Mammoth Energy Services, Inc. (TUSK) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript
Mammoth Energy Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: TUSK)Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallMarch 15, 2019, 10:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Mammoth Energy Services Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Earnings Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay on Mammoth Energy Services' website.
I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference Mr. Don Crist, Mammoth Energy Services' Director of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.
Don Crist -- Director of Investor Relations
Thank you, Liz. Good morning and welcome to Mammoth Energy Services fourth quarter and full year 2018 earnings conference call. Joining me on today's call are Arty Straehla, Chief Executive officer; and Mark Layton, Chief Financial Officer.
Before I turn the call over to them, I would like to read our Safe Harbor Statement. Some of our comments today may include forward-looking statements reflecting Mammoth Energy Services' views about future events. These matters involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to materially differ from our forward-looking statements. These risks are discussed in Mammoth Energy Services Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.
Our comments today may also include non-GAAP financial measures. Additional details and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our year end and fourth quarter press release which can be found on our website along with our updated presentation.
Now I'll turn the call over to Arty.
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Don, and good morning everyone. 2018 was a very good year for Mammoth. We saw year-over-year growth across all of our business lines, but most notably in our Infrastructure segment. This growth is best represented in our 2018 financials with revenues growing more than 140%, net income growing more than 530%, and adjusted EBITDA growing more than 230% when compared to 2017. When compared to 2016, the year we went public, and earned $41 million in EBITDA, we have grown EBITDA by more than 12 times to over $540 million. While these stats are great on their own, this growth was executed while protecting the balance sheet exiting the year with $68 million in cash and no debt.
From a portfolio perspective, our fourth quarter results again underscore our differentiation from many of the OFS companies we are compared to. This differentiation was expanded further in December through the purchase of Air Rescue Services or ARS and our investment in Brim. As we have done in our oilfield service business lines, we are always looking at ways to vertically integrate our operations and having a helicopter fleet is a big step toward that goal. We are now able to bid on transmission projects with greater certainty as under most circumstances, we will not be reliant on aircraft lease from third-parties to perform the work. Additionally with Brim holding several FAA certificates, we are in position to expand or modify our fleet based upon our customers' needs. The acquisition of ARS in late December, allowed us to enter into a new business line that is distinctly different from both Cobra Aviation and Brim. ARS is a safety training and safety equipment manufacturer, which is highly respected in the aviation industry. ARS's main business line is the training of local, federal and foreign police forces in search and rescue operations and the manufacturing of safety equipment used in search and rescue missions.
Now let me give you an update on our current operations, starting with our Infrastructure division. Our infrastructure team has been in Puerto Rico for approximately 16 months, where it has worked closely with PREPA and other governmental agencies to improve the energy infrastructure network in Puerto Rico. However, the task of reconstructing the electrical grid to both harden it and provide better protection from future storms has not been completed and the fragility of the system remains. Certain events which were out of our control occurred during the first quarter of 2019, that have impacted Puerto Rico in the rebuilding efforts. US government shutdown for a period of 35 days delayed federal work on the island and the allocation of new reconstruction funds.
In addition, front-end engineering work which is performed by a consortium led by PREPA has taken longer than expected causing the slowdown in our activity levels versus earlier expectations. Our staffing levels declined during the first quarter of 2019 and we are currently in the process of winding down our operations in Puerto Rico, with the expectation of leaving the island completely within the next 60 days. As we have stated in the past, reconstruction process in Puerto Rico is just beginning with significant work to be done. PREPA's reconstruction plan calls for spending $17.6 billion over the coming eight years with the ramp up in reconstruction projects expected in the second half of 2019 through 2025. We expect RFPs to be issued in the back half of 2019 for work starting in 2020.
