TETRA Technologies - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Executive Summary

• Q2 2025 was solid: revenue $173.9M (+1% y/y, +11% q/q), GAAP EPS $0.08, adjusted EPS $0.09, and adjusted EBITDA $35.9M with 20.6% margin; base business free cash flow was $37.4M.
• Versus S&P Global consensus, revenue modestly beat ($172.9M* vs $173.9M actual) and adjusted EPS beat ($0.077* vs $0.09 actual); prior Q1 similarly delivered an EPS beat and slight revenue miss* [Values retrieved from S&P Global].
• FY25 guidance introduced: revenue $610–$630M, adjusted EBITDA $100–$110M, GAAP pre-tax income $21–$34M; management reiterated strong liquidity ($204M at quarter-end; $218M as of 7/28) and net leverage at 1.2x.
• Catalysts: deepwater momentum (Neptune completions, Brazil award), emerging electrolyte volumes tied to Eos ramp in 2026, and commercial progress on Oasis TDS desalination (first Permian pilot revenue; modular 25K bbl/d design).

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Completion Fluids & Products delivered 18% q/q revenue growth to $109M and 36.7% adjusted EBITDA margin; CEO: “exceptional second quarter… adjusted EBITDA of $35.9M, margins of 20.6% and base business free cash flow of $37.4M – all above our expectations”.
• Strong deepwater execution (three-well CS Neptune in Gulf of America) plus Northern Europe industrial chemicals season; segment profit up 21% q/q and 39% y/y.
• Balance sheet strength and cash generation: cash from ops $48.3M, liquidity $204M at quarter-end (improved to $218M by 7/28) and net leverage 1.2x; CFO emphasized maintaining leverage <2x and non-dilutive project financing.

What Went Wrong

• Water & Flowback margins declined to 9.9% (10% stated) from 13% in Q1 due to ~$2M non-recurring costs (inventory write-offs, trailing exit costs); revenue flat vs Q1 despite frac activity down 14% q/q.
• Macro headwinds: continued decline in U.S. onshore drilling/completion and lower oil prices; pace of deepwater completions expected to normalize in 2H after record 1H.
• Non-recurring credits/charges net $1.3M (legal/advisor fees, severance/restructuring in Water & Flowback) highlight ongoing footprint rationalization.

Transcript

Speaker 0

Thank you, Chloe. Good morning, and thank you for joining TETRA Technologies' second quarter 2025 earnings call. The speakers for today will be Brady Murphy, Chief Executive Officer, and Elijio Serrano, Chief Financial Officer. I'd like to remind you that this conference call may contain statements that are or may be deemed to be forward-looking, including projections, financial guidance, profitability, and estimated earnings. These statements are based on certain assumptions and analysis made by TETRA Technologies and are subject to several risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control. We are cautioned that such statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. In addition, we may refer to EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, free cash flow, net debt, net leverage ratio, liquidity, returns on net capital employed, or other non-GAAP financial measures.

Please refer to our press release for reconciliations of non-GAAP to the GAAP measures. These reconciliations are not a substitute for financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP and should be considered within the context of our complete financial results for the period. We also encourage you to refer to our 10-Q that was filed yesterday. Before turning it over to Brady, I want to remind everyone that TETRA Technologies' executive team will be hosting an Investor Day on Thursday, September 25, 2025, at the New York Stock Exchange. During the session, attendees will gain insights into the company's operational performance, innovative technologies, emerging growth initiatives, and financial prospects. The registration link can be found in the Investors section of our website. Brady?

Speaker 6

Thank you, Kurt. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to TETRA Technologies' second quarter 2025 earnings call. I'll summarize some highlights for the quarter, provide an update on our strategic initiatives before turning the call over to Elijio to provide more details on our segments and an update on our cash flow and balance sheet. Our employees delivered an exceptional second quarter and, across our current business reporting segments, a record-setting adjusted EBITDA for the first six months of 2025. For the quarter, we achieved an adjusted EBITDA of $35.9 million, with adjusted EBITDA margins of 20.6% and base business free cash flow of $37.4 million, all above our expectations. The $68.1 million adjusted EBITDA for the first six months of 2025 is a record for our current segments and $3.1 million above the upper range of guidance we provided in our first quarter 2025 earnings.

