Tidewater Renewables Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Record renewable results: Tidewater Renewables’ HDRD complex achieved record throughput of 3,315 barrels per day, or 111% utilization, supported by debottlenecking, strong renewable diesel pricing, and a CAD 0.16-per-liter Biofuel Production Incentive.
  • Positive Sentiment: Adjusted EBITDA and guidance increased: Consolidated second-quarter adjusted EBITDA reached a record CAD 88.9 million, while full-year 2026 guidance rose to CAD 230–250 million, driven by higher utilization, strong refining crack spreads, and improved renewable fuel and credit pricing.
  • Positive Sentiment: Deleveraging accelerated: Consolidated net debt fell by CAD 44.4 million in the quarter, bringing consolidated debt-to-adjusted EBITDA down to 1.7x, within the company’s 1.2–2.5x target range.
  • Positive Sentiment: Cash flow support and hedging improved visibility: Tidewater expects CAD 13.8 million of HDRD incentive contributions in the third quarter, while additional 2027 crack-spread hedges covering approximately 40% of exposure were secured at prices management characterized as attractive.
  • Negative Sentiment: SAF remains dependent on regulatory approval and substantial capital: The proposed sustainable aviation fuel project is targeting a fourth-quarter final investment decision, but still requires regulatory amendments and is estimated to cost approximately CAD 1.2 billion, with an expected 2030 start-up.
  • Negative Sentiment: Midstream utilization was uneven: Ram River Gas Plant throughput declined 8% sequentially and fractionation utilization fell to 76% because of NGTL curtailments, while the gas plant remains temporarily curtailed pending a recovery in regional production.
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Earnings Conference Call
Tidewater Renewables Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

This call is being recorded on Thursday, August 13, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Ian Quartly, CFO. Please go ahead.

Ian Quartly
Ian Quartly
CFO at Tidewater Renewables

Thank you, Rina, and welcome everyone to the joint conference call for the second quarter 2026 results of both Tidewater Midstream and Infrastructure Ltd. and Tidewater Renewables Ltd.. Joining me today is our CEO, Jeremy Baines, who will provide an update on our operational performance, regulatory tailwinds, and favorable market conditions we have seen to start the year. I will follow with the financial results and details on the increased 2026 guidance, and then we will open the line for your questions. This morning, both Tidewater Midstream and Tidewater Renewables reported results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026. A copy of the news releases, financial statements, and MD&A may be accessed on SEDAR+ or on the respective companies' websites.

Ian Quartly
Ian Quartly
CFO at Tidewater Renewables

Before we get started, I would like to note that today's call is being recorded for the benefit of individual shareholders, the media, and other interested parties who may want to review the call at a later time. A recorded call will be available through Cision. Some of the comments made today may be forward-looking in nature and are based on Tidewater's current expectations, judgments, and projections. Forward-looking statements we express today are subject to risks and uncertainties, which can cause actual results to differ from expectations. Further, some of the information provided refers to non-GAAP measures. To know more about these forward-looking statements, non-GAAP measures, and risk factors, please see the company's various financial reports, which are available on the company's websites and on SEDAR+. I will now turn the call over to Jeremy.

Jeremy Baines
Jeremy Baines
CEO at Tidewater Renewables

Thanks, Ian, and good morning to everybody, and thank you for joining us today. I am going to start off my remarks talking about Tidewater Renewables. During the second quarter, the HDRD complex achieved record average daily throughput of 3,315 barrels per day, representing a 111% utilization rate. The team has done a fantastic job completing a number of very low-cost debottlenecking initiatives, which, along with flawless facility reliability, enabled the HDRD complex to consistently operate above nameplate capacity. This was extremely important to produce above nameplate capacity during a quarter when we realized record margins on the sale of the renewable diesel sold at U.S. import parity pricing from the facility.

Jeremy Baines
Jeremy Baines
CEO at Tidewater Renewables

We also captured an additional CAD 0.16 per liter of margin from the Biofuel Production Incentive, which led to the record financial results that Ian Quartly will discuss later on the call. On the regulatory front, during the first quarter of 2026, Tidewater Renewables received conditional approval from Natural Resources Canada for the Biofuel Production Incentive program. On July 7th, the contribution agreement was executed, which secures total funding in line with the full annual production capacity of the HDRD complex. We expect to receive both the first and second quarter cash contributions totaling CAD 13.8 million during the third quarter of 2026, with subsequent contributions to be received quarterly in arrears, providing a consistent boost to our cash flow and liquidity.