While we currently intend to bid on this work, there can be no assurances that we will be able to secure contracts for any of this work. The Lower 48 Infrastructure business gained strength throughout the back half of 2018 and we look for 2019, to be a substantial year of growth. Our teams are actively working for multiple investor-owned utilities in the Northeast, Southwestern, Midwestern portions of the United States. We remain in discussions with several existing and new large investor-owned utilities to expand our operating footprint and build our backlog in these operating areas. The Infrastructures division total three year backlog was approximately $765 million at the end of the fourth quarter. The breakdown of the backlog includes approximately $140 million remaining in Puerto Rico associated with the existing contract and approximately $625 million in the Continental United States.
From an oilfield service perspective, the fourth quarter was challenging with declining oil prices in E&P budget exhaustion leading to some weakness in both pressure pumping and sand pricing and demand. We pumped 1,164 stages during the fourth quarter of 2018 with our EBITDA margins for our Pressure Pumping division coming in at approximately 17% or approximately $13 million in EBITDA per active fleet per year. That said, with the reset of E&P budgets, demand for our pressure pumping service increased in January in line with our expectations, although pricing has remained at fourth quarter levels. All six of our fleets are operating today, four of which are in the Utica with two in the Mid-Continent.
Turning to sand. The weakness experienced during the third quarter of 2018 persisted into the fourth quarter, but we experienced some improvement in late December as operators prepared to restart completions in early 2019. Our order book has continued to increase over the past several weeks with pricing up approximately 30% from the low seen in Q4. As a reminder, we continue to have a strong base line of business via contracted capacity, which has kept our Taylor and Piranha plants operating in our costs low. We sold approximately 570,000 tons of sand during the fourth quarter of 2018, of which approximately 30% was brokered. The average sales price for the sands sold during the fourth quarter of 2018 was $27.47 per ton, while our blended fourth quarter production cost came in at approximately $12 per ton, below our projections. As a reminder, we have approximately 1.3 million tons or 30% of our 4.4 million tons per annum processing capability under long-term take-or-pay contracts across multiple grades. Two of the three contracts in place were three year take-or-pay agreements, which run through late 2021. The third contract runs through the end of 2020.
The crude transportation business, which we acquired during the second quarter of 2018 has seen strong demand with 47 owned trucks and eight owner operator trucks in the fleet today. While the differential between the Permian and Gulf Coast has narrowed in recent weeks, we still see strong demand for our crude trucking services. Due to customer demand, we are looking to expand crude hauling into the Northeast.
Two of our other business lines that we saw a significant growth during the back half of 2018 were oilfield rentals and water transfer businesses. Starting with rentals, which we expanded into the Mid-Continent region in 2018, this business has seen both the customer base and equipment rented grow rapidly over the past six months at attractive margins. We plan to invest additional capital into this business in 2019 to grow further. Our water transfer business in the SCOOP/STACK was started organically and is on pace to generate meaningful revenue in 2019. The water handling business is attractive to us and we are looking at potential expansion opportunities, both organically and through acquisitions. The market in both oilfield service industrial has seen some weakness as of late, we see this as an opportunity to selectively pursue companies, which may have overextended themselves and our takeover candidates. Given our balance sheet, we expect to be able to act quickly if we identify an attractive opportunity, unlike some of our peers. We are currently evaluating approximately 25 transactions, some which are in the oilfield and infrastructure service base and would be expected to have attractive returns.
In addition, we are evaluating several opportunities that tied to our interest to further expand our industrial presence and could provide stable cash flows in the years to come. As our history has shown, we intend to remain disciplined in the deployment of capital, choosing only the transactions that are projected to meet or exceed our hurdle rates. Before passing the call to Mark, let me sum up 2018 in this way.
We stayed true to our principles, to remain disciplined in our investments, took care of the balance sheet, look for opportunities to invest in areas that are stable and contract driven, return money to shareholders and kept costs low. While we are unable to control the political and commodity environment, we are able to operate Mammoth in a way that prepares us to endure the tough times and take advantage of weakness. Throughout 2019, we intend to be selective in our investments and build cash for future opportunities may arise. The transformation that Mammoth has under gone over the past year to ship to a broader industrial focus has been deliberate and can clearly be seen in our financial results. We will remain disciplined, patient and exclusively focused on opportunities that meet or exceed our targeted thresholds.
