Trican Well Service Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
May 12, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Q1 results improved year over year, with revenue rising to CAD 330.3 million from CAD 259.1 million, supported by higher activity and a full quarter from the Iron Horse acquisition.
  • Positive Sentiment: The company generated CAD 49.6 million of free cash flow and ended the quarter with a strong balance sheet, including positive non-cash working capital of CAD 142.7 million and net debt of only CAD 29.8 million.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Management said Q1 likely marked the low point for pricing, but acknowledged the quarter saw meaningful pricing pressure and higher input costs tied to oil-driven inflation across fuels, chemicals, steel, sand, and transportation.
  • Positive Sentiment: The company remains focused on technology-led differentiation, highlighting its Tier 4 frac pumps, electric ancillary equipment, and upcoming natural-gas-powered trucks and 100% natural gas frac pumpers as key efficiency advantages.
  • Positive Sentiment: Management expects stronger activity in the second half of 2026, especially for Iron Horse and the broader Canadian market, and reiterated plans to return about 50% of free cash flow to shareholders through buybacks and dividends.
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Earnings Conference Call
Trican Well Service Q1 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Brad Fedora, President and Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Thank you very much for joining us. Good morning, everyone. First, to start the call, Scott Matson, our CFO, will give an overview of the quarterly results for Q1 2026, and then I'll provide some comments with respect to the quarter, the current operating conditions, and our outlook for the future, both near and far. Then we'll open up the call for questions. We've got several members of our executive team in the room here today, so we should be able to answer any questions that people may have. I'll now turn it over to Scott to start us off.

Scott Matson
CFO at Trican

Thanks, Brad, and good morning, everyone. Just before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements and other information based on current expectations or results for the company. Certain material factors or assumptions that were applied in drawing conclusions or making projections are reflected in the forward-looking information section of our MD&A for Q1 2026. A number of business risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements and our financial outlook. Please refer to our 2025 Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31st, 2025, for a more complete description of business risks and uncertainties facing Trican. This document is available both on our website and on SEDAR. During this call, we will refer to several common industry terms and use certain non-GAAP measures, which are more fully described in our Q4 2025 MD&A.

Scott Matson
CFO at Trican

Our quarterly results were released after close of market last night and are available both on SEDAR and our website. With that, I'll provide a brief summary of our results. My comments will draw comparisons mostly to the first quarter of last year, and I will also provide some commentary about our current activity levels and our expectations going forward. Trican's results for the quarter compared to last year's Q1 were generally stronger due to an increase in operating activity and also with the inclusion of a full quarter of contribution from the Iron Horse acquisition. Overall revenues for the quarter were CAD 330.3 million compared to CAD 259.1 million we generated in Q1 of 2025.

Scott Matson
CFO at Trican

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter, CAD 70.1 million or 21% of revenues compared to adjusted EBITDA of CAD 61.3 million or 24% of revenues generated in Q1 of last year. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter came in at CAD 77.7 million or 24% of revenues, up from the CAD 62.3 million or 24% of revenues in Q1 of last year. To arrive at EBITDA, we add back the effects of cash-settled stock-based comp recognized in the quarter to more clearly show the results of our operations and remove some of the mark-to-market impact from our share price between reporting dates. On a consolidated basis, we generated positive earnings of CAD 30.3 million in the quarter.

Scott Matson
CFO at Trican

That translates to CAD 0.14 per share, both on a basic and fully diluted basis, compared to the CAD 31.9 million and CAD 0.17 per share on a basic and fully diluted basis in Q1 of last year. Profit and profit per share were impacted primarily by higher depreciation expense related to Iron Horse, our technology initiative expenses, and the higher stock-based comp during the quarter. Trican generated free cash flow, CAD 49.6 million, during the quarter. Our definition of free cash flow is essentially EBITDA less non-discretionary cash expenditures, which includes maintenance capital, interest, current taxes, and cash-settled stock-based comp. You can see more details on this in the non-GAAP measures section of our MD&A. CapEx for the quarter totaled CAD 18.5 million, split between maintenance capital of about CAD 9.6 million and upgrade capital of CAD 8.9 million.

