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Core Laboratories NVÂ (CLB)
Q3Â 2018 Earnings Conference Call
Oct. 25, 2018, 8:30 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to the Core Lab Third Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. (Operator Instructions) After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. (Operator Instructions) Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to David Demshur, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Austin. Good morning in North America, good afternoon in Europe and good evening in Asia-Pacific. We'd like to welcome all of our shareholders, analysts and most importantly, our employees, to Core Laboratories' third quarter 2018 earnings conference call. This morning I am joined by Dick Bergmark, Core's Executive Vice President; Monty Davis, Core's COO; Chris Hill, Core's CFO who will give the detailed financial review; Gwen Schreffler, Core's Head of IR who will make comments regarding Core's projections for the fourth quarter; and Larry Bruno, Core's President, who will present the detailed operational review.
The call will be divided into five segments: Gwen will start by making remarks regarding forward-looking statements. We'll then review the current macro environment, updating industry trends related to optimal well spacings, well positioning and parent-child well relationships. We will then review Core's three financial tenets, which the company employs to build long-term shareholder value. We will then have -- we will then set some financial target for 2019 and then have some comments around the announcement of the retirement of Monty Davis.
Chris will then follow with a detailed financial overview and additional comments regarding building shareholder value, followed by Gwen discussing Core's fourth quarter 2018 outlook and a general industry outlook as it pertains the Core's prospects. Then Larry will go with your Core's two operating segments detailing our progress and discussing the continued successful introduction of new Core Lab technologies and then highlighting some of Core's operations in major project worldwide. Then we'll open the phones for a Q&A session.
I'll turn it back over to Gwen for remarks regarding forward-looking statements. Gwen?
Gwendolyn Schreffler -- Senior Vice President, Corporate Development & Investor Relations
Before we start the conference this morning, I'll mention that some of the statements that we make during this call may include projections, estimates and other forward-looking information. This would include any discussion of the company's business outlook. These types of forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties relating to the oil and gas industry, business conditions, international markets, international political climate and other factors including those discussed in our 34 Act filings that may affect our outcome.
Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respect from those projected in the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. For a more detailed discussion of some of the foregoing risks and uncertainties, see Item 1A-Risk Factors in our Annual Report on Form 10-K in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017, as well as other reports and registration statements filed by us with the SEC and the AFM.
Our comments include non-GAAP financial measures, reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included in the press release announcing our third quarter results. Those non-GAAP measures can also be found on our website.
With that said, I'll pass the discussion back to Dave.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Gwen. First on the industry investment trends and then comments on horizontal parent-child well relationship. Core is encouraged that operating companies are buying into operating within free cash and emphasizing returns on investment capital as demanded by today's investors. This trend benefits Core's, Core's clients tend to be technologically sophisticated and are heavy users of technology over commodity driven solutions offered by drillers, pressure pumpers and wireline providers.
During the third quarter, Core hosted several conference calls for various industry analysts to discuss optimal well spacing, downsizing, upsizing, well positioning and parent-child well relationships. Core is uniquely positioned to provide technology-driven datasets to determine optimal well spacing and well positioning to eliminate the deleterious effects of well bashing and well interference. To optimally determine well spacings and to better site well locations associated with pad drilling. Core has the most technologically advanced clients, are cutting vertical cores through the entire pay zone and also taking various reservoir fluid samples throughout the pay zone.
Detailed analysis of the core and fluid samples provides information to the operator on micro-lithologies, rock confidence, rock mechanics, crude oil types and qualities, all data sets necessary to determine optimal well spacing and well positioning. As horizontal wells are drilled completed and stimulated, Core's FlowProfiler EDS completion diagnostics technology can verify that wells are not bashing or interfering with neighboring wells on the pad. Eliminating loss production and maximizing producible reserves. This becomes critical as well pads will soon see 24 or more wells being drilled from that single pad location. The combination of Core Lab reservoir description and production enhancement technology maximizes our clients' free cash flow and the return on invested capital, their current investment goals and ensures Core Lab revenue growth will be greater than activity levels once again in 2019.
A second trend, the industry will continue to add perf clusters per stage, yielding less stages, while lateral lengths are near maximum owing to frictional forces. Perf clusters per stage could increase from 5 to 6 per stage to as many as 15 per stage, reducing the time and cost for well completion and stimulation programs owing to the overall lower stage count.
We are also starting to observe the use of micro proppants in complex completions in the Permian Basin with some 200-mesh sand being incorporated into the stimulation program. Core continues to test the effectiveness of both 200- and 400-mesh sand. The last and most important trend for Core is the client discussions have continued to increase for international and deep water, the longer cycle projects that will be needed to meet future production demand. The foreshadow of this increase in activity has been evident in the 20 FIDs approved in 2017, with another 25 to 30 expected to be approved in 2018.
Revenue from longer cycle projects have been mainly absent from Core's Reservoir Description revenue streams dating back to 2015, and should start to bolster Reservoir Description revenue in 2019. Core's revenue opportunity usually occurs three to four quarters after the FID has sanctioned as rigs need to be mobilized, wells drilled and core and fluid samples taken and then returned to our laboratories.