Let me turn the call over to Mark to take you through the financial performance during the fourth quarter and full year of 2018, after which, we will take questions.
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Arty, and good morning everyone. I hope that all of you have had a chance to read our press release. So I will keep my financial comments brief and focus on certain highlights. Mammoth's revenue during the fourth quarter of 2018 came in at $278 million, down 25% from the third quarter of 2018. A reduction of activity in Puerto Rico in our Infrastructure segment and a slowdown in the oilfield completions market contributed to the lower revenue compared to the prior period. For the full year of 2018, revenue came in at $1.7 billion, up 144% from 2017. Increased activity levels across all of our segments drove the increase year-over-year.
Net income for the fourth quarter of 2018 came in at $68 million, which was slightly below the third quarter of 2018. On a per share basis, net income for the fourth quarter came in at $1.51 per diluted share. For the full year of 2018, net income came in at $394 million or $5.24 per diluted share, up 270% year-over-year. During the fourth quarter of 2018, we recognized the tax benefit of $21 million or $0.46 per share related to a change in the mix of earnings between our United States and Puerto Rico operations. For the full year of 2018, income taxes were $153 million, resulting in effective corporate tax rate of 39%.
Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2018 came in at $84 million as comparables consensus estimates of $86 million. Our corporate adjusted EBITDA margin was 30% during the fourth quarter of 2018. For the full year of 2018, adjusted EBITDA came in at $547 million, up 230% year-over-year. The difference between analyst estimates of $480 million and actuals are the result of the reversal of bad debt expense of approximately $68 million during the third quarter of 2018.
Selling, general and administrative expenses came in at $15 million or 5% of revenues during the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to $23 million in the third quarter of 2018. For the full year of 2018, selling, general and administrative expenses came in at $73 million or 4% of revenues as compared to $50 million or 7% of revenues in 2017. Increased activity levels across all of our business lines drove the increase year-over-year. CapEx during the fourth quarter of 2018 was approximately $42 million, the majority of which was related to the organic growth of our Infrastructure segment in the Continental United States and the expansion of our trucking, rental and water transfer businesses in the Mid-Continent region. For the full year of 2018, CapEx came in at $192 million below our announced plan of $205 million.
For 2019, we anticipate spending approximately $80 million on CapEx throughout the year. Of this total, approximately $25 million is designated for our infrastructure Services with approximately $55 million designated for oilfield services. Given our current outlook, we expect this level of CapEx to be completely funded through internally generated cash flows.
As of December 31, 2018, we had $68 million in cash and no borrowings under our $185 million credit facility, resulting in total liquidity of $243 million net of letters of credit. On March 13, 2019, we borrowed $82 million under our credit facility for 2018 Puerto Rico taxes to be paid today. Pursuant to the terms of our original PREPA contract, once our 2018 Puerto Rico income taxes are paid and the applicable returns are filed, we are entitled to receive $45 million from PREPA related to a contractual income tax provision.
We thank our shareholders for their support. This concludes our prepared remarks and we thank you for your time and attention. We will now open the call for questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Tommy Moll with Stephens. Your line is now open.
Tommy Moll -- Stephens -- Analyst
Good morning, and thanks for taking my questions.
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Tommy.
Tommy Moll -- Stephens -- Analyst
Arty, I'm sure you'll get a lot of questions on Puerto Rico today. So, I will limit myself to one for now. But you mentioned that you anticipate some additional RFPs to start coming out maybe the second half of this year for work that could begin sometime next year. Does that assume that the Congress will in the interim approve additional funding? Or is your visibility there based on funds that have already been approved?
