Total Energy Services Inc.

Hello and thank you for standing by. My name is Regina and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Total Energy Service's third quarter 2025 results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star then the number 1 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. I would now like to turn the conference over to Daniel Halleck, President and CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Total Energy Services' third quarter 2025 conference call. Present with me is Yulia Gorbache, Total's VP Finance and CFO. We will review with you Total's financial and operating highlights for the three months ended September 30th, 2025, and then provide an outlook for our business and open up the phone lines for questions. Yuliya, please go ahead.

Thank you, Dan. During the course of this conference call, information may be provided containing forward-looking information concerning total projected operating results, anticipated capital expenditure trends, and projected activity in oil and gas industry. Actual events or results may differ materially from those reflected in total forward-looking statements. Due to a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors, affecting total businesses and the oil and gas service industry in general. These risks, uncertainties, and other factors are described under the heading Risk Factors and L3 in Totals, most recently filed annual information form and other documents filed with Canadian Provincial Securities Authority that are available to the public at www.siraplus.ca. Our discussions during this conference call are qualified with reference to the notes to the financial highlights contained in the news release issued yesterday. Unless otherwise indicated, all financial information in this conference call is presented in Canadian dollars. Total Energy's financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2025, reflect improved Australian financial results following the deployment of upgraded equipment and continued strong North American demand for compression and process equipment. Upsetting these tailwinds was lower North American drilling and completion activity. On a year-over-year basis, consolidated third quarter revenue increased by 8%. Contributing to this increase was $15.2 million of increased CPS segment revenue, $6.2 million from well servicing, and $1.6 million from RTS segments. Third quarter EBITDA decreased by $7.6 million as compared to 2024 due primarily to the relative increase in lower margin CPS and well-servicing segment revenues to the consolidated revenue. A $1.8 million year-over-year negative foreign exchange impact on CPS segment results and $1.5 million year-over-year increase in share-based compensation due to increase in the market price of total energy shares. Geographically, 48% of third quarter revenue was generated in Canada, 27% in the United States, and 25% in Australia, as compared to the third quarter of 2024, when 49% of consolidated revenue was generated in Canada, 34% in the United States, and 17% in Australia. By business segment, the compression and process services segment contributed 48% of third quarter consolidated revenue, followed by the CDS segment at 32%, while servicing at 12%, and the RTS segment at 8%. In comparison, for the third quarter of 2024, the compression and process services segment generated 46% of third quarter consolidated revenue, followed by CDS at 36%. wealth servicing is 10%, and RTS segment is 8%. Third quarter consolidated gross margin was 22% in 2025, which was 409 basis points lower than 2024. Contributing to this decline was a 417 basis points year-over-year increase in third quarter revenue contribution from CPS and wealth servicing segments. as these business segments historically generate lower margins than the CDS and RGS segments. The year-over-year decline in North American-driven third-quarter gross margin percentage in all business segments was partially upset by improved Australian results. Third-quarter CDS segment revenue decreased 5% compared to 2024. The 33% year-over-year decline in third-quarter North American operating days was partially offset by a 32% increase in Australian days. Segment revenue per operating day increased 16% during the third quarter of 2025 due primarily to increased pricing on upgraded rigs in Australia that was partially offset by change in equipment operating and competitive pricing in certain areas of Canadian market. Third quarter CDS segment EBITDA decreased by 3% compared to 2024 future of North American German TV that was partially upset by higher activity and pricing in Australia. TVS segment EBITDA margin during Q3 of 2025 was consistent with 2024 as the overall decrease in third quarter operating days was upset by higher pricing for upgraded rigs and cost management. RTS segment revenue for the third quarter increased 8% compared to 2024. This was the result of stable utilization and an increased U.S. rental fleet following a June acquisition combined with a higher revenue per utilized rental fees due to a change in the mix of equipment operating. Higher costs associated with a change in the mix of equipment operating and competitive market conditions that did not allow for the price increases necessary to offset cost inflation resulted in a 7% year-over-year decrease in the third quarter RTS EBITDA and 585 basis points decrease in segment EBITDA margin. Third quarter revenue in total CPS segment was 14% higher compared to 2024. Increased fabrication sales more than offset a 3% year-over-year decline in rental fleet utilization. Third quarter CPS segment EBITDA declined $4.2 million with 22% compared to 2024. $1.8 million of this decline was due to increase in cost of services resulting from a weakening Canadian dollar relative to the US dollar. Also contributing to this decline with the commencement of certain low-margin fabrication projects awarded in 2024 when industry conditions were weaker and cost inflation arising from tariff-related supply chain challenges that were not fully passable to the customers. The fabrication sales backlog at September 30, 2025 was $380.8 million, which is $76.9 million, or 25% increase and it's higher compared to $303.9 million backlog at June 30, 2025. In-world servicing, a 5% increase in revenue per service hour combined with 19% increase in operating hours resulted in a 24% year-over-year increase in third-quarter segment revenue. Increased Australian engineering activity was partially offset by a substantial decline in U.S. activity. Higher pricing and increased fleet utilization following the upgrade of several rigs over the past year contributed to a 162 percent increase in third-quarter Australian operating income. Offsetting this increase was a decline in North American operating income due to competitive pricing and substantially lower U.S. activity levels. Segment EBITDA. for the third quarter of 2025 was 4% lower compared to 2024. Due to lower pricing in Canada and substantially lower utilization in the U.S., there was only partial upset by increased Australian utilization and pricing realized through the reactivated, upgraded rate. From a consolidated perspective, Total Energy's financial position remains very strong. At September 30, 2025, Total Energy had $115.5 million of positive working capital, including $57.1 million of cash. Bank debt, less cash on hand, was $32.9 million at September 30, 2025. Total Energy's bank governance consists of maximum senior debt, 2 trillion 12-month bank-defined EBITDA of three times, and the minimum bank-defined EBITDA to interest expense of three times. At September 30th, the company's senior bank debt to bank EBITDA ratio was 0.25, and the bank interest coverage ratio was 36.47 times.

