Talos Energy Q2 2026 Earnings Report

Talos Energy EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.57
• Consensus EPS: $0.36
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.21
• One Year Ago EPS: -$0.27

Talos Energy Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $664.81 million
• Expected Revenue: $577.92 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$86.89 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +56.50%

Talos Energy Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2026
• Date: 8/4/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 10:00AM ET

Talos Energy (NYSE:TALO) is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company headquartered in Houston, Texas. Founded in 2012 by industry veterans Tim Duncan and Jeremy Rights, the firm completed its initial public offering in 2021 and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol TALO. The company’s core operations focus on the acquisition, exploration, development and production of offshore hydrocarbon reserves, with a primary emphasis on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico basin.

Talos Energy’s asset portfolio spans deepwater and shelf opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico, where it holds interests in several producing fields and exploration blocks. The company applies advanced subsurface imaging and digital reservoir management techniques to optimize development plans and reduce cycle times. In addition to its U.S. footprint, Talos selectively pursues international exploration ventures, leveraging technical partnerships to access prospective basins outside North America.

Under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Tim Duncan and President Jeremy Rights, Talos Energy has built a reputation for disciplined capital allocation and operational efficiency. The management team combines decades of offshore engineering, drilling and commercial experience to drive growth while maintaining a focus on cost control, safety and environmental stewardship. Looking ahead, the company continues to evaluate strategic opportunities to expand its resource base and enhance shareholder value through both organic exploration and targeted acquisitions.

Talos Energy Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Strong operational and financial performance: Second-quarter production exceeded guidance, with oil averaging approximately 69,000 barrels per day and total production nearly 94,000 BOE per day. Adjusted EBITDA was about $402 million and adjusted free cash flow reached a record $232 million.
• Positive Sentiment: Talos raised its standalone 2026 production guidance to 64,000–68,000 barrels of oil per day and 87,000–91,000 BOE per day, excluding the pending Gulf of America acquisition. Production optimization and the strong performance of the Cardona well more than offset the impact of the shelf divestment.
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic growth and improved financial flexibility: BP waived its preferential right, clearing the way for Talos to acquire interests tied to the Na Kika platform and associated fields, adding roughly 18,000 BOE per day and approximately 20% oil production growth. Talos also refinanced debt at a lower coupon, extended maturities to 2034, increased its borrowing base to $850 million, and expects pro forma 2027 leverage below one times.
• Neutral Sentiment: Talos is advancing longer-term opportunities in Mexico and Honduras, including a development-led Block 29 farm-in targeting FID in 2027 and a large Honduras acreage position where 3D seismic is planned for the second half of 2026. These initiatives offer significant resource and portfolio-life potential but remain subject to appraisal, permitting, partner decisions, and future capital allocation.
• Positive Sentiment: The company completed a non-core, gas-weighted shelf divestment that improves portfolio oil weighting and eliminates approximately $54 million of future abandonment obligations. Share repurchases were paused during the acquisition-related blackout period, but management said it expects to return to the market while maintaining its framework of returning up to 50% of annual free cash flow to shareholders.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Talos Energy Second Quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Wednesday, August 5, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kyle Sahni, Manager of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[Kyle Sahni, Manager of Investor Relations at Talos Energy]

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me today to discuss our results are Paul Goodfellow, President and Chief Executive Officer, Zach Dailey, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Bill Langin, Executive Vice President, Exploration and Development. Please refer to our second quarter 2026 earnings presentation that is available on our website under the investor relations section for a more detailed look at our results and operations. Before we start, I would like to remind you that our remarks will include forward-looking statements subject to various cautionary statements identified in our presentation and earnings release. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by the company. Factors that could cause these results to differ materially are set forth in yesterday's press release and our Form 10-K for the period ending December 31st, 2025, filed with the SEC.

[Kyle Sahni, Manager of Investor Relations at Talos Energy]

Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as of today. We undertake no obligations to update these statements as a result of new information or future events. During this call, we may present GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of certain non-GAAP to GAAP measures is included in yesterday's press release, which was furnished with our Form 8-K filed with the SEC and is available on our website. Now I would like to turn the call over to Paul.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Thanks, Kyle. Good morning to everyone joining us on the call today. We have a lot to cover this morning. As always, I want to start by thanking our employees for their continued commitment to safety and environmental stewardship. The results that Zach and I have the privilege of discussing today are a direct reflection of their talent, drive, and relentless focus on execution. I am incredibly proud of what the Talos team has accomplished during the first half of 2026. Just over a year ago, we introduced our enhanced corporate strategy built around three pillars designed to position Talos as a leading pure-play offshore E&P. Today, I am pleased to highlight the significant progress we have made through a series of strategic actions that demonstrate execution across all three pillars of our framework and further strengthen our long-term portfolio.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Before turning to those actions, I want to begin with the strength of the base business, which continues to provide the foundation for everything that we do. The second quarter was characterized by solid execution across our base business, which translated into stronger production and higher operational uptime, driven by production optimization initiatives across the organization. Oil production averaged approximately 69,000 barrels per day, and total production averaged nearly 94,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, both exceeding guidance expectations. In addition, the Cardona well, which was brought online at the beginning of the year, continues to outperform expectations. These operational results translated into record free cash flow generation during the quarter and support an increase to our full-year 2026 production guidance. Zach will provide additional detail on these results later in the call. Importantly, these results did not happen by accident.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