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
No, it's based on additional funding that we think will be coming. But it's also based on the amount of work that has to be done. The fragility of the system is it's no better than it was before Hurricane Maria. And we think that there will be -- there's a lot of work going to come. Unfortunately, in this type of situation, there is a lot of front-end engineering that has to take place and that's being done right now. So, that means that once the front-end engineering is done, the RFPs will be let. We think that'll come in the second half of 2019 and then the work will commence in 2020.
Tommy Moll -- Stephens -- Analyst
Okay. Like I said, I anticipate you'll get a lot more on Puerto Rico. So, I'll refrain from asking follow-ups until later potentially, and moving over to one follow-up on sand. You mentioned pricing is up, so for this year at 30% versus the lows in Q4, which is great to hear. And I just wanted to clarify, is that up off the 27 and change, average price from Q4? Or that's the blend and we're up off of some lower number than that. And then also any insight you can give us into what is driving the market up into the right would be helpful. Thank you.
Don Crist -- Director of Investor Relations
Hey, Tommy, this is Don. So the 30% that we referenced there, is spot market 40/70. Obviously, we have three contracts in place that are at much higher rates than spot today. To frame that, in the fourth quarter 40/70 hit a low in the mid-teens and it's up significantly off of those lows today.
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Now to the second, the compound part of that question was, what we're seeing in the marketplace and that type of thing. And our orders have picked up significantly after the 1st of the year. 40/70 is selling very well and we don't know if this is a complete flight to quality and some of the issues with. So we've seen several reports as you have on the quality of West Texas regional sand. And the crush factor being much stronger out of sand coming from Northern White plants. So -- but one thing is we are seeing is we're seeing the strengthening in that market, both on the pricing and on a quantity basis.
Tommy Moll -- Stephens -- Analyst
Okay. And so, Don, I appreciate your splitting hairs with me for -- on the pricing changes, maybe just to try to laser in on a key issue. If you're looking at the blend though at the segment level, so far in the first quarter or what you see for first quarter shaping up? Are you pretty comfortable in it swinging back into a positive gross margin order winging where a swing back into a positive gross margin territory for the segment?
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, Tommy. Yes, this is Mark. Absolutely. We think we'll swing back positive for that segment inside of Q1.
Tommy Moll -- Stephens -- Analyst
Okay, great. Thank you. That's all from me. I'll give back in the line. Thank you.
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Tommy.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Jason Wangler with Imperial Capital. Your line is now open.
Jason Wangler -- Imperial Capital -- Analyst
Hey, good morning guys.
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Hi, Jason.
Jason Wangler -- Imperial Capital -- Analyst
I wanted to ask on the infrastructure side pertaining to the US side. How do you see that business? I assume you're going be pulling the equipment back and the people back from Puerto Rico and getting to work on the US stuff, but is that timing, is going to work out well with the backlog that you have? Or just how we should be thinking about that segment going forward being predominantly US focused?
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
No, the timing is working out -- is working out extremely well both bringing the equipment back and being able to put it and make it fully utilized as well as bring in the people back. The growth in our -- if you remember, I think you remember the numbers, at the end of the third quarter of 2017, in the Continental United States, we had $30 million of backlog. Today, we have $625 million of backlog. And that is -- that continues to grow. So, this really is -- gives us the ability to avert some capital and bring those assets back from Puerto Rico to put them to work.
Jason Wangler -- Imperial Capital -- Analyst
Okay, that's great. And then, maybe for Mark, just obviously with the slowdown in Puerto Rico, how you think about working capital specifically accounts receivable kind of coming into you guys as you start to slow that in the first quarter, and obviously you kind of don't have much going on the rest of the year, I'd assume until those contracts come up for bid. How should we be thinking about that turning into cash?
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
I think we view as a near-term conversion to cash throughout the relationship with PREPA. They've continued to pay us better than what we see from Lower 48 utilities for storm work. So, we fully expect that we will see that receivable convert to cash in the near-term.
Jason Wangler -- Imperial Capital -- Analyst
Great.