Thank you, Yulia. Total's third quarter results demonstrate the resiliency of our diversified business model. Despite challenging North American drilling and conditions and margin pressure in our CPS segment as they worked through some lower margin legacy orders. Total continued to generate substantial free cash flow that was used to fund growth opportunities, pay dividends, buy back stock and reduce bank debt. Stable Australian industry conditions and specific customer needs have encouraged Total to invest substantial capital over the past year to upgrade and reactivate several drilling and service rigs under long-term contracts. The upgrade of an idle drilling rig acquired as part of the Saxon acquisition in 2024 has just been completed and we expect such rig to commence drilling before the end of this month. This will bring our active Australian drilling rig count to 13, the highest ever. An Australian service rig is currently being upgraded and is expected to be completed and commence operations by the second quarter of 2026. North American demand for compression equipment remains exceptionally strong and continues to be driven by significant infrastructure investment related to growing LNG export capacity. and demand for natural gas fired power generation. The record fabrication sales backlog, which exceeded $380 million at September 30th, provides visibility well into the second half of 2026. While the CPS segment works through some lower margin orders received in 2024 when market conditions were less favorable, Such projects are scheduled to be substantially completed by year-end, and the impact of those orders on margins will cease. Steps taken to mitigate cost inflation and tariff uncertainty are also expected to improve CPS segment margins going forward. This includes commencements of the previously announced expansion of our U.S. fabrication capacity with plant construction expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2027. In Canada, the upgrade of a mechanical double drilling rig to a state-of-the-art AC electric triple pad rig was completed in early November and such rig is currently drilling for a major Canadian producer in the Alberta Monteney. This rig's unique design is expected to achieve significant operating efficiencies compared to conventional AC triples. Should its operational and financial performance meet expectations, we have identified several more idle rigs in our Canadian fleet that could be similarly upgraded should market conditions warrant. Although we remain sensitive to current market challenges and uncertainty, We will use our financial strength to pursue acceptable investment opportunities. Specifically, we continue to engage with our Australian customers in regards to future potential growth opportunities. We also continue to work to identify and evaluate North American acquisition opportunities with a view to gaining critical mass in our existing business segments. As we enter the busy winter drilling season in the northern areas of North America, I would like to acknowledge the focus and dedication required of our employees to ensure our operations are conducted safely and efficiently in often extremely harsh weather conditions. I would now like to open up the phone lines for any questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. In order to ask a question, simply press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. Our first question will come from the line of Tim Monticello with ATB Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Thanks very much. Just wondering about the Weirton expansion and just the way we should think about revenue cadence on your backlog. Are you capacity constrained currently and should we expect revenue out of CPS segment to be somewhat similar from a product sales perspective to what it's been over the last couple quarters as we go through 26 until that expansion is commissioned?