Jeremy Baines
Jeremy Baines
CEO at Tidewater Renewables

Moving next to the sustainable aviation fuel project, which continues to progress towards a final investment decision during the fourth quarter of this year. On June 19th, 2026, Tidewater Renewables executed a new initiative agreement with the Government of British Columbia, which will provide additional BC-LCFS credits to support the funding of critical pre-FID activities. These pre-FID activities are expected to allow Tidewater Renewables to preserve project schedule, maintain vendor and fabrication capacity availability, mature engineering deliverables, support regulatory advancement, and position the project for efficient execution post-FID. Tidewater Renewables expects to receive BC-LCFS credits in the third and fourth quarter of 2026 as certain project milestones are achieved. Now moving over to Tidewater Midstream.

Jeremy Baines
Jeremy Baines
CEO at Tidewater Renewables

Throughput at the Prince George Refinery averaged 10,032 barrels per day in the second quarter due to a planned 17-day partial facility outage during April to complete scheduled equipment cleaning and other maintenance activities. Excluding the impact of the scheduled outage, throughput at PGR averaged 12,060 barrels per day, or 101% of design capacity. Market conditions for refined products were at historically high levels during the second quarter due to global energy supply disruptions and the reduction of global refining capacity, particularly in the Middle East and Russia. As a result, the Prince George crack spread averaged $118 per barrel in the second quarter of 2026, a 16% increase from the first quarter of 2026. Looking ahead to the second half of the year and beyond, the refining macro environment remains very constructive.

Jeremy Baines
Jeremy Baines
CEO at Tidewater Renewables

Globally, there is approximately 10% of refining capacity offline, and most of that is due to damaged equipment that will take an extended time to repair or rebuild. At the same time, inventories of refined products are at historically low levels. As previously disclosed, Tidewater Midstream hedged approximately 50% of crack spread exposure between April and December 2026. Subsequent to the second quarter, during the second half of July, Tidewater Midstream entered into additional hedges for approximately 40% of its crack spread exposure for 2027 at fixed prices significantly above both mid-cycle pricing and 2026 realized hedge pricing. Tidewater's hedging program is designed to manage commodity price volatility and establish a baseline for the corporation's free cash flow.

Jeremy Baines
Jeremy Baines
CEO at Tidewater Renewables

At the Ram River Gas Plant, gas processing throughput averaged 105 million cubic feet per day during the second quarter of 2026, an 8% decrease over the previous quarter. The lower throughput was primarily due to NGTL curtailments that limited producer volumes coming through the facility, which also decreased fractionation facility utilization to 76% in the second quarter, compared to 90% in the first quarter of 2026. We continue to hold active discussions with prospective and existing customers as we focus on increasing utilization at the BRC. The Ram River Gas Plant remains temporarily curtailed while sulfur handling operations continue to operate. Current market prices, especially for sulfur, are at levels that are highly economic for sour gas producers, and our intent is to restart the gas plant when production in the area resumes.

Jeremy Baines
Jeremy Baines
CEO at Tidewater Renewables

Looking ahead, we continue to remain focused on driving operational excellence, enhancing margins, and executing on strategic initiatives, including maximizing utilization at the Prince George Refinery and HDRD complex, strengthening commercial platforms and offtakes, advancing our SAF project while managing capital prudently, increasing our midstream facility utilizations at BRC and Ram River, progressing non-core asset sales to unlock liquidity, and we continue to advocate for a fair regulatory and trade environment. We believe these building blocks position us for both revenue growth and margin expansion during the second half of 2026. With that, I'll now turn it to Ian for the financial review.

Ian Quartly
Ian Quartly
CFO at Tidewater Renewables

Thanks, Jeremy. Tidewater Renewables generated record adjusted EBITDA of CAD 56 million during the second quarter. This performance was underpinned by the HDRD complex running above nameplate capacity, which allowed us to capture the improving market pricing by leveraging our offtake contracts that are indexed to U.S. import pricing benchmarks. Included in the CAD 56 million of adjusted EBITDA is CAD 7.7 million of expected proceeds recognized during the second quarter from the Biofuel Production Incentive and CAD 7.7 million of adjusted EBITDA from the equity investment in the cattle company, primarily due to increasing cattle prices. Tidewater Midstream generated deconsolidated adjusted EBITDA of CAD 32.9 million in the second quarter of 2026, an increase of CAD 7.3 million from the first quarter of 2026.