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
As of March 8th, we had $281 million in receivables from PREPA. And just a reminder, I mean they've paid us in excess of $1 billion in the last year. So, we expect to collect those monies and we do expect to collect them very quickly. The maximum amount of debt that we took on was just a timing issue with the taxes and we expect to be out of debt very quickly as this year progresses.
Jason Wangler -- Imperial Capital -- Analyst
Great. Thank you. I'll turn it back.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Daniel Burke with Johnson Rice. Your line is now open.
Daniel Burke -- Johnson Rice -- Analyst
Yeah, good morning guys. Good morning. It's easier to stay on the US infrastructure side. Backlog now up over $600 million, that's defined inside a three year window, certainly, you guys are ramping. But, is it reasonable to assume that by the time we get to the second half of this year, you'll be at an annualized $200 million revenue run rate? Can you get there that quickly with the manpower and the equipment you'll be redeploying?
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
We think so, Daniel. As we have been all along, we've been excited about this business and we'll continue to deploy capital. The need is certainly there. We see the demand and the team has executed at a very high level as we have mentioned before in Puerto Rico. So, what that really has become is a showcase for the talents of the team and we fully expect that that will transition that work to North America.
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
I'd also wouldn't underestimate the use of the helicopters, the Brim investment that we have and the Cobra acquisition of additional helicopters at the end of December. Right now, we are managing 11 helicopters, all told. So, we -- all that we own and then we are contracting with others. And we think that the aviation gives us a very good business opportunity with those assets.
Daniel Burke -- Johnson Rice -- Analyst
Got it. And then, Arty, just to be clear, the 11 helis, how do those split between Continental US and Puerto Rico as of today?
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
We have -- go ahead Don.
Don Crist -- Director of Investor Relations
As of today, Daniel, we have two helicopters in Puerto Rico that are working. A lot of them of the 11 are on the West Coast working for PG&E after the wildfires there. So, for the most part, it's all Continental United States. One of our owned helicopters is in Puerto Rico today. One of them is kind of third party and then the other four of our owned helicopters are here in the States.
Daniel Burke -- Johnson Rice -- Analyst
Okay. Maybe just one on Puerto Rico. Would demob be incremental to the year end backlog figure that you all described?
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
Daniel, the demobilization is included in that year end backlog figure.
Daniel Burke -- Johnson Rice -- Analyst
Okay. Good to understand. And then I'll ping-pong just if you allow one last question and then back on the US infrastructure side. I mean, any change with the greater waiting of higher margin transmission work, I mean, mid-teens US EBITDA margin, is that still sort of the guidepost for this year, for 2019?
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
Yes. 15%, 18% is still the guidepost that hasn't moved.
Daniel Burke -- Johnson Rice -- Analyst
Okay. All right, guys. I'll leave it there for now. Thank you.
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Daniel.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Marshall Adkins with Raymond James. Your line is now open.
Marshall Adkins -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Good morning, guys. I'm just trying to get the arms around all this. So, from what you said so far, it sounds like the Puerto Rican backlog goes away because they're shutting this down over the course of '19, got little bit more to do. But you'd lose over $500 million of backlog from that. But you can take all those assets move to the US and they're going to be fully utilized in short order with similar profitability. That's what I'm hearing. I just want you to comment on that and make sure that I'm kind of hearing it right.
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
Marshall, I think it's important to characterize Puerto Rico as a pause. It's not a shutdown, it's a pause, while the engineering catches up. So we fully expect that RFPs will be pushed out in Q3 or Q4 of this year and the same amount of work that we anticipate it all along, still has to be done in Puerto Rico. So while we work through this pause in Puerto Rico, we'll shift those assets back to North America and put them to work, but it's certainly not a "staff" in Puerto Rico, it's just a pause on that work.
Marshall Adkins -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Okay. But it sounds like you're still confident that you can take those assets and go put them to work doing similar type work at similar margins. Is that a fair statement?
