Excelerate Energy Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
August 6, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Second-quarter results exceeded the prior-year period, with adjusted EBITDA of $120 million, up 12% year over year, helped by a full-quarter contribution from the Jamaica platform.
  • Positive Sentiment: Excelerate raised and narrowed its 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance to $490 million–$515 million, while lowering maintenance CapEx guidance to $85 million–$95 million; the board also approved a 13% sequential dividend increase to $0.09 per share.
  • Positive Sentiment: The Acadia began operations under a nine-month Jordan charter in July and is expected to contribute approximately $20 million of EBITDA this year, while the FSR Express secured a seven-year Colombia charter expected to increase its annual EBITDA contribution by about 35%.
  • Positive Sentiment: The company purchased the Methane Patricia Camila for approximately $79 million as the dedicated vessel for its first FSRU conversion, targeting commercial deployment in early 2028; management expects conversion returns to remain consistent with its prior low-double-digit to mid-teens targets.
  • Negative Sentiment: The Iraq LNG terminal’s expected start-up has shifted to early second-quarter 2027 amid Middle East conflict and security considerations, while certain Iraq project costs have been pulled forward into 2026, raising committed growth capital guidance to $380 million–$400 million.
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Earnings Conference Call
Excelerate Energy Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Excelerate Energy second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. I will now hand the conference call over to Craig Hicks, Vice President, Investor Relations and Strategy. Craig, please go ahead.

Craig Hicks
Craig Hicks
VP of Investor Relations and Strategy at Excelerate Energy

Good morning. Thank you for joining Excelerate Energy's second quarter 2026 earnings call. Joining me today are Steven Kobos, President and CEO, and Dana Armstrong, Chief Financial Officer. Also joining the call are Oliver Simpson, Chief Commercial Officer, and David Liner, Chief Operating Officer. Our second quarter earnings press release and presentation were published yesterday afternoon and are available on our website at ir.excelerateenergy.com.

Craig Hicks
Craig Hicks
VP of Investor Relations and Strategy at Excelerate Energy

Before we begin, please note that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements which involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. We undertake no obligation to update these statements. We will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found at the end of the presentation. With that, it is my pleasure to pass the call over to Steven Kobos.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. This was a strong quarter for Excelerate, both financially and operationally. We delivered $120 million of adjusted EBITDA and advanced a number of commercial opportunities that support our growth outlook for the years ahead. Before I get into the quarter, let me start with what drives this business. We connect global LNG supply to the markets that need it most, and we own and operate an energy infrastructure portfolio that turns imported LNG into reliable, affordable energy.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

The backdrop for that work has never been stronger. An unprecedented wave of new LNG supply will come online by the end of this decade. That creates a significant opportunity for the downstream infrastructure required to connect that supply with the countries and customers who depend on it. That is precisely what we provide. As the operator of the largest portfolio of floating regasification terminals in the world, Excelerate is well-positioned to take advantage of these macro tailwinds.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

What sets us apart is how we create value from that portfolio. We redeploy and optimize the assets we already own to drive incremental growth, and we invest selectively where we can add stable, contracted cash flow. This quarter is a good example of that discipline at work. Let's get into the updates on the progress we have made. The Excelerate Acadia, our newest floating regas terminal, is an example of how we create value from the infrastructure within our portfolio. The Acadia was delivered in April on budget and ahead of schedule.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

While it was originally planned for deployment to Iraq this summer, after the onset of the Middle East conflict, we moved quickly to find an interim deployment for the asset. In May, we signed a nine-month charter with Jordan's National Electric Power Company, NEPCO, to deploy the Acadia to the country's existing LNG import terminal in Aqaba. Operations began in July, the deployment is expected to contribute approximately $20 million of EBITDA this year.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

We matched one of our floating regasification assets with an immediate customer need and generated meaningful earnings uplift while preserving the asset's strategic positioning for future opportunities. That is the advantage of operating a portfolio of this scale. When a market needs reliable regasification, we can respond. We are also creating incremental value over a much longer horizon. In June, we signed a long-term charter with a subsidiary of Frontera Energy Corporation to redeploy the FSR Express to a new LNG import terminal under development in Colombia's Caribbean coast.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

The agreement has an initial term of seven years and includes multiple extension options. Following completion of its current charter and planned dry dock later this year, the Express is expected to begin service in Colombia in early 2027. The new agreement is expected to increase the Express's annual EBITDA contribution by about 35% compared to its current contract. Importantly, it also adds meaningful long-term contracted EBITDA to our backlog. Let me now turn to Iraq.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

