Epsilon Energy Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
August 13, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Production guidance was introduced for the second half of 2026, with meaningful quarter-over-quarter growth expected as Powder River Basin oil projects ramp. Full-year guidance implies high-teens year-over-year total production growth and nearly 200% growth in oil volumes.
  • Positive Sentiment: Powder River Basin execution is ahead of schedule, with two Niobrara wells producing above type-curve expectations and the three-well, high-interest Parkman pad drilled about one month early. Parkman production is expected to begin in the fourth quarter and drive much of the anticipated growth.
  • Positive Sentiment: The first three-mile Permian Barnett well is performing in line with or above pre-drill expectations, while two additional Barnett wells are expected to be drilled in the second half of 2026. A successful Woodford appraisal could expand Epsilon’s future drilling inventory.
  • Negative Sentiment: Growth will require a substantial capital-spending ramp in the third quarter, with Epsilon expecting to use its revolver to partially fund investments. Management remains confident it can stay within its 1.5x EBITDA leverage target, supported by debt paydown, asset monetizations, and potential future working-interest sell-downs.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Marcellus production declined because of temporary gathering-system curtailments and pressure adjustments, with new wells expected to come online in the fourth quarter. Management said it will continue to optimize gas volumes around pricing conditions and plans to maintain hedging at roughly 50% of projected PDP volumes.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Epsilon Energy Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections

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Operator

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to your President and CEO, Jason Stabell. Please go ahead.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

Good morning. Before we begin our prepared remarks, we would like to address the press release correction issued yesterday. The correction was limited to the presentation of adjusted net income and adjusted EPS in the summary table. The reconciliation later in the release reflected the correct treatment. After identifying the inconsistency, we promptly updated the release. There was no impact to our reported GAAP results, cash flows, or the underlying economics of the business. Thank you, operator. I'll now turn the call over to Andrew Williamson, our CFO.

Andrew Williamson
Andrew Williamson
CFO at Epsilon Energy

Thank you, operator. On behalf of the management team, I would like to welcome all of you to today's conference call to review Epsilon's Second Quarter 2026 Financial and Operational Results. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that our comments may include forward-looking statements. It should be noted that a variety of factors could cause Epsilon's actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements. Today's call may also contain certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the earnings release that we issued yesterday for disclosures on forward-looking statements and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Jason Stabell, our Chief Executive Officer.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

Thank you, Andrew, and good morning, everyone. Joining me today are Andrew Williamson, our CFO, and Henry Clanton, our COO. We will be available for questions following our prepared remarks. Our message this quarter remains consistent with what we communicated in May. We are focused on execution, and I am pleased to report that our major operational initiatives have progressed on schedule and on budget. We have started to execute our development plan as expected and anticipate meaningful quarter-over-quarter production growth through the remainder of 2026, primarily driven by crude volumes in the Powder River Basin. As a result of the progress we have made across the portfolio, for the first time, we are providing production guidance for the second half of 2026.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

The anticipated increase in volumes reflects the commencement of production from several high-return oil projects that have either recently been brought online or are expected to begin contributing over the coming months. We refer you to a presentation posted to our website this morning for additional details on our guidance. In the Powder River Basin, execution on our acquired operated assets has been particularly strong. Our two Niobrara DUC completions were completed during the quarter and brought online in July. Early production results have exceeded our type curve expectations. In addition, drilling operations on our three-well Parkman pad were completed approximately one month ahead of plan. These high working interest Parkman wells are now on track to begin production during the fourth quarter and represent the biggest contributor to our anticipated growth profile.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

In the Permian Basin, our first three-mile Barnett well was placed on flowback during June and is currently performing in line with our pre-drill type curve. The successful execution of this well marks another important milestone in the development of the project and provides further confidence in the operator's transition to longer lateral development. Looking ahead, the operator has informed us that two additional Barnett wells are expected to be drilled during the second half of 2026, with completion scheduled for the first quarter of 2027. In addition, the Woodford appraisal well, in which Epsilon elected not to participate, has now been drilled and is scheduled for completion later this month. A successful result could meaningfully expand the future drilling inventory associated with our acreage position and provide additional development opportunities beyond the Barnett formation.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

In Pennsylvania, production from our Marcellus Shale assets was impacted during the quarter by planned temporary curtailments associated with operating pressure adjustments on our gathering system, which will make room on the system for newly drilled wells scheduled to turn in line late in the fourth quarter of this year. From an organizational standpoint, we have largely completed the transition period associated with the Peak Exploration and Production acquisition. The integration of personnel, systems, and field operations has progressed well, and I want to thank our employees for their efforts throughout this process. The successful integration of the acquired assets has allowed our team to remain focused on execution while continuing to identify opportunities to improve operational performance and efficiencies. Overall, we are accomplishing what we set out to do at the start of the year. Our development program is advancing as planned.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

Our balance sheet remains strong, and we expect to deliver meaningful quarter-over-quarter production growth through the remainder of 2026, as reflected in the guidance provided today. Andrew and Henry will provide additional detail on our major operational initiatives, production outlook, and financial position. Andrew, I'll turn it over to you.

