Item 1A. Risk Factors
Item 1A. Risk Factors
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the recent OPEC+ price war could disrupt our operations and adversely impact our business and financial results.
In March 2020, the World Health Organization classified the outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic. The nature of COVID-19 led to worldwide shutdowns and halting of commercial and interpersonal activity, as governments around the world imposed regulations in efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 such as shelter-in-place orders, quarantines, executive orders and similar restrictions. As a result the global economy has been marked by significant slowdown and uncertainty, which has led to a precipitous decline in oil prices in response to demand concerns, further exacerbated by the OPEC+ price war during the first quarter 2020 and global storage considerations. The confluence of these events has resulted in significantly weaker outlook for oil producers and by extension oilfield service companies, including reduced operating and capital budgets as well as market confidence in overall industry viability. We are not currently able to predict the duration or severity of the spread of COVID-19, the OPEC+ price war or the responses thereto, and if economic and industry conditions do not improve, these events will adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations.
The spread of COVID-19 to one or more of our locations, including our vessels, could significantly impact our operations. We have implemented various protocols for both onshore and offshore personnel in efforts to limit the impact of COVID-19, however those may not prove fully successful. The spread of COVID-19 to our onshore workforce could prevent us from supporting our offshore operations, we may experience reduced productivity as our onshore personnel works remotely, and any spread to our key management personnel may disrupt our business. Any outbreak on our vessels may result in the vessel, or some or all of a vessel crew (including customer crew), being quarantined and therefore impede the vessel's ability to generate revenue. We have experienced several instances of COVID-19 among our offshore crew, and although to date we have managed to minimize operational disruption, there can be no guarantee that will remain the case. We have experienced challenges in connection with our offshore crew changes due to health and travel restrictions related to COVID-19, and those challenges and/or restrictions may continue or worsen. We may also experience an increased cybersecurity risk as our onshore personnel work remotely.
Further, each of the decline in global oil demand combined with overall market uncertainty resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, along with the recent OPEC+ price war, may continue to impact the demand for our services, the utilization and/or rates we can achieve for our assets and services, and the outlook for our industry in general. Our business is adversely affected by low oil prices, especially the willingness of oil and gas companies to make capital and other expenditures for offshore exploration, development, drilling and production operations, and the persistence of current conditions would negatively impact those companies’ willingness and ability to make those expenditures. In the event one or more of our major customers is adversely affected by COVID-19 or otherwise the current market environment, that may impact our business with them. We may face an increased risk of customers deferring work, asserting claims of force majeure, and/or terminating contracts, or our customers’ inability to make payments or remain solvent. The current environment may make it even more difficult to comply with our covenants and other restrictions in agreements governing our debt, and a lack of confidence in our industry on the part of the financial markets may result in a lack of access to capital, any of which could lead to reduced liquidity, an event of default, the possible acceleration of our repayment of outstanding debt, the exercise of certain remedies by our lenders, or a limited ability or inability to refinance our debt.
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