Nature of Operations and Recent Events | Nature of Operations and Recent Events Except as expressly stated or the context otherwise requires, the terms “we,” “us,” “our,” “ICD,” and the “Company” refer to Independence Contract Drilling, Inc. and its subsidiary. We provide land-based contract drilling services for oil and natural gas producers targeting unconventional resource plays in the United States. We own and operate a premium fleet comprised of modern, technologically advanced drilling rigs. We currently focus our operations on unconventional resource plays located in geographic regions that we can efficiently support from our Houston, Texas and Midland, Texas facilities in order to maximize economies of scale. Currently, our rigs are operating in the Permian Basin, the Haynesville Shale and the Eagle Ford Shale; however, our rigs have previously operated in the Mid-Continent and Eaglebine regions as well. Our business depends on the level of exploration and production activity by oil and natural gas companies operating in the United States, and in particular, the regions where we actively market our contract drilling services. The oil and natural gas exploration and production industry is historically cyclical and characterized by significant changes in the levels of exploration and development activities. Oil and natural gas prices and market expectations of potential changes in those prices significantly affect the levels of those activities. Worldwide political, regulatory, economic and military events, as well as natural disasters have contributed to oil and natural gas price volatility historically, and are likely to continue to do so in the future. Any prolonged reduction in the overall level of exploration and development activities in the United States and the regions where we market our contract drilling services, whether resulting from changes in oil and natural gas prices or otherwise, could materially and adversely affect our business. COVID-19 Pandemic and Market Conditions Update On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (“WHO”) announced a global health emergency because of a new strain of coronavirus (“COVID-19”) and the risks to the international community as the virus spread globally. In March 2020, the WHO classified the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic, based on the rapid increase in exposure globally. The continued spread of the COVID-19 virus and the responses taken to try to contain the virus, such as travel bans and restrictions, quarantines, shelter in place orders, and shutdowns, caused significant declines in global demand for crude oil. This reduction in demand occurred concurrent with the initiation of a crude oil price war between members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (“OPEC”) and Russia (collectively, the “OPEC+” group). Even with the production cuts announced by the OPEC+ group and others on April 9, 2020, and the cessation to the crude oil price war, crude oil inventories continued to rise and to test storage capacity and logistics networks. These factors led to a collapse in oil prices, with the WTI price for May 2020 delivery closing at negative $37.63 per barrel on April 20, 2020. Oil prices have recently recovered with the WTI price reaching $63.33 on April 19, 2021 supported by production cuts by OPEC+. The long-term effects of the pandemic on production and demand are unknown at this time. While vaccinations have become available and made progress in certain regions during the first quarter of 2021, considerable uncertainty remains regarding ongoing measures to contain the virus, including travel restrictions, as well as uncertainty on how long OPEC+ will continue to maintain current production cuts. Accordingly, we cannot predict when worldwide supply and demand for oil will stabilize. In response to these adverse market conditions and uncertainty, our customers reduced planned capital expenditures and drilling activity throughout 2020. During the first quarter of 2020, our operating rig count reached a peak of 22 rigs and temporarily reached a low of three rigs during the third quarter of 2020. During the third quarter, oil and natural gas prices began to stabilize, and demand for our products began to modestly improve from their historic lows, which allowed us to reactivate additional rigs during the back half of 2020. As of April 30, 2021, we had 13 contracted rigs. However, due to the lack of visibility and confidence towards customer intentions and the unknown future impacts of COVID-19 and changes to OPEC+ production cuts on economic conditions and oil and gas demand and drilling activity, we cannot assure you that we will be able to maintain this operating rig count or that our operating rig count will continue to improve in the future. Two contracts that expired at the end of 2020 had higher dayrates than prevailing spot rates. As a result, although our operating rig count has been increasing, these rigs are being contracted at prevailing market rates that remain depressed, and we expect to see our average revenue per day decline. Due to these rapidly declining market conditions, we took the following actions at the end of the first quarter of 2020 in order to reduce our cost structure: • Salary or compensation reductions for substantially all our employees, including members of executive management; • Suspension of all cash-based incentive compensation, including all members of executive management; • Reduced the number of executive management positions by two; • Reduced the number of directors from seven to five, which became effective following director elections at our 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders; • Annual compensation reductions for our directors; and • Reduced headcount significantly for non-field-based personnel. On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.” The CARES Act, among other