In October 2025, we executed a definitive agreement with a subsidiary of Iraq's Ministry of Electricity to develop the country's first LNG import terminal. It is an integrated project that includes a five-year agreement for regasification services and LNG supply. It has extension options and a minimum contracted offtake of 250 million standard cubic feet per day. Despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, we have continued to advance the project while adapting our execution plans as conditions evolve.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

We continue to monitor developments across the region closely, safety and security considerations remain at the forefront of project planning and execution. Engineering and procurement activities are nearing completion. Site clearance and dredging activities have continued in preparation for construction, materials required for the terminal have been staged globally and are now being mobilized based on construction priorities. Based on our current project schedule, we now expect terminal operations to commence early in the second quarter of 2027.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

We remain closely aligned with our counterparties on the value of this project to Iraq's energy system, we appreciate the support of the new Iraqi government and share its commitment to advancing infrastructure that strengthens the country's long-term energy security. When the terminal comes online, it will bring reliable, large-scale gas import capacity to a country that needs it. It will do so under a take-or-pay contracted structure consistent with the rest of our portfolio. Next, let's turn to our FSRU conversion project.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

To position ourselves for new regasification opportunities as the LNG supply wave comes online, we're converting an LNG carrier into a floating regasification terminal to support our future earnings growth. In July, we entered into a definitive agreement to purchase our second LNG carrier, the Methane Patricia Camila, for approximately $79 million. It will serve as the dedicated vessel for our first FSRU conversion project. As you know, earlier in the process, we evaluated the Shenandoah as the potential conversion candidate, it remains a viable option for future conversion opportunities.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

However, ultimately, we selected the Methane Patricia Camila for this project because its 170,000 cubic meter storage capacity, TFDE power generation, and installed reliquefaction provide a strong technical foundation for a high-capability FSRU. We believe these characteristics will enhance the performance of the asset, expand the range of opportunities it can serve, and increase the earnings potential over its operating life. We are also making good progress with the key milestones required to advance the project.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Since executing the LNG carrier purchase agreement, we have ordered the regasification plant and continue to advance the shipyard scope toward definitive agreements. We continue to expect the converted FSRU to be available for commercial deployment in early 2028. By advancing the conversion today, we are positioning Excelerate to meet future customer demand at a time when available FSRU capacity is expected to remain limited. Let me close the business update with Jamaica, because it is an important example of where this company is headed over time.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

A little over a year ago, we acquired our integrated LNG and power platform in Jamaica. What makes Jamaica valuable is not only the contribution it provides today, it is the combination of LNG import infrastructure, downstream customer relationships, and commercial opportunities that create multiple avenues for growth. Across Jamaica, we continue to identify opportunities to optimize the existing platform and increase utilization through additional LNG sales and expanded infrastructure services.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Beyond Jamaica, we have already begun to leverage our existing infrastructure and LNG supply position to support customers on other islands and coastlines throughout the Caribbean. Today, our platform enables us to serve a broad range of customer needs through infrastructure solutions that range from truck-delivered LNG to larger integrated downstream projects. More importantly, Jamaica demonstrates how a single LNG infrastructure platform can create a scalable and repeatable model that can be expanded across the Caribbean over time.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

We are seeing increased momentum on the commercial front. We look forward to providing updates on the progress we are making later this year. In summary, here are the key takeaways. Across our portfolio, we continue to create value from the assets we operate today while advancing future growth opportunities. Whether it's the Acadia in Jordan, the redeployment of the FSRU Express, the integrated Iraq LNG import terminal, or our FSRU conversion, each of these initiatives reflects the same approach to capital allocation.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Together, they form a sequence pathway to growth through 2028. With each milestone building on the earnings power, contracted cash flow, and infrastructure platform we have in place today. We have a strong foundation and the financial strength to execute our strategy. Finally, I want to recognize our employees around the world. Their commitment and hard work are behind every milestone we discussed today. With that, I'll turn the call over to Dana.

Dana Armstrong
Dana Armstrong
CFO at Excelerate Energy

Thanks, Steven, and good morning, everyone. Excelerate delivered solid financial results in the second quarter. We reported net income of $50 million, roughly flat compared to the first quarter of 2026. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was $120 million, down slightly versus the prior quarter. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 12% from the prior year second quarter, primarily due to a full quarter contribution from the Jamaica platform.

Dana Armstrong
Dana Armstrong
CFO at Excelerate Energy

For the second quarter, maintenance CapEx spend was $14 million, and committed growth capital spend was $241 million, inclusive of the final payment for the Acadia, which was paid in April. Behind these results is a strong balance sheet that supports near-term execution and our growth objectives. As of June 30th, 2026, total debt, including finance leases, was $1.2 billion. We ended the quarter with $342 million of cash and cash equivalents, the full $500 million of capacity under our revolving credit facility was available.