Scott Matson
CFO at Trican

Our upgrade capital was dedicated mainly to the electrification of our fourth set of ancillary frac support equipment and ongoing investments to maintain the productive capability of our active equipment. We continue to maintain a very strong balance sheet exiting the quarter with positive non-cash working capital of CAD 142.7 million and net debt of CAD 29.8 million. Both measures meaningfully down from the December 31st, 2025, levels. Reduction in net debt during the quarter was mostly a result of some working capital harvest and the free cash flow generated in the period. With respect to our return of capital strategy, we repurchased and canceled 756,900,000 shares under our NCIB program in the first quarter at a weighted average cost of CAD 6.46 per share.

Scott Matson
CFO at Trican

Subsequent to Q1 of 2026, we repurchased and canceled an additional 289,000 shares and continue to be active in our buyback program when market prices are at levels that provide for a favorable investment opportunity. As noted in our press release, the board of directors approved a dividend of CAD 0.0055 per share, reflecting approximately CAD 11.6 million in aggregate payments to shareholders. Distribution is scheduled to be made on June 30th, 2026, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on June 15th, 2026. I would note that the dividends are designated as eligible dividends for Canadian income tax purposes. With that, I'll turn things back to Brad.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Scott, maybe just before I start, remind everybody how much we've spent buying back our shares just even since COVID.

Scott Matson
CFO at Trican

Oof. Well, we bought back 53% of the outstanding shares.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Yeah

Scott Matson
CFO at Trican

that were sitting there kind of at the beginning of 2017/2018.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Yeah. We've been very active. It's been a big investment avenue for us, and it's definitely something to consider. You know, we view the NCIB as M&A, sort of risk-free M&A with a very good target company. We've been really happy with the progress we've made on the NCIB in the past few years. Okay. I'll make some comments about Q1. Some forward-looking observations for 2026 and beyond. Please, as Scott was mentioning, please see our disclaimer that can be found on our website. Q1, overall, the quarter went pretty much as expected. We were quite active.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

You know, we did have quite a bit of pricing pressure. The quarter, it probably doesn't reflect the activity that we had, and we're sort of hoping that Q1 will represent the bottom for pricing going forward. You know, we were still generally pretty happy with the quarter. A lot of tough weather in February, which we always budget for. Certainly we were dealing with some very warm conditions and for a good chunk of February, which made for a bit of a choppy quarter, but overall, it seemed to play out nicely. We got some cold weather towards the end of March, which really helped us make up what we had lost in the month of February. We always kind of expect to deal with those issues in Q1 and Q4.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Customers, again, are still, you know, very focused on our technology and our efficiencies. You know, particularly now with the ability to burn natural gas in our natural gas fueled frac pumps and our electric ancillary equipment. Given the price of, you know, where diesel went to in since the beginning of the year, those assets are looking, you know, even better. You can be well over CAD 100,000 a day in fuel savings by burning natural gas instead of diesel. In fact, it's probably pushing towards CAD 150,000 a day. You know, we're the leader in Tier 4 technology. I think we have 86 Tier 4 frac pumps. We're the leader in that.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

We have four sets of electric ancillary equipment, which is like the blenders, the Chem Van, Data Van, sand assets, et cetera. When you combine our Tier 4 frac pumps with our electric equipment, you know, we get very high substitution rates, without a doubt, industry-leading, not just in Canada, but in North America. We are very fortunate that our customers have level loaded.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

I think I've spoken about this in the past, but you know, as you see, if you look back at our quarters, Q3, Q4, and Q1 all looked very similar, and there's lots of variations between the quarters, but it makes for a much more efficient business when you can level load the activity levels and the staffing levels and you're not, you know, seeing those things go up and down and having to react from a staffing perspective. Very, you know, very happy with the way that's unfolding. We are seeing inflation given that what's happened with oil prices. I'm not gonna comment on the Middle Eastern situation. I think everybody's fully aware of what's going on there and what that's done to oil prices. That, of course, has flowed through our entire value chain.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