They are the outcome of a tremendous amount of work by our operations, production, and development teams and a direct reflection of the progress being made under the Optimal Performance Plan. We achieved greater than two-thirds of our 2026 target during the first half of the year, those efforts are translating into meaningful improvements in production, uptime, and free cash flow generation. This is exactly what we mean when we talk about improving the business every day. My second takeaway is that Talos continues to distinguish itself through best-in-class execution. One example of this is the Genovesa workover. We successfully completed the workover and returned the well to production ahead of schedule late in the second quarter, with well performance in line with expectations. What I'm most proud of is how the opportunity was approached.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Before the intervention rig was on location and during the planning phase, the team identified additional work that could be completed to support future access to a secondary zone. That is exactly the kind of thinking that we encourage across Talos, finding ways to create incremental value while maintaining capital discipline. It speaks to our culture of thinking outside the box and continuously improving the business. Full credit goes to our operations and development teams for identifying and executing on that opportunity. Execution excellence is also evident across our drilling and completion activities. Year to date, our program has operated with approximately 50% lower non-productive time than the Gulf of Mexico basin average. This level of performance not only enhances capital efficiency, it also reinforces one of Talos's key competitive advantages as a technically differentiated offshore operator. We also continued advancing several important projects during the quarter.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

At Monument, the first development well was successfully drilled, the operator will now shift to the second well. We continue to progress rig reactivation activities for the Brutus program and now expect the first well to spud during the third quarter. In addition, we commenced the Daenerys appraisal program as part of our ongoing evaluation efforts. Operations are progressing as planned, with results from the first appraisal well expected before year-end. Now I'd like to conclude with a few thoughts on the strategic actions we have taken to extend our resource life and further develop a long-lived portfolio. Collectively, our recently announced Gulf of Mexico bolt-on acquisition, offshore Mexico development farm-in, newly established offshore Honduras acreage position, and non-core gas-weighted shelf divestment advance all three pillars of our strategic framework.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

These actions immediately increase our deepwater scale with approximately 20% oil production growth, expand our development inventory in a proven basin through a high-impact greenfield opportunity, and establish a large-scale position in an underexplored basin at an extremely low entry cost. At the same time, the shelf divestment improves the overall quality and oil weighting of our portfolio while eliminating approximately $54 million of future abandonment obligations. The strategic rationale is compelling and represents meaningful steps forward in positioning Talos as the leading pure-play offshore exploration production company. As a brief update on the recently announced bolt-on, BP elected not to exercise its preferential right. This sets the stage for us not only to operate the Coulomb field, but also to become partner in the Na Kika platform and several other associated fields.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

The assets we are acquiring produced approximately 18,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the second quarter, with an oil cut, unit operating expense, and EBITDA margin that are all expected to be accretive to our company averages. This transaction further strengthens our leadership position in delivering top-decile EBITDA margins across the entire E&P sector. Pre-close integration activities are underway. We look forward to closing the transaction later in the third quarter. Looking ahead, we're focused on advancing these newly announced opportunities across our portfolio. In the Gulf of Mexico, we continue to evaluate the operated Coulomb drilling opportunity, which we expect to compete for capital in 2027, while also advancing additional ILX opportunities that could provide upside to the current production base.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

In Block 29, our near-term efforts are centered on submitting the field development plan with our partner to CNOOC, as we work towards a targeted FID in 2027, while progressing technical work in support of a future exploration well. Importantly, Block 29, where Talos and Repsol are the sole partners, is a development-led opportunity anchored by two existing oil discoveries, providing a clear path to FID and development and production. We believe this differentiates the opportunity. In Honduras, we're preparing to commence the first-ever 3D seismic program across the deepwater acreage in the second half of this year, an important step towards evaluating the basin's broader potential. While these opportunities are at different stages of maturity, the speed and alignment with which our teams and partners are advancing them is a key strength and differentiator for Talos.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Our ability to progress multiple strategic initiatives in parallel reflects the depth of our technical capabilities, the quality of our partnerships, and our ability to execute across a broad portfolio. The common theme across all of these actions is disciplined execution. We are advancing our strategic priorities while continuing to deliver strong operational and financial performance from the base business. As a result, we increased standalone production guidance despite the impact of the shelf divestment, generated record free cash flow. We enter the second half of the year with significant momentum. With that, I will turn the call over to Zach to discuss our financial results, enhanced financial flexibility, capital allocation activities, and outlook in greater detail.