So, Tim, I would say in the U.S., we're pretty much at capacity without some major, I would say, outsourcing and labor changes, including additional shifts in Canada we have the ability to ramp up more if we went to further and larger nighttime shifts so you know there's a cost to doing that so we're trying to balance some you know the the demand and putting it you know orders through the shop with the incremental costs that would arise from adding additional night shifts, primarily in Canada. So certainly, when we have the expansion completed, obviously we're going to be ramping up our labor force in advance of that. And it'll take some time once the shop's completed to fully realize the efficiencies and gains that come with that, just primarily due to labor. That'll certainly take a lot of pressure off of Canada and certainly increase our capacity materially in Weirton.

That's helpful. And then I joined the call a little bit late, but I'm sure you provided some commentary on the compression margins in the corridor. I'm just wondering if you can provide Any additional commentary on, I guess, how the pace of expansion given some one-time items in Q3?

Yeah, I think there's probably three components to the year-over-year margin compression and sequential quarter compression. First would be some fairly volatile FX movements. And again, You know, we have a pretty pragmatic approach to dealing with FX changes to lock in economics on orders, but that's never perfect. And when you have volatility, short-term material swings that can impact, and sometimes it's positive, sometimes it's negative. You know, year over year, it was $1.8 million to the negative. That goes straight to cost of goods sold. The second component would be in 2024, we took in some orders that were fairly low margin. Specifically, there was one large order that we consciously bid aggressively for some strategic reasons I won't get into, part of which was flexibility on delivery dates and our ability to load-level shop production, and that certainly helped our margins. on other packages and in hindsight it was the right decision in the sense that you know the market turned significantly in early 2025 and if we wouldn't have preserved our labor force we probably wouldn't be enjoying the success we have to date so you know we're now working on those projects they'll have a short-term hit on our operating margins but by the end of the year that'll be old news and certainly given the significant improvement in market conditions beginning in early 2025. I would certainly hope our sales group there is bidding work at better margins because we're running pretty hot right now. And the final point I was going to make is there's cost inflation. It's been, as everyone knows, a pretty interesting and dynamic marketplace. You know, steel is obviously a big component of the inputs within the CPS segment. There was a lot of volatility, and there's a timing difference between when an order is received, when the materials required for that order are procured, and when that order is completed. And so it's a pretty dynamic environment, and like I said, We manage that pretty well, but no one can manage that perfectly. I think Q3 was a bit of a perfect storm in terms of some lower margin projects combined with a lot of volatility in the steel market. Thankfully, that settled down. Compression packages are USMCA compliant, so we haven't faced any issues on that front. There were some serious questions earlier in the year. about whether there would be cross-border issues. And candidly, one of the reasons we're expanding our U.S. production is to get ahead of any potential changes to Canadian-U.S. trade relations.

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. And I'm glad that you mentioned, I guess, the strength of the compression market. You know, you've been booking... record order flow for you know the first three quarters of the year do you see that continuing in in q4 is there any leading in leading edge indicators that would suggest any changes to to date we continue to see very strong demand okay and so when like a booking that's placed today, when would a customer expect delivery?

Depends on the unit, and depends how much they're willing to pay. You want to get to the front of the line, there's ways to do that. How do you allocate scarce resource price? One of the challenges that we're facing right now, Tim, is You know, some of the lead times for major inputs, notably CAD engines, are now well in excess of 90 weeks. And so we're effectively having to make decisions on inventory and supply of inputs based on what we think business will look like almost two years in advance. And so, you know, we've been there before. We've never seen... quite the lead times we're seeing now, but I can tell you that's also a benefit to larger players. You know, to try and compete in this market without a balance sheet is very difficult. And you see it in our inventory levels are going up. And like I said, we're having to make investment decisions on inventory two years in advance, which again, I've never seen anything like that. And at some point, the music will slow down or stop. It has before. We've been through that before. You'll have the working capital unwind. But so far, we've seen no signs of that music slowing down.

All right. Well, that's positive. And then I guess the other sort of notable change in the compression segment in Q3 was a meaningful uptick in your utilization of your rental fleet. Can you talk a little bit about what changed quarter over quarter and how you see that progressing?

Well, we had noted that in our Q2 call that we had a subsequent quarter end, a pretty significant Canadian rental contract for a bunch of our nomads. And it's interesting... The nomads that went out on rent in Q3 are being used by a customer to provide temporary compression as they do a major plant turnaround. And so it's exactly the type of application that the nomads are good for to come in and basically allow a plant to continue operating as the primary compression is rebuilt. So, you know, those things tend to come and go. What we're seeing... particularly in the U.S., and we've seen it before and it kind of comes in cycles, but pretty aggressive pricing, I'd call it, by financial players in the rental market that basically are providing capital leases. We provide an operating lease in the sense we take residual risk. We also build for compression for a bunch of those companies, and so we're not inclined to compete with them. And frankly, our cost of capital is likely higher, so we don't try. So that's put a little bit of pressure on the U.S. rental fleet. But again, for short-term specific applications, that's where we're good at or where customers want the flexibility to keep the units off their balance sheet in terms of not being capital leases.