It is pressuring on our margins, but that's okay. You know, we'll adjust and react accordingly. It's impacting almost everything, whether it's, you know, fuels, chemicals, steel, sand, transportation, you know, all of that is affected by oil prices as everybody can see in their day-to-day lives. You know, when oil price goes from CAD 57 to over CAD 100, there's a big impact on many aspects of the economy, and we're certainly not immune from that. We're still very natural gas focused. About 75% of the work that we do in Western Canada is what we would consider to be a natural gas well. Of course, these oil prices translate into higher condensate pricing. Even the gassy players are benefiting from what's been happening lately.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

You know, condensate pricing is well over CAD 100, as high as CAD 145 at one time, I think. All four of our divisions, you know, the two frac divisions, the Coil and the Cement division are all performing, all performing well, and we're really happy with the strategic direction of all four of those. I'll just make some comments about each one. On the Trican Frac division, which is the deep work, which is very pretty much Montney and Duvernay-focused, I think everything is going well. That's where we've really differentiated our service offering with the investments we've made in technology. Without a doubt, we are the technical leader in natural gas fuel pumps and electric operations in Canada. I think our customers can see the benefits of those operations.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

You know, in the plays, Montney and Duvernay, the wells are getting longer. There's more stages, more sand per stage in some cases. All of that means more sand per well. You know, you gotta be careful when you look at the well count now. That's not really the primary driver of our services. You really have to look at meters drilled. Without a doubt, you know, the more sand that gets pumped, the more time on location for us. We typically charge by the hour. That will use up the effective capacity in the industry. We fully expect that pressure pumping services will get tighter and tighter as the months go by here.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

You know, unfortunately, given the amount of sand that's being pumped into the well, we're seeing more and more customers trying to self-source sand, which is a big contributor of EBITDA and cash flow for us. You know, we are losing some of that and, you know, we're just trying to figure out every way possible to offset that loss. Particularly, you know, we view the logistics offering that we have or our logistics division as the main way that we're gonna offset that. We've been growing the logistics division. We have the largest fleet of sand trucks in Western Canada, and we're continuing to invest in that division. There's lots of technology that we can deploy in that as well. You know, I think our first natural gas-fueled trucks will arrive in August.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

We ordered three of them. Really well. There'd be a big fuel savings there. You know, they have as far as a 1,100 km range. Even though the natural gas fueling infrastructure isn't as developed as, you know, we expect it to be in a few years, we don't think that'll be a problem for us. We'll fuel those trucks up in Grande Prairie, and they should be able to deliver sand to all of our customers' locations. Really looking forward to getting those in the field. We also received our first 100% Cat G3520 natural gas frac pumper, and that is the next evolution in the natural gas fuel technology. Testing was completed in Q1, and then we just recently have moved that into the field.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

We'll see how it does in real operating conditions. So far, you know, very happy with the performance of that. These are high horsepower, high rate, you know, very heavy duty equipment that will replace almost on a two-for-one basis our old equipment. You know, we're expecting less people on location, a smaller footprint, the ability to pump at high pressures for very long periods of time, you know, without any impact on R&M. Really looking forward to that. When you combine 100% frac pumpers with our electric ancillary equipment, we're getting almost 100% substitution on location. I think our customers are very much looking forward to us having those assets in the field.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

On the Iron Horse side, you know, that division, you know, obviously suffered as a result of oil prices below CAD 60, it's, you know, it's bounced back nicely. We're really excited about the future for that division given where oil prices are. We're seeing capital being deployed into their part of the world. You know, clients are planning to return to the field earlier. They're adding wells to their budgets. This is probably the first time in almost a year where we're seeing a real renewed focus on their sort of their shallow oilier parts of the basin. You know, they continue to add new clients, their customers are coming to them asking, you know, their ability to execute given increased programs.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

You know, we fully expect this to really play out in Q4 when normally we would have otherwise seen budget exhaustion. We expect that, you know, that division will stay busy until the end of the year, right up to Christmas. You know, and just like in the Montney and the Duvernay, they're seeing stage counts grow, sand volumes per stage increasing, overall more sand being pumped into the wells. That's good for both the customer and us. We expect this division to perform, you know, much better in the second half of the year as these oil prices filter through into the programs of their customers. It's really, you know, times like this really highlight why we made that acquisition.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