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
We will put that equipment to work in the Lower 48 and we expect those margins to be 15% to 18%.
Marshall Adkins -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Okay. So maybe you lose a little bit on margins there. But, then we ramp back up in 2020 and you move stuff hopefully back down there. Correct?
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
We think we have -- we've shown our execution in Puerto Rico. Our teams have been there for 16 months and have executed at a very high level through their execution and their knowledge of the system. We fully expect to bid on that work and be competitive.
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, Marshall, I'd add -- add on a broader note about TUSK. We're going to build cash this year. And if you look at our ROIC for 2018, it was 35% and we're going to be poised for what comes next. And obviously very, we look at a lot of acquisitions, a lot of other opportunities and I think the message really for TUSK, '18 was an exceptional year. If you would have looked at us 18 months before in 2017, I don't think we had any idea where we would be today. So we think that same opportunity lies in front of us with the future growth of some of the existing lines that we really want to focus on and with the future opportunities to do some M&A.
Marshall Adkins -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Right. Well, clearly all been very adaptive from moving and adjusting to changing market conditions. That was going to be the next question is, it seems like you're putting a lot of money into this other oilfield services. I'd like to hear more about what you're kind of looking at there, getting a little more detail. Kind of specifically rental tool seems to be improving what -- I mean, there's lot of parts of the rental business, what are you focusing on there and then water handling as well seems to become a bigger deal. What's -- but and there's many components that what specifically you're focusing on there. Just give us a little more color about those type investments that seems to be that your next kind of big push.
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, absolutely, yes. We really like what's going on in rental business. We expanded the Mid-Con. But one of the things expanding the Mid-Con, it's not all oilfield services. We've been able to get some niches in the construction industry here. So, with some of our cranes, we've actually got cranes out and deployed it, tinker Air Force Base here in Oklahoma City as we -- so we're not only looking at those opportunities that exist in the oilfield on the rental side, we're also looking at it for other areas as well.
We think generators are a strong aspect of that rental business and we've made some investments there. But, one of the things we get to do is we get to pick and choose the best investments within that particular grouping. So, we see some investments that are 8, 9, 10 month type paybacks in that area. Water transfer business started organically and last year is growing significantly. We invested some money in that and we continue to invest money as we see that growth.
The other thing that we're trying to take advantage of is logistics area. Not only just trucking and oilfield, but other areas as well. We hired a truck broker to come onto our team and we're looking at brokering other commercial activities. So, the move in making the transition from an oilfield services company like we were in '16 to an energy services company, and go into the industrial side, that part truly continues for us. We've made -- and Marshall I haven't talked to you in a long time, but we made application to MSCI to move our GICS code over and they're going to revisit that -- we've been in active communication with them and they're going to revisit that in -- after our annual reporting comes out. We think that's a big move. We think we get other investors. We initiated the dividend last year. We're paying 2.3% dividend and return in money to shareholders, that is indicative of any industrial company. So, and you know my background pretty well. So, more -- come from a more of a industrial background.
Marshall Adkins -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Great, Arty. That's helpful. Thank you.
Operator
Thanks, Marshall.
(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Taylor Zurcher with Tudor Pickering Holt. Your line is now open.
Taylor Zurcher -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
Hey, good morning.
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Taylor Zurcher -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
Most of my questions have been answered, but maybe I'll pass on out on the pressure pumping side. You talked in the script about your six frac fleets being effectively fully utilized at least since late January. And so, as we think about the sequential changes in utilization from Q1 -- or from Q4 to Q1, I suspect there is some weather issues that you're dealing with but typically deal with every year up in the Northeast. So, I'm curious if you could help us understand how we should expect some average utilization changes from Q4 to Q1.
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Really feel very good about very strong. We thought that a lot of our issues as things went on down, obviously with the price of oil dropping 30% in the short period of time like it did. It was one of those type of things that affected a lot of other people, but it was also budget exhaustion. The E&P's don't get rewarded if they go outside their cash flows and they are exhausted their budgets and we saw that. We thought and we correctly predicted that the market would pick up for us, right after the beginning of the year and it did a little bit earlier than that in Sand, but it certainly did with the utilization of our crews.