Q1 2018 Reservoir Description results marked the bottom of the international and deepwater cycle. Increases in global demand, increases in net decline curve rates and decreases in global inventories have been occurring since July of 2016, coupled with steeply falling production in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Angola, Libya, Iran, and China has tightened the global market to the point where longer-dated barrels on the curve have increased price and ensure greater international and deepwater investment for the future. Remember the decline curve always wins and never sleeps.
Now to review the three financial tenets by which Core has used to build shareholder value over the 23-plus year history of being a publicly traded company. During the third quarter, Core generated almost $20 million in free cash and converted a 11% of every revenue dollar into 88% of net income in the free cash. One of the highest in all oilfield services.
In 2019, Core set the target of converting over 85% of our net income in the free cash, with free cash exceeding net income during the second half of 2019. Once again Core produced oilfield industry-leading return on invested capital for the 36th consecutive quarter with a return on investment capital of 28%, over double Core's weighted average cost of capital.
Core's 28% ROIC is over three times that of any other company listed in the OSX. For 2019, Core targets ROIC exceeding 40%. Also during the third quarter, Core returned over $24 million back to our shareholders, and in 2019, Core will continue to return all excess capital back to its shareholders via quarterly dividends and share repurchase.
As referenced in our Q3 EPS release, Monty Davis intends to retire at the years end, after 36 years of service in Core. Monty was the architect and has executed on producing consistent industry-leading margins, free cash flow conversion of revenue and net income and return on invested capital. Monty was always a tough task master, but always fair in his approach to make Core Lab a better company every day.
Monty has done an excellent job of building the company's operational management bench and we have every confidence that Larry Bruno will continue to strongly carry the baton (ph) that Monty has handed him.
I'll now turn the call back over to Chris for a detailed financial review. Chris?
Christopher Hill -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, David. During the third quarter, we completed the acquisition of Guardian Global Technology on September 25th. On which Larry will expand upon on his operational discussion. The acquisitions operations did not contribute to the third quarter financial results for Core Laboratory, however incremental cost associated with the acquisition were incurred during the third quarter. The guidance we gave on our last call and past calls specifically excluded the impact of any FX gains and losses and assumed an effective tax rate of 15%. So accordingly, our discussion today excludes any foreign exchange gain or loss for current and prior period as well as the business acquisition costs for the current period and is reflective of continuing operation.
Now looking at the income statement, revenues from continuing operations were $182.1 million in the third quarter, up 12% year-over-year from third quarter 2017 which is primarily attributable to our business in North America. Of this revenue, the service revenue, which is more international was $124.1 million for the quarter, up over $6.9 million and over 6% from the same quarter last year.
Product sales, which are tied more to North American activities were $58 million for the quarter, an increase of over 27% or $12.4 million year-over-year. Our product sales revenue is primarily driven by the completion of wells in the North American market. And more specifically the activity associated with the completion of each stage in a wellbore.
Moving on to cost of services, at 71% of service revenue remained relatively consistent from previous quarters. Cost of sales in the third quarter was 69% of product sales revenue, which is consistent to last quarter and has significantly improved from the 76% for the same quarter last year. We continue to see improvements in our operating leverage and the absorption of our fixed costs on higher levels of revenue. Additionally, we have made investment this year to automate and improve efficiencies in our manufacturing process which will benefit future operating results once fully implemented.
G&A for the quarter was $13.3 million which is fairly consistent with the last few quarters. We expect G&A to be around $51 million for the full year. Depreciation and amortization for the quarter was $5.7 million consistent with the last several quarters. Depreciation and amortization expenses expected to be approximately $23 million for the full year.
EBIT ex-items for the quarter was $36.7 million up over 36% from prior year and continues to represent best-in-class EBIT margins of 20%. GAAP EBIT was $34.9 million. Income tax expense for the quarter was $4.7 million using an effective tax rate of 15%. On a GAAP basis, income tax expense for the quarter was $9.4 million which includes some discrete adjustments in the third quarter which were not forecast for the third quarter and are not forecast in future period.
As discussed in prior earnings calls, the effective tax rate will continue to be somewhat sensitive to the geographic mix of earnings across the globe and the impact of items discrete to each quarter. Net income from continuing operations ex-items for the quarter was $28.4 million, up over 38% or $7.9 million from $20.5 million in the third quarter of last year. GAAP net income for the quarter was $22.2 million. Earnings per share from continuing operations, ex-items was $0.64, also up 39% year-over-year. GAAP EPS was $0.50 for the quarter.
Now we will move on to the significant aspects of the balance sheet. Receivables stood at $143.3 million, up from $133.1 million at year end 2017, as a result of growing revenue. But importantly, our DSO has remained consistent and improved slightly for the quarter at 66 days. Inventory at $47.2 million, up $7.4 million sequentially as demand for products continued to expand and the addition at quarter end of approximately $2.5 million associated with the acquisition of Guardian.
Inventory turns have remained consistent at 3.8% (ph) for the current quarter and we expect our inventory turns to continue at similar levels for the remainder of the year. And now onto the liability side of the balance sheet. Our long-term debt ended the quarter at $296 million, up $227 million at year end, of which approximately $47 million was borrowed during the third quarter to fund the acquisition of Guardian.