You know, we now have instant exposure to the oilier parts of the basin that we previously had a basically a 0% market share in. In Cementing, again, very happy with how that division's going. They ran sort of a trial program in the SAGD market in Q1, which was a new area for us. Went very well. Assuming we can secure some customer commitments, we'll invest in infrastructure to make this a permanent area for us. If not, you know, we might just sort of play it by ear. We certainly expect that division where we have very high market share in the Montney and the Duvernay, that we can also continue to grow it into other parts of the basin.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

As with all of our divisions, you know, they're looking at technology as a way to differentiate their product offering. We're investing in things like batch plants, which mix the cement up, pre-transportation to the well to ensure that we reduce blending errors and just increase cement quality for our customers. We're also looking at hybrid cementers that would basically plug into the rig, and we would remove a lot of the hydraulics you would see with a conventional engine, which is, you know, just points of potential failure, especially when it gets cold. We'll continue to invest in technology, you know, where we think we can have an immediate benefit.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Coil division, again, that division has been sort of trying to pick itself up off the floor, and it's been going very well. I think 2025 was our best year ever in coil, and we expect 2026 to be even better. You know, really what's happening in coil is as these wells get longer, the extended reach of the coil gets tougher and tougher. We've been putting lots of effort into sort of joint venture agreements and operating agreements with tool companies to allow us to better service the customer's wells even as they continue to grow.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

You know, we've had issues with wear and tear on the coil strings. I think there's solutions being developed, you know, all around North America that we will utilize to make sure that, you know, we're able to service our customers regardless of how long these horizontal sections get. The outlook, you know, going forward, maybe I'll just touch on Q2. Q2 is going okay as always. It's very weather dependent, it could be a bit unpredictable. You know, not expecting anything out of the ordinary for Q2. I'd say revenue appears to be slightly ahead of last year. Just given what's happening on the cost side of things, due to high oil prices, we are expecting some lower margins.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Really, Q2 acts as a bit of a shock absorber for Q3. Anything you gain or lose in Q2, you typically would give back or we gain in Q3. You know, we kind of watch the weather fairly closely. We are seeing oily customers getting back to work earlier than we would have thought, even as recently as 30 days ago. A lot of Q2 depends on what happens with weather in June particular. Again, we are experiencing cost inflations across all of our product lines. As a result, you know, we've implemented fuel surcharges, and we're trying to get our prices up just to even offset the cost. I would say, generally, the customers are being very cooperative with this.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

You know, going forward, we believe our premium service offering and our operating efficiencies will continue to attract our valued customers. You know, I think generally as these volumes grow, the customers wanna see what, you know, what are you doing from an efficiency perspective, just given the scale of all of these operations. Certainly, we believe that we are a leader in this space in Canada. You know, we do expect that budgets will expand in the second half of this year, but likely what will happen is they'll play out their original budget, and then as those budgets are exhausted, you know, they'll add onto their programs in the fall and early winter. I think we've said this many times, but you know, we continue to view Western Canada as a great place to be.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

There's a very attractive basin in which to develop and grow our business over the long-term, and it just seems to be getting even better. You know, when you think about all the major basins in the U.S., they're basically flat to declining. People see Canada as a real source of growth, and having some of the best inventory that any major basin in North America has. You know, when we look at Canada, we see growth coming from five key areas. There's, you know, just general industry activity increasing as oil prices have gone up, and we expect gas prices to strengthen going forward. We expect to grow our market share, given our technology advantage.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

You know, we see well intensity growing as well, so just more sand in the well means more time on location, which just means a larger invoice on a per well basis. We expect both cement and coil to expand, we expect to expand our logistics offering. Just try to keep up with the growth in sand. You know, just to remind everybody how much that has changed. I think in 2021, there was about four and a half million tons of sand pumped in Canada, in 2025, it was eight and a half million tons. Everybody, all analysts are basically expecting that trend to continue.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

We currently haul about 75%, 80% of the sand that we pump, so we can expand that division every year and probably never really catch up to the growth in the amount of sand that's pumped in Canada. We expect that the Montney and the Duvernay will continue to be a focal point of our operations going forward. I think I'll just wrap up with a few comments on value for shareholders and return of capital. You know, Trican continues to generate significant free cash flow, and we've maintained a very conservative balance sheet. I think we've paid back the majority of the debt that we added on for the Iron Horse transaction. By the end of the year, I expect that we would be debt-free.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