Dana Armstrong
Dana Armstrong
CFO at Excelerate Energy

Net debt was $898 million, and trailing net leverage was 1.9x. With leverage well below our target range and substantial available liquidity, we have plenty of financial capacity to fund our growth pipeline while continuing to return capital to shareholders. Our capital allocation framework remains disciplined. First, we invest in accretive growth opportunities across our infrastructure platform. Second, we return capital to shareholders through a growing dividend. Finally, when market conditions warrant, we pursue opportunistic share repurchases.

Dana Armstrong
Dana Armstrong
CFO at Excelerate Energy

Consistent with that framework, our board recently approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.09 per share of Class A common stock, representing roughly a 13% increase over the prior quarter. This increase is consistent with our previously announced target of a low double-digit annual dividend growth rate through 2028 and reflects our confidence in the company's ability to fund growth while returning capital to shareholders. The dividend is payable on September 3rd, 2026, to Class A common stockholders of record as of the close of business on August 19th, 2026.

Dana Armstrong
Dana Armstrong
CFO at Excelerate Energy

We also continue to execute on our share repurchase program. During the second quarter, we repurchased roughly 693,000 Class A shares for approximately $24 million at a weighted average price of $33.93 per share. With that framework in mind, let me turn to our updated financial outlook for the remainder of the year. Based on our results and clearer visibility into the second half of the year, we are adjusting our full year 2026 guidance. We are raising and narrowing our full year 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance.

Dana Armstrong
Dana Armstrong
CFO at Excelerate Energy

For the full year, adjusted EBITDA is now expected to range between $490 million-$515 million. This increase reflects the strength of our contracted base business, ongoing asset optimization, and strong operational execution. Additionally, we have raised and narrowed our committed growth capital guidance to a range of $380 million-$400 million. The increase in committed growth capital was driven primarily by certain Iraq-related project costs being pulled forward to 2026 from 2027.

Dana Armstrong
Dana Armstrong
CFO at Excelerate Energy

The total estimated cost and return profile of the Iraq project remains in line with the previously communicated range. The updated committed growth capital range also reflects continued execution of our first FSRU conversion project, including certain payments related to the recently ordered regasification plant and other long lead equipment. In addition, the range includes a 10% down payment associated with the acquisition of the Methane Patricia Camila, which is due in the third quarter of 2026.

Dana Armstrong
Dana Armstrong
CFO at Excelerate Energy

We are lowering our full year maintenance CapEx guidance to a range of $85 million-$95 million. This reflects the expected deferral of the FSRU Exquisite dry dock into 2027. We are pleased with our performance for the first half of the year and remain focused on executing against our priorities for the remainder of 2026. With that, we'll open up the call for Q&A.

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the roster. Your first question comes from Theresa Chen with Barclays. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Theresa Chen
Theresa Chen
Analyst at Barclays

Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to go back to Steven's earlier comments about the strength of global LNG trade and regasification in particular. With the Express's strong recontracting results, how should we think about the read-throughs to the rest of your portfolio? Does this outcome change your expectations around pricing, contract duration, or other renewal terms upcoming? What are you seeing in customer demand trends today?

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Good morning, Theresa. Thanks very much. Good to have you on the call, and look forward to seeing you at Barclays in September. Great question. It should come as no surprise that we are bullish on the asset class. We have been bullish on the asset class. We remain bullish on the asset class. It is going to remain tight through the foreseeable future. I think this is the fifth asset in the existing fleet that we have recontracted on more favorable terms over the past four and a half years. We look for that to continue, frankly, to continue into the 2030s, the tightness in the market.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

The coming wave is just going to need homes, and there are insufficient number of homes. That's our bullishness or expectation in general. What else was buried in your question, Theresa? Since they said you only got two questions, I want to stretch it out for you.

Theresa Chen
Theresa Chen
Analyst at Barclays

No worries. The general sentiment we completely understand, and we'll wait to see what you get on pricing, contract duration, and the like for the rest of your fleet as you recontract the assets. Maybe looking at near as well as medium-term EBITDA, I want to delve into your outlook a little bit more. With your newly increased guidance, can you walk us through the assumptions embedded in the outlook today, what factors could push results towards the high or low end?

Theresa Chen
Theresa Chen
Analyst at Barclays

Looking beyond 2026, taking into account the currently fluid situation in the Middle East, what gives you confidence in starting the Iraq terminal operations in the second quarter of next year? Thank you.

Dana Armstrong
Dana Armstrong
CFO at Excelerate Energy

Hey, Theresa. It's Dana. I'll take the first part of that question. In terms of the guidance, obviously our base business is relatively predictable, as you know. Just looking at the range and what could drive us up or down, there's a few things. The biggest variable item is the Atlantic Basin deal. As you know, we deliver two cargoes per year. In the last couple of years, we've done a partial cargo in the fourth quarter, which spread into the first quarter the following year. That's our baseline assumption, but that could change depending on many items, the weather being one of them.