Got it. And then last one for me. Can you just talk a little bit about the opportunity set that you're assessing currently? I know you don't have the 26 budget formalized yet, but just like some of the areas. Growth opportunities.

So certainly you know in Australia. Our performance has been very good operationally and I think. The quality of our equipment is causing continued interest in us reactivating and upgrading rigs. So we're certainly active in that market and discussions. I would say it's largely market share gains as opposed to a growing market. The overall market in Australia has been pretty stable. We haven't seen material changes there. I would say most of our, well, pretty much all of it has been market share gains as we displace other suppliers there. Within North America, there's select targeted opportunities to upgrade equipment. I mentioned the triple that went straight to work as soon as it's done. It's in the Alberta Montney. That's a very special rig. We're watching it keenly, as I'm sure others are. If the business case exists, we won't hesitate to do further similar upgrades. I think the other thing we're very interested in doing is gaining critical mass in our existing business segments in North America, particularly the US. We're going to be disciplined. and focus, so we're not going to force anything. We were able to do a smaller deal in June on the rental side and we're open about our interest in growing our business down there. We continue to see opportunities and we'll evaluate and execute where it makes sense.

That's helpful. I'll turn it back. Thanks. Thanks, Tim.

Again, for questions, simply press star 1. Our next question will come from the line of Joseph Schechter with Schechter Energy Research. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Dan and Yulia. Thanks for taking my questions. Going back to Australia, you've got 13 rigs out of your 17 working. Utilization rate 55%. What is potentially maximum utilization? We talk 70%, 80% in Canada and the States, depending upon what market you're in. Is that the same kind of target utilization that you could get in that country?

Yes, certainly. We could certainly get there. Like I said, we don't see the market growing. It's going to be more market share gains. One of the big challenges in Australia is labor, and so we've taken a fairly methodical approach to expanding our active rig count in large part not wanting to strain our labor force and frankly put inexperienced people in bad positions. And I can tell you that's our concern globally. It's less of a concern, obviously, in North America, given a bit softer market conditions. But we've seen... You know, other companies take a more aggressive approach on expansion, and it usually doesn't end well. And a lot of the problems arise from straining your labor force. So we're going to take a very methodical, controlled approach. And you've sort of seen it, Joseph, over the past year, where, you know, it's been a rig at a time. We could certainly be more aggressive. Capital is not the issue. It's, in our view, first of all, quality product. So trying to do too much at once is going to strain our supply chains. And number two, equally, if not more important, is ensuring we've got competent labor to staff the equipment.

So of the four rigs that are left in Australia, are any of them being looked at by people so that you could upgrade those? put them to work in 2026?

They're being looked at. I'm not going to comment on timelines. I think it depends. Again, Australia tends to be a very long-term, they call them campaigns, unlike North America. Well, Canada's the worst where we tend to be much more of a spot market mentality, where Australia, you know, when you commit a rig, it's for years. And so... You know, these upgrades we're doing are substantial and take several quarters to do, not weeks. You know, so I'm not going to comment on timing. I will say we are in active discussion, so on a number of fronts there.

Okay. Next one for me, compression margins, you know, this quarter 15 down from 22 a year ago. You mentioned that, you know, through a year end it's going to be, you know, lower numbers. What's the kind of number that you could see in 2026? Are we going to get back into the 20s? And what would be peak kind of margins in your view for the CPS business?

You know, I think we're learning a little bit as we go. You know, as we discussed earlier, we're starting to push the limits of our plant capacity. Obviously, there's levers we can pull to increase that, but there's cost to doing so. We're also testing continuously the market on pricing. And again, you know, so we're learning as much as anyone as we go into, you know, what's been a very strong market. What I would say is, you know, Q3 we definitely, let me put it this way, I hope that's bottom. And from everything I can see at this point, I expect it is. I would say We expect to revert back to margins we saw in the first half of the year. Again, that will occur over the course of Q4 into Q1. Certainly, given the strong demand and strong backlog, the projects we're bidding currently and have bid for the past year you know, several months, quoted margins would be, you know, substantially in excess of the orders that we're currently, you know, some of the orders we're working on in Q3 going into Q4. Okay.