[Zach Dailey, EVP and CFO at Talos Energy]

Thanks, Paul. This morning, I will focus on three key takeaways: record free cash flow generation, increased standalone production guidance, and enhanced financial flexibility resulting from our recent capital markets transactions. I will also touch briefly on our unchanged capital allocation framework. Starting with the quarter, the operational execution Paul just discussed translated directly into strong financial outcomes. We generated adjusted EBITDA of approximately $402 million and record adjusted free cash flow of approximately $232 million, driven by production that exceeded guidance and stronger crude oil realizations relative to WTI. On the heels of a great first six months, we're increasing our full year 2026 production outlook for the standalone business. Our revised guidance range is 64,000 to 68,000 barrels of oil per day and 87,000 to 91,000 BOE per day.

[Zach Dailey, EVP and CFO at Talos Energy]

This updated outlook excludes the previously announced Gulf of America acquisition, which hasn't yet closed, and it includes the impact of the non-core shelf divestment, which closed early in the third quarter. Said differently, the base business is performing well enough to more than offset the production impact of the divestiture. For the third quarter, we expect oil production of 61,000 to 65,000 barrels per day of oil and total production of 81,000 to 85,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. As a reminder, this third quarter and full-year guidance excludes the Gulf of America bolt-on acquisition, and we expect to provide updated guidance following the expected close of that transaction later in the third quarter. During the second quarter, cash on hand increased to approximately $578 million, and total liquidity increased to approximately $1.2 billion, while our leverage ratio declined to 0.5 times.

[Zach Dailey, EVP and CFO at Talos Energy]

This position of financial strength gave us the flexibility to execute an important financing in support of the previously announced Gulf of America acquisition, while also further enhancing liquidity and extending debt maturities. We issued $800 million of new 8% senior notes due 2034, with proceeds used to fully redeem our $625 million 9% notes due 2029 and to fund a portion of the acquisition. The transaction extended our debt maturity profile, reduced the coupon on the refinanced notes, and enhanced our financial flexibility. In addition, we secured $150 million of incremental commitments from our existing bank group, increasing our credit facility borrowing base from $700 million to $850 million, effective upon closing of the acquisition. These positive transactions were executed from a position of strength.

[Zach Dailey, EVP and CFO at Talos Energy]

They support an acquisition that increases Deepwater's scale and cash flow, and they preserve the financial flexibility needed to execute across all three pillars of our strategy. We continue to expect pro forma year-end 2027 leverage to be below one times, consistent with our long-term leverage target. Our return of capital framework remains unchanged. We continue to expect to return up to 50% of annual free cash flow to shareholders through share repurchases, while also investing in high-return projects, maintaining balance sheet strength, and pursuing selective accretive growth. During the second quarter, we did not repurchase shares due to the acquisition-related corporate blackout period. Since announcing the framework in the second quarter of 2025, we have returned approximately $135 million to shareholders through repurchases, reducing our outstanding share count by approximately 7%.

[Zach Dailey, EVP and CFO at Talos Energy]

Bottom line, we delivered record free cash flow, increased standalone production guidance despite the shelf divestment, and enhanced financial flexibility through capital markets transaction that support our strategic priorities. These results reflect the strength of the underlying business, disciplined execution across the organization, and a balance sheet that provides the flexibility to pursue our strategic priorities while continuing to create long-term shareholder value. With that, we will open the line for Q&A.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, you may do so by pressing star then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw a question, please press star then the number two. We ask that you limit your question to one question and one follow-up each. First question comes from Jack Cavanagh from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

[Jack Cavanagh, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Morning, team, thank you for taking my question. For the latest announcements on Mexico and Honduras, I was wondering if you could walk us through the overall strategy behind these low upfront commitment ventures into new international Deepwater areas, also if you could expand on the exploration and development opportunities you are seeing for Mexico and Honduras, respectively.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Thanks, Jack. Let me start by giving a bit of the frame, then I'll pass it over to Bill, who can talk about the second part of the question. I think it's important, Jack, that we think about your specific question on Mexico and Honduras in the context of the totality of what we've done now. First and foremost, it really is the quality of the underlying operations here in the Gulf of Mexico that's allowed us to actually pursue options in that second and third pillar of the strategic frame that we set out a year ago now.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

The first one, of course, being the bolt-on with Na Kika that immediately enhances free cash flow through giving us access to material and immediate production growth, gives us scale both through reserves and resource potential in terms of what we can do in the area around it, and is very accretive to the totality of the metrics that we look at. Has allowed us to look at other opportunities where, as I've always said, we start with do we understand the rock and can our technical capability actually maximize the value from the opportunity? That's what I and we believe we've done with Mexico and Honduras.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Strategically, Mexico gives us a greenfield development opportunity that is pre-FID to discoveries that are all on block with a high-quality partner, and also gives us exploration upside on block in addition to that, such that we can then look at a development that is host based off the initial hub and allows us to grow through the longevity. The third part of this, of course, is Honduras, which actually gives us portfolio longevity through long-term exploration optionality at an incredibly low cost. This is a significant acreage position, some 4 million acres, equivalent to 700 Gulf of Mexico blocks, with a proven oil system on it. There was a discovery in the 1970s where we see that and the working petroleum system from 2D seismic really gives us a level of excitement to move forward with that.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

That's the context. Let me hand it to Bill to talk about the near-term activities, which I think was the second part of your question. Bill?