Dana Armstrong
Dana Armstrong
CFO at Excelerate Energy

If that pulls up into Q4, that could drive our assets closer to the higher end of range. However, if it pushes back into the first quarter of next year, that could drive us to the lower end of range. We're highly confident that we'll be within that range regardless of what happens there. The other factor is just cost. We always have some level of variability in our cost. From a vessel OpEx and a business development perspective, if we shift priorities or if activities change, that could create some variability, but really usually not very material.

Dana Armstrong
Dana Armstrong
CFO at Excelerate Energy

Again, we feel very confident we'll be in that range, but it's just the standard seasonality of things that we see going, swinging one way or the other.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Theresa, I want to get back to your first question, just because while we do see upward pressure continuing on day rates, the reality is we're out there looking and hunting for integrated projects that are going to provide an even better return. I don't, by my comments, want to lead anyone to think we're just looking for a standard TCP. Beyond that, we're also looking for near-term growth. If we weren't clear on the call, Iraq is starting up in Q2 2027.

David Liner
David Liner
COO at Excelerate Energy

Theresa, maybe I can add a little bit to that, too. You were asking about what gives us confidence that we can come online in the second quarter. I'd say this project is coming online. The fundamentals of the project are even more compelling now than they were prior to the conflict. We've used this time in the second quarter to make sure we understood exactly what the security situation is on the ground before we start up in earnest again. We've had people on the ground the entire time, so we've had people in Iraq continuously since the end of last year.

David Liner
David Liner
COO at Excelerate Energy

We have great relationships with the local government, with U.S. government, with security forces in the region, and that all gives us good comfort that we can restart in earnest and get online in the second quarter of next year. We're confident we're going to deliver, and you're going to see a lot more movement here as we get into the third quarter, and we're really going out full speed.

Theresa Chen
Theresa Chen
Analyst at Barclays

Thank you very much for this helpful color, and looking forward to seeing you all in September. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Olivia Foster with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Olivia Foster
Olivia Foster
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Hi, team. Good morning. Thanks for taking our questions. I wanted to ask about the FSRU conversion candidate acquisition. First, can you walk us through how commercial conversations for the conversion candidate are progressing? Remind us what total conversion CapEx could be and project milestones to watch for an early 2028 in-service. Finally, could you walk us through the rationale for buying the new donor vessel and maybe the technical specs that make this asset more attractive for the 2028 early in-service versus the existing Shenandoah LNG carrier? Thank you.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Hey, Olivia. Thank you for being here, and we really want to welcome Goldman Sachs to our analyst coverage universe. It's a pleasure to have you on board, and we look forward to many future conversations. David's chomping at the bit to answer this, but I'm going to take the last part of it because it gets back to the point I was making with Theresa. We are always going to be opportunistic. We have an opportunity on this vessel, and we think it's fantastic. We think it's quite simply among the best conversion candidates in the world.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

It already has reliquefaction on it. That means it's going to have great boil off gas management. It's got 170,000 cubic meter storage area. We like that, and we also like that it already has the TFDE power generation on board. It simplifies things, reduces execution risk on the conversion, etc. If you start looking at those characteristics together, you're going to figure out it's a far better candidate for an integrated deal where we will be selling modules through it. It's ideal for that. That is something that we are seeking to prioritize as we move forward.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

We had the opportunity. We liked the price, we liked the vessel, and we liked what we can do with it. I'm giving you a little bit of a heads-up as to what our preferred intended use for that asset will be. I'm encroaching on David's turf because he probably wants to geek out on the capabilities and the rest of your questions.

David Liner
David Liner
COO at Excelerate Energy

I could geek out for a while on the PacAm. We're just thrilled that the commercial team was able to secure that asset for us. As Steven said, in terms of size, it's going to be just really an efficient terminal to operate, because with 170,000 cubic meters, that's the standard parcel in the industry. That means you can get vessels in, discharge full cargo, and get out quickly, so it's efficient. Steven talked about the fuel-efficient DFDE propulsion system, which we're going to use for power generation.

David Liner
David Liner
COO at Excelerate Energy

It's got basically as fuel efficient of a power generation plant as you can get for an FSRU. Steven talked to that boil off rate. She'll be the most efficient conversion in the industry in terms of boil off rate when she goes into service. That's why we're so excited about this pivot over to the PacAm. One other thing I'll say is just the pedigree of that vessel. She's had charters, owners, and operators that are just world-class, and we know it's going to be a good asset, and it's been maintained in a good condition.