This was largely driven by a record level of deepwater activity for TETRA Technologies in the first half of 2025, including 25 deepwater jobs in the first quarter alone and the completion of the Three Well Neptune project in the second quarter. The team delivered an 11% sequential increase in revenue, which included another strong Northern Europe industrial chemical season. Year-over-year, total revenue was up 1%, but adjusted EBITDA increased by $5.2 million, or 17%. This performance was achieved despite a 16-month decline in the U.S. rig count and lower oil prices, which is due to overall market uncertainty. Compared to the first quarter of 2025, completion fluids and products' adjusted EBITDA margins increased by 100 basis points to 36.7% from 35.7%, supported by the CS Neptune jobs previously mentioned. Year-over-year, industrial chemicals grew by 5.5% as it continued to outgrow both U.S. and the global GDP.

The long-term outlook for completion fluids and products' business remains strong, driven by our solid deepwater market positions in key areas such as Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, and the North Sea, along with continued exceptional performance in our industrial chemicals business, reaching a new high for the 10th consecutive quarter. The strength of our market position is further demonstrated by a new multi-well, multi-year ultra-deepwater 20K completions award in the Gulf of Mexico. Although the pace of deepwater well completions can vary quarter to quarter, the overall annual trend is upward, as shown by a projected 10-year revenue high for this segment in 2025. Revenue for water and flowback services remained flat compared to the first quarter and decreased 10% year-over-year, outperforming U.S. frac activity, which declined 14% quarter over quarter and 26% year-over-year. Despite declining U.S.

land activity, our automated technology fleet, including automated sandstorm and automated drill out, is effectively fully utilized and is being recognized for reducing manpower and removing employees from the well site red zone. Although U.S. land drilling and completion activity has been declining, produced water volumes continue to increase and are expected to increase well into the future. TETRA achieved an important milestone for the quarter, recording our first revenue for Permian Basin produced water desalination from our commercial grasslands pilot operation. Although a small contribution for the quarter, it represents the successful execution of our TETRA AESIS solution. Water and flowback adjusted EBITDA margins of 10% declined from 13% in the first quarter. However, this result included nearly $2 million of costs not expected to recur in the third quarter, such as inventory write-offs and trailing exit costs for a small subsegment of the business.

Adjusting for the non-recurring costs, adjusted EBITDA margins would have been flat from the first quarter. We will continue to adjust our cost structure and close underperforming service lines in the U.S. onshore business to protect our margins and maximize free cash flow. Going forward, there remains some uncertainty in U.S. completion activity, but the demand for our automated technology, focused on produced water treatment and recycling, and a favorable mix of super majors and large independent operators will help improve margins for the rest of the year. Moving to our strategic growth initiatives, we continue to make significant progress throughout the second quarter. On the electrolyte front, energy storage power capacity is expected to surpass 45 gigawatts by 2025, representing a 76% increase from 2024 levels and growing by 25% annually over the next decade, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

This growth highlights the vital role that utility-scale energy storage will play in improving grid stability as the exponential rise in overall demand strains our systems. Zinc-based energy storage systems, such as EOS's Z3 utility-scale energy storage technology, are becoming the preferred choice for utility applications. As the only known U.S. manufacturer of zinc bromide, our U.S. directly supports the increased focus on domestic supply chain resilience and American-made energy solutions. We're seeing strong forecast projections from EOS for their energy storage electrolyte needs as they ramp up their automated production line. Once their automated line is finished, which they will expect to be in the fourth quarter of this year, we will see a material increase in electrolyte deliveries. In preparation, we completed the installation of our electrolyte bulk tanker loading system in West Memphis.

