CES Energy Solutions Corp.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending today's call. I'd like to note that in our commentary today, there will be forward-looking financial information and that our actual results may differ materially from the expected results due to various risk factors and assumptions. These risk factors and assumptions are summarized in our first quarter MD&A and press release dated May 7, 2006. and in our annual information form, dated March 10, 2026. In addition, certain financial measures that we will refer to today are not recognized under current general accepted accounting policies and for a description and definition of these. Please see our first quarter MD&A and investor presentation posted on our website. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Tony Alucino, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. You may now go ahead, please.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending today's call. I'd like to note that in our commentary today, there will be forward-looking financial information and that our actual results may differ materially from the expected results due to various risk factors and assumptions. These risk factors and assumptions are summarized in our first quarter MD&A and press release dated May 7th, 2026, and in our annual information form dated March 10th, 2026. In addition, certain financial measures that we will refer to today are not recognized under current general accepted accounting policies. And for a description and definition of these, please see our first quarter MD&A and investor presentation posted on our website. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Ken Zinger, our president and CEO.

Thank you, Tony. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2026 earnings call. On today's call, I will provide a brief summary of our financial results released yesterday, followed by an update on capital allocation, and then a summary of Q1 performance overall, followed by divisional updates for Canada and the U.S. I will then pass the call over to Tony to provide a detailed financial update. We will take questions, and then we will wrap up the call. As always, I will start my comments today by highlighting some of the major financial accomplishments we achieved in Q1 of 2026. Our quarterly highlights include our second consecutive all-time record quarterly revenue of $681.5 million, which was an improvement of 8% over last year's Q1. Our second highest quarterly EBITDA ever of $111.7 million, which was an improvement of 12% over last year's Q1. Q1 EBITDA margin of 16.4%. Total debt to trailing 12 months EBITDA of 1.18 times. Cash conversion cycle days in Q1 of 93 days, which represented our lowest quarterly level ever. Working capital as a percentage of annualized revenue was 25.7%, our lowest level ever. Our fifth consecutive quarter of record-setting US quarterly revenue, as well as our all-time best Canadian quarterly revenue. With regard to capital allocation plans, I am pleased to report the following. Consistent with our prior messaging, we intend to address the dividend once per year while reporting Q4 or Q1 of each year, as was demonstrated by the 29% increase to the dividend per share announced during our March update. We will continue to support the business with the necessary investments required to provide acceptable growth and returns. This includes the current CapEx plan for 2026 of $95 million, spread equally between maintenance and growth. We will continue to research, and execute on strategic acquisition opportunities which support vertical integration or interrelated business lines or geographies where we believe we can add value and grow returns. We will continue repurchasing shares while staying within our current debt-to-trailing 12-month EBITDA range of 1 to 1.5 times as previously communicated. Now for a summary of our Q1 performance overall. Today, our rig count on North American land stands at 194 rigs out of the 648 currently listed as operating on land in North America. This record presents an industry-leading and our all-time highest ever market share of 29.9%. During Q1, 64% of CES revenue was generated in the United States and 36% in Canada. Also of note is that quarterly revenues in each country We're at all-time high levels in Q1 of 2026. This speaks to the strength of the entire business currently. Cost pressures and supply challenges due to the fallout from the Iran conflict were felt across the business during March of Q1 and have continued into April and May, although at directionally mitigated levels as our initiatives begin to take effect. In spite of this instability, we have managed to achieve margins at the top end of our guided range of 15.5% to 16.5% during the quarter. We continue to work diligently with our customers and our suppliers to find reliable replacements and redundant sources for all affected products and inputs. As well, we are working with customers to adjust pricing where necessary. We do not expect these fluctuations to cause meaningful or sustained margin erosion. there is simply a little timing lag between realizing the increased costs due to inflation and resourcing, and then passing them through to our customers. We are actively managing the challenges as we have during previous cost escalations, and we do not expect any material impact to our revenues nor margins going forward. We remain very confident in our stated margin guidance of 15.5% to 16.5%. In Canada, the Canadian Drilling Foods Division continues to lead the WCSB in market share. Today, we are providing service to 42 out of the 123 jobs listed as underway in Canada, or a 34% market share. The overall active drilling rig count in Canada in Q1 was trending consistently lower than in 2025 by approximately 10% year over year. In contrast to that, as previously noted by our record revenues, the