David Liner
David Liner
COO at Excelerate Energy

We've also put boots on the ground ourselves to confirm that that's the case, as well as numerous third-party inspections that give us comfort that we're going to have a great asset when she comes to us. You also asked about milestones. We take control of that asset in January of next year. We're working towards definitive agreement with Seatrium Shipyard. Be on the lookout for that. We've already secured all of the regas equipment for that conversion, or we've ordered it all. That's going to be on the way, too.

David Liner
David Liner
COO at Excelerate Energy

There's a number of milestones that are coming down the way. You also asked about CapEx. We've previously communicated around $200 million. With our pivot to the PacAm, that's on the low side. It's actually going to increase from that. Because of the capabilities that she's going to have and why she's such an ideal candidate for an integrated project, we expect the same level of returns as we previously communicated.

Olivia Foster
Olivia Foster
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

That is clear. I appreciate all the detail. For my follow-up, I wanted to ask a follow-up based on your comments, Steven, to Theresa's first question, really about the commercial preferences you are seeing from customers regarding integrated terminal offerings versus standalone FSRU charters. As you work through commercial discussions with customers, how would you describe demand for the full-service terminal plus maybe LNG supply and last mile solutions versus standalone FSRU charters?

Olivia Foster
Olivia Foster
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

From a contractual standpoint, can you remind us how the margin profile and even your stickiness with customers varies on integrated terminals versus vessel-only charters? Thank you.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Well, Olivia, I will say we want to own and be as involved as possible throughout in terms of stickiness. We want to be embedded within a deal. In terms of the preference, it's just going to be horses for courses. Different places, depending upon their background, what the rest of their portfolio looks like, if it's their first foray into LNG, it's all going to vary. I think what you are hearing, though, is from our standpoint, it's going to be a tight market for the foreseeable future.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

You're having this LNG wave come online. Concerned about deploying any of these assets. We want to be as picky as we need to be on where we deploy them. And there'll be times, we're not going to be hidebound to one form or another. If there's a great opportunity and we like the offtaker on our more traditional, just capital leasing model, we'll do that. We're not going to turn it down. We're not going to chase every one of those, nor have we ever chased every one of those. We've always been picky.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

We've always cared about the market fundamentals in a particular market. What you should be divining from this, as we are starting to move to that integration, we think that's going to be required to succeed moving forward. We think that's the future of regas, and we want to be somewhat picky and make sure that we are using our precious assets to pursue what we view as the future of regas.

Dana Armstrong
Dana Armstrong
CFO at Excelerate Energy

Olivia, to answer your question about the returns, we've said previously, and it holds, is that the more we can integrate, the higher the returns will be. We generally guide to unlevered after-tax returns of the low double digits to the mid-teens. TCPs being closer to that lower end, more integrated projects closer to those mid-teens or sometimes higher. The level of integration obviously drives higher returns.

Olivia Foster
Olivia Foster
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

That's clear. Thanks for all the color. I'll turn it over.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Eli Jossen with JPMorgan. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Eli Jossen
Eli Jossen
Analyst at JPMorgan

Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions. It's been over a year now since you've closed on the Jamaica platform. I know the team is highly integrated with the local government and looking to provide durable energy infrastructure solutions there. Can you just talk a little bit about sort of the learnings that you've had from owning that platform and when we may start to see those chunkier growth opportunities start to materialize this decade? Just remind us what the cadence looks like for putting those new assets in service. Thanks.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Hey, Eli. Going to hand that over to Oliver because I know he wants to brag on it. If it's not clear, we're already making deliveries to other islands and other Caribbean coastal areas. We haven't talked about them because we don't want to talk about individual things that aren't sufficiently material. We are advancing. We're pretty excited about the Caribbean. Oliver.

Oliver Simpson
Oliver Simpson
Chief Commercial Officer at Excelerate Energy

Yeah. Thanks, Eli. Yeah. Obviously, as you say, it's been about a year. I think the integration has gone extremely well. The full team, the full assets are fully integrated, and we're sort of at full running cycle now on those assets. I think what we've seen, and sort of as we look at it, I'd say there's three things I'd point out. One, as Steven's pointed out, we've been making small incremental sales on the spot, just optimizing the assets that are there. In fact, in this last quarter, we made our first sales with a final destination outside of Jamaica, so using the Jamaica assets to reach some of those other Caribbean islands.

Oliver Simpson
Oliver Simpson
Chief Commercial Officer at Excelerate Energy

Obviously, the key part now is to turn those into longer-term discussions and longer-term contracts. I think as part of that, we announced the Columbia TCP this quarter. It's a TCP, but I think it's also putting to Steven's previous answer about being picky about our customers and where we place our assets, that's a perfect proof point to that. Putting an asset in Colombia on the Caribbean coast, for us, it's an extension of our Caribbean portfolio, and we believe we'll be able to use that asset to further leverage our position across the Caribbean.

