TSE:TOT Total Energy Services Q3 2025 Earnings Report C$27.44 +1.39 (+5.34%) As of 12:29 PM Eastern ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast Total Energy Services EPS ResultsActual EPSC$0.38Consensus EPS N/ABeat/MissN/AOne Year Ago EPSN/ATotal Energy Services Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$260.70 millionExpected RevenueN/ABeat/MissN/AYoY Revenue GrowthN/ATotal Energy Services Announcement DetailsQuarterQ3 2025Date11/12/2025TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateThursday, November 13, 2025Conference Call Time11:00AM ETConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress ReleaseEarnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by Total Energy Services Q3 2025 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrNovember 13, 2025 ShareLink copied to clipboard.Key Takeaways Neutral Sentiment: Consolidated revenue increased 8% year‑over‑year, but third‑quarter EBITDA fell CAD 7.6M as a higher mix of lower‑margin CPS and well‑servicing revenue, a CAD 1.8M FX headwind and higher share‑based compensation weighed on profits. Positive Sentiment: CPS backlog reached CAD 380.8 million (up 25% QoQ), giving strong visibility into revenue into the second half of 2026 and supporting future fabrication and package sales. Negative Sentiment: CPS margins compressed sharply in Q3 (down from ~22% to ~15%) driven by legacy low‑margin orders, steel and other cost inflation, and FX; management expects margins to recover toward H1 levels as those projects complete. Positive Sentiment: Balance sheet strength — CAD 57.1M cash, CAD 115.5M positive working capital and net bank debt of CAD 32.9M with very low leverage (senior debt 0.25x) and high interest coverage (36.47x), giving capacity to fund upgrades, M&A and buybacks. Neutral Sentiment: Management is expanding capacity (U.S. Weirton plant, US fabrication expansion to complete by Q1 2027) and increasing Australian rig activity (13 active rigs), but faces long lead times for key inputs (>90 weeks) and selective utilization/capacity tradeoffs. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallTotal Energy Services Q3 202500:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipantsPresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Hello, 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 Services 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 one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I would now like to turn the conference over to Daniel Halyk, President and CEO. Please go ahead. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:00:36Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Total Energy Services third quarter 2025 conference call. Present with me is Yuiliya Gorbach, 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. Yuiliya, please go ahead. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:01:01Thank you, Dan. During the course of this conference call, information may be provided containing forward-looking information concerning Total's projected operating results, anticipated capital expenditure trends, and projected activity in the oil and gas industry. Actual events and results may differ materially from those reflected in Total's forward-looking statement due to a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors affecting Total's businesses and the oil and gas service industry in general. These risks, uncertainties, and other factors are described under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in Total's most recently filed annual information form and other documents filed with Canadian Provincial Securities Authority that are available to the public at www.sierraplas.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 CAD. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:02:15Total 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 CAD 15.2 million of increase in CPS segment revenue, CAD 6.2 million from well servicing, and CAD 1.6 million from RTS segment. Third quarter EBITDA decreased by CAD 7.6 million as compared to 2024 due primarily to the relative increase in lower margin CPS and well servicing segment revenues due to consolidated revenue. A CAD 1.8 million year-over-year negative foreign exchange impact on CPS segment results and CAD 1.5 million year-over-year increase in share-based compensation due to increase in net market price of Total Energy shares. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:03:27Geographically, 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%, Well 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%, Well Servicing at 10%, and RTS segment at 8%. Third quarter consolidated gross margin was 22% in 2025, which was 409 basis points lower than 2024. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:04:40Contributing to this decline was a 417 basis point year-over-year increase in third quarter revenue contribution from CPS and Well Servicing segment, as these business segments historically generate lower margins than the CDS and RTS segments. A year-over-year decline in North American drilling third quarter gross margin percentage in all business segments was partially offset by improved Australian results. Third quarter CDS segment revenue decreased 5% compared to 2024. A 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. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:05:45Third quarter CDS segment EBITDA decreased by 3% compared to 2024 due to lower North American drilling fee that was partially offset by high activity and pricing in Australia. CDS segment EBITDA margin during Q3 of 2025 was consistent with 2024, as the overall decrease in third quarter operating days was offset 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 fee due to a change in mix of equipment operating. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:06:38Higher costs associated with the 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 CAD 4.2 million with 22% compared to 2024. CAD 1.8 million of this decline was due to increase in cost of services resulting from a weakening Canadian dollar relative to the U. S. dollar. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:07:39Also contributing to this decline was 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 passed on to the customers. The fabrication sales backlog at September 30, 2025, was CAD 380.8 million, which is a CAD 76.9 million or 25% increase, and it's higher compared to the CAD 303.9 million backlog at June 30, 2025. In well servicing, a 5% increase in revenue per service hour combined with a 19% increase in operating hours resulted in a 24% year-over-year increase in third quarter segment revenue. Increased Australian and Canadian 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% increase in third quarter Australian operating income. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:08:57Offsetting 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. that was only partially offset by increased Australian utilization and pricing realized for the reactivated upgraded rigs. From a consolidated perspective, Total Energy's financial position remained very strong. At September 30, 2025, Total Energy had CAD 115.5 million of positive working capital, including CAD 57.1 million of cash. Bank debt less cash on hand was CAD 32.9 million at September 30, 2025. Total Energy's bank covenants consist of maximum senior debt to trailing 12-month bank-defined EBITDA of three times and a minimum bank-defined EBITDA to interest expense of three times. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:10:14At September 30, the company's senior bank debt to bank EBITDA ratio was 0.25x, and the bank interest coverage ratio was 36.47x. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:10:26Thank you, Yuiliya. Total's third quarter results demonstrate the resiliency of our diversified business model. Despite challenging North American drilling 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:11:31An 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 CAD 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:12:38This includes commencement 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 Montney. 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:13:49We 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. Operator00:14:23We will now begin the question-and-answer session. In order to ask a question, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Our first question will come from the line of Tim Monacello with ATB Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Tim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital Markets00:14:39Thanks 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 the CPS segment to be somewhat similar from a product sales perspective to what it's been over the last couple of quarters as we go through 2026 until that expansion is commissioned? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:15:14Tim, 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. There's a cost to doing that. We're trying to balance the demand and putting orders through the shop with the incremental costs that would arise from adding additional night shifts primarily in Canada. Certainly, Weirton, when we have the expansion completed, obviously, we're going to be ramping up our labor force in advance of that. 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. Tim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital Markets00:16:40That's helpful. I joined the call a little bit late, but I'm sure you provided some commentary on the compression margins in the quarter. 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:17:06Yeah, 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. Again, we have a pretty pragmatic approach to dealing with FX changes to lock in economics on orders, but that's never perfect. When you have volatility, short-term material swings can impact, and sometimes it's positive, sometimes it's negative. Year-over-year, it was CAD 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. That certainly helped our margins on other packages. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:18:25In hindsight, it was the right decision in the sense that the market turned significantly in early 2025. If we would not have preserved our labor force, we probably would not be enjoying the success we have to date. We are now working on those projects. They will have a short-term hit on our operating margins, but by the end of the year, that will be old news. 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 are running pretty hot right now. The final point I was going to make is there is cost inflation. It has been, as everyone knows, a pretty interesting and dynamic marketplace. Steel is obviously a big component of the inputs within the CPS segment. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:19:31There was a lot of volatility, and there is a timing difference between when an order is received, when the materials required for that order are procured, and when that order is completed. It is a pretty dynamic environment. 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 have not faced any issues on that front. There were some serious questions earlier in the year about whether there would be cross-border issues. Candidly, one of the reasons we are expanding our U.S. production is to get ahead of any potential changes to Canadian-U.S. trade relations. Tim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital Markets00:20:39Okay, that makes a lot of sense. I'm glad that you mentioned, I guess, the strength of the compression market. You've been booking record order flow for the first three quarters of the year. Do you see that continuing in Q4? Is there any leading edge indicators that would suggest any changes to? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:21:13To date, we continue to see very strong demand. Tim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital Markets00:21:19Okay. And so booking that's placed today, when would a customer expect delivery? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:21:29Depends on the unit and depends how much they're willing to pay. You want to get to the front of the line. There are ways to do that. How do you allocate scarce resource price? One of the challenges that we're facing right now, Tim, is some of the lead times for major inputs, notably CAD engines, are now well in excess of 90 weeks. We are 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. We have been there before. We have never seen quite the lead times we are seeing now. I can tell you that is also a benefit to larger players. To try and compete in this market without a balance sheet is very difficult. You see it in our inventory levels are going up. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:22:36Like I said, we're having to make investment decisions on inventory two years in advance, which, again, I've never seen anything like that. 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. So far, we've seen no signs of that music slowing down. Tim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital Markets00:23:04All right. That is positive. 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 as we go through the? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:23:25We had noted that in our Q2 call that we had, subsequent to quarter-end, a pretty significant Canadian rental contract for a bunch of our Nomads. It is 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. It is 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. Those things tend to come and go. What we are seeing, particularly in the U.S., is we have seen it before, and it kind of comes in cycles, but pretty aggressive pricing, I would 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:24:33We also build for compression for a bunch of those companies, and we are not inclined to compete with them. Frankly, our cost of capital is likely higher, so we do not try. That has put a little bit of pressure on the U.S. rental fleet. Again, for short-term specific applications, that is where we are good at or where customers want the flexibility to keep the units off their balance sheet in terms of not being capital leases. Tim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital Markets00:25:08Got it. Last one for me. Can you just talk a little bit about the opportunities that you're assessing currently? I know you don't have a 2026 budget formalized yet, but just some of the areas of growth opportunities. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:25:30Certainly, in Australia, our performance has been very good operationally. I think the quality of our equipment is causing continued interest in us reactivating and upgrading rigs. We are certainly active in that market and discussions. I would say it is largely market share gains as opposed to a growing market. The overall market in Australia has been pretty stable. We have not 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 are select targeted opportunities to upgrade equipment. I mentioned the Triple that went straight to work as soon as it was done. It is in the Alberta Montney. That is a very special rig. We are watching it keenly, as I am sure others are. If the business case exists, we will not hesitate to do further similar upgrades. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:26:54I think the other thing we're very interested in doing is gaining critical mass in our existing business segments in North America, particularly the U.S. We're going to be disciplined and focused, so we're not going to force anything. We were able to do a smaller deal in June on the rental side. 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. Tim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital Markets00:27:29Okay, that's helpful. I'll turn it back next. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:27:32Thanks, Tim. Operator00:27:34Again, for questions, simply press star one. Our next question will come from the line of Joseph Schachter with Schachter Energy Research. Please go ahead. Josef SchachterEnergy Analyst at Schachter Energy Research Services00:27:43Good morning, Daniel and Yuliya, 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? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:28:10Yeah, certainly. We could certainly get there. Like I said, we do not see the market growing. It is going to be more market share gains. One of the big challenges in Australia is labor. We have 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. I can tell you that is our concern globally. It is less of a concern, obviously, in North America given a bit softer market conditions. We have seen other companies take a more aggressive approach on expansion, and it usually does not end well. A lot of the problems arise from straining your labor force. We are going to take a very methodical controlled approach. You have sort of seen it, Joseph, over the past year where it has been rig at a time. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:29:26We could certainly be more aggressive. Capital is not the issue. It's, in our view, first of all, quality product. Trying to do too much at once is going to strain our supply chains. Number two, equally, if not more important, is ensuring we've got confident labor to staff the equipment. Josef SchachterEnergy Analyst at Schachter Energy Research Services00:29:49Of the four rigs that are left in Australia, are any of them being looked at by people so that you could upgrade those and put them to work in 2026? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:30:01They'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. Canada is the worst where we tend to be much more of a spot market mentality where Australia, when you commit a rig, it's for years. And so these upgrades we're doing are substantial and take several quarters to do, not weeks. I'm not going to comment on timing. I will say we are in active discussion, so on a number of fronts there. Josef SchachterEnergy Analyst at Schachter Energy Research Services00:30:43Okay. Next one for me, compression margins this quarter, 15%, down from 22% a year ago. You mentioned that through year-end, it's going to be in the lower numbers. What's the kind of number that you could see in 2026? Are we going to get back into the 20%s? What would be peak kind of margins in your view for the CPS business? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:31:07I think we're learning a little bit as we go. As we discussed earlier, we're starting to push the limits of our plant capacity. Obviously, there are levers we can pull to increase that, but there is cost to doing so. We're also testing continuously the market on pricing. Again, we're learning as much as anyone as we go into what has been a very strong market. What I would say is Q3, we definitely—let me put it this way—I hope that is bottom. 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:32:04Certainly, given the strong demand and strong backlog, the projects we are bidding currently and have bid for the past several months, quoted margins would be substantially in excess of the orders that we are currently—some of the orders we are working on in Q3 going into Q4. Josef SchachterEnergy Analyst at Schachter Energy Research Services00:32:32Okay. Last one for me. You've done, as you said, the RTS did a 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, CAD 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? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:33:08All of the above. If we could do another Savanna acquisition, we're game. Josef SchachterEnergy Analyst at Schachter Energy Research Services00:33:16Is 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? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:33:33I would say there's starting to be some alignment between value expectations and current public market valuations for energy service companies. I think I would also say there's probably some private companies that are getting tired. I don't really want to speculate more than that. I would say the pipeline is busy, but it's got to work for our existing shareholders. I use Savanna that we did in 2017 as a prime example where that was an accretive deal, but it also was very beneficial post-closing to Savanna shareholders that stayed along for the ride. This really, at the end of the day, it's going to be shareholders of the target that decide what they want. There's public and private, and you can't force those things, but we're also not going to be stupid about it. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:34:43Tried not to be stupid for 29 years and don't want to start being stupid now. Josef SchachterEnergy Analyst at Schachter Energy Research Services00:34:50Super. Okay. Thanks for answering all my questions. I much appreciate it. Thanks, Daniel. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:34:55Thanks, Joseph. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:34:56Thank you, Joseph. Operator00:34:58A final reminder for questions, simply press star one. Our next question comes from the line of Paul Tharkman with the shareholder. Please go ahead. Operator00:35:07Hi. Good morning, Paul. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:35:10Morning, Paul. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:35:10You'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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:35:53Good question, Paul. First and foremost, when we accept business, we expect to execute that business at our high standards, and we won't cut corners. If it's in the CPS segment, it means building quality equipment. If it's on the drilling or well servicing or 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:36:44For 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 is kind of timely. There was a recent catastrophic service rig event, 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:37:51Again, 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. I don't know if that answers your question, but. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:38:48Yeah. No, that's helpful. I mean, 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 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. There is therefore no surprise. There are more opportunities ahead, it seems. Thank you for that. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:39:16Yeah. I look at our customer base in Australia or even Canada and the U.S. It is blue chip, but it is a wide range. It is private, public, small, large. I think it has got to work for both sides over the full cycle. Good customers appreciate that. We have the same perspective with our suppliers. We do not expect them to work for nothing. It is not in our interest to see our supply chain condensed down to one or two suppliers. That is not in our long-term interest. We will definitely support multiple suppliers in weaker parts of the cycle. It is in our interest to have competition for our business. I would assume our customers see it the same way. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:40:15That's great. Thank you. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:40:17Thanks, Paul. Operator00:40:19That will conclude our question and answer session. I'll turn the call back to Dan for any closing comments. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:40:26Thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning. We look forward to speaking with you after we release our year-end results in March. Have a good rest of your day. Operator00:40:38This does conclude our call today. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesYuliya GorbachCFODaniel HalykPresident and CEOAnalystsJosef SchachterEnergy Analyst at Schachter Energy Research ServicesAnalystTim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital MarketsPowered by Earnings DocumentsEarnings Release Total Energy Services Earnings HeadlinesA Look At Total Energy Services (TSX:TOT) Valuation After Robust Q1 2026 Earnings And Backlog GrowthMay 16 at 8:07 AM | finance.yahoo.comTotal Energy Services Inc. Announces Q1 2026 ResultsMay 12, 2026 | globenewswire.comSpaceX eyes a 1.75 trillion valuation - here's what to knowElon Musk's team has quietly filed confidential paperwork with the SEC for what Bloomberg estimates could be a $1.75 trillion IPO - larger than Saudi Aramco and any tech offering in history. CNBC calls it 'the big market event of 2026.' According to former tech executive and angel investor Jeff Brown, there's a way to claim a stake before the public filing drops, starting with as little as $500.May 19 at 1:00 AM | Brownstone Research (Ad)Total Energy Services: Still Attractive After The Run-UpDecember 3, 2025 | seekingalpha.comEnergy services sector continues to shed jobsNovember 24, 2025 | msn.comTotal Energy Services Reports Q3 2025 Financial ResultsNovember 13, 2025 | msn.comSee More Total Energy Services Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Total Energy Services? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Total Energy Services and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Total Energy ServicesTotal Energy Services (TSE:TOT) Inc is an energy services company. The operating segments of the company are Contract Drilling Services, Rentals & Transportation Services, Compression & Process Service, Well servicing, and Corporate. The company's operations are conducted in Canada, the United States of America, and Australia.View Total Energy Services ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Latest Articles Dillard’s Posted a Huge Earnings Beat—So Why Did the Rally Fade?Why Applied Optoelectronics Stock May Be Near a Turning PointIs Everspin Technologies the Next AI Edge Breakout?Peloton Stock Gives Back Gains After Upbeat Earnings ReportDatavault Gains Traction: 5 Reasons to Sell NowTMC Stock: Why This Pre-Revenue Miner Is Worth WatchingRobinhood, SoFi, and Webull Are Telling Very Different Stories Upcoming Earnings Analog Devices (5/20/2026)Intuit (5/20/2026)NVIDIA (5/20/2026)Lowe's Companies (5/20/2026)Medtronic (5/20/2026)Target (5/20/2026)TJX Companies (5/20/2026)NetEase (5/21/2026)Ross Stores (5/21/2026)Walmart (5/21/2026) Get 30 Days of MarketBeat All Access for Free Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools. Start Your 30-Day Trial MarketBeat All Access Features Best-in-Class Portfolio Monitoring Get personalized stock ideas. Compare portfolio to indices. Check stock news, ratings, SEC filings, and more. Stock Ideas and Recommendations See daily stock ideas from top analysts. Receive short-term trading ideas from MarketBeat. Identify trending stocks on social media. Advanced Stock Screeners and Research Tools Use our seven stock screeners to find suitable stocks. Stay informed with MarketBeat's real-time news. Export data to Excel for personal analysis. Sign in to your free account to enjoy these benefits In-depth profiles and analysis for 20,000 public companies. Real-time analyst ratings, insider transactions, earnings data, and more. Our daily ratings and market update email newsletter. Sign in to your free account to enjoy all that MarketBeat has to offer. Sign In Create Account Your Email Address: Email Address Required Your Password: Password Required Log In Email Me a Login Link or Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Google Forgot your password? Your Email Address: Please enter your email address. Please enter a valid email address Choose a Password: Please enter your password. Your password must be at least 8 characters long and contain at least 1 number, 1 letter, and 1 special character. Create My Account (Free) or Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Google By creating a free account, you agree to our terms of service. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Hello, 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 Services 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 one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I would now like to turn the conference over to Daniel Halyk, President and CEO. Please go ahead. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:00:36Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Total Energy Services third quarter 2025 conference call. Present with me is Yuiliya Gorbach, 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. Yuiliya, please go ahead. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:01:01Thank you, Dan. During the course of this conference call, information may be provided containing forward-looking information concerning Total's projected operating results, anticipated capital expenditure trends, and projected activity in the oil and gas industry. Actual events and results may differ materially from those reflected in Total's forward-looking statement due to a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors affecting Total's businesses and the oil and gas service industry in general. These risks, uncertainties, and other factors are described under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in Total's most recently filed annual information form and other documents filed with Canadian Provincial Securities Authority that are available to the public at www.sierraplas.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 CAD. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:02:15Total 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 CAD 15.2 million of increase in CPS segment revenue, CAD 6.2 million from well servicing, and CAD 1.6 million from RTS segment. Third quarter EBITDA decreased by CAD 7.6 million as compared to 2024 due primarily to the relative increase in lower margin CPS and well servicing segment revenues due to consolidated revenue. A CAD 1.8 million year-over-year negative foreign exchange impact on CPS segment results and CAD 1.5 million year-over-year increase in share-based compensation due to increase in net market price of Total Energy shares. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:03:27Geographically, 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%, Well 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%, Well Servicing at 10%, and RTS segment at 8%. Third quarter consolidated gross margin was 22% in 2025, which was 409 basis points lower than 2024. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:04:40Contributing to this decline was a 417 basis point year-over-year increase in third quarter revenue contribution from CPS and Well Servicing segment, as these business segments historically generate lower margins than the CDS and RTS segments. A year-over-year decline in North American drilling third quarter gross margin percentage in all business segments was partially offset by improved Australian results. Third quarter CDS segment revenue decreased 5% compared to 2024. A 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. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:05:45Third quarter CDS segment EBITDA decreased by 3% compared to 2024 due to lower North American drilling fee that was partially offset by high activity and pricing in Australia. CDS segment EBITDA margin during Q3 of 2025 was consistent with 2024, as the overall decrease in third quarter operating days was offset 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 fee due to a change in mix of equipment operating. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:06:38Higher costs associated with the 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 CAD 4.2 million with 22% compared to 2024. CAD 1.8 million of this decline was due to increase in cost of services resulting from a weakening Canadian dollar relative to the U. S. dollar. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:07:39Also contributing to this decline was 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 passed on to the customers. The fabrication sales backlog at September 30, 2025, was CAD 380.8 million, which is a CAD 76.9 million or 25% increase, and it's higher compared to the CAD 303.9 million backlog at June 30, 2025. In well servicing, a 5% increase in revenue per service hour combined with a 19% increase in operating hours resulted in a 24% year-over-year increase in third quarter segment revenue. Increased Australian and Canadian 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% increase in third quarter Australian operating income. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:08:57Offsetting 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. that was only partially offset by increased Australian utilization and pricing realized for the reactivated upgraded rigs. From a consolidated perspective, Total Energy's financial position remained very strong. At September 30, 2025, Total Energy had CAD 115.5 million of positive working capital, including CAD 57.1 million of cash. Bank debt less cash on hand was CAD 32.9 million at September 30, 2025. Total Energy's bank covenants consist of maximum senior debt to trailing 12-month bank-defined EBITDA of three times and a minimum bank-defined EBITDA to interest expense of three times. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:10:14At September 30, the company's senior bank debt to bank EBITDA ratio was 0.25x, and the bank interest coverage ratio was 36.47x. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:10:26Thank you, Yuiliya. Total's third quarter results demonstrate the resiliency of our diversified business model. Despite challenging North American drilling 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:11:31An 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 CAD 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:12:38This includes commencement 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 Montney. 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:13:49We 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. Operator00:14:23We will now begin the question-and-answer session. In order to ask a question, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Our first question will come from the line of Tim Monacello with ATB Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Tim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital Markets00:14:39Thanks 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 the CPS segment to be somewhat similar from a product sales perspective to what it's been over the last couple of quarters as we go through 2026 until that expansion is commissioned? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:15:14Tim, 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. There's a cost to doing that. We're trying to balance the demand and putting orders through the shop with the incremental costs that would arise from adding additional night shifts primarily in Canada. Certainly, Weirton, when we have the expansion completed, obviously, we're going to be ramping up our labor force in advance of that. 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. Tim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital Markets00:16:40That's helpful. I joined the call a little bit late, but I'm sure you provided some commentary on the compression margins in the quarter. 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:17:06Yeah, 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. Again, we have a pretty pragmatic approach to dealing with FX changes to lock in economics on orders, but that's never perfect. When you have volatility, short-term material swings can impact, and sometimes it's positive, sometimes it's negative. Year-over-year, it was CAD 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. That certainly helped our margins on other packages. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:18:25In hindsight, it was the right decision in the sense that the market turned significantly in early 2025. If we would not have preserved our labor force, we probably would not be enjoying the success we have to date. We are now working on those projects. They will have a short-term hit on our operating margins, but by the end of the year, that will be old news. 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 are running pretty hot right now. The final point I was going to make is there is cost inflation. It has been, as everyone knows, a pretty interesting and dynamic marketplace. Steel is obviously a big component of the inputs within the CPS segment. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:19:31There was a lot of volatility, and there is a timing difference between when an order is received, when the materials required for that order are procured, and when that order is completed. It is a pretty dynamic environment. 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 have not faced any issues on that front. There were some serious questions earlier in the year about whether there would be cross-border issues. Candidly, one of the reasons we are expanding our U.S. production is to get ahead of any potential changes to Canadian-U.S. trade relations. Tim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital Markets00:20:39Okay, that makes a lot of sense. I'm glad that you mentioned, I guess, the strength of the compression market. You've been booking record order flow for the first three quarters of the year. Do you see that continuing in Q4? Is there any leading edge indicators that would suggest any changes to? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:21:13To date, we continue to see very strong demand. Tim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital Markets00:21:19Okay. And so booking that's placed today, when would a customer expect delivery? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:21:29Depends on the unit and depends how much they're willing to pay. You want to get to the front of the line. There are ways to do that. How do you allocate scarce resource price? One of the challenges that we're facing right now, Tim, is some of the lead times for major inputs, notably CAD engines, are now well in excess of 90 weeks. We are 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. We have been there before. We have never seen quite the lead times we are seeing now. I can tell you that is also a benefit to larger players. To try and compete in this market without a balance sheet is very difficult. You see it in our inventory levels are going up. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:22:36Like I said, we're having to make investment decisions on inventory two years in advance, which, again, I've never seen anything like that. 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. So far, we've seen no signs of that music slowing down. Tim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital Markets00:23:04All right. That is positive. 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 as we go through the? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:23:25We had noted that in our Q2 call that we had, subsequent to quarter-end, a pretty significant Canadian rental contract for a bunch of our Nomads. It is 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. It is 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. Those things tend to come and go. What we are seeing, particularly in the U.S., is we have seen it before, and it kind of comes in cycles, but pretty aggressive pricing, I would 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:24:33We also build for compression for a bunch of those companies, and we are not inclined to compete with them. Frankly, our cost of capital is likely higher, so we do not try. That has put a little bit of pressure on the U.S. rental fleet. Again, for short-term specific applications, that is where we are good at or where customers want the flexibility to keep the units off their balance sheet in terms of not being capital leases. Tim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital Markets00:25:08Got it. Last one for me. Can you just talk a little bit about the opportunities that you're assessing currently? I know you don't have a 2026 budget formalized yet, but just some of the areas of growth opportunities. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:25:30Certainly, in Australia, our performance has been very good operationally. I think the quality of our equipment is causing continued interest in us reactivating and upgrading rigs. We are certainly active in that market and discussions. I would say it is largely market share gains as opposed to a growing market. The overall market in Australia has been pretty stable. We have not 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 are select targeted opportunities to upgrade equipment. I mentioned the Triple that went straight to work as soon as it was done. It is in the Alberta Montney. That is a very special rig. We are watching it keenly, as I am sure others are. If the business case exists, we will not hesitate to do further similar upgrades. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:26:54I think the other thing we're very interested in doing is gaining critical mass in our existing business segments in North America, particularly the U.S. We're going to be disciplined and focused, so we're not going to force anything. We were able to do a smaller deal in June on the rental side. 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. Tim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital Markets00:27:29Okay, that's helpful. I'll turn it back next. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:27:32Thanks, Tim. Operator00:27:34Again, for questions, simply press star one. Our next question will come from the line of Joseph Schachter with Schachter Energy Research. Please go ahead. Josef SchachterEnergy Analyst at Schachter Energy Research Services00:27:43Good morning, Daniel and Yuliya, 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? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:28:10Yeah, certainly. We could certainly get there. Like I said, we do not see the market growing. It is going to be more market share gains. One of the big challenges in Australia is labor. We have 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. I can tell you that is our concern globally. It is less of a concern, obviously, in North America given a bit softer market conditions. We have seen other companies take a more aggressive approach on expansion, and it usually does not end well. A lot of the problems arise from straining your labor force. We are going to take a very methodical controlled approach. You have sort of seen it, Joseph, over the past year where it has been rig at a time. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:29:26We could certainly be more aggressive. Capital is not the issue. It's, in our view, first of all, quality product. Trying to do too much at once is going to strain our supply chains. Number two, equally, if not more important, is ensuring we've got confident labor to staff the equipment. Josef SchachterEnergy Analyst at Schachter Energy Research Services00:29:49Of the four rigs that are left in Australia, are any of them being looked at by people so that you could upgrade those and put them to work in 2026? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:30:01They'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. Canada is the worst where we tend to be much more of a spot market mentality where Australia, when you commit a rig, it's for years. And so these upgrades we're doing are substantial and take several quarters to do, not weeks. I'm not going to comment on timing. I will say we are in active discussion, so on a number of fronts there. Josef SchachterEnergy Analyst at Schachter Energy Research Services00:30:43Okay. Next one for me, compression margins this quarter, 15%, down from 22% a year ago. You mentioned that through year-end, it's going to be in the lower numbers. What's the kind of number that you could see in 2026? Are we going to get back into the 20%s? What would be peak kind of margins in your view for the CPS business? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:31:07I think we're learning a little bit as we go. As we discussed earlier, we're starting to push the limits of our plant capacity. Obviously, there are levers we can pull to increase that, but there is cost to doing so. We're also testing continuously the market on pricing. Again, we're learning as much as anyone as we go into what has been a very strong market. What I would say is Q3, we definitely—let me put it this way—I hope that is bottom. 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:32:04Certainly, given the strong demand and strong backlog, the projects we are bidding currently and have bid for the past several months, quoted margins would be substantially in excess of the orders that we are currently—some of the orders we are working on in Q3 going into Q4. Josef SchachterEnergy Analyst at Schachter Energy Research Services00:32:32Okay. Last one for me. You've done, as you said, the RTS did a 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, CAD 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? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:33:08All of the above. If we could do another Savanna acquisition, we're game. Josef SchachterEnergy Analyst at Schachter Energy Research Services00:33:16Is 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? Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:33:33I would say there's starting to be some alignment between value expectations and current public market valuations for energy service companies. I think I would also say there's probably some private companies that are getting tired. I don't really want to speculate more than that. I would say the pipeline is busy, but it's got to work for our existing shareholders. I use Savanna that we did in 2017 as a prime example where that was an accretive deal, but it also was very beneficial post-closing to Savanna shareholders that stayed along for the ride. This really, at the end of the day, it's going to be shareholders of the target that decide what they want. There's public and private, and you can't force those things, but we're also not going to be stupid about it. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:34:43Tried not to be stupid for 29 years and don't want to start being stupid now. Josef SchachterEnergy Analyst at Schachter Energy Research Services00:34:50Super. Okay. Thanks for answering all my questions. I much appreciate it. Thanks, Daniel. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:34:55Thanks, Joseph. Yuliya GorbachCFO at Total Energy Services00:34:56Thank you, Joseph. Operator00:34:58A final reminder for questions, simply press star one. Our next question comes from the line of Paul Tharkman with the shareholder. Please go ahead. Operator00:35:07Hi. Good morning, Paul. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:35:10Morning, Paul. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:35:10You'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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:35:53Good question, Paul. First and foremost, when we accept business, we expect to execute that business at our high standards, and we won't cut corners. If it's in the CPS segment, it means building quality equipment. If it's on the drilling or well servicing or 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:36:44For 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 is kind of timely. There was a recent catastrophic service rig event, 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. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:37:51Again, 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. I don't know if that answers your question, but. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:38:48Yeah. No, that's helpful. I mean, 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 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. There is therefore no surprise. There are more opportunities ahead, it seems. Thank you for that. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:39:16Yeah. I look at our customer base in Australia or even Canada and the U.S. It is blue chip, but it is a wide range. It is private, public, small, large. I think it has got to work for both sides over the full cycle. Good customers appreciate that. We have the same perspective with our suppliers. We do not expect them to work for nothing. It is not in our interest to see our supply chain condensed down to one or two suppliers. That is not in our long-term interest. We will definitely support multiple suppliers in weaker parts of the cycle. It is in our interest to have competition for our business. I would assume our customers see it the same way. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:40:15That's great. Thank you. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:40:17Thanks, Paul. Operator00:40:19That will conclude our question and answer session. I'll turn the call back to Dan for any closing comments. Daniel HalykPresident and CEO at Total Energy Services00:40:26Thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning. We look forward to speaking with you after we release our year-end results in March. Have a good rest of your day. Operator00:40:38This does conclude our call today. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesYuliya GorbachCFODaniel HalykPresident and CEOAnalystsJosef SchachterEnergy Analyst at Schachter Energy Research ServicesAnalystTim MonachelloAnalyst at ATB Capital MarketsPowered by