This will enable us to shift from tote shipments to much larger volumes with less costly tanker deliveries, which we have already begun. Although our baseline electrolyte revenue in 2025 remains modest, 2026 is shaping up to be the first year with a real material impact on our business results. To meet the increasing demand for both EOS electrolyte and our bromine-based deepwater completion fluids, we remain on track with our Arkansas bromine processing facility. In the first half of 2025, we invested $22 million of the $52 million in free cash flow generated from our base business into the project. We plan to invest an additional $22 million in capital expenditures by year-end, which will greatly support site preparation, power infrastructure, and the construction of the bromine tower for plant operation.

Since starting this project in 2024, we've invested $44 million in Arkansas to enable the plant to go online by 2027. As outlined in definitive feasibility and economic analysis completed in 2024, the facility is expected to produce incremental revenues of $200 million to $250 million with adjusted EBITDA of $90 million to $115 million annually at full capacity. We continue to work closely with Standard Lithium and Equinor on their SWA lithium project, with significant project synergies, including potential upstream CapEx savings of $80 million from the $270 million CapEx in the DFS study. Moving on to produced water treatment for beneficial reuse, the U.S. oil and gas sector continues to face significant water management challenges. Rystad estimates that Permian Basin alone, over 6 billion barrels of produced water are discharged into saltwater disposal wells each year.

Traditionally, this wastewater has been disposed of by injecting it underground, but this method is becoming increasingly unsustainable as downhole formation pressures continue rising. As a result, there is a growing sense of urgency among regulators and industry players to find a solution. In March, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it would review wastewater regulations for the oil and gas industry to help unleash American energy. In June, the Texas governor signed a law, Texas House Bill 49, enabling and facilitating the industry to treat produced water for beneficial reuse. Following the commercial announcement of our OASIS TDS water desalination technology, we continue to see customer engagement from both operators and water midstream companies. These engagements include signed NDAs, followed by visits to our research center to gain insight into OASIS TDS end-to-end process and results.

During the quarter, we engaged an engineering firm to begin designing our first Permian Basin commercial plant, which is planned for 25,000 barrels per day, with a design allowing for 25,000 barrel-per-day increments to enable scaling. One of the many benefits of the OASIS technology design is that it's well suited for scaling, a key aspect of industry requirements. A completed engineering package, which we expect by the middle of the fourth quarter, will facilitate in-depth commercial discussions with numerous customers requesting commercial engagements. Looking forward to the second half of 2025, although U.S. land activity is trending lower, our automation technology continues to gain traction and will help us improve margins. Second half deepwater activity will not be at the record levels that we've seen in the first half, but still strong enough to project a 10-year high for the full year 2025.

We're maintaining a healthy pipeline of CS Neptune projects worldwide, but given their significance to our financials, we will wait until a project is awarded with a confirmed date before making any announcements. Heading into 2026, we'll have the benefit of a full year of our Brazil deepwater award, recently awarded 20K Gulf of Mexico award, and a projected material ramp-up in EOS electrolyte deliveries. For the full year 2025, we expect GAAP net income before taxes to be between $21 million and $34 million, adjusted EBITDA between $100 million to $110 million, and revenue to be between $610 million and $630 million. These guidance ranges are subject to risks associated with scheduled delays for completion fluid projects, hurricane disruptions in the Gulf of Mexico, and changes to oil and gas company spending plans.

We have a strong free cash flow generating business that should enable us to navigate through any near-term macro uncertainty and position the company to capitalize on our emerging growth opportunities for the coming years. Now I'll turn it over to Elijio.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Brady. Good morning, everybody. Second quarter free cash flow from the base business was very strong as we generated $37 million of cash. From the base business, we generated $1 million more in cash than we did EBITDA. In the first six months of the year, we've generated $53 million of base business free cash flow compared to $68 million of adjusted EBITDA. This ratio of free cash flow to adjusted EBITDA reflects the quality of the earnings and the focus we have on managing working capital and minimizing capital expenditures to be only on those projects with quick paybacks. We remain on track to deliver in excess of $50 million of free cash flow from the base business. We have said that our objective is to bring the Arkansas bromine project online without stressing TETRA's balance sheet.