Looking at cash flow, in the third quarter, cash flow from operating activities was $23.8 million and after paying for our $4.1 million in CapEx, our free cash flow in the quarter was $19.7 million. We expect capital expenditures for the year to be in the $23 million to $24 million range and we will continue to adhere to our strict capital discipline, as we evaluate the capital expenditure opportunities based on client demand. Our free cash flow conversion ratio which is free cash flow divided by net income, continues to be one of the highest in the industry at 88% for the quarter. We believe this is an important metric for shareholders when comparing company's financial results particularly for those shareholders to utilize discounted cash flow models to assess valuation.
I will now turn it over to Gwen for an update on our guidance and outlook.
Gwendolyn Schreffler -- Senior Vice President, Corporate Development & Investor Relations
Thank you, Chris. Our fourth quarter 2018 outlook is unchanged from the 8-K released on October 4th, 2018. Worldwide crude-oil markets are currently under-supplied, as seen in current global crude oil inventory and days of consumption in inventory data reported by the International Energy Agency. The IEA's most recent estimated worldwide demand projections remain strong with $1.3 million and $1.4 million additional barrels of oil per day needed in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Renewed investment at a global level is critical in order to meet future supply needs.
Oil company recognition of the need for investment is evidenced by the 25 to 30 final investment decisions estimated to be announced in 2018 with approximately 25 announced year-to-date. The company believes fourth quarter 2018 international exploration and production activity level will be flat, with most international development spending continuing to be funded largely from operating budget. We expect fourth quarter international activity improvement to remain low with the slower than expected increases in the international rig count.
Additionally, we believe the average fourth quarter 2018 US rig count will increase slightly sequentially, but the growth in onshore completion activity continues to flatten and drilled, but uncompleted well inventory levels will continue to raise. Any company exposed the completion activities will be impacted by these trends. We also believe the US completion activity will decrease until transitory industry take-away constraints are resolved in the Permian Basin of West Texas.
We continue to be encouraged by the increased focus of our major clients on investments and technology that will yield higher shareholder returns. The exploration and production companies adopting value versus volume metrics tend to be the more technologically sophisticated operators and form the foundation of Core's worldwide client base. Client planning for international and offshore projects is progressing. And as these projects move forward, Core's activity sourced from these markets is expected to improve in 2019.
Our Reservoir Description segment international client project discussions continue to increase in alignment with FIDs announced year-to-date. Activity levels and revenue opportunities for FIDs and the emerging international recovery are expected to have a positive impact on financial performance in 2019. The revenue opportunity for Reservoir Description occurs once the well has been drilled and core and fluid samples are taken and analyzed.Our Production Enhancement segments impact from the completion intensity trend should be evaluated basin-by-basin, for example, as other companies in the oilfield service sector have publicly discussed, take-away constraints in the Permian are having a negative impact on completion activity.
As the operators shift activity to other regions outside the Permian, Core is capable of responding quickly as diagnostic services are mobile and our distribution network provides completion product to all basins throughout the US. As the industry moves through the fourth quarter of 2018, Core's outlook for international activity remains flat and we see a decline in completion activity due to Permian takeaway constraint when compared to the third quarter of 2018. Therefore we expect consolidated fourth quarter 2018 revenue of approximately $173 million to $176 million and operating income of approximately $28 million to $31 million, yielding operating margins of 17%.
Using the projected fourth quarter operating income in an effective tax rate of 15%, Core projects EPS of $0.48 to $0.54. Depending on many variables that factor into the calculation of the effective tax rate, Core anticipates its 2019 effective tax rate could be approximately 20%.
With that guidance, we'll turn the call over to Larry for an operational review.
Lawrence Bruno -- President
Thanks, Gwen. First, I'd like to thank our 4,600 employees around the globe for providing innovative solutions, integrity and superior service to our clients. Recently, I had the good fortune to participate in operational review meetings across a broad cross-section of our business segments. The enthusiasm and dedication of Core Lab's employees are infectious (ph) and drive our success. I'm privileged to be part of such a strong team.
Looking first to Reservoir Description, it was a very significant year-over-year increase in the demand for pressure, volume, temperature or PVT studies from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin during the third quarter. Operators working in unconventional volatile oil, natural gas and condensate plays, such as the Montney and Duvernay shale formations need a thorough understanding of phase behavior, hydrocarbon composition, dewpoint or bubble point, formation volume factors, viscosities and gas oil ratios. It's critical to validate these reservoir fluid properties to highly accurate physical laboratory measurements made at reservoir temperature and pressure. These direct physical measurements provide key fixed data points for reservoir modeling, thus creating more robust prediction of reservoir performance and helping to maximize the operator's return on invested capital.
As a result of the increasing demand for reservoir fluid analysis, Core's Canadian operations completed a significant upgrade and expansion of their reservoir fluid characterization laboratories in the third quarter. These upgrades include the introduction of the only full visual, high temperature, high pressure, mercury-free automated PVT cell in the Canadian market. The company will continue to deploy proprietary, state-of-the-art PVT and enhanced oil recovery technologies to meet the growing demand for these services.