You know, it depends on how much we invest in our NCIB, but we're currently modeling sort of debt-free to slightly cash positive at the end of the year, so we maintain a lot of flexibility. We still subscribe to a diversified return on capital strategy. You know, we love the NCIB. We view it as M&A, but I think the shareholders like it as well. They view it as return on capital. We combine that with the dividend that we're paying and, you know, between those two, we expect that approximately 50% of our free cash flow will get returned to shareholders in one form or another going forward. Of course, that'll vary given what's available to us from an investment and an organic growth perspective.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

You know, that's probably a reasonable rule of thumb to use over the long-term. Certainly not afraid to use our bank lines that are available to us if we find the right accretive transaction. You know, we think this business certainly feels a lot more stable than it did in the years prior to 2020, and we feel a lot more comfortable holding debt if the right transaction comes along. You know, our corporate priorities remain unchanged. Build a resilient, sustainable, and differentiated company that the customers value. You know, invest in high quality growth and upgrading opportunities to ensure that the technology offering that we have is best in class. Provide a consistent return on capital towards shareholders through the dividend, the NCIB.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Again, you know, it's why would you own this? Why would you wanna buy these, buy our shares? I mean, to us, it looks better and better every day. You know, we have the largest market share in a growing basin with the best technology offering out of all of our competitors. We just think this probably just gets better going forward and certainly over the next five years. We're really excited about the future. Maybe I'll stop there, Cathy, and we can go to questions.

Operator

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. Your first question comes from Keith Mackey of RBC Capital. Your line is open.

Keith Mackey
Keith Mackey
Analyst at RBC Capital

Hey, good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. I know you mentioned that there was some headwinds in Q1. Just if you could maybe run us through the factors that might lead you to believe that pricing will improve in the second half of the year. Are there any Trican-specific factors, or is it mostly the industry that capacity that you think will tighten up? You know, Brad, what are your expectations for how much slack is actually in the system? Ultimately, what you think it would take to move pricing up a noticeable amount?

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

That's not one question. That was about five questions. I would say the supply and demand equation is fairly balanced here, and, you know, has been for a while. The industry continues to evolve and get more efficient. Even though you're seeing growing sand volumes, you know, we as an industry just get better and better at what we do, and we seem to be able to pump more and more every day. You know, that trend is certainly positive, though, we believe. That's part of why, you know, I think Q1 represents the bottom for pricing is that as these volumes continue to grow, you know, we're just gonna be on location longer.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

If you get tipped into the next day, you know, you've now taken a frac crew out of the float. If that's happening all over the basin, whether it's shallow or deep work, you know, that capacity is just gonna tighten up. I think pricing was particularly low in Q1 because I think there was some tough some of our competitors were having a tough Q4 and maybe, you know, like kinda murky outlook for Q1 last fall. So that always puts a lot of pressure on Q1 pricing as people, you know, position to fill their boards. We're just not immune to that forever. You know, for the most part, we don't play in that.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Certainly, you know, when our customers are getting low bids, then that falls back on us eventually. You know, I think also you combine maybe slightly softer pricing with some unexpected cost inflation just given oil prices. You know, it maybe felt like pricing was even worse than it was. I think between just general increase in commodity prices, whether it's oil or gas, you know, I think optimism surrounding a much more business-friendly government. You know, I think the importance of Canadian oil and gas supply is really highlighted by what's happening here in the Middle East.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Certainly, you know, we've always known it as an industry, our federal government is having to recognize that that, of course, is the case and that the people want more Canadian oil and gas. We expect industry activity to grow, and as activity grows, you know, things will tighten up. It's a very long lead time on getting new equipment and getting people trained. That'll just tighten up the supply and demand equation and that'll work. Pricing will react accordingly. Like, when exactly is it going to happen and how much is it gonna be? That's impossible to know. I do feel there's a lot more optimism.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

For the first time, you know, you're seeing E&P companies talk about growth and unapologetically talking about growth. You know, that's relatively new. You know, before it was very much just maintain production, get as much money back to shareholders as possible, get your debt in line. I think for the first time, it's okay to say we're gonna grow. You know, all of those customers were just chomping at the bit to start growing again. They all have their projects identified and figured out. You know, once they get the green light to do that, they will. You know, we're feeling really positive about just the industry as a whole. You know, when is the exact timing? That's not important.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

You know, I think when most people are investing in this for the next five years, and we certainly don't have any reason to believe that the next five years are anything but bullish.