Oliver Simpson
Oliver Simpson
Chief Commercial Officer at Excelerate Energy

It's going to give us another asset in proximity to Jamaica, in proximity to the Caribbean that we can look at using to reach new customers. In terms of the longer-term deals that we're looking at, what I would say is that there's a number of active discussions going on. I'm sort of really pleased at how those discussions are going. When we can tell you, we'll come out. I fully expect that through the course of this year, we'll be looking to provide more news on that. Finally, on the sort of overall picture, we provided the guidance last year.

Oliver Simpson
Oliver Simpson
Chief Commercial Officer at Excelerate Energy

I think we gave the overall EBITDA range with CapEx on our Caribbean outlook. I think that holds. I think we hadn't provided any specific cadence on the timing of that. We still feel that that's a range that we're comfortable standing behind and working towards.

Eli Jossen
Eli Jossen
Analyst at JPMorgan

Understood. I know that you guys have probably had a lot of conversations regarding LNG supply from the Middle East. Maybe specifically from Qatar. What kind of conversations are you having with them? What kind of update should we expect as we head into year-end? Maybe just separately, if we just think about kind of the express through the Strait of Hormuz and just broadly how that kind of fit into the dry dock before the charter in Colombia. Just, I guess, broader kind of what you're seeing on the ground in the Middle East. Thanks.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Sure. I'll take that one, Eli. Obviously, we have a lot of focus in that region, as we do all over the globe. We've spent a lot of time on it. We've already spoken about our supply deal into Bangladesh and the impacts of that, which are within the guidance that we've provided to date. No new update there. What I would probably point out, though, that I don't think many people in the U.S. taking a 20,000 ft view realize, this whole conflict has underscored the need for the Iraqi terminal.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Excelerate opened Kuwait up to LNG nearly 20 years ago, and all through this year, their cargoes into the Kuwait LNG terminal from 2025 are only down 15%. There have been 39 of the 40 cargoes delivered have been from Qatar. I think some people are surprised to know that intrabasin deliveries of LNG are proceeding. Frankly, I think there's an intense interest for new terminals like Iraq, who will logically be a great destination for further intrabasin deliveries. If we'd gotten the green light to build that two years ago.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

I'm comfortable it would've remained up and running all this year, just as the Kuwaiti terminal has. Just a little inside baseball there. You shouldn't be thinking solely about cargoes going out. You should think also about what's the most intrabasin delivery. Express. We've got some assets within the Gulf. We've got plenty of assets outside the Gulf. Express is the plan A. We are planning for plan A, but I think you will have realized by now with our pivot with Jordan, with the Acadia, we always have a plan B.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Actually, we usually have a plan B and C. We're focused on plan A, that's Express to Colombia. Don't worry, we're going to execute Colombia, and if we have to pivot to a plan B or C, we will.

Eli Jossen
Eli Jossen
Analyst at JPMorgan

Great. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Bobby Brooks with Northland Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Bobby Brooks
Bobby Brooks
Analyst at Northland Capital Markets

Hey, thank you guys for taking my question. I wanted to follow up a little on Jeremy's question. Oliver touched on it a bit, just wanted to hear a bit more on how the Express being redeployed in Colombia, how might that look in playing a role for your broader plans for growth in the Caribbean?

Oliver Simpson
Oliver Simpson
Chief Commercial Officer at Excelerate Energy

Hey, Bobby. Let me try and give a little more color on that. As I said, obviously that is a TCP in Colombia. I think through that and through our discussions with our new partners there, Frontera, we believe there'll be opportunities to use that asset in conjunction with our broader assets in the Caribbean. We've talked about Jamaica being a tank farm from which we can reach other places in the Caribbean. I think you can kind of apply the same logic there. Obviously the location of the asset is close to one of the largest ports in Colombia and in the broader Caribbean.

Oliver Simpson
Oliver Simpson
Chief Commercial Officer at Excelerate Energy

Again, a lot of traffic and a lot of opportunities to take from there. Those are all details that we're figuring out. We're fully focused on getting that terminal up and running, getting the asset there. That's the clear focus. It's also a long-term charter, a long-term relationship. As we've seen elsewhere in the past, we pick our customers and our projects wisely. We want to use those as a stepping stone to go and try and leverage off that and do more so.

Bobby Brooks
Bobby Brooks
Analyst at Northland Capital Markets

Got it. Very helpful. I think I've got a good grasp on the benefits and cost differences between an FSRU conversion and a new build, and how the end projects they'd serve would be different. What I wanted to ask on is what might be the signals you'd want to see, whether internal or external, that would push you back to getting in the queue of a shipbuilder for a new build?