[Bill Langin, EVP, Exploration and Development at Talos Energy]

Yeah. Thanks, Paul. On Block 29 in Mexico, we're really excited to progress with Repsol as our partner on this project towards FID. To be clear, the FID will be anchored by the two existing entirely on-block discoveries of Polok and Chinwol. At the same time, we see additional exploration potential on the block, and we're working with Repsol to prepare for a potential well late next year to de-risk one of those opportunities. Therefore, we could see further increased scope even within the block. At the same time, the infrastructure to produce Polok and Chinwol could ultimately be used to produce other stranded discoveries and create even additional value within the region. We see this as a core development of Miocene sands, which is Talos' bread and butter from the U.S. side of the Gulf.

[Bill Langin, EVP, Exploration and Development at Talos Energy]

It fit our technical skill sets quite strongly, and we trust Repsol as a partner to get after the project in a way that fits with our value system. We're just excited to get moving there. In Honduras, Paul mentioned several of the aspects that were attractive around the working petroleum system from several previously drilled wells, evidence from 2D seismic, and we'll commence the 3D seismic program before the end of the year here and quickly get after what we see as a really attractive Deepwater opportunity set. Once we acquire the 3D and apply the latest seismic processing methods, and our team's expert skills in evaluating those, we'll have the decision ultimately to progress it, if it's attractive, or not, if it's not.

[Bill Langin, EVP, Exploration and Development at Talos Energy]

We see four to five exploration plays within the block we've acquired, and the evidence of the working petroleum system gives us a lot of confidence that we can potentially see something that's worth going after.

[Jack Cavanagh, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

That's all really great color. Appreciate you guys expanding on those opportunities. For my follow-up, I was wondering if you could talk through the Coulomb development opportunity, with the pending Gulf of Mexico bolt-on, and what you are seeing with that opportunity that makes it compete for capital in 2027, potentially.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Yeah. Historically, Talos has been incredibly strong at acquiring assets like these and then looking for opportunities in the near field that we can tie back in short cycle and bring production back. As we looked at this opportunity, we were already starting to look at the potential within the vicinity. This opportunity happened already to be under our leasehold, and therefore, it's the easiest one, let's say, the most mature one to bring forward to compete for capital as we think through the 2027 plan. Having said that, we will continue to do a lot of work in the vicinity to really understand the totality of the potential, which we think could be significant.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

We'll take this project down the same line that we've taken Brutus and Ram Powell and others that Talos has acquired, which is to extend the life through doing low unit cost, short cycle tiebacks to build production.

[Jack Cavanagh, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Thank you, guys.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Phillip Jungwirth from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

[Ajay Bakshani, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Hello, everyone. This is Ajay Bakshani on for Phil. Thanks for taking our question. I know you're still working on next year's program, but would you expect to include much of the 300 million BOE unrisked resource from the December lease sale? Generally, what's your level of excitement around the upcoming lease sale?

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

I'll take the first part, I'll pass the second part to Bill. I think, as I've said before, we look at those opportunities to compete for capital in 2027. Clearly, some of them are more advanced than others, I would expect that at least two or three of those would be under consideration for us to invest in in 2027. The key criteria, of course, is that they have the same type of return profile that we look for in all of the opportunities that we execute within the Gulf. Bill, do you want to take the second part?

[Bill Langin, EVP, Exploration and Development at Talos Energy]

Sure. I think we've looked at all the open blocks, there aren't a tremendous amount of first-time open blocks, but we'll selectively look to add where we see the opportunities create value for Talos and meet our relatively high technical and commercial thresholds. We're at the moment finalizing the list of blocks for consideration, and next week, we'll ultimately make decisions on those that we see as most attractive.

[Ajay Bakshani, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Great. Thanks. For my follow-up, one of the majors last week referenced AI-powered exploration, identifying additional opportunities and 4D seismic unlocking value. Recognizing it's a different scale, how much is Talos able to leverage some of these new technologies across the Gulf in order to advance the exploration strategy across the new basins?

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Yeah. Look, it's fundamental to the work that we're doing across the totality of the organization is how do we think about the value that AI can bring at, say, process and workflow level. I think we are not looking at it as a singular use case approach, rather thinking process by process, how do we use the technology to drive efficiency of our work and effectiveness of the outcome of that? Part of that is clearly in the exploration and subsurface process, but we're also advancing that same type of application within production processes, but equally within, let's say, the functional components of finance and accounting as well.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Whilst we clearly don't have the investment level that maybe some of the majors have, I think we have the ability and entrepreneurship to work with the right type of partners in this space to actually advance that work. I would say stay tuned, and in the coming quarters, I'm sure we'll be talking more and more about that.

[Ajay Bakshani, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets]

Awesome. Thanks.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Tim Rezvan from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

[Tim Rezvan, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets]

Hey. Good morning, folks. Thanks for taking our questions. Paul, I know growth has been a four-letter word in the industry in the last couple of years. As we look globally, everyone sees sort of the physical inventories dwindling. You've got the balance sheet in a spot of strength that really has never been. You have a lot of opportunities on your plate. I know you're not going to give 2027 guidance, but can you talk about sort of what signals the board might look for to kind of lean into growth as you sort of exit the year around 110,000 with sort of more opportunities than you've ever had on your plate?