service intensity phenomenon continues to more than offset the reduction in the number of rigs. Although firmly in the annual slow season of breakup in Canada today, we are very optimistic about activity levels throughout the remainder of 2026. We anticipate higher activity levels due to recently added takeaway capacity from infrastructure projects, as well as vastly improved futures pricing for energy products due to the aforementioned Iran conflict and its associated fallout. Purechem, our Canadian production chemical business, continued its run of record results in Q1. PureChem continues to grow as all of the business lines continue to perform at record levels. We anticipate experiencing further revenue and earnings growth at PureChem due to our consistent market penetration combined with higher activity levels throughout 2026. The previously announced trials in the heavy oil sector of the market continue throughout Q1 and will progress into the second half of 2026. In the United States, AAS, our U.S. drilling fluids group, is currently providing chemistries and service to 152 of the 525 rigs listed as active in the USA land market today for a continually widening and AES record setting number one market share of US land rigs at 29%. The number of rigs drilling in the USA is down slightly by seven rigs since we last reported in March. However, in spite of this, AES is actually up by 12 rigs during that span. due in large part to a significant RFP win in the Permian. Although there are still 241 rigs working in the Permian, the same as in March, our rig count has gone from 87 rigs to 98 rigs. This takes our market share to 48.6%, which is our highest market share ever in the Permian Basin. Our market shares throughout the USA land market continue to grow as natural grass drilling continues to accelerate. Today, I'm very proud to report that we are on 17 of the 58 rigs working in the Haynesville. This represents a market share of over 29%. Over the past year, we have constructed a blending plant and distribution facility, including a rail siding strategically located within the basin. We have also developed some highly technical products and systems specifically for the high temperature, high pressure challenges within the Haynesville plate. We continue to anticipate further growth in this area as activity continues to ramp up in the coming months and years. As a reminder, at the beginning of 2024, there were 33 rigs working in the Hainesville. Today, just over two years later, there are 58. Finally, our U.S. production chemical division, J-CAM Catalyst, continues a steady trend of growing market share and profitability. The division remains focused on further market penetration in all areas in which they operate on land in the United States, as well as in the offshore market. As a follow-up to the previously announced land-based RFP awards, I will confirm that we have now fully taken over the vast majority of the awarded locations and the business is now seamlessly operating at this higher revenue run rate level. Also, as previously referenced, JCAM Catalyst has been optimizing manufacturing, developing products, and hiring some technical specialists in order to become an increasingly relevant supplier in the Gulf of America. Although a long and steep learning curve, we are continuing to make progress as evidenced by the fact that we are now fully treating our fourth deepwater platform with all of the chemistries required and are now involved in a trial on a fifth platform. As with all prior platforms, it will take several quarters before all the testing is complete and the platform is officially awarded. As always, I would like to reiterate the confidence and pride that I held in our business model and the people who work at CES. Our unique business model has a counter cyclical balance sheet, requires minimal capex and returns healthy free cash flow throughout the cycles. Noteworthy as well is that in spite of the pullback and upstream activity over the past two years, we have consistently experienced revenue and opportunity growth. Therefore, our strategy remains resilient and we anticipate that our financial results will as well. The business is anchored by a determined philosophy focused on maintaining relationships with new and existing clients. while continuing to develop industry-leading products and solutions which benefit them, as well as differentiating us from our competitors. We believe our Q4 and Q1 results are indicative of the tremendous torque we have building in the business currently. We also believe there are early indications that US upstream activity will inevitably accelerate throughout 2026. In the meantime, we continue to expect this year to be another year of growth and positioning, with 2027 now looking even stronger for North America, as the oil market has achieved economically attractive futures pricing and natural gas demand accelerates due to LNG and AI development. With regard to USA tariffs and the suggested Canadian counter tariffs, these continue to have little to no direct effect on our business in their current state. However, we have taken significant steps to restructure our manufacturing and supply chain in order to minimize future exposure as much as possible. I will state again for clarity that as noted a year ago, on our Q1 2025 earnings call, the impact from Paris to date continues to be immaterial to our overall business. As a final thought, I want to extend my appreciation to each and every one of our employees for their commitment to the business, culture, and success of CES. Due to the growth we are still experiencing as well as anticipate experiencing, we have increased our total number of employees at CES by 1.6% from 2,707 employees on January 1, 2026, to 2,752 employees at the end of Q1, 2026. Thank you. I will now pass the call over to Tony for the financial update.