Andrew Williamson
Andrew Williamson
CFO at Epsilon Energy

Thanks, Jason. On the recent results, the second quarter was a trough for us this year on production as new development in the Powder River Basin, Permian started to contribute late in the quarter. As Jason mentioned, we anticipate growth from here as Q2 activity is reflected in Q3 and escalates through year-end and into 2027 with continued activity across the portfolio. The biggest impact this year will come in the fourth quarter with our first Parkman volumes in the Powder River Basin. The midpoint of full year 2026 guidance shows high teens year-over-year growth in total production and almost 200% year-over-year growth in oil volumes.

Andrew Williamson
Andrew Williamson
CFO at Epsilon Energy

On the capital side, also as shown in our guidance figures, we plan to spend meaningfully more in the third quarter than we have in past quarters, with the high-interest Parkman development already mentioned, together with drilling activity in the Permian and facilities build-out in one of our core areas in Converse County, Wyoming, in preparation for a ramp in development activity there early next year. Well over half of our full-year capital spending will not contribute to results until the fourth quarter, with over a third showing up in results starting next year, including the facilities build-out I mentioned. We made several moves during the second quarter in preparation for these investments, including the non-core Marcellus Shale overriding royalty interest sale and an interest sell down in this quarter's Parkman development, which still leaves us with over 70% interest in the project.

Andrew Williamson
Andrew Williamson
CFO at Epsilon Energy

The previously disclosed potential sale of our Durango office building did not close, but we expect to reevaluate a potential sale later this year. Over the first half of the year, we paid down our debt balance by $10 million. We expect to utilize the revolver to partially fund the investment ramp starting this quarter. That said, we're very comfortable we can execute our plans while staying within our target leverage level of 1.5x EBITDA. Looking ahead to next year, we're planning to continue to invest for growth, with development activity in excess of 2026 expected across all three of our primary areas. The biggest component will be the Powder River Basin, with additional operated development targeting the Parkman.

Andrew Williamson
Andrew Williamson
CFO at Epsilon Energy

We are also in discussions with some of the larger operators in the basin to pull forward some of our shale inventory there in partnerships allowing us to develop cost efficiently. The Permian and Marcellus Shale assets are expected to exhibit growth next year as well, subject to the final plans of our operating partners. Now to Henry.

Henry Clanton
Henry Clanton
COO at Epsilon Energy

Thank you, Andrew, and good morning to everyone. Today, I'd like to begin by highlighting some recent operations on our Powder River Basin assets. The company successfully stimulated both of the 2-mile Niobrara laterals in Campbell County, Wyoming, we acquired from Peak Exploration and Production. The frac win is planned with all design, sand placed, and the 100 stages completed. The wells were flowed back under a managed pressure procedure to technically guide the choke management decisions. Both wells continue to flow up casing on a reduced choke and are performing above expectation, with peak daily rates achieved in excess of 900 bbls of oil a day from each well. Different from the timing provided in the prior earnings call, we were able to accelerate the drilling of our three-well Parkman program in July.

Henry Clanton
Henry Clanton
COO at Epsilon Energy

This being our first drilling operation in the basin, I'm pleased to report that all three wells were successfully drilled to their planned depths. The completions are scheduled for later this quarter. As we've done with the Niobrara wells, all production facility work that could be built out prior to placing the wells on production has been completed. Initial production is expected in the fourth quarter. In Converse County, the 1 million bbls [Inod water supply and impoundment facility has been finalized with contractor bids under evaluation. Construction is expected to begin in Q3. The original design of the impoundment ponds have been modified to allow for intake and recycling of produced water in the future, which will reduce the total water sourcing and processing costs moving forward.

Henry Clanton
Henry Clanton
COO at Epsilon Energy

In follow-up to the production enhancement initiatives, the ops team has replaced 16 compression units to date, removing $65,000 a month of operating expenses moving forward. There are several more units to be downsized before the year-end, when total savings will exceed $100,000 a month. As expected, there have been no decreases to existing production as the result of the compressor downsizing program. Lots going on in our Permian Basin Barnett project in Ector County. Drill out of the recent 3-mile Barnett lateral went as expected, and the well has been placed on production. This is the ninth well drilled on the acreage, and the early flowback period has exceeded the normalized type curve expectations and is exhibiting excellent productivity consistent with the existing wells on the acreage. This week, we have received well proposals from the operator for two offsets to this lateral.