But if you look at it, we have four crews up in the Northeast and not a lot of discussion, but I think everybody probably saw there was 204 base taken out of the system in the last weekly EIE report. We're down $1.1 trillion Ts in storage, that's one of the lowest remarks we've been in a long time. Last year's storage at this time was 1.5% and 5 year average is 1.7%. So we think, significant opportunities that are in the gas markets are going to be there and that's why we have forced for spreads up there currently working and oil prices is at $58, with lot different commentary than when it was at $42.00.
Taylor Zurcher -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
Got it. That's helpful. And then on the pricing side, I mean, you're still doing pretty healthy adjusted EBITDA per fleet. So two part question. Is that -- on the back of the envelope math would suggest around $13 million in EBITDA per fleet on an annualized basis today? Is that something you think you can hold constant moving forward? And then the second part is, you've had some of your peers in the Mid-Con in particular talk about how pricing is fairly challenged in that market at least relative to other markets around the country. And so curious if you're seeing any delta in pricing between the Utica and the Mid-Con?
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
The Mid-Con is highly competitive right now. To answer your first question, we think that $13 million per fleet can be held. Q4 to Q1 sequentially pricing is relatively unchanged, but the activity levels have picked up quite a bit. All six of our fleets have been working since late January. So we're optimistic about the utilization of our fleets. And I think it's important to note that as commodity prices recover, we expect that pricing for our services will recover as well.
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Don't forget that we also have good fleets under contract that are operating under contract with a little bit different pricing scheme there. And then the same thing holds true on our Sand. We have contracted sand that were those contracts were made during pretty good times.
Taylor Zurcher -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
Got it, thanks. I'll turn it back.
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of John Daniel with Simmons. Your line is now open.
John Daniel -- Simmons -- Analyst
Hey, guys. Thanks for squeezing in. I just want to follow up on -- good morning. I think Daniel asked the question-answer that you would expect to be able to do US infrastructure back on a $200 million sort of annual run rate for rev at the back half of the year. I just want to make sure I heard that correctly. And then just sort of your vision Arty, in terms of what that growth rate could be as you head into 2020?
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Well, let me answer the first part -- the second part of your question first. And we think the growth rate -- we are bidding on a lot of work and we are focusing on some transmission things. We've actually been bidding some with E&Ps, putting electrical infrastructure out in West Texas and the Permian. So, we think the future is very bright. We have a very, very strong business development group and they are in a lot of offices and we'd look at there are lot of different things.
I mean we're actually looking at things internationally as well. When you think about it from an international perspective, we have the ability to do things like logistics and supply chain and all those things that we've proven that we've done under pretty tough conditions in Puerto Rico. I know everybody -- people have been going to San Juan and they say, oh, things are all back to normal. Remember that they weren't when we went there in 2017 and we had to establish not only housing, which we had experienced with our lodging up in the oil sands and then, supply chain, we had an ex-military guys that are part of our team, that setup things logistically.
So, we're doing a lot of bidding on a lot of different projects. And so, we think that the growth is going to be there and we're going to grow it -- continue to grow significantly. Helicopters were a big part of that. When you start to do bidding for transmission type business, and you remember from manufacturing background, we like to control our inputs. Helicopters are a part of that input and having availability of our helicopters is a very, very strong part because it's a one-stop deal for our customers on transmission business.
John Daniel -- Simmons -- Analyst
Okay. So, in other words, your occupancy could be growing at from the $200 million run rate, just make sure I translate correctly?
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Yes.
John Daniel -- Simmons -- Analyst
Okay. How perpetual is this spot as of direct modeling question. But just given that we're here mid-March right now. Mark, can you give us just frame per square infrastructure might shake out in terms of top line and margin for Q1. And did you expecting kind of one-off costs or benefits this quarter as this thing is winding down?