Our objective is to keep TETRA's leverage ratio below two times EBITDA. Out of the $53 million of base business free cash flow generated in the first half of the year, we've invested $22 million into Arkansas in the first six months of the year. We increased our cash balance by $32 million and in the process improved our net leverage ratio to 1.2 times, trailing 12 months EBITDA. Our objective remains to have the bromine project online by the end of 2027 to keep up with the growing demand for our zinc bromide battery electrolyte and to keep up with the strong demand for deepwater offshore projects. Any incremental capital required above base business free cash flow will be at the project level and will not be diluted to TETRA shareholders.

We are of the opinion that the growth opportunities we have with water desalination and battery electrolyte are not yet reflected in our share price, and as such, we will take no actions to dilute our TETRA shareholders. To fund the desalination projects that Brady mentioned, we are working toward a licensed model that materially reduces the need for TETRA to invest any material amounts of capital expenditures. If some customers prefer the sharing of capital instead of a licensed model, we'll also pursue non-dilutive capital at the project level. Liquidity as of yesterday was approximately $219 million, up $15 million from the end of June. Liquidity includes a $75 million delay drop feature that is available to TETRA for the bromine project. Let me close out by summarizing what I believe the key items everybody should focus upon. First, our base business continues to perform.

Our completion fluid and calcium chloride business is achieving record highs and generating significant free cash flow. Our onshore water and flowback business remains in the double-digit EBITDA margins despite the continued decline in frac activity. Our objective is cash generation. The balance sheet keeps getting stronger, giving us the capital necessary to fund our bromine project. We continue to make very measured and methodical progress toward the growth initiatives. We are focused on getting it right and not launching anything until we have all the engineering support in place, customer acceptance, and our economics fully fleshed out. If it takes a bit longer, that's fine as our focus is getting it right and not getting it faster than we believe to be appropriate.

Lastly, we encourage you to visit with us on September 25 at the New York Stock Exchange for our Investor Day or join us on our webcast. We plan on laying out our financial targets for our growth initiatives and lay out what TETRA Technologies will look like when these technologies have been deployed to the market. Brady, let me turn it back to you for some closing comments before we open it up to questions.

Speaker 0

Thanks, Elijio. I'll save my closing comments for after the questions. Okay, we'll open it up for Q&A now.

Speaker 4

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask the question, you may press star and 1 on your touch-tone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star and 2. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from the line of Martin Malloy from Johnson Rice. Your line is open.

Good morning. Congratulations on the strong quarter.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Speaker 0

Thanks, Marty.

I wanted to ask about desalination and maybe if you could spend some time, broadly speaking, about the economics of these desalination projects and the amount of energy being used to desalinate the water, the produced water, and the costs, and also maybe about legislative initiatives that you're following related to desalination potential demand.

Let me start with the commercial aspects of this opportunity for us. What we're seeing is disposal well costs for operators continuing to increase and solutions like ours from a desalination perspective continuing to decrease. You've got a converging environment of operator costs increasing, due to higher pressures or taking out-of-basin costs. Trucking, for instance, is extremely expensive. It could be $5, $6 a barrel. Additional pipelines, if you've seen some of the announcements of out-of-basin pipelines, are extremely capital intensive, so costs continue to go up. Technologies like ours, OASIS, is, we believe, one of the lower cost, lower energy cost solutions that will be available in the market.