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Yeah. Thanks, Tim. I would say, I think the board and the management team are very aligned with the sort of strategic framework that we laid out. The leaning is really leaning into that strategic frame, whether that's improving our business each and every day. Again, I don't want the announcements of Mexico and Honduras and Na Kika to overshadow the phenomenal work that the organization is doing, because that is the foundation that allows us to look for these types of opportunities and to grow and build out the company in a very disciplined way. The word we use is disciplined execution of everything that we do. I think one of the things that I look for and the board looks for is that continued disciplined execution in every opportunity that we bring forward.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Whether that's how to restore Genovesa to production, how we're drilling Daenerys, or how we look for new frontier opportunities that maybe have been overlooked by others, that I think is sort of the key factor that will continue to drive our appetite to push that strategic frame to the next step, Tim.

[Zach Dailey, EVP and CFO at Talos Energy]

Hey, Tim. This is Zach. Just add on to what Paul said. As we think about the 2027 program, and as we get into that capital allocation discussion later this year, it's beyond just production growth. It's growing profitability and investing in the business for the long term, which is what you're seeing play out in some of these strategic announcements we've made today in the last month.

[Tim Rezvan, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets]

Okay. That's fair. We'll have to stay tuned on that. Paul, just as a follow-up. You gave the good updates on Monument and Daenerys well. Can you kind of give an update on sort of what the milestones are for the back half of the year? Related to that, you're bringing the West Vela rig back. Is that going to be for incremental work at Daenerys? Just trying to kind of understand the outlook for these two prospects. Thanks.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Yes. I think, look, the key milestones for the rest of the year, we sort of laid out in the deck. Clearly, finalizing the reactivation of Brutus and starting that program is an important step for us. Clearly, with our partner and operator, Beacon, on the Monument field, executing the totality of that program and having production right at the back end of the year. Clearly, successfully getting Daenerys down to TD, seeing what that well informs in terms of the next steps for the overall appraisal and development potentially. Clearly, sort of the new steps that related to Mexico and Honduras once those are finally closed, which would be the seismic in Honduras, of course, getting the regulatory approval and progressing both the development decision as well as the next exploration well on block 29.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Those are sort of key milestones that we will continue to talk about and update you against all the time, making sure that each and every one of those fits within that financial framework that we have laid out so clearly and will continue to be one of the guiding principles by which we work.

[Tim Rezvan, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets]

Thank you.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Sorry, on the West Vela rig because I didn't get to that point. Look, what we recognize with the portfolio that we're building now is that we can actually be a little bit more strategic in terms of how we think about contracting rig capacity. This is sort of the next step you've seen us take on that with now we contract the rig for a full 12 months plus options beyond that. That's because of the depth of opportunities that we have allows us to do that. Within that, we hope that follow-on activity at Daenerys will be part of that, but that rig commitment is not dependent on Daenerys alone. As we've always said, we will go after the most value accretive opportunities within the portfolio that fit within the overall strategic frame of what we're trying to deliver here.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Paul Diamond from Citi. Please go ahead.

[Paul Diamond, Analyst at Citi]

Thank you. Good morning, all. Thanks for taking the call. Sticking quickly on West Vela, can you give us some idea of the kind of timing of operations 2027, basically when you expect it to come back? Was there any notable kind of directional move on the pricing you've seen versus what you were planning for in the prior round?

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Bill, do you want to pick that one up in terms of the plan for next year?

[Bill Langin, EVP, Exploration and Development at Talos Energy]

Sure. Notionally right now, based on our work with Seadrill, we should expect to receive the rig around mid-year, depending on how their operations with its current contract go. I think we were able to leverage the existing relationship and performance with Seadrill to hold pricing relatively close to where it's been. I think we're really happy with that ongoing strategic relationship that we've developed with them because the ability to take a rig over a longer period of time will just continue to improve its performance with us as we continue to embed our systems and ways of working. We see this as a significant opportunity to continue to deepen that relationship and drive even better performance than we've seen before.

[Paul Diamond, Analyst at Citi]

Got it. Makes perfect sense. Circling back on the share buybacks. You guys are blacked out the quarter, but given the current market conditions and kind of where you see the pricing movement, should we expect, or I guess how should we expect to see the cadence through 2H? Are you all expecting to jump right back in or is there any shift there in methodology?

[Zach Dailey, EVP and CFO at Talos Energy]

Yeah. Hey, Paul. This is Zach, thanks for the question. When it comes to cash returns in the back half of the year, first and foremost, the disciplined capital allocation framework that we speak about is unchanged. One element of that framework is to have the flexibility to grow the business through the selective accretive opportunities, which is exactly what we've done here with some of these deals we're talking about today. As you mentioned, buybacks were temporarily paused during the quarter due to the M&A-related blackouts, shareholder returns remain an important part of how we allocate capital, we'd expect to be back in the market.