During the third quarter of 2018, Core Lab receives sufficient client support to initiate its second enhanced oil recovery joint industry project aimed at evaluating engineered gas injection opportunities in unconventional shale reservoirs. This new joint industry project will focus on the Permian age Wolfcamp formation in the Delaware and Midland Basins of West Texas. Like Core's first unconventional EOR joint industry project announced in the second quarter of 2017, for the Eagle Ford formation. The Permian study will be customized to address the unique challenges associated with Permian Basin geology and hydrocarbon properties.
Reservoir condition laboratory experiments using proprietary Core Lab methods and technologies such as High Frequency Nuclear Magnetic Resonance will be used to determine the optimal approach for field scale EOR programs. In addition to these joint industry projects, Core is also performing in increasing number and variety of unconventional EOR studies on a proprietary basis.
Turning now to Production Enhancement, as Chris mentioned earlier, Core is happy to announce that it completed the acquisition of Guardian Global Technologies in the third quarter. Guardian based in Wales is a technologically sophisticated designer and manufacturer of downhole instrumentation that is utilized by international oil and gas operators for well completions. The acquisition of Guardian expands Core's proprietary portfolio of patented production enhancement technologies. Moreover, Guardian's Technologies fully complement Core's integrated approach to perforating oil and gas wells, augmenting Core's proprietary top to bottom perforating tool string.
Core Lab expects Guardian's addressable downhole capabilities combined with Core's differentiated perforating systems and energetics to lead to the introduction of disruptive product solutions in 2019, expanding its participation in the multi-billion dollar perforating market. Also during the third quarter of 2018, a West Texas-based operator was encountering high breakdown pressures on a horizontal unconventional well while using traditional shaped charges. This complication increased horsepower requirements and hampered their fracking program. Core Lab provided a customized solution, utilizing its unique HERO PerFRAC perforating charges in combination with its patented Kodiak Enhanced Perforating System. The pairing of these proprietary Core Lab technologies generated both industry-leading consistent hole sizes in a radial fashion around the wellbore, as well as a closely sequenced high output secondary energetic event that is highly effective in factoring the formation in the near-wellbore area.
The operator changed their cluster design during the completion process to accommodate this enhanced perforating strategy. The combination of HERO PerFRAC and Kodiak technologies lowered the breakdown pressures by a significant 25%, reducing horsepower requirements on the frac job and allowing the operator to stimulate the target zone at an optimal rate. Using the combination of HERO PerFRAC and Kodiak technologies allowed the operator to put away higher concentrations of frac sand and fluid which produced greater stimulated reservoir volume. Greater stimulated reservoir volume yields higher return on invested capital for Core's clients and aligns with the industry trend of deploying technology to maximize production from unconventional reservoirs.
Core Laboratory's completion diagnostic services saw a growing success in the Canadian market in the third quarter as clients shifted to more plug-and-perf completions specifically in the Duvernay and Montney formation. Core's recently introduced preview technology and on-site tracer service has been one of the reasons for their strength in this market. Customers that have been using dissolvable Bridge Plugs in the toe of long reach laterals require the use of Core's preview diagnostic service. The preview technology gives Core's client a very rapid yes or no answer to identify if all stages in the well are open to flow.
Core SPECTRACHEM and SPECTRASCAN technologies have also seen increased utilization, helping clients in plug-and-perf wells by allowing them to directly measure how effectively each stage is being stimulated and also serving as a guide to optimize future completion designs. Moreover, these proprietary completion diagnostics have demonstrated the superiority of the plug-and-perf approach versus other completion methods in terms of maximizing the stimulator reservoir volume.
That concludes our operational review. We appreciate your participation and Austin will now open the call for questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And our first question will come from James West with Evercore ISI. Please go ahead. James, your line is live, you may proceed with your question. And we'll move on to our next question which is from Sean Meakim with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Thank you, hey good morning.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Sean.
Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
So I'm hoping to unpack the guidance a little bit more. How do we think about the expectation for topline versus incremental margins in the quarter? So thinking about, is something in line with what we've heard from pressure pumpers of low double digit type of revenue decline quarter-over-quarter. Is that kind of reasonable place to start? And if you use that and assume that reservoir description is fairly flat in terms of top line and margin, then your guidance would reflect, keeping that the revenue decline static, something like a decremental between 30% and 65% will be kind of how you'd go across that range. And sort it will be great to hear more about how you think that decremental could unfold depending on how severe the top line impact is? And then just is there anything else to -- any of it were missing in terms of understanding some of the drivers there for the quarter?
Gwendolyn Schreffler -- Senior Vice President, Corporate Development & Investor Relations
No Sean, I think you had it pretty closed. What's baked into the guidance with regard to completion activity for Production Enhancement is that could be roughly about 5% or more decline in the completion activity. We saw that completion activity already start to decline from August to September. So we believe that could be an excess of 5%. And then yes, we've got international activity flat which would be relative to reservoir description and the one-third of Production Enhancement. So you're spot on with the decremental. And if the operators do shift to other areas, we're going to be prepared and able to deploy very quickly in order to capture our part of this completion.
Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Got it, thank you for that. And then just within Production Enhancement, is there anything else that we should be talking about? We are learning more about the perforating systems business in terms of analysts and public investors, as more of these competitors have been spending more time with us. And so we are seeing some capacity come online, anything else you could elaborate on with respect to pricing dynamics, it's been a pretty healthy market for a long time, for most of the time. Customer preference is changing around premium charges, just thinking of other things that we should be addressing that could also be influencing the numbers? Or would you isolate it strictly to budget exhaustion and from these near term challenges with completions activity on the part of the entity?