That convergence, Marty, has given us the opportunity to have these discussions with the operators, with the midstream companies who, quite frankly, need this solution in the coming years as the amount of curtailment of production just due to produced water injection disposals and pressures is really going to start to impact them. The regulatory environment is extremely supportive. I think I mentioned on the call that Texas House Bill 49 was approved, which essentially facilitates the operators and technology providers like ourselves to process produced water and distribute it into the economy, which previously was not allowed. EPA has been getting involved. We actually met with the EPA in Washington, DC, to talk about our desalination technology and the support that we would like to see from them. They're very, very supportive as well.

There's a lot of momentum on all fronts, which continues to give us the encouragement that we have about our opportunity here. As far as the actual commercials, we're going to save that for discussions with our customers in terms of our pricing, our cost, our OpEx, our CapEx. That'll be a little more refined when we get our first complete end-to-end engineering package that I've mentioned completed by the fourth quarter. That allows us to have the level of detail of a commercial contractual negotiations that we need.

Speaker 3

Brady, I would add that preliminary discussions indicate acceptance to a licensed model that reduces any stress on TETRA's balance sheet.

Speaker 0

Yeah.

Thank you. That was very helpful. For my follow-up question, I just wanted to ask about the offshore completion market. There are indications the subsea tree order outlook has been strong and is expected to be strong. Could you maybe spend some time just talking about the level of customer conversations and if those subsea tree orders are aligning with where your strengths are in terms of the higher pressure wells and the basins that you have a strong presence in?

Yeah, the trends that we're seeing certainly in the overall deepwater is continuing to increase in terms of activity over the coming years, four to five years visibility that we often have with customers that are planning these very complex, highly technical deepwater completions. The other trend that we're seeing is the pressures are getting higher, as evidenced by the 20K rigs that are coming into the Gulf of Mexico. Those pressures play into TETRA's strength due to the heavy bromine-based completion fluids, including Neptune for certain applications. Yeah, all positive signs, particularly as we start to see the U.S. oil production flatten out, plateau. I think deepwater will continue to get a lot more attention in the coming years for additional online supply.

Great. Thank you very much. I'll turn it back.

Speaker 4

Our next question comes from the line of Cherisee Sobelser from DeepOil Capital. Your line is open.

Hey, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. Good morning. The guidance that you guys issued for the rest of the year is really strong and very promising. I think a lot of investors are really pleased with it. I was curious, as we look to the second half, are you able to give any insight into what you're seeing this quarter versus the next, or are we generally expecting both quarters to be pretty similar from a financial standpoint?

Speaker 0

I think activity-wise, you're going to see, we expect to see activity fairly consistent between Q3 and Q4. As I've mentioned, overall, it's not going to be the record-setting pace that we had in the first half of the year. That's just how wells activities are drilled and completion activities follow the drilling. Annually, it's going to be a record year for us, and we think that we'll continue to build on that as we go into 2026. I expect Q3 and Q4 to be relatively similar in terms of financials.

Good to understand. Just a really quick follow-up on the financials here. Working capital looks to have come in a little bit, generated some cash this quarter. Was this something that is seasonal, or could this be a future source of cash flow throughout the rest of the year?

Speaker 3

A couple of items work in our favor, Jesse. Number one, we've collected the Three Well Neptune project that we completed in the first half of the year. Second, as we go through our seasonality in Northern Europe, we start invoicing in April, and the collections go from June into July. We got the benefit of those two, but we still expect to continue to increase free cash flow in the second half of the year for the base business.

Great. Yeah, I noticed free cash flow, Jesse, was above that $50 million guide you gave for the year already. Congrats. Thanks for taking my questions.

Speaker 0

Thank you.

Speaker 4

Our next question comes from the line of Bobby Brooks from Northland Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, guys. To follow up on Jesse's last question, I just first want to tip my hat to you guys for the continuation of providing some guidance points. It's been very helpful in setting expectations, and I think it also allows the investment community to better understand and appreciate the TETRA Technologies story. With that said, I was curious, what are some of the assumptions underpinning that revenue guidance? How I'm looking at it is as the first half of 2025, you guys benefited from about $30 million or so from the CS Neptune wells, which are not repeating in the second half. You also got the seasonal industrial chemical sales in 2Q that don't repeat.