[Zach Dailey, EVP and CFO at Talos Energy]

Look, the balance sheet provides a tremendous amount of financial flexibility for us to continue investing in the business, continue pursuing accretive bolt-ons and return capital to shareholders while we run the business, execute the strategy and keep long-term leverage under one times.

[Paul Diamond, Analyst at Citi]

Got it. Understood. Appreciate the time, I'll leave it there.

[Zach Dailey, EVP and CFO at Talos Energy]

Thanks, Paul.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Thanks.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Michael Scialla from Stephens. Please go ahead.

[Michael Scialla, Analyst at Stephens]

Good morning. Wanted to go back to Honduras. Obviously a huge acreage position there. Want to see how long do you have to evaluate that? It looks like you have the option to bring in a partner. Wanted to get a sense of your thinking there. Would you look to do that before you drill or maybe even before you shoot seismic?

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Bill, please.

[Bill Langin, EVP, Exploration and Development at Talos Energy]

Thanks for the question. We'll commence the 3D seismic here, and at the same time, we're maturing a specific permit with the government to achieve, it's called the environmental permit to drill by the end of the year. That will start a 2-year clock once that permit's received. We'll be well-positioned to acquire the seismic and evaluate its potential by approximately the middle of next year, which gives us another year and a half to ultimately make the optional decision to drill or not. We're comfortable with the timeframe we've got. On thinking about a partner, we're framing those opportunities now, and we'll look at the potential of potential dilution pre-seismic or waiting until after we acquire. We'll do it in a way we think creates the most value for Talos.

[Michael Scialla, Analyst at Stephens]

Understood. Thanks for that. Appreciate it. Wanted to ask on the divestiture, was there any compensation? I didn't see anything listed there. Is it just a matter of eliminating the ARO? I guess, with these things, you've got to worry about the buyer. Does that completely eliminate your liability there? How confident, I guess, are you the financial position of the buyer? Does this open up other opportunities to do a similar non-core divestiture story?

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Thanks. Let me start on that, then maybe I'll ask Zach to add into it. I think your question is the right question to ask, these were primarily non-operated activities, gas weighted, that didn't really sort of fit the portfolio or the strategy that we have on a go forward. The most critical item for us was that the structure of the deal was done in such a way that the likelihood of any return of that liability was eliminated. That's what we have been able to do with this. As you saw in the release, it eliminates a sizable amount of future ARO liability that we have. We're very comfortable with the construct and the counterparty that we've transacted with here.

[Michael Scialla, Analyst at Stephens]

Are there possibilities? Are you looking to do more non-core divestitures?

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Clearly, look, we're always looking to high-grade the portfolio. If we see an opportunity to do that, regardless of which part of the portfolio it sits in, and that leads to a path of creating more value for Talos, then we will absolutely look at that. I think this quarter has been, let's say, dominated by the acquisition side of portfolio management. We're equally all always looking at the high-grading side as well.

[Michael Scialla, Analyst at Stephens]

Sounds good. Thank you.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Michael Furrow from Pickering Energy. Please go ahead.

[Michael Furrow, Analyst at Pickering Energy]

Hey, good morning. I'd like to hit on the offshore Mexico farm end. The entrance seems development led from the Polok and Chinwol discoveries and the 200 million barrels equivalent gross resource. Understanding is that there's limited development and infrastructure in the region, and anything would be moving forward through an FPSO if the project reaches FID later this year. With this update, it sounds like there's an additional 200 million barrels of equivalent resource potential, which could really lower the entry cost into the field. Does this additional resource potential increase your confidence in the prospectivity of the original two discoveries? If so, can you share if there's any sort of exploration or seismic that the operator plans in the near term?

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Yeah. The two discoveries are robust, let me say that. Hence Repsol was moving forward through the process towards FID. We have now joined them in that. We see prospectivity on the block. The block is a fairly large swath. Therefore, we will look to progress the exploration opportunities almost in parallel with the development of Chinwol and Polok, such that we then build a pipeline of, let's say, backfill to go to the host, which as you rightly say, will most likely be an FPSO. Bill, any color to add to that?

[Bill Langin, EVP, Exploration and Development at Talos Energy]

Sure. As we mentioned, these are Miocene sands, equivalent to the producing intervals on the northern side of the Gulf, which Talos has known very well and has deep experience in. They have clear seismic responses, which we can then use to calibrate against one another. The exploration prospect that we will likely drill late next year has a similar seismic response to the two existing discoveries, as do the other identified prospects. We have fairly high-quality seismic, so no need to add to that inventory in the near term. It'll be about characterizing the additional volume that ultimately could either backfill or result in additional development.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Look, that was really one of the key elements of attractiveness to this was not only did we have an anchored development that was moving towards FID with a quality partner and operator, but we also saw the potential for fairly significant exploration upside on block as well.