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, Sean, I've got some comments on that. One is the acquisition of Guardian and their next generation addressable switch that's going to give Core Lab some exposure to the pre-loaded Gun Systems that we haven't really participated in, up to this point. So that might be north of 15%, maybe 20% of the market. So that's gives us an entrance into that.
We see some also, as I mentioned in my comments, we see some real promise in this intersection of Kodiak technologies which are proprietary to Core Lab, and our HERO PerFRAC technologies. Think about the carry through for an operator, if he can cut down his horsepower requirements by softening up the terrain if you will, by using HERO PerFRAC, we closely followed, and when I say closely, nearly instantaneously followed by a secondary energetic event from the Kodiak. If the results continue as that gets deployed in other areas we could see some nice uptick of that additional technology.
Lawrence Bruno -- President
Yeah, you can think of the combination of the use of those two energetics, as kind of a mini frac in the near wellbore region, which opens up stimulated reservoir volume. So that's the critical factor in increasing flow and recovery from that zone that's been stimulated. So look for more sophisticated combinations of energetics being used.
Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
As I understand with respect to what you're seeing in the marketplace on pricing dynamics where things are getting more competitive, are you seeing any changes there? Or still really just the primary focus is on pushing the ball down the field on your differentiates technology?
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, we think primarily, our clients are more interested in greater stimulated reservoir volume which gives them greater returns, as opposed to what the pricing model would be. So, no effect on price.
Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Got it. Very helpful. Thank you everyone.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Okay, Sean.
Operator
Your next question comes from Byron Pope with Tudor, Pickering, Holt. Please go ahead
Byron Pope -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Company -- Analyst
Good morning, team.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Byron.
Byron Pope -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Company -- Analyst
Just wanted to probe a little bit more on the Q4 guidance if I could. And so, I just want to understand the commentary about completions activity being down in August and September, is that just an industry comment? Or are you already seeing the impact on the production enhancement segment, so far in the quarter?
Gwendolyn Schreffler -- Senior Vice President, Corporate Development & Investor Relations
So that -- Byron, that's reported by the EIA, that's just the data that we've evaluated from August to September. So -- what I would say, at this stage, and so we anticipate that the completion activity if it's flat now we think that, that continues to go -- we think that goes down from here, until the capacity comes online. And we think the capacity item doesn't unfold until the back half of 2019, from a take-away standpoint.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, Byron. I think that piece you guys put out a couple of days ago with respect to projecting October completions to be down 6% in the US. We think that was spot on.
Byron Pope -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Company -- Analyst
Okay. And then what I was trying to get, as Dave, is just, though there is some conservatism baked into the guidance just in an environment where there's uncertainty as to exactly how much activity curtailed in the year end? So that was the genesis for the questions. I appreciate it.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. And I think that is correct. You see that we are projecting essentially Production Enhancement to be down about 10% sequentially quarter-over-quarter. So that's what we're baking in. If it's not that great, OK, we got some upside.
Byron Pope -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Company -- Analyst
Perfect. And then just one additional question on Guardian, given where they're based, I don't want to assume that, their geographic mix is skewed toward outside North America. But I guess my question is, it seems as though there are some tremendous pull-through opportunities for Guardian, just given no one's leadership position in North America. So any color you can give just on the regional revenue for mix, revenue the Guardian and the opportunity set as being part of the Production Enhancement group going forward?
Lawrence Bruno -- President
Yes, Byron. Larry here. You're right, we see some real opportunities going forward. First, start with the technology, taking the technology that Guardian brings, that's going to allow us to develop new technologies and bring them to market faster. But also our Production Enhancement products segment has much greater exposure to the market than Guardian had as a stand-alone enterprise. So, we'll be able to leverage that very nicely, I think, fairly quickly into the North America market and also for our global clientele. So we've got now a little more horsepower by bringing the two entities together and a lot more market exposure. And as I mentioned earlier, we'll move from being exposed to about 80% of the global perforating systems market to now being able to participate in 100% of it.
Byron Pope -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Company -- Analyst
That's really helpful. Thank, Larry. I appreciate it.
Lawrence Bruno -- President
Yeah.
Operator
And our next question comes from Stephen Gengaro with Stifel. Please go ahead.
Stephen Gengaro -- Stifel -- Analyst
Thank you. Good morning.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Hello, Stephen.
Stephen Gengaro -- Stifel -- Analyst
Two questions for me, guys. The first, you talked about increasing perf charges per cluster. Can you talk about just what do you think that means for overall demand for frac charges as we go forward? Relative to kind of like (inaudible) what's the market opportunity? And is it changing because of that? Or is it just -- are they just being used in fewer instances?
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, if you look, Stephen, year-over-year, US completions are up about 21%, our product sales are up 26%. So you can see that it is outgrowing what the demographics are for those completions. We think that continues down that trend. Again, all to get more stimulated reservoir volume.
Stephen Gengaro -- Stifel -- Analyst
Do you think it accelerates based on what you've seen over the last year? That's good data. But is that gap getting larger, you think, the growth rates relative to completion growth rates?