When you take that into account, when you take into account those pieces, when comparing one-half results to the second-half implied guide, sales are flat when compared to some of your peers who are cutting guides due to lower frac activity. Obviously, EOS volumes ramping up is a benefit, but really curious to hear more about what else is underpinning your outlook. Thank you.

Speaker 0

Yeah, I'll make a few comments and then ask Elijio to as well. I wouldn't assign all of the Neptune revenue to the number that you gave, Bob. The overall deepwater activity, we look at overall deepwater activity, was extremely strong in the first half of the year. I think I'd mentioned we had 25 jobs in the first quarter. That's a very high pace of deepwater completions. The Neptune wells in the second quarter had additional activity. Second-year activity just won't be at that pace overall for deepwater. EOS really is not a significant factor for us in this year's financials, second year's financials. It is increasing, but off of a very low base.

As we get into 2026, as I'd mentioned, when they have their first line up and running, we believe, certainly before the end of the year, that will be a material uplift for us in 2026, but not really material to us in 2025. I'll ask Elijio maybe to add additional comments.

Speaker 3

Bobby, I would ask that people start looking at what's coming to us in 2026. We will have the second quarter seasonality again, which has been strong for three years in a row now. We've got EOS ramping up. If you follow EOS and you look at consensus revenue 2026 versus 2025, they're projected to have a very meaningful ramp-up. The TETRA management team stays in close contact with EOS and will continually visit their operations to see what they're doing in their automated production line. We're very encouraged with what we see. We've mentioned that we've secured an offshore deepwater Brazil project that will have a full-year impact in 2026. With the deepwater activity, we expect to see significant deepwater projects, including potential Neptune next year, that lays us out for a very solid 2026.

Okay, got it. I can appreciate turning the page and looking at '26, but could we maybe just touch on a little bit of other factors that are driving that second half kind of implied guide?

Yeah, keep in mind that the frac count and the drilling activity in the United States has continued to get softer. We believe technology has created a differentiator for us and has allowed us to maintain a market share. We're not focused on market share growth. We're focused on margin enhancement and cash generation on the onshore business. Everything else that Brady mentioned is timing of projects. We had a lot of the projects on the deepwater side that got completed in the first half. Now we need for those rigs to finish their drilling program so we can show up with a completion fluid at the tail end of those projects. We think those are going to be more weighted toward early next year than the second half of this year.

Got it. Fair enough. I wanted to also ask on the news of engaging an engineering firm for the design of the first commercial OASIS TDS project. It seems like this design would be more so broad-based and not necessarily for a specific project in mind. With it being broad-based, it could be kind of used across multiple scenarios with a few minor tweaks. Am I thinking about that right? You guys mentioned in the prepared remarks, it's for 25,000 barrels a day, but it'll have a modular option to add additional 25,000 barrel-per-day capacity. I just want to make sure I'm understanding that right and maybe how to just think about how you would kind of plug in that extra capacity.

Speaker 0

Yeah, we've been working with a lot of Permian Basin operators, Bobby, and we're very, very familiar now with the type of water that we're dealing with for these desal projects, specifically the Permian. Obviously, it'd be different in South Texas or Hainesville or as you go around different basins across North America. This 25K design will be designed to handle what we believe will be a wide variety of Permian Basin operators. In fact, we're using several of their specifications to make sure we've got that covered with OASIS. You're absolutely right. The design is being built, or the technology is being designed to accommodate 25,000 barrel-per-day increments. If a customer wants to ramp up to 100,000 barrels a day, we would take essentially four of these trains, these 25K trains, and link them up to provide a 100,000 barrel-a-day type of solution.

This technology, fortunately, is very scalable along those lines. The engineering firm we're working with will be helping us ensure that that's part of our solution.