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Bobby. Man, I'm always wanting to drive by the new car dealership and take a look at what's on the lot. You're probably getting the point that the Acadia is a beast. I mean, just love that ship. Love everything about it. What I can tell you is we're always going to be looking. Now, you've heard us all geek out about the Patricia Camila. That's going to be a fantastic ship. Love the timing, love the whole package. As we move forward into the 2030s, there will definitely continue to be a place for these best-in-class assets.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

We're not on the verge of pulling a trigger anytime soon. If any of the shipyards are listening, they need to sweeten up things before we do that. Very definitely, I expect that we will be back with a new build at some point.

Bobby Brooks
Bobby Brooks
Analyst at Northland Capital Markets

Got it. Very helpful. Congrats on the strong quarter. Thank you for taking the question.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Scialla with Stephens. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Michael Scialla
Michael Scialla
Analyst at Stephens

Thank you. Good morning. I wanted to see if you could give us a sense of the EBITDA uplift you anticipate in 2028 from the conversion.

Dana Armstrong
Dana Armstrong
CFO at Excelerate Energy

Hey, Mike. We've guided before that we generally use a CapEx EBITDA multiple. If you just take the CapEx and apply that multiple, we generally say 5x-7x, right? Iraq is around 5x. That's an integrated project. That would be an ideal situation to have something like that, but it could potentially be a TCP. It's going to be most likely somewhere in that 5x-7x range.

Michael Scialla
Michael Scialla
Analyst at Stephens

Okay.

Dana Armstrong
Dana Armstrong
CFO at Excelerate Energy

Does that help?

Michael Scialla
Michael Scialla
Analyst at Stephens

Thanks, Dana. Yeah, it does. Appreciate it. With all the growth materializing here, wanted to see what your latest thoughts were on potentially securing more supply agreements.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

We will. We very definitely will, Mike. I can tell you there's strong interest in wanting to fill the positions we already have. We're being very deliberate about it and we'll bring you color on that as soon as we can.

Oliver Simpson
Oliver Simpson
Chief Commercial Officer at Excelerate Energy

Yeah, I think what I would add on that, Mike, is also, as we've talked about the overall commodity risk for us, it's about matching the supply to what our customers need. There's lining up those conversations in parallel with what we see in the downstream projects. They are parallel discussions, but they're certainly happening and it's certainly on our radar as we talk to the conversion or other projects that we see as integrated, we will need to bring in more supply to support those efforts.

Michael Scialla
Michael Scialla
Analyst at Stephens

Sounds good. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Chris Robertson with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Chris Robertson
Chris Robertson
Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my questions.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Good morning, Chris.

Chris Robertson
Chris Robertson
Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Hey, good morning, Steven. Maybe just a question here, just on the Middle East instability. I have to imagine both exporters of LNG and importers right now care a lot about pricing and price volatility as well as security of supply and supply chain resiliency and all these types of factors. Given the state of the world today, have your conversations with any potential customers changed at all in terms of how these potential integrated opportunities will look?

Chris Robertson
Chris Robertson
Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Will they include maybe more robust storage capacity designs or any changes to the design in any way so that people can have greater inventories or anything like that? Just wanted to get a sense of how topics were trending.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

It's fascinating, Chris. I was on the USS Nimitz in Kingston a couple of months ago when she was making one of her last port calls in her 50-year career. It was a nice port call because the entire Jamaican government was on board, and I was quite simply bragging and reminding them that their nat gas prices had been stable over the course of 2026 because they had reliable long-term Henry Hub index pricing from Excelerate. Wasn't that a good thing to have that degree of financial security? It is.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

I do think the lesson from this is just be careful about how you source, how you contract, and we can provide whatever product a customer wants to give them the physical and the economic security. Again, that's why we're never trying to kill it on the molecule. We want to be boring. We want to be perhaps the most boring company that touches nat gas in your universe because we want to buy on the same index, sell on the same index. As Oliver says, we want to match it up.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

I actually think that any time people are looking at spikes, they realize they need to give a little bit more thought to how they're sourcing it. I think, I don't think, I know that people are more receptive and more interested in the integrated product that we want to offer them because we do want to offer it on that boring infra type profile, and we are seeing more interest in that.

Chris Robertson
Chris Robertson
Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Thank you for that color, Steven. A bit of a left field type question here, but the company's always been very much part of the LNG value chain here. Are there any other American petroleum gases that are stripped out of the nat gas stream that are interesting from a potential infrastructure perspective that you guys could maybe move into at a smaller scale at some point? Is the plan just to stick in that LNG value chain?