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yes, the more -- we will see more charges per stage, and we're projecting that to go up from an average right now of about five to six to as many as 15. Early days on that, but we will see that over the next year or two.
Lawrence Bruno -- President
And Stephen in a sort of an optical way of looking at this maximizing surface area that's critical. And so the more rock it can be rubble-ized and impacted by the frac job through more intense clusters, the better.
Stephen Gengaro -- Stifel -- Analyst
Okay, that's helpful. And that seems to bode well for production enhancements relative growth in 2019 and 2020. The second question I had was just overall, as it stands now, and you guys obviously have a real good view of what is going on at the reservoir level. And I know it's tough to tell from a timing perspective as we kind of go through 2019, but others have sort of discussed kind of a 10% international growth rate in 2019 versus 2018. And given your history on the reservoir description side, is that an unreasonable growth rate to think about for you guys for next year in the details.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
We wouldn't argue with that number.
Stephen Gengaro -- Stifel -- Analyst
Okay. Great. Thank you for the color.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Okay, Stephen.
Operator
Your next question comes from Scott Gruber with Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Scott Gruber -- Citigroup -- Analyst
Good morning.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Scott.
Scott Gruber -- Citigroup -- Analyst
A lot of good information in the prepared remarks. Dave, did I hear you correctly that you expect 2019 ROIC to exceed 40%, up from 28%?
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Correct. That would be an exit rate for us in 2019.
Scott Gruber -- Citigroup -- Analyst
Okay. That's what I wanted to clarify.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Because if you remember, Scott, back in 2014 through mid-2015, we were putting the ROIC up, that exceeded 50%.
Scott Gruber -- Citigroup -- Analyst
Right.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
We think we'll trend that way.
Scott Gruber -- Citigroup -- Analyst
Got it. Because you had the comments that you expected the North American completion activity to pick up in the second half of the year. So it's an exit rate that you're thinking about. I got it.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Correct.
Scott Gruber -- Citigroup -- Analyst
And can you -- I may have missed it, but could you have the revenue run rate and EBITDA run rate for Guardian? Could you provide that?
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
It's really de minimis at this point, because it's just a -- it was a technology purchase to get some of their technology into our quiver. So right now essentially it's de minimis. I would say that in the fourth quarter it's probably going to be neutral to earnings, maybe some addition first half of next year. But I wouldn't change our operating model that much.
Scott Gruber -- Citigroup -- Analyst
That is more of a second half impact?
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah.
Scott Gruber -- Citigroup -- Analyst
It sounds like (multiple speakers). Got it. That's it. Thank you.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Okay, Scott.
Operator
And our next question comes from James Wicklund with Credit Suisse.
James Wicklund -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
Good morning, guys. Hi, David.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Hello, James.
James Wicklund -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
I was going to ask what the ROIC of Guardian is, with de minimis numbers and you're just buying technology kind of doesn't have any. And you talked about being neutral to earnings probably in Q4 and maybe or maybe not added to the earnings in 2019. But from an ROIC perspective, this can't be accretive to your ROIC, but you're talking about ending next year at 40%. Can you talk about the returns in your respective segments, and what's driving your ability to get to 40% considering buying companies like Guardian, which is a great buy, it doesn't strike me as inherently really high return business.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, the new products we're going to roll out, Jim, especially with their addressable switch, gets us to not only 80% of the perforating market, but a 100%. We think that actually adds -- is additive to a ROIC of 40% by the end of next year. We're gearing up second half of them to be incrementally adding to our margins in production enhancement, which right now are 26%.
James Wicklund -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
Okay.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
And that produces a -- that's going to produce a ROIC that will be additive to the 40% target that we have.
James Wicklund -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
Okay. My follow-up if I could, you guys have been fabulous over the years about returning capital to shareholders through dividends and buybacks, and all. Guardian is one of the first acquisitions you've made in a while and you haven't done that. Can you discuss your decision-making process for capital allocation right now and the possibility of continued M&A?
Christopher Hill -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, this is Chris.
James Wicklund -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
Hey, Chris.
Christopher Hill -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Hey, good morning. There's really no change in the way we look or think about capital allocation. The dividend will remain our first priority. And then, when we do start generating free cash flow over the dividend, we will start to look at repurchasing shares. So we do look at share repurchases opportunistically. So there could be pockets where we dip into the market. But for acquisitions, we still take the view that we'd like to develop our technologies internally. But occasionally, we do see something that fits nicely in with what we're already doing and we can leverage that across our global network. And that --
James Wicklund -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
There is an awful lot for sale right now, that's what makes me -- I think this is a great opportunity.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, we really don't have any other material acquisitions that we're looking at right now. And again, I think, Chris, stressed it, we tend to want to develop from within. As you know it produces a higher return. And we have been working on this adjustable switch for a couple of years and we thought that this was an instantaneous cure of the development of that technology. And that's why we were willing to go ahead and acquire Guardian. We had worked with them over a number of years and thought it was the right move to make.
James Wicklund -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
Okay. Okay, gentlemen. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Okay, Jim.
Operator
Our next question comes from Chase Mulvehill with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead.
Chase Mulvehill -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Hey, good morning, everybody.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Chase.