Keith Mackey
Keith Mackey
Analyst at RBC Capital

Okay. Makes sense. I'll follow up with just one question. The, you've got one 3520. Can you just run us through when you expect to have that replacement fleet in the field, assuming it is a replacement fleet?

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

It's always tough to know the exact timing just because there's lots of testing that occurs and, you know, it depends on how quickly the Cat and the fabricators can react to the changes that we made. We're expecting the 10 pumps to be available in the field in the fall. We would hope it's incremental equipment, but, you know, we're hoping for the best, I think sort of September, October feels about right from a timing perspective.

Keith Mackey
Keith Mackey
Analyst at RBC Capital

Got it. Okay. Thanks very much.

Operator

Your next question comes from Tim Monachello with ATB Cormark Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Tim Monachello
Analyst at ATB Cormark Capital Markets

Hey, good morning, everyone. Just a quick follow-up to Keith. Are you guys starting to price equipment into the back half of the year, and are you seeing stronger net pricing on that equipment, or are you you know, are the pricing increases that you're putting through, just offsetting cost inflation at this point?

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Bit more offsetting at this stage, but they're very early days on pricing discussions.

Tim Monachello
Analyst at ATB Cormark Capital Markets

When do you think you get better visibility into the back half pricing?

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Oh, end of the quarter.

Tim Monachello
Analyst at ATB Cormark Capital Markets

Okay. Good to hear that the Iron Horse division is seeing some stronger activity levels. When you think about the run rate for Iron Horse this year and into, I guess early next year, how does that compare to the EBITDA metrics that you had contemplated at acquisition?

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Say that all again, Tim. You went, you kinda cut out there a bit.

Tim Monachello
Analyst at ATB Cormark Capital Markets

Apologies. I'm just curious, based on higher activity levels for Iron Horse in the back half of the year, where you think that's gonna land relative to, I guess, the CAD 80 million that was contemplated as a normalized run rate for the business at acquisition?

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Are you asking what sort of the new implied multiple?

Tim Monachello
Analyst at ATB Cormark Capital Markets

Sorry about this, guys. Sorry, guys. We're talking about some issues with my headset or something. Can you hear me?

Scott Matson
CFO at Trican

Yeah, we got you, Tim.

Tim Monachello
Analyst at ATB Cormark Capital Markets

Okay.

Scott Matson
CFO at Trican

Yeah.

Tim Monachello
Analyst at ATB Cormark Capital Markets

I was just curious.

Scott Matson
CFO at Trican

I think I understand you. I think I understand your question, Tim. Like, I mean, I would say that as we've come out of Q4 last year and into Q1 this year, we're a little probably lower than we were expecting. You know, as we climb through the back half of this year and into next year with stronger oil prices, I mean, that outlook is improving. You know, do we get back to and exceed that number? I mean, hard to say at this point, but we're pretty optimistic with what we're seeing in the back half of the year.

Tim Monachello
Analyst at ATB Cormark Capital Markets

Okay, appreciate it. I'll turn back.

Operator

The next question comes from Colby Sassos of Daniel Energy Partners. Your line is open.

Colby Sassos
Analyst at Daniel Energy Partners

Hi, thanks for taking my question. I just got a quick one. With sand volumes increasing per well, have you seen more customers moving to wet sand? If so, how would that affect Trican's logistics line?