things, includes provisions relating to refundable payroll tax credits, deferment of employer side social security payments, net operating loss carryback periods, alternative minimum tax credit refunds, modifications to the net interest deduction limitations, increased limitations on qualified charitable contributions, and technical corrections to tax depreciation methods for qualified improvement property. The social security deferral program ended December 31, 2020. We deferred $0.8 million of employer side social security payments during the year ended December 31, 2020. The CARES Act did not have a material impact on our income taxes. Management will continue to monitor future developments and interpretations for any further impacts on our financial condition, results of operations, or liquidity. We cannot predict the length of time that the market disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic will continue; or when, or if, oil and gas prices and demand for our contract drilling services will decline, continue to improve or return to pre-COVID-19 levels. The extent to which our operating and financial results are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic will depend on various factors and consequences beyond our control, such as the duration and scope of the pandemic; additional actions by businesses and governments in response to the pandemic; and the speed and effectiveness of responses to combat the virus. As a result, our business, operating results and financial conditions are subject to various risks, many of which are aggravated as a result of the declining market conditions and significant uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. ATM Offering On June 5, 2020, we entered into an equity distribution agreement (the “Agreement”) with Piper Sandler & Co. (the “Agent”), through its Simmons Energy division. Pursuant to the Agreement, we were able to offer and sell through the Agent shares of our common stock, par value $0.01 per share, having an aggregate offering price of up to $11,000,000 (the “Shares”). We issued and sold approximately $11 million in shares of common stock during 2020. On March 8, 2021, in conjunction with the equity distribution agreement entered into on June 5, 2020, our board of directors authorized an additional $2.2 million in shares of common stock to be sold in transactions that are deemed to be “at the market offerings.” As of March 31, 2021, we raised gross proceeds of $0.7 million from the sale of shares in the offering. Common Stock Purchase Agreement On November 11, 2020, we entered into a Common Stock Purchase Agreement (the “Commitment Purchase Agreement”) and a Registration Rights Agreement (the “Registration Rights Agreement”) with Tumim Stone Capital LLC (“Tumim”). Pursuant to the Commitment Purchase Agreement, the Company has the right to sell to Tumim up to $5,000,000 (the “Total Commitment”) in shares of its common stock, par value $0.01 per share (the “Shares”) (subject to certain conditions and limitations) from time to time during the term of the Commitment Purchase Agreement. Sales of common stock pursuant to the Commitment Purchase Agreement, and the timing of any sales, are solely at our option and we are under no obligation to sell securities pursuant to this arrangement. Shares may be sold by the Company pursuant to this arrangement over a period of up to 24 months, commencing on December 1, 2020. Under the applicable rules of the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”), in no event may we issue more than 1,234,546 shares of our common stock, which represents 19.99% of the shares of our common stock outstanding immediately prior to the execution of the Commitment Purchase Agreement (the “Exchange Cap”), to Tumim under the Commitment Purchase Agreement, unless (i) we obtain stockholder approval to issue shares of our common stock in excess of the Exchange Cap or (ii) the price of all applicable sales of our common stock to Tumim under the Commitment Purchase Agreement equals or exceeds the lower of (A) the official closing price on the NYSE immediately preceding the delivery by us of an applicable purchase notice under the Commitment Purchase Agreement and (B) the average of the closing prices of our common stock on the NYSE for the five business days immediately preceding the delivery by us of an applicable purchase notice under the Commitment Purchase Agreement, in each case plus $0.128, such that the transactions contemplated by the Commitment Purchase Agreement are exempt from the Exchange Cap limitation under applicable NYSE rules. In any event, the Commitment Purchase Agreement specifically provides that we may not issue or sell any shares of our common stock under the Commitment Purchase Agreement if such issuance or sale would breach any applicable rules or regulations of the NYSE. The Company has also limited the aggregate number of shares of common stock reserved for issuance under the Commitment Purchase Agreement to 1,500,000 shares without subsequent board approval. In all instances, we may not sell shares of our common stock to Tumim under the Commitment Purchase Agreement if it would result in Tumim beneficially owning more than 4.99% of the common stock (the “Beneficial Ownership Cap”). The proceeds under the Commitment Purchase Agreement will depend on the frequency and prices at which the Company sells shares of its stock to Tumim. We determined that the right to sell additional shares represents a freestanding put option under ASC 815 Derivatives and Hedging, but has a fair value of zero, and therefore no additional accounting was required. Transaction costs of $0.5 million, incurred in connection with entering into the Purchase Agreement were expensed as selling, general and administrative expense during the fourth quarter of 2020. During the first quarter of 2021, we sold 174,100 shares for a total of $0.9 million in proceeds. |