Henry Clanton
Henry Clanton
COO at Epsilon Energy

These wells have been moved up in the drilling schedule by the operator with plans to spud them later this month. Finally, the Woodford appraisal test mentioned on the last earnings call has been drilled, with completion scheduled for later this month as well. In the Marcellus Shale, as reported last quarter, the operators completed the drilling of the scheduled five wells, 0.4 net. Completion operations are planned for the second half of this year. First production from this development is scheduled in December and forecasted to add 6.5 million cubic foot a day net. Four of the new drills will gather through the Auburn system and are forecasted to increase throughput in the midstream system by approximately 80 million-90 million cubic foot a day upon initial completion. Now I'll turn it back to Jason.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

Thanks, guys. Operator, we can now open the lines for questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause for a moment to assemble our roster. Your first question today will come from Anthony Perala with Punch & Associates. Please go ahead.

Anthony Perala
Analyst at Punch & Associates

Hey, good morning, guys.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

Morning, Anthony.

Anthony Perala
Analyst at Punch & Associates

Nice to see the first guidance you've been able to give for production for this year speaks to the shifting the business from non-op to now having the operating piece. What's the best way to think about the approach to guidance going forward into 2027 and beyond?

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

Yeah. Thanks, Anthony. I think, the next piece that we'll come out with will be full year 2027, and we'll do that targeting to do that in the first quarter of next year before we post year-end 2026 results.

Anthony Perala
Analyst at Punch & Associates

Okay, sounds good. So targeting it to be annually, kind of at the beginning of every year.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

That's right. And refined throughout the year with quarters.

Anthony Perala
Analyst at Punch & Associates

Okay. Couple questions on the gas business in Pennsylvania. Any more details you could give on the maintenance activities there would be helpful. Then if, I'm not sure if you have it available, but kind of how you delineate the falloff in production quarter-over-quarter. How much was attributable to the maintenance activities and how much was just your typical decline rates that we would have seen otherwise?

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

Yeah, thanks for that question. This is Jason. If you look at our business in Appalachia, our operator has done a really good job, in our view. We've been in agreement with the approach that in the shoulder seasons or periods where we have prolonged pricing netbacks in Appalachia that are sub $2, we've had curtailments. The flip side of that, you'll notice in the first quarter, we had a monster gas production cash flow quarter because we worked at the opposite, maximized production when we had realized prices of almost $5.50 versus the $1.80 in the second quarter. So we kind of look at it on an annual basis over time. We're trying to maximize production with the operator in high demand in basin seasons and then curtailing as appropriate when we think we're selling gas at depressed prices that are not sustained.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

As far as delineating, because the way that these volumes were curtailed was an increase in the operating pressure of our gathering line, it's hard to attribute an exact breakdown between what's natural depletion versus what's attributable to that pressure build back on the wells. The farther we are from where that pressure is applied, the more of an impact there is. Roughly, we think we've been in depletion mode in PA since the wells were brought online last year in the first quarter, and we'll be in depletion mode until the fourth quarter of this year when we start to see those incremental volumes that we addressed earlier in the report today.

Anthony Perala
Analyst at Punch & Associates

Okay. That's helpful. Any updates from the operator? They've stayed consistent on bringing those wells on in Q4. I guess I'd pair the other piece of the question is, I've seen a lot about just the kind of super El Niño and what that does for winter weather, and it's biased warmer based on prior analog years when you've seen that type of weather pattern. Any thoughts around the operator potentially pushing the tails out of Q4? Any thoughts on maybe looking to add more hedges given kind of forecast for a warmer winter here?

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

I'll let Andrew address the hedging question. We think we've built appropriate in our guidance, we've kind of built appropriate margin of error to adjust for any slide that the operator has on those volumes and on the hedging.

Andrew Williamson
Andrew Williamson
CFO at Epsilon Energy

Yeah, Anthony, we target in terms of volume coverage. As I've mentioned in previous calls, we target 50% PDP hedged over the next 18 months. That also coincides with the hedge covenant on our credit facility. What we've done on gas is use collars to put that production on. With oil, as I've mentioned before, we took a big hedge book from Peak in the deal in the fourth quarter of last year. The majority of the incremental volumes we have on between now and the end of the year and into 2027 as well, or a big chunk of them are our oil volumes, and we've strategically started to add there starting in the fourth quarter of this year on crude. On the gas, I think we'll just continue to keep coverage as we've had it at that 50% of PDP.

Andrew Williamson
Andrew Williamson
CFO at Epsilon Energy

We'll add again once we have some certainty on those incremental volumes coming on that we just talked about in the Marcellus Shale, late this year.