Got it. Appreciate the color. Congrats on the nice quarter. I'll get back in the queue.

Thank you.

Speaker 4

Our next question comes from the line of Patrick Wallace from Stephens. Your line is open.

Hey, it's Pat O'Elena for Steven Giarra. Thanks for taking the questions. You'd previously mentioned discussions with bromine suppliers to bridge the suppliers. You looked for a more staged approach to develop the Arkansas bromine processing facility. Just curious how it's going securing the bromine for the various end markets you have, and especially with the expected material ramp of volumes you're expecting to see from EOS.

Speaker 0

Yeah, we have discussions underway with multiple bromine suppliers. Of course, we have our existing contract. Those discussions are going well. We're not going to announce anything until we have selected a final provider or multiple providers, quite frankly. It could be multiple providers as part of the bridging supplies that we're talking about. Clearly, we're monitoring both our deepwater demand and the EOS demand to ensure that between our existing current supply and the bridging volumes that we're talking about, it bridges us to the 2027 target that we have for our own plant. That's an ongoing, somewhat dynamic discussion that we're having, Patrick, but I would say at this point, we're optimistic that we will have our demands covered.

All right, thank you. Great to hear the engineering design for the first commercial water desal plant. Just curious if you could give any color on expectations for either incremental pilot plants or commercial plants for 2025 or 2026, and then maybe any details on tractions with NDAs. I know some time ago you talked about seven-ish NDAs in place.

I think earlier in the year, I was of the impression that we would be doing multiple more pilot operations. I think that is now shifting to we have a pilot ongoing, and we are engaging with customers who are now really starting to talk more about small commercial plants of the 10,000 to 25,000 barrel-per-day range and skipping what I would say the really low volume pilot plant operation. That's a good sign for us because I think there's a confidence growing that a small commercial plant is of more value to these customers than a really small pilot operation. We have, as we said, multiple, 77 or so NDAs that we still have in place engaged with those particular customers.

As we get into contractual commitments, we'll be announcing them as we go, but obviously, we don't want to get out in front of ourselves until we're at that point.

All right, thanks so much. I'll turn it back.

Speaker 4

Our next question comes from the line of Dean Moore from Clear Street. Your line is open.

Thanks. Very nice execution on especially free cash flow magnitude and the working capital ARs collection from the Gulf of Mexico. I also appreciate Elijio's strong emphasis on preventing dilution of shareholders for the bromine project financing optionality beyond self-funding. Most of my questions were already answered, but I wanted to start off just maybe getting a little bit more on desalination. It's the hottest topic I get asked about, still the last couple of years. How is that progress going with the beneficial reuse for the growing seasons? Do you have to do a couple growing seasons hurdle, or is that not much more of a hurdle anymore to really move forward on the commercial plant side?

Speaker 0

The progress so far on the commercial pilot that we have with EOG is going very well. Because of our NDA, I really can't get into any specific discussions about where we are in the timing and what the detailed plans for that will look like. That will ultimately be up to EOG if they want to switch from the pilot into commercial discussions. I would say the only thing I can say at this point is the pilot is going extremely well.

No, that's good. That's a great partner to have. Just a housekeeping question on Brazil. We got a good understanding in the CS Neptune Gulf. For Brazil, the offshore, do you expect much more revenue and EBITDA in the second half of this year? What do you think next year's amount could be? Could it be similar to this year's, or would it be just lower because you were doing more project well stuff this year in Brazil than maybe next year?

Yeah, we will get some benefit from Brazil this year. We think that most of the wells, because we'll have a full year of the contract underway, we'll see the benefit in 2026 compared to 2025. The impact this year is not as significant as it will be next year. We have mentioned a new multi-year, ultra-deepwater 20K completions award in the Gulf of Mexico that we were awarded. That's a big deal for us. That'll be more significant in 2026 than it is in the rest of the year.