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, I think, as you look at Q1, the swing there really depends on the demobilization of equipment, which is included in that $140 million in backlog. Demobilization is about $50 million of that. So, that certainly maybe a one-off type item in Q1.
John Daniel -- Simmons -- Analyst
Okay.
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
And then margins in Puerto Rico, we would expect to be in a similar zip code to what we saw for Q4.
John Daniel -- Simmons -- Analyst
Got it. So, if I think from a -- I'll just drop it on. Okay, that's it from me.Thanks, guys.
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, John.
Operator
We have a follow-up question from the line of Tommy Moll with Stephens. Your line is now open.
Tommy Moll -- Stephens -- Analyst
Yeah, thanks for working me back in. And it's been partly answered, but I just want to make sure I'm hearing you correctly on the redeployment of assets from Puerto Rico to the Lower 48. Is -- are we hearing from you that on the current backlog, you can immediately take those assets, redeploy and your revenue run rate should go up in the Lower 40, just as you run through the backlog quicker? Or we should assume there's maybe a longer lead time where you bring the assets back, you go out and bid on more work. Theoretically your backlog ought to grow and then with that, the quarterly run rate for revenue ought to rise with it?
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Tommy, I think that your question has two answers. One, we expect the revenue growth rate to grow with those assets coming back, but we also expect the expense side to come down. We are currently renting equipment to do the workload that we have right now at the tune of about $1.5 million a month. So, that will displace those rentals and take the cost of doing business down. So, we see it is as certainly a good opportunity for the deployment of those assets.
Tommy Moll -- Stephens -- Analyst
Okay. And then last one from me. There were recently some pretty large E&P that had Analyst Days talking about some aggressive medium-term growth plans, particularly in the Permian. And one of the themes that you guys have capitalized on in the past is to figure out, what's going to be tight and then go out and get exposure to that before everyone else gets there, kind of skate to where the puck's going not where the puck is, I guess, is the way to put it. Are there any other themes that you have in mind as areas of the oilfield that you think are likely to get really tight here or are those some of the areas that you already involved in?
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
I think as we look the oilfield right now and our investments we're making. As Arty mentioned earlier, we're certainly excited about the rental side of the business as well as the water transfer side of the business. So we continue to invest and see high demand in those two particular areas on the oilfield.
Tommy Moll -- Stephens -- Analyst
Okay. Thanks. Appreciate it.
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Tommy.
Operator
And that concludes today's question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the call back to management for closing remarks.
Thank you everybody. We thank everybody for dialing in today, I want to personally thank our team. Without the hard work performed by each of you at Mammoth would not be what it is today. In particular, I want to thank our infrastructure team, who have shown the utmost professionalism while working in a very challenging environment and have answered the call when natural disasters have occurred. Future is bright for Mammoth and are roughly 2,380 team members, as we intend to continue to grow and deliver shareholder value appreciation in the years to come. Thank you to our shareholders for your support and interest in our company. We look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming conference appearances speaking with you again in May, when we release our first quarter earnings. This concludes our fourth quarter conference call. Good day.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the program and you may now disconnect. Everyone have a great day.
Duration: 43 minutes
Call participants:
Don Crist -- Director of Investor Relations
Arty Straehla -- Director and Chief Executive Officer
Mark Layton -- Chief Financial Officer
Tommy Moll -- Stephens -- Analyst
Jason Wangler -- Imperial Capital -- Analyst
Daniel Burke -- Johnson Rice -- Analyst
Marshall Adkins -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Taylor Zurcher -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
John Daniel -- Simmons -- Analyst
Transcript powered by AlphaStreet
This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.
10 stocks we like better than Mammoth Energy Services, Inc.When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has quadrupled the market.*
David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Mammoth Energy Services, Inc. wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.
*Stock Advisor returns as of March 1, 2019
Motley Fool Transcribers has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.