Andrew Williamson
Andrew Williamson
CFO at Epsilon Energy

To answer your question directly, no plans to put protection on in excess of the mandate that we have on 50% coverage.

Anthony Perala
Analyst at Punch & Associates

Okay. That's great. That's very helpful color. Shifting over to the Powder. Nice realization on the working interest sell down. Just curious on what the market's like for that when you were marketing it. If you could give a peek maybe into 2027, what those six wells, what your net interest is right now, and if you may look to tap that market again.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

As a non-op player, we've been very aware of the AFE wellbore market. It's pretty active across, particularly in the Permian, but there is activity as well in the Rockies and in the Marcellus Shale. On that Parkman sell down, there were a couple of drivers on that, and Andrew can add some additional color. One, we felt like if we could get a nice premium to our AFE, it really juices our cash on cash returns. As Henry mentioned, these were our first three wells in the basin drilling operation-wise. So really, we felt okay taking our working interest down from a mid-90s into the low 70s here, as a risk mitigant as well. Going forward, we have high working interest Parkman wells. We may consider sell downs, but I think we feel pretty good about the well design and the performance.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

All good on that.

Andrew Williamson
Andrew Williamson
CFO at Epsilon Energy

Yeah. To add to that, Anthony, it's a tool to use to right-size the capital program. All of the things that we're planning on doing in the medium term, Powder, Parkman, Barnett development in the Permian, and continued activity in the Marcellus Shale, those are highly coveted in that market. We know we can go there to right-size that capital program, and that's to stay within our leverage target that we discussed and still drive growth with that right-size program, if that makes sense. It's just a tool that we use. No definitive plans there to sell down next year, to answer your question directly, but it's a pretty quick cycle action if we want to go that route.

Anthony Perala
Analyst at Punch & Associates

Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. That's great. Then it seems like things were brought forward about a month. I think initially it was December for first production. Now you're assuming kind of 60 days that fall into 2026. Was it more a timing thing? Was it efficiency on the drill side? Just any details on that would be helpful.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

Yeah. I may flip this one to Henry. If, Henry, you want to take that one?

Henry Clanton
Henry Clanton
COO at Epsilon Energy

Yeah. Related to the three-well Parkman program in Wyoming, we had an opportunity to capture some rig availability. We had all of our permits in place, we had locations built, had our personnel ready, and so we acted upon it.

Anthony Perala
Analyst at Punch & Associates

That's great. What's the market like for availability right now and looking into 2027? Yeah, just that.

Henry Clanton
Henry Clanton
COO at Epsilon Energy

Yeah. This is Henry.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

Go ahead.

Henry Clanton
Henry Clanton
COO at Epsilon Energy

In Wyoming, yeah, from a rig perspective, the rig count in the two counties that we are active in, Campbell and Converse, remain in about the 13 rigs running range. Nine of those are focused on the shales, Niobrara and Mowry. The other four are the sandstones. We are seeing stable activity in our area of the Powder River at this point.

Anthony Perala
Analyst at Punch & Associates

The last one, I think, Henry, you had mentioned in your prepared remarks, just that you are having active conversations with other operators to maybe pull forward some development in a cost-effective nature, I think is the phrase that you used. If any more detail around that would be helpful, just to frame up what that program could look like over the next couple of years.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

Yeah, Anthony, I'll take that one. This is Jason. We animated on the call last time that we have a large acreage position in the Powder. There are opportunities for swaps and trades and partnerships. We've had a number of inbounds about that. I'd say we're farther along in a couple of those discussions, but at this point, not in a position to really provide details. I'd expect over the next quarter, we're gonna have something more definitive to provide to you guys. Essentially, this would be areas where we can either swap acreage to extend lateral lengths and/or participate alongside scaled operators in some of the other resource plays in the basin where they have existing infrastructure that's gonna allow us to participate at an enhanced cost structure.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

More to come on that, but I think that's kind of gravy from what our base evaluation was on this Powder asset, because as you know, we've stressed our focus is gonna be on the Parkman. There are some nice opportunities that are also gonna be available to us in the shale, the Niobrara in particular, going forward.

Anthony Perala
Analyst at Punch & Associates

That's great. Look forward to more on that. That's it for me, guys. Thanks for taking the questions.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

All right. Thank you.

Henry Clanton
Henry Clanton
COO at Epsilon Energy

Thanks.

Operator

And again, it is star and then one to ask a question. Showing no further questions, this will conclude our question and answer session. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference back over to Jason Stabell for any closing remarks.

Jason Stabell
Jason Stabell
President and CEO at Epsilon Energy

Thank you, operator. I want to thank everyone for joining us today. As always, if you have additional questions or comments, please reach out to us. Appreciate your support. Have a great day.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect your lines.

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Analysts
    • Anthony Perala
      Analyst at Punch & Associates
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