Yeah, that's really good color because, you know, some investors just know you lap a little bit of the CS, you know, Gulf of Mexico, but you got more next year, and Brazil seems stronger next year than even this year. My last question is just on EOS. You know, that's another question we get asked a lot. Just on, you know, your visibility, you know, they're doing, like you mentioned, the automation line completion fourth quarter, it sounds like. I mean, do you have a rolling 90-day, you know, kind of order of it? I mean, how quickly can you adjust if they really ramp up, you know, severely in the fourth quarter? I mean, do you have enough supply that you can get them and that kicks in pretty, pretty robustly?

Yeah, we have a very, very good, almost daily relationship with EOS in terms of their ramp-up, their orders. As I'd mentioned, we've converted our West Memphis plant over from, you know, being able to ship totes into bulk tankers now, which will allow us to achieve a significantly higher volume of electrolyte in preparation for their ramp-up. Yes, we get a forecast from them. We've been planning for all of the capacity needs that they will have when they get their first line running, which we understand is targeted to be a two-gigawatt-hour annual capacity. We understand that volume very well as we head into 2026.

Great. Brady, thanks for elaborating on that. That's it for my questions. Thank you.

Sure. Thank you.

Speaker 4

Our next question comes from the line of Josh Jane from Daniel Energy Partners. Your line is open.

Thanks. First one, you highlighted the uncertainty in U.S. land completions in the second half of the year. What are your thoughts on completion activity in the U.S. and how that frames your assumptions for the water and flowback business and, you know, the drivers that may allow you to continue to outperform there?

Speaker 0

Yeah, I think the activity is a little bit hard to predict. Obviously, it's been trending down, as I'd mentioned, for 16 months, and there's some outlook that that will continue trending down. I think our view is that while overall activity is trending down, the market share opportunities that we have with our automated technology, both in SandStorm and drill-out, the utilizations that we're running at will allow us to continue to at least maintain growth. Maybe not necessarily achieve growth, but certainly maintain revenues in the second half of the year at what we believe will be improved margins as we use more of our technology. Keep in mind, a bigger part of our revenue base is shifting from just flat completions to produced water, recycling, and treatment. We're one of the largest recycling and treatment for frac reuse.

As operators slow down, the percentage of water that they use for treatment and recycling actually increases. We've got some areas that we think will offset the overall activity declines in the second half of the year, which is why we've provided the guidance we have.

Speaker 3

Josh also recalled that embedded in this segment is that we've got early production facilities in Argentina that are under multi-year contracts, and we have an offshore rig cooling business that's tied to deepwater activity.

Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. The second one, maybe this is more of a longer-term question, but as the base business continues to generate free cash flow and you continue to inch closer to generating free cash flow from both desal and Arkansas, how are you thinking about capital returns to shareholders in the near to intermediate future? Just given, you know, it'll be here before you know it, sort of some cash flow tailwinds over the next 18 to 24 months. Maybe you could just elaborate on your thoughts there a bit. Thanks.

That's a very good question, Josh, that you've asked, that we intend to address at our Investor Day. We'll ask you to bear with us. At the end of September, we're going to walk you through how we're going to transition the company from investing in growth opportunities to a return of capital program.

Understood. Thanks. I'll turn it back.

Speaker 4

Again, if you have a question, please press Star and 1. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Murphy for any closing remarks.

Speaker 0

Thank you, Chloe, and thank you for all of you joining our call this morning. As we close out the call, we have a lot of good things to feel really good about. A record-setting first six months of the year, significant free cash flow from our base business to keep pace with our Arkansas project, a strong outlook for 2026 and beyond for our deepwater business and electrolyte sales ramp-up, and significant progress for our desalination opportunities. Please, as Kurt and Elijio mentioned, sign up for our Investor Day on September 25th. We're very excited about our future. We'll lay out our execution strategies and plans to deliver on our future growth targets. Thank you very much for joining us and look forward to our next call.

Speaker 4

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.