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Yeah. It's still very early days from a wet sand perspective. In fact, we're on our first wet sand completion as we speak. Just started about 48 hours ago. Yeah, with sand volumes increasing and obviously the cost of sand being a very significant portion of their overall fracturing bill, customers, you know, they're trying to find the lowest price alternative, they're looking at wet sand all around the basin. Where this ends up, it's very hard to tell. It's just too early at this stage. From a You know, we're relatively sort of indifferent in many respects. From a transportation perspective, you know, that sand has still got to move from A to B. There's, you know, there's no shortage of sand to move.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

You know, whether it's moving 150 km or 450 km, in a wet sand situation, that just doesn't impact the overall scenario. We're still very optimistic about growing our logistics division.

Colby Sassos
Analyst at Daniel Energy Partners

Thank you for the color. I'll turn it back.

Operator

Your next question comes from Josef Schachter with Schachter Energy Research. Your line is open.

Josef Schachter
Analyst at Schachter Energy Research

Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone, congratulations on the great quarter. One question for me is really you have those four frac fleets that are not working at this point. Are you having customer contact with you to look at maybe mobilizing them in 2027? You know, given the different types, where would potentially those frac crews or frac units be positioned in terms of the basins? How much cost would there be to upgrade the next fleet?

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Yeah. Okay, thanks for prompting me on this, Josef. I'm gonna give you a bit of a big picture answer. When you think about the spare capacity in Canada, none of it is new technology capacity. Like, the equipment that we have parked are older diesel engines. They're diesel frac pumps with diesel engines. They work fine, you know, they're in great shape, but they're not, they're not an asset class that really you would look to deploy into the Montney or the Duvernay. When we talk about spare capacity, we probably need to tighten up our wording on that.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

From an industry perspective, there's almost a few extra frac fleets around, but not nearly as much spare capacity as probably compared to what's in analyst models, just because of the age of that equipment now. We've been, you know, we've been selling our really old equipment. Certainly when we look at an Iron Horse situation, the type of work they do, the diesel-fueled frac pumps are what's appropriate for their operations. We would expect that as that division grows, they would use that spare capacity. It's, you know, it always needs a bit of tweaking here and there, so I don't really have that cost, you know, in front of me right now. It's not significant in the grand scheme of things.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

I think we need to change the way we think about spare capacity and its ability to come back into the basin in plays like the Montney and the Duvernay, because the world has moved on from those assets. I'd like you to bring your 10-year-old diesel fuel frac pumps off the fence and put them to work on my well. They're coming to us saying like, "When do I get to use your 100% natural gas assets?" Given that you only have one fleet, you know. We're more the juggling act is more deploying and allocating our Tier 4 frac pumps and our electric ancillary equipment, opposed to figuring out, you know, where sort of frac pumps built in 2013 are gonna end up. You know, the world has advanced considerably since those assets were built.

Josef Schachter
Analyst at Schachter Energy Research

If there was a demand increase for modern fleets, would that potentially have to come from somebody bringing a fleet in from the U.S.?

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

No, we would either build, do, or retrofit that equipment. Now you are talking about sort of a CAD 30 million-CAD 40 million per fleet investment and probably a one-year lead time. You know, as things get busier here, we're expecting things to get busier in the U.S. as well. No, we're not expecting a bunch of equipment to come from the U.S. You know, we've been asking or people have been asking that question for 30 years, and it's never really happened in any kind of significant scale with moving assets from the U.S. to Canada. It's, you know, it's a different equipment spec. It's, you know, different staffing issues, different DOT issues. It's not quite that simple.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

It is of course possible, you know, why would you move it if it's already at work in the lower 48?

Josef Schachter
Analyst at Schachter Energy Research

Super. That's it for me. Thanks very much. Again, congratulations on a great quarter.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Thank you.

Operator

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I will turn the call to Mr. Brad Fedora for closing remarks.

Brad Fedora
President and CEO at Trican

Okay, thank you, everyone. Thank you for your time. We're available for the rest of the day if anybody has any follow-up questions. Thanks very much.

Operator

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

Analysts
    • Brad Fedora
      President and CEO at Trican
    • Colby Sassos
      Analyst at Daniel Energy Partners
    • Josef Schachter
      Analyst at Schachter Energy Research
    • Keith Mackey
      Analyst at RBC Capital
    • Scott Matson
      CFO at Trican
    • Tim Monachello
      Analyst at ATB Cormark Capital Markets
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