Last one for me. You've done, as you said, the RTS did a, you know, small tuck under acquisition. Are you preferring to do smaller deals and put them into place or into markets where you want to get bigger up in a certain market? Or are you looking, given your strong balance sheet, $57 million in cash, would you be looking at things of a bigger scale that would be kind of transactionally growing the company faster and bigger? What's your feeling on the M&A front, smaller or looking at bigger deals?

All of the above. If we could do another Savannah acquisition, we're game.

Is there a lot of desperation by people given the tough market, especially in the drilling side, that those would be the first opportunities that might come your way?

I would say there's starting to be some alignment between value expectations and current public market valuations for energy service companies i think um i would also say there's probably um some private companies are getting tired so you know i don't really want to speculate more than that um i would say the pipeline is is busy and um but it's got to work for our existing shareholders And again, you know, I use Savannah that we did in 2017 as a prime example where, you know, that was an accretive deal, but it also was very beneficial post-closing to Savannah shareholders that stayed along for the ride. So, you know, this really, at the end of the day, it's going to be shareholders of the target that decide what they want. And, you know, there's public and private, and you can't force those things, but we're also not going to be stupid about it. I tried not to be stupid for 29 years and don't want to start being stupid now.

Super. Okay, thanks for answering all my questions. I much appreciate it. Thanks, Dan and Yulia.

Thanks, Joseph.

Thank you, Joseph.

And a final reminder for questions, simply press star 1. Our next question comes from the line of Paul Sarikman with Shareholder. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Good morning, Paul. You've already touched on this with the questions asked by Tim and Joseph, but I was going to ask more high level in terms of the competitive landscape in various regions and why you think you're winning market share. It's a long game. You've got a clean balance sheet. You touched on that. You talked about the strong team members and employees you have driving the business. oftentimes there's an inflection point where you sort of start winning a lot more business and your customers start listening more, engaging more and want to work with you more. Maybe you can comment on that sort of longer term thematic maybe by region as to why you think Total has been winning and will likely continue to do so given the disciplined approach. Thank you.

So good question, Paul. You know, first and foremost, when we accept business, we expect to execute that business at our high standards and we won't cut corners. So if it's in the CPS segment, it means building quality equipment. If it's on the drilling or well servicing a rental, it means providing good equipment with excellent service and safe. People don't hire us to cause problems. What I would say is good operators appreciate that value, but we also have a balance sheet where we can say no if pricing is not acceptable because we're not going to lower our standards simply to get work. For people like you that have followed Total over the years, you will see us lose market share in more difficult parts of the cycle because our preference is to park our equipment rather than operate it at our standards and lose a bunch of money and end up having to recertify it and have generated no profit to pay for the recertification. I would say you've got a fairly significant portion of the market operators that appreciate that and are willing to pay for quality and pay for predictability. We're really seeing that, for example, in Australia. It's kind of timely. There was a recent catastrophic service rig event in Australia that I think really opened a lot of eyes in terms of what can go wrong. It was brand new equipment. Again, I'm not going to get into, I don't know all the details, but certainly those events can spook customers and they gravitate towards operators that have good track records. I can tell you to have a good long-term track record, you have to be profitable because you have to be able to reinvest in the business. I think fundamentally our discipline in terms of operations pricing serves us well in all markets. Definitely we'll lose some market share on the bottom half of the cycle. We're okay with that because we're in this for the long haul, not just to say we've got the best rig utilization in a tough market. So I don't know if that answers your question, but...

Yeah, no, that's helpful. I mean, you know, quarterly results can fluctuate. Your model is fairly diversified by region and by vertical, so that's been very helpful. Perfectly clean balance sheet and everything you just touched on. I think, you know, everything seems to be moving in the right direction, but it's helpful to hear you reiterate some of the reasons why, again, the customers are continually engaging with you, and there's therefore no surprise there's more opportunities ahead, it seems. So thank you for that.

Yeah, and I look at our customer base in Australia or even Canada and the U.S. It's blue chip, but it's a wide range. It's private, public, small, large. You know, so I think it's got to work for both sides over the full cycle, and good – customers appreciate that. We have the same perspective with our suppliers. We don't expect them to work for nothing, and it's not in our interest to see our supply chain condense down to one or two suppliers. That's not in our long-term interest, so we will definitely support you know, multiple suppliers in weaker parts of the cycle. It's in our interest to have, you know, competition for our business, and I would assume our customers see it the same way.

That's great. Thank you.

Thanks, Paul.

And that will conclude our question and answer session. I'll turn the call back to Dan for any closing comments.

Thank you, everyone. for joining us this morning, and we look forward to speaking with you after we release our year-end results in March. Have a good rest of your day.

This does conclude our call today. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.