[Michael Furrow, Analyst at Pickering Energy]

Great. Appreciate that response. As a follow-up, I'd like to hit on the confirmation of BP waiving its pref right on the Na Kika platform. Ultimately, the economics of near-term tieback should be more attractive going forward, right? Paul, could you maybe help us understand what Talos' allocation of the oil is now? Does Talos now control all of the platform at its current interest, or does that all just only apply to new developments?

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Talos and our partner, Ridgewood, of course, that have done this deal with Shell, will step into Shell's allocation. That's really sort of split between the overall platform allocation as well as sort of dedicated allocation that's linked to the operated field of Coulomb that ties back to Na Kika.

[Michael Furrow, Analyst at Pickering Energy]

Great. Thanks for the time.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Nate Pendleton from Texas Capital. Please go ahead.

[Nate Pendleton, Analyst at Texas Capital]

Morning. Congrats on the strong quarter.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Thank you.

[Nate Pendleton, Analyst at Texas Capital]

Paul, in your prepared remarks, you talked about successful production optimization initiatives during the quarter. Can you elaborate on what some of those initiatives were? Perhaps on the Cardona outperformance, was that due to geology or was there something specific that your team was doing there?

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Yeah. Thanks for the question. Look, I think on the first part, it really is just great work by the production and development teams to think about how can they maintain the uptime of facilities. How can they maintain the throughput of facilities? Great surveillance work to understand what's happening down the hole and in wellbore. As they see any changes, how do they intervene on those to make sure that well productivity stays up. There is not one thing that I can point to. I would say it is just a high-quality team that is on top of its business, looking at the wells and making sure that they're producing as close to their optimal level as we can. Great credit goes to Will Bunkers and his team for continuing to look for the opportunities.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

What then tends to happen, of course, is that in combination with the development teams, they start to look for optimization opportunities. Are there areas that maybe can compete for capital from a recompletion point of view, for opening up a new horizon? That's exactly what you saw happen at Genovesa, where clearly the prime drive was to reinstate that well. Once the teams got to look at it, they saw an opportunity to access a lower zone that could put another maybe 4 million barrels into the inventory that otherwise would have been left behind pipe. It really is that constant questioning of how can we do better today than we did yesterday with all the available data that is at hand. On Cardona, maybe let me ask Bill to give you a few specifics on that.

[Bill Langin, EVP, Exploration and Development at Talos Energy]

I think on Cardona in particular, the team did an excellent job in delivering that restoration ahead of schedule. If you describe this operation, this is essentially hitting a half-inch target a few miles away from the rig. I think when we brought the production online and saw how we could improve the throughput between the overall system optimization and the production, I think it's just an amazing testament to the way the teams continuously monitor the reservoir performance and tweak the parameters to get the most out of it.

[Nate Pendleton, Analyst at Texas Capital]

That's really encouraging. Thanks for all the detail there. Shifting gears a little bit. While Mexico's Block 29 is still somewhat familiar, Honduras seems to represent a pretty material step out from the historical focus on the Gulf of Mexico. I'm really interested in your willingness to further shift the portfolio internationally and how those opportunities compare to the growth opportunities you see in your current portfolio or what you're looking at in the Gulf of Mexico itself.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Thanks. We look at every opportunity through that strategic lens that we have from the three pillars and then the capital allocation framework. As we've always said, we start with, do we understand the rock? That is first and foremost, and we look at that irrespective, if you like, of where the geography is. Do we understand the rock, and does it fit into the skill set that we have? That I think we have shown and proven over a number of years to become sort of masters of understanding, and we can take a very competitive view of that. That is the lens that we look at, and as we've said, we will look sort of where that geology exists, which in gross terms, should we say, sort of down and up the Atlantic margin.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

That's the area of focus of where we are looking, and we'll continue to look. Of course, it all fits in that frame of investing in the base business, making sure that that is successful, making sure that we maintain the strength of the balance sheet, that we return cash to shareholders. Then, and only then, looking at accretive acquisitions that can grow out the portfolio and actually give us the longevity that we're looking for, where we can have projects compete for capital. Also maybe take positions where we can create value by bringing partners in because we're very early into those and we can get value for the de-risking activity that goes out in front of us.

[Nate Pendleton, Analyst at Texas Capital]

Understood. Thanks for taking my questions.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Subash Chandra from StoneX. Please go ahead.

[Subash Chandra, Analyst at StoneX]

Good morning. Does Pemex back in for 51%?

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

No. If you're referring to Block 29, no. These are totally on-block exploration opportunities that were under Repsol's control and now are under Repsol and Talos partnership. Was that the question you were asking?

[Subash Chandra, Analyst at StoneX]

Yes. Exactly. I guess it looks different than Zama. The politics look currently different than Zama. Is it fair to say that those are key distinctions that having Repsol operated, Pemex not in the operating group, that these are differences to the Zama experience?

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Yes, is the simple response to that. Clearly, the Zama situation arose because the discovery went off block onto a Pemex block, therefore that drove the unitization. We do not see that risk here at all. The map discoveries are all on block. I think as well the sort of overall environment in Mexico is sort of trending in a slightly more positive direction. The fact that Repsol has already taken this a fair way down the fairway in terms of being FID ready, were all elements that gave us the confidence that we could take a position here and help them move it forward through to final investment decision and onward to production.