Chase Mulvehill -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
I guess a few questions on Reservoir Description. I guess the first one, you've thrown out the 10% revenue growth potential for 2019. If you get that kind of revenue growth, what kind of incrementals do you think you can generate on that 10% revenue growth Reservoir Description?
Gwendolyn Schreffler -- Senior Vice President, Corporate Development & Investor Relations
60%, Chase, is what we target.
Chase Mulvehill -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Okay, alright and good to hear that. I mean, on the 40% return on invested capital, what kind of margin do you think that puts you at for Reservoir Description?
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Probably approaching 20% again.
Chase Mulvehill -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Okay, all right.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
15%.
Chase Mulvehill -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Yeah, and then can you just kind of explain a little bit about Reservoir Description on the revenue side. What's going on in the fourth quarter, typically you see some seasonality, some positive seasonality in the fourth quarter. And then it kind of reverses in the first quarter. So, kind of talk about what's going on in the third quarter? And then what it might would mean for first quarter? Should we be modeling revenues not down in the first quarter, because of what's happened in the fourth quarter?
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
I might model those down a little bit. I think we will see a little bit greater revenue in Q4, not materially over what we saw in Q3. But perhaps down a little bit in Q1 as the seasonal forces take hold.
Chase Mulvehill -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Okay, last one and I'll turn it back over. And so you're guiding to Reservoir Description basically revenue is flat and margins flat too. Correct?
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Correct.
Chase Mulvehill -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Okay. Alright.
Lawrence Bruno -- President
Chase, I'll add one thing to that. There's a little bit of seasonality there. We've got some projects going up in the Arctic, and it will depend on what the freeze brings us in terms of when those projects move forward.
Chase Mulvehill -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Okay. Was that a comment toward 1Q, is that what you were saying Larry?
Lawrence Bruno -- President
Well, whether we might see some things happen in Q4 or things happen in Q1.
Chase Mulvehill -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Got it.
Lawrence Bruno -- President
And then once that activity takes place, then we've got to get rocks and fluids back in the lab, and then we start generating revenue on them. So a little bit of a lag behind that, and it's a little hard to forecast when that activity is going to settle in.
Chase Mulvehill -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Okay, perfect. All right. I appreciate the color.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Chase.
Operator
Your next question comes from Thijs Berkelder with ABN AMRO. Please go ahead.
Thijs Berkelder -- ABN AMRO -- Analyst
ABN AMRO, sorry. Guys, first I want to thank Monty for all this years with the company and for the great performance. Many questions already having been answered. A couple of specifics, Guardian Global, when exactly can we expect the first contribution to land? Is it at Q3 or Q4 2019?
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, we're going to get some contribution because it is a neutral look at Q4. But additive to earnings probably step out mid-part of next year is what we're geared up for.
Lawrence Bruno -- President
Yeah, I think it'll get better as the year progresses and they start to get more of that technology integrated with what we already have.
Thijs Berkelder -- ABN AMRO -- Analyst
Okay, and does it require additional CapEx spending from your side?
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Not materially more.
Lawrence Bruno -- President
We think their products start to come in around mid-year and we'll start seeing the effect of that in the second half of the year.
Thijs Berkelder -- ABN AMRO -- Analyst
Okay. Clear. Then on working capital. Working capital year so far is going up every quarter. What is the expectation there for Q4? And can you specifically give the reasoning behind the creep up?
Christopher Hill -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Well, Thijs, this is Chris. I think that's natural when you have -- you're in a growing environment. So as revenues grow and product sales grow, you will see the receivables mirror that. What's more important is that, our DSOs have actually improved this year. Our inventory turns have stayed at a high level. So as we move into Q4 with revenues slightly down, which is Production Enhancement, I think you should expect receivables to come down with that and inventory levels to come down as well. So we actually might see a benefit to cash flow in the fourth quarter from a reduction in working capital. But it's been mirroring that, just like we would expect it to -- the activity.
Thijs Berkelder -- ABN AMRO -- Analyst
No. I agree there. I was expecting that as well. But just checking what your view is there. Then coming back on free cash flow and your statements there, let's say in the third quarter, of course, primarily because of the cash out for working capital, you still suffered a cash out after dividend of $5 million. And the acquisition pushes your leverage up to 1.8 times EBITDA, how are you -- as the new CFO looking at leverage going further? And what is now the timing do we need to go for a bigger share buybacks also? Also, you're guiding for the recovery of the business. So, in principle, that is indeed accompanied with a further extension of working capital.
Christopher Hill -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Right. Just on your point about our leverage ratio for our debt agreement, it's actually an adjusted EBITDA. So, looking in at that post-acquisition and adding that debt, we're a little over 1.5% when you look at our ratios as we're measured against the covenant. So, we're comfortable with the level that we are at now. I think we would be comfortable with that moving up a little bit more, but I think we would watch that, and also in tandem with what the energy or the industry is doing.
So, once you start to see a stronger recovery in Reservoir Description, also contributing to the growth, I think it gives us more comfort when we're covering the dividend with free cash flow and we see some of that more stability in the industry, you could see us enter the share repurchase market.
