new builds, we wouldn't wait for it, but we would be prepared for it, and structure around the expectation that this is a wave that is coming.
Kurt Hallead - Analyst
Okay. Great. Thanks for that color. Appreciate it.
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
You bet.
Operator
And our next question comes from Rob MacKenzie of Iberia Capital, please go ahead.
Rob MacKenzie - Analyst
Thanks guys. Good morning. A couple of follow-ups for you, Byron. Maybe Philip first. Philip, has the formula for the borrowing base changed here a little bit? It looks like it has been 98.1, or maybe how many rigs was that based on is a better question, since some of them were reactivated during the quarter?
Philip Choyce - EVP, CFO
That was based on 12 rigs. We'll add a rig to the borrowing base in the first quarter. There were some capital spares that were in the borrowing base at the end of the year, that won't be in the borrowing base going forward. So it will probably be relatively flat when we report the first quarter borrowing base.
Kurt Hallead - Analyst
Okay, thanks. And I think Byron mentioned a lead time of six months to deliver a rig once you commit to building it. What does that number look like, or that time frame look for a rig 101 once you commit to upgrading that to a 200 series rig?
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
Because we've got all of the long lead time items. 2 months and 3 months, a very short period.
Kurt Hallead - Analyst
Okay. And then I guess sounds like you guys are waiting for contracts before you commit to those. Is that accurate, and how soon do you think we see that play out?
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
No. We wouldn't wait for contracts before we begin to build, but we wouldn't begin to build unless we were in contract negotiations, and certain about where we were headed. And that would probably be multiple conversations for each rig. If you remember from when we founded the Company, that's how we grew it, and we never had a rig more than half done on the pad before it was contracted. But I think that there may be only one or two cases where we began building with a contract, so we would, if we were comfortable with the market, we would build into it.
Rob MacKenzie - Analyst
I mean by all accounts Byron, what do you describe with the pad optimal rigs leads sold out, and rates rising, and getting ready to hit $20,000, aren't' we there yet?
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
We are close.
Rob MacKenzie - Analyst
Okay. Great. And then let me go back to Philip if I may, on the Op cost side, it sounds like you underperformed your 12.5 fully working Op Ex this quarter. But that is baked into your guidance for next quarter. Why shouldn't we expect to see continued outperformance relative to that prior benchmark?
Philip Choyce - EVP, CFO
First, fourth quarter we had some positive things roll through on the workers comp, and property things were kind of lumpy for the quarter, so that makes the fourth quarter from that perspective a little bit, the good performance was, I don't expect to see that every quarter thereafter. First quarter Byron mentioned we'll have some training costs, we are going to bring in some extra people, that is going to flow through, that is baked into that 12.5 number as we move forward, so that will really be the delta between the OpEx.
Rob MacKenzie - Analyst
Okay. Have you started seeing any inflation in wages yet, because you mentioned the tightness in getting the kind of quality of people you want to get as new rig hands. Is there inflation in the wages yet?
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
No, we haven't seen that. From the senior leadership levels, we are well staffed, we have a backlog of people we can bring in, haven't seen any issues there. And on the low end, and on the inexperienced side, not really a wage issue, but it's a training issue. So we have seen no upward pressure on wages across the spectrum to date.
Rob MacKenzie - Analyst
Then kind of a bigger picture question for you Byron, I know that one of the things that you guys have talked about, particularly early on in the life of ICD, and from time to time, I believe is partnering with a big E&P to produce perhaps multiples of rigs. Are you guys still having those kinds of conversations, and how would you handicap the probability that somebody funds a big new build program for you guys?
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
The answer is yes, and I really can't handicap it. These conversations speed up and slow down, right now they're fairly sped up again, but I really can't, it's the culmination of those conversations, and coming to conclusions is out of my control. We can react much quicker than a larger company can. I can only handicap our ability to respond, and be interested. It's difficult for me to get into the heads of the people that we're talking to.
Rob MacKenzie - Analyst
Okay. Fair enough. Thank you. I'll turn it back.
Operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like turn the conference back over to the management team for any closing remarks.
Byron Dunn - President, CEO
In closing, let me just thank everyone on the call again, for their interest and participation, and the good questions we got. And I am looking forward to speaking with all of you again next quarter.
Operator
Thank you, sir. This concludes today's conference. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.