Ian Quartly
Ian Quartly
CFO at Tidewater Renewables

This performance was primarily driven by stronger crack spreads at the Prince George Refinery, which were partially offset by realized losses on the crack spread hedges. At the Tidewater consolidated group level, second quarter adjusted EBITDA of CAD 88.9 million was a quarterly record and a CAD 39.2 million increase over the first quarter of 2026. Moving now to the credit facilities and leverage, where both Tidewater Renewables and Tidewater Midstream made significant progress towards our debt reduction and deleveraging targets during the second quarter. Consolidated net debt decreased by CAD 44.4 million during the second quarter due to a CAD 30.9 million debt reduction at Tidewater Midstream, in addition to a CAD 13.5 million debt reduction at Tidewater Renewables.

Ian Quartly
Ian Quartly
CFO at Tidewater Renewables

When combined with the higher adjusted EBITDA reported in the second quarter, this has resulted in significant reductions in each company's leverage. Tidewater Renewables reported a debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 1.47 times at June 30th, and Tidewater Midstream reported a debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 2.3 times. On a consolidated basis, the debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 1.7 times is now back within the target range of 1.2-2.5 times. With the release of the second quarter financial results this morning, we also announced increases to the full year 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA is now forecast to be between CAD 230 million and CAD 250 million, an increase of 20% over the midpoint of the previous guidance.

Ian Quartly
Ian Quartly
CFO at Tidewater Renewables

Tidewater Renewables' adjusted EBITDA guidance was increased to between CAD 130 million and CAD 140 million, and Tidewater Midstream's deconsolidated adjusted EBITDA guidance was increased to between CAD 100 million and CAD 110 million. The primary drivers for the increased adjusted EBITDA guidance are higher facility utilization, sustained strength in forward market crack spreads, and improved pricing for renewable diesel and emission credits. Forecasted 2026 capital expenditures remain unchanged at CAD 2 million-CAD 3 million for Tidewater Renewables and CAD 20 million-CAD 25 million for Tidewater consolidated. This capital guidance includes both growth and maintenance capital and is net of the BC-LCFS credits expected to be received under the executed initiative agreements for capital projects. By maintaining a disciplined capital program, the resulting free cash flow will be primarily directed towards debt reduction.

Ian Quartly
Ian Quartly
CFO at Tidewater Renewables

That concludes our prepared remarks. Rina, please open the line for questions.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your telephone keypad. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised, and should you wish to cancel your request, please press star followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment please for your first question. Thank you. Your first question comes from the line of Rob Hope from Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Rob Hope
Rob Hope
Managing Director at Scotiabank

Morning, everyone. First question's on the SAF project. As we take a look at a Q4 potential sanctioning of the project, can you update us with any, we'll call it key milestones we should be looking for as well as sizing and cost and the potential in-service date of the asset?

Jeremy Baines
Jeremy Baines
CEO at Tidewater Renewables

Yeah, great. Thanks for the question, Rob Hope. Milestones, we've been very consistent on this. We need the regulatory environment to support the project. There's really two pieces to that. We're waiting for the targeted amendments that ECCC is looking at around the CFR and how they treat SAF there. But we're expecting to see those come out sometime here, I'm guessing in the third quarter. And then the second piece would be some other regulatory programs around support for a SAF industry in Canada that we're watching for. With those, we would go ahead and FID the project later this year. Capital cost is about a CAD 1.2 billion build-out is what we're at. We've got a very detailed and solid class 3 feed on that.

Rob Hope
Rob Hope
Managing Director at Scotiabank

Appreciate that. And then maybe moving over to the hedging program. Can you update us on how you're thinking about the level of hedging that is appropriate for Tidewater Renewables? So it does appear that 50% is kind of the number for 2026. You've already got 40% for 2027. Could we see potentially you layering on above that, depending on what the forward market looks like? Or is that kind of 50-ish percent open the sweet spot for the company?

Jeremy Baines
Jeremy Baines
CEO at Tidewater Renewables

Yeah, that's a good question. We've been sort of monitoring the situation and obviously we're in a fairly attractive crack spread environment. And we wanted to put a baseline of cash flow under the business for the year to ensure we met some of our debt reduction goals, and so that led us to the 50% hedge program in 2026. We've started layering in at 2027. We like where the forward cracks are in 2027, so putting some certainty under those is, we think, prudent. I don't see us, maybe opportunistically in certain points, if we could go above 50%, but 50% seems to be the right sort of spot for us to just make sure we take some of the volatility out of revenues.

Rob Hope
Rob Hope
Managing Director at Scotiabank

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Once again, should you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Maurice Choy from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Maurice Choy
Maurice Choy
Director of Equity Research at RBC Capital Markets

Thanks. Morning, everyone. Just wanted to talk about funding for a moment. The net debt to EBITDA clearly has come down very nicely into target ranges. I guess in the past, you've directed a lot of attention to raising new capital through, I guess, non-core asset sales, for example. When you think about your funding plan, and how much cash you're generating, is there still a need to go about some of those initiatives, or should we think about this balance sheet meant to support initiatives like the SAF, for example, other growth projects?