Thijs Berkelder -- ABN AMRO -- Analyst
Okay. Good to hear that. Then you primarily in the press release also in the warning for Q4 talked about the -- let's say the pressure on US shale. Also, Canada has suffered a lot from, let's say relate the facts. What has happened? And you explained let's say an upgrade in Canadian Reservoir Description, but what are you seeing in the Canadian market in terms of activity on your side?
Lawrence Bruno -- President
Yeah, I think the Canadian market, we're pretty encouraged there by the request for technologies both on the Production Enhancement and on the Reservoir Description side. The Montney and Duvernay formations are pretty complicated. In some place, you're in condensate areas, some places you're in a natural gas-producing area, some places you're in an oil-producing area, the volatile oil. And so clients are having to address the complexities that come with that phase behavior and being on the edges of different phase behavior in those areas. So, I think overall I would say the Canadian market is far from being the robust area that it was before the downturn. But clients gravitate toward technology that answers their questions, and so we think we'll do a little bit better than the market up there in general.
Thijs Berkelder -- ABN AMRO -- Analyst
Okay.
Lawrence Bruno -- President
The activity.
Thijs Berkelder -- ABN AMRO -- Analyst
And then maybe finally a bit of a hot topic nowadays, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco was clearly pushing up the volumes they want to deliver. How is that being reflected on your side in your activity levels?
Lawrence Bruno -- President
Well, as many of our investors have heard me comment before, we only have one client in Saudi Arabia. They're a very good client, we appreciate the work that they've sent us over the years and continue to send us. We have a local operation there to provide some services. But we also provide services for them in our Houston Advanced Technology Center as well. So we don't comment specifically on levels of activity from a client just that Aramco has been. And we see continued -- will continue to be an important client for us.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, and I'd just add that we see activity levels in the Middle East actually picking up and forerunning other international locations.
Thijs Berkelder -- ABN AMRO -- Analyst
Yeah, that was my guess as well. And therefore I was a bit puzzled by the -- let's say the 10% growth projection for 2019, because the press release more or less suggests it primarily should come from international, let's say deepwater.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
That is correct.
Thijs Berkelder -- ABN AMRO -- Analyst
(multiple speakers) this is not much more -- yeah. Okay. That's correct.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Okay, Thijs. Thank you.
Yeah, thanks.
Operator
(Operator Instructions) We have a follow-up from Stephen Gengaro with Stifel. Please go ahead.
Stephen Gengaro -- Stifel -- Analyst
Thank you. Just a quick one. It came up before. Return on invested capital, when you think about the two segments and deployment of capital into the two segments. Can you -- historically what has the pattern been? And I think RD has been higher, but how should we think about that going forward?
Lawrence Bruno -- President
We are making some -- we're in the middle of making some automation -- investments in automation in our Production Enhancement manufacturing line. So those are attracting capital investment right now. We see very nice return opportunities there. So that's playing out. But over decades of being at Core Lab, we yet to see a good idea that didn't get funded.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, Stephen, we have a form that has to be filled out, and it calculates what the return on the project is going to be. And essentially the higher return projects get funded, but lower ones do not.
Christopher Hill -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
And I would also add that those are typically client-driven technologies. So if the clients are wanting it, and we see the returns there, we're going to invest in that.
Lawrence Bruno -- President
And sometimes that's venue-related. So for example, earlier in the year we announced expansion of a lab in Alaska, and that we were putting a lab into Qatar as well to keep up with the anticipated client demand.
Christopher Hill -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Right. And we are making additional investments in their Production Enhancement group as well to bring some automation and efficiencies into those projects.
Stephen Gengaro -- Stifel -- Analyst
Okay, great. Thank you. And just a quick one on CapEx. CapEx next year should it be fairly close to 2018 levels?
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yes.
Stephen Gengaro -- Stifel -- Analyst
Great. Thank you.
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Okay, Stephen. Austin, I think we're going to go ahead and wrap up. So in summary Core's operations continue to position the company for activity levels in the fourth quarter of 2018. And we know significant challenges await. However, we have never been better operationally or technologically positioned to help our clients maintain and expand their existing production base. We remain uniquely focused and are the most technologically advanced reservoir optimization company in the Oilfield Service sector. This positions Core well with the challenges ahead.
The company remains committed to industry-leading levels of free cash generation and returns on invested capital with all excess capital being returned to our shareholders via dividends and future opportunistic share repurchases.
So in closing, our 93rd quarterly earnings release, we want to thank all of our shareholders and analysts that follow Core, and as already noted by Larry Bruno, the Executive Management and Board of Core Laboratories gives a special thanks to our worldwide employees that have made these results possible. We are proud to be associated with their continuing achievements. So, thanks for spending some time with us this morning, and we look forward to talking you on our next update. Good bye for now.
Operator
And thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
Duration: 61 minutes
Call participants:
David Demshur -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Gwendolyn Schreffler -- Senior Vice President, Corporate Development & Investor Relations
Christopher Hill -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Lawrence Bruno -- President
Sean Meakim -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst
Byron Pope -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Company -- Analyst
Stephen Gengaro -- Stifel -- Analyst
Scott Gruber -- Citigroup -- Analyst
James Wicklund -- Credit Suisse -- Analyst
Chase Mulvehill -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Thijs Berkelder -- ABN AMRO -- Analyst
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