[Subash Chandra, Analyst at StoneX]

Right. Got it. On Petrocarabobo, they've been developing that prospect for quite some time. Just curious, when did Talos sort of begin to look at their data?

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Look, this has just been part of the ongoing strategy that we've had. Since we announced that strategic frame last year, that's what kicked off that work.

[Subash Chandra, Analyst at StoneX]

Okay. Just finally, was that negotiated between you and Repsol bilaterally, or were they sort of out there looking for partners and it was a bidding situation?

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

We're not going to get into the specifics. What I will say is, we will look at all opportunities that are out in front of us, either those that are going through some form of a public process or ones that we can identify with a counterparty to create the opportunity set that we need to.

[Subash Chandra, Analyst at StoneX]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from Noel Parks from Tuohy Brothers. Please go ahead.

[Noel Parks, Analyst at Tuohy Brothers]

Hi. Good morning. It was good to hear some of the background on your thinking about evaluating the acquisition opportunities. I was thinking specifically about these new international opportunities. I guess for the last year and a half, you have been pretty clear that international projects were definitely part of what you would be looking for. I guess if you could maybe talk a little bit about, just in general terms, what sort of things you had been evaluating, and sort of how Honduras, for example, sort of did manage to get over your hurdle, maybe when other types of projects didn't. Your remark just a minute ago about the sort of up and down the Atlantic margin. I just wondered, are you still considering yourself, or are you considering yourself more or less confined to that geographically?

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

No. Thanks. Look, I think we've been clear in terms of our strategic frame sort of leads all of our thinking and work. That's the work that we have been doing over the last sort of 12 to 16 months. I'm not going to comment on specific areas that we've looked at or will look at, but just to say that we are driven by the geology and the rock first and foremost. Do we have the skills and the knowledge to actually evaluate those effectively and competitively? Do we feel that we have a skill set to bring that can actually create incremental value compared to whoever or whatever the position of the holding is at this point in time? That's the approach that we've taken, and that's the approach that we will continue to take.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

In general terms, we've said that those areas of interest happen to be down through South America and up the West Coast of Africa. That's what we will continue to look at. That doesn't mean to say that if there are other areas where we see that commonality of geology, that we won't look. We will be very careful before we sort of step out of, let's say, our backyard of the sort of very near outboard of the Gulf of Mexico and now sort of southern part of that in Mexico and through the Caribbean.

[Noel Parks, Analyst at Tuohy Brothers]

Great. Thanks. This year has sort of launched us into a pretty chaotic capital markets environment and a lot of capital looking for a home. I was just wondering if you were seeing, I guess I'd call it intermediary or third-party capital, in other words, sort of outside of the traditional operators or majors, looking to get into the Gulf. I just wondered if you had had approaches sort of from unconventional sources, just as certainly because deepwater projects offer a time horizon that could be attractive to folks looking to put capital to work.

[Zach Dailey, EVP and CFO at Talos Energy]

Hey, Noel, Zach. I appreciate the question. The short answer is yes, there's lots of interest in the Gulf, and you've seen that through multiple transactions over the last 6-12 months. We're always actively evaluating the best source of capital for us. I would take you, however, back to the refinancing that we just did and the bond deal that we executed in early July on the heels of the Na Kika-Coulomb acquisition, where we were able to extend our maturity out to 2034 and lower our interest rate from 9% to 8%. I feel like we're in a really good spot right now, and we've got a very strong balance sheet, and we'll always entertain other options to further strengthen that.

[Noel Parks, Analyst at Tuohy Brothers]

Great. Thanks a lot.

[Zach Dailey, EVP and CFO at Talos Energy]

Thank you.

[Operator]

There are no further questions. I'll turn the call back over to Paul for closing remarks.

[Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO at Talos Energy]

Thank you, Vincent. Thank you all for joining today and your continued interest in Talos. To close, the second quarter demonstrated the strength of our base business, the quality of our team, and the durability of the strategy. We delivered exceptional operational execution, generated record free cash flow, and advanced each of our three strategic pillars, all whilst maintaining the discipline that underpins our capital allocation framework. We enter the second half of the year with strong momentum, a high-quality oil-weighted portfolio, enhanced financial flexibility, and a clear path to continue building the foundation to be a leading pure-play offshore E&P. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the months and quarters ahead. Thank you all.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Kyle Sahni, Manager of Investor Relations
• Paul Goodfellow, President and CEO
• Zach Dailey, EVP and CFO
• Bill Langin, EVP, Exploration and Development

Analysts

• Jack Cavanagh, Analyst at Goldman Sachs
• Ajay Bakshani, Analyst at BMO Capital Markets
• Tim Rezvan, Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets
• Paul Diamond, Analyst at Citi
• Michael Scialla, Analyst at Stephens
• Michael Furrow, Analyst at Pickering Energy
• Nate Pendleton, Analyst at Texas Capital
• Subash Chandra, Analyst at StoneX
• Noel Parks, Analyst at Tuohy Brothers