Jeremy Baines
Jeremy Baines
CEO at Tidewater Renewables

No, good question. Thank you, Maurice. So two things. We will continue to pursue the non-core asset sales that we've talked about in the past, and we're on track to the guidance we've given the market there. We have done a deep review over the last couple of years of all of our assets, and any assets that aren't generating an appropriate return and don't fit our strategy, we are actively working to core up and sell those assets. So we will continue on that front. It's really a matter more of do these assets fit our strategy, but most importantly, do they generate an appropriate return? The assets we're selling, some of them are negative, period, like don't generate any return, but do have some value to others. So we're continuing on that path and on track.

Jeremy Baines
Jeremy Baines
CEO at Tidewater Renewables

As far as funding going forward, yes, obviously, we've been very careful in managing our capital programs over the last couple of years. I think the team has done a very good job in implementing a new risk-based framework, ensuring that every CAD dollar we spend generates an appropriate return or an appropriate reduction in risk. So we'll continue to do that. The big item I think that you're probably thinking about is our SAF project. Assuming the regulatory environment gets to the spot that we need for us to go ahead and FID that project, we see that the ability to finance and fund that program, we expect to get the same level of support for that project as we did on the RD plant on a relative basis.

Jeremy Baines
Jeremy Baines
CEO at Tidewater Renewables

We do see that an ability to, over a three-year build period for that project, contribute funds out of cash flow from operations to fund that build. As the project goes here, we feel pretty comfortable with our ability to do that. We do have other alternatives. We have a First Nations partner who is taking a look at a small equity stake in that project, who is very supportive of the project. There are others who have expressed an interest in partnering with us, so we have that option as well. We feel like we are in good shape to meet our key funding programs. Obviously, we will always continue to treat our capital and our spending there, ensuring that we are getting an appropriate risk-adjusted return on it.

Maurice Choy
Maurice Choy
Director of Equity Research at RBC Capital Markets

Thanks. Maybe just a quick clarification on that part. You mentioned a three-year build. You can probably fund that out of your own operating cash flows. So it sounds like you do not necessarily need other funding partners, but you probably welcome the collaboration and reconciliation bit. Is that fair?

Jeremy Baines
Jeremy Baines
CEO at Tidewater Renewables

Yeah. Right now, obviously, we are working with a potential First Nations partner. We would like them to join the project if they so choose to invest. Otherwise, we believe through the Part 3 agreements and cash flow from operations, we have the ability to do this whole SAF project on our own. It is a three-year build-out, online 2030, and will have a meaningful impact on our cash flows at that time. So that is the base case, but we do have a lot of other alternatives available to us to consider as we move forward on that project.

Maurice Choy
Maurice Choy
Director of Equity Research at RBC Capital Markets

Understood. Maybe just thinking more holistically of the Tidewater complex. Obviously when Tidewater Renewables was first created, it was under a very different environment, different market expectations, different outlook. We are where we are today, and I just wonder if you could just reset our views as to why you still think this is the right construct today. Perhaps what variables could change for you to reconsider the structure itself?

Jeremy Baines
Jeremy Baines
CEO at Tidewater Renewables

When we look at the business, and I think I've been saying this from day one, we see it as a fuels business and a midstream business. We have a great team that has very good experience across both of those lines of business, both building, owning, operating. We continue to see constructive environments around both of those business streams. We see a very supportive regulatory environment supporting renewable fuels. We've seen global events that are very supportive of our conventional fuels refining business, and we continue to see the build-out and development of a great resource in Western Canada that supports the demand for our midstream services. We are very comfortable with our businesses. We have two companies. We have generated significant efficiencies operating them.

Jeremy Baines
Jeremy Baines
CEO at Tidewater Renewables

And we continue to work to generate cash flow for all our shareholders and optimize the businesses.

Maurice Choy
Maurice Choy
Director of Equity Research at RBC Capital Markets

Understood. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Once again, should you have a question, please press star followed by the one on your telephone keypad. There are no further question at this time. I will now hand the call back to Mr. Ian Quartly for any closing remarks.

Ian Quartly
Ian Quartly
CFO at Tidewater Renewables

Thanks everyone for joining the call. The team's available to address any of your outstanding items with our contact information in the bottom of each company's press release. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.

Executives
    • Ian Quartly
      Ian Quartly
      CFO
    • Jeremy Baines
      Jeremy Baines
      CEO
Analysts