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

For now, Chris, there's just such an enormous TAM in the downstream portion of the LNG value chain that I think we're better off focusing on that. Obviously, we'll be building last-mile delivery systems that once you have that, I suppose you could ultimately be trucking or delivering other types of product. For now, we're laser-focused on LNG downstream, infra, regas. I've said before publicly, we're entering the era of regas and LNG. That is our obsession.

Chris Robertson
Chris Robertson
Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Got it. That's clear. Thank you very much for the time.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Wade Suki with Capital One. Your line is open. Please go ahead. A reminder that if you are muted locally to unmute your device.

Wade Suki
Wade Suki
Analyst at Capital One

Good reminder. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Appreciate y'all taking my questions. You'd think I'd know the routine by now, clearly I don't. Just wondering if you could maybe I always love to hear your views on the commercial environment out there. You kind of touched on a few items. I'm just kind of curious, there's some pretty well-publicized stories about another FSRU possible in Bangladesh. I think in Colombia, they've been talking about, I want to say five or so different possible import facilities.

Wade Suki
Wade Suki
Analyst at Capital One

I'm just kind of curious if maybe you could speak to some of these other opportunities, ability to get bigger in some of your existing locations, and any other hints on other regions, India, Vietnam. Anything, any color around those developments would be great. Thank you.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Hey, Wade, I'm going to hand that to Oliver. I will note that you fit 10 questions into your question, man.

Oliver Simpson
Oliver Simpson
Chief Commercial Officer at Excelerate Energy

Hey, good morning. Good morning, Wade. Yeah. Look, I don't want to sort of respond specifically to other projects for other companies. I don't think that's the right place here for me to do that. I think what I'd say is, addressing our project in Colombia, obviously, we have a firm contract there. We have a timeline. We have a clear line of sight to that project, and we're very confident in our ability to deliver on that. I think that's where our focus is. Again, I'd go back to some of the comments about picking our projects.

Oliver Simpson
Oliver Simpson
Chief Commercial Officer at Excelerate Energy

We are quite deliberate about where, who, and how. I think that translates into that. Looking more broadly, you'll have seen we've talked today about the conversion candidate coming online in 2028, or the conversion project now. It's no longer just a candidate. That's driven by our view that the supply of FSRUs, on both sides. On the supply side of FSRUs, we just don't see that there's many FSRUs coming online in that timeline. On the demand side, we see robust demand from projects across that would fit for that asset.

Oliver Simpson
Oliver Simpson
Chief Commercial Officer at Excelerate Energy

Now, I think we're having multiple discussions for that asset, and it's a case of, okay, what's the right fit? As Steven alluded to, obviously, there's a preference for finding the right integrated project that that could go into. I think for me, that's all to say that we continue to see robust demand for these. We've got extreme confidence in our operating capabilities and our track record, and I think you've seen that through the people who have chosen to work with us, so they value that.

Oliver Simpson
Oliver Simpson
Chief Commercial Officer at Excelerate Energy

We talk about overall energy security, but at the end of the day, on these projects, deliverability is the critical point because you can go in different directions. I think there's a value to having people who've got the experience and have delivered on these. Yeah, we're extremely confident on that pipeline, and I think progressing on that conversion is a reflection of that.

Wade Suki
Wade Suki
Analyst at Capital One

Appreciate that, Oliver. I guess maybe just to dovetail on that question, maybe just kind of came to mind as you were talking. Is there an opportunity out here inorganically to pick up an FSRU? Is that a little bit more challenging from a returns perspective? Are you better off doing conversions, new builds, whatnot?

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Wade, you can give anyone Oliver's mobile phone number. If you've got someone who wants to unload one, feel free. We can deploy as many as we can lay our hands on.

Oliver Simpson
Oliver Simpson
Chief Commercial Officer at Excelerate Energy

Yeah. I'd say, I'd add to that I think it's, again, over the different transactions you've seen over the last couple of years, we've shown our sort of commercial flexibility. We're nimble. It's about finding the right project that's ultimately accretive for us and the right fit for us. If there is something like that, we'd happily look at it. I think we also see the path that we have on the conversion makes a lot of sense. As Steven alluded to too, we can keep looking at new builds too. We're not sort of technology. We'll look at the different technologies.

Oliver Simpson
Oliver Simpson
Chief Commercial Officer at Excelerate Energy

They each have different values. We'll look through them, and I think it's the same thing on the sort of commercial assets and what they have. We'll happily look at different solutions.

Wade Suki
Wade Suki
Analyst at Capital One

Got it. Appreciate that. Thanks so much.

Oliver Simpson
Oliver Simpson
Chief Commercial Officer at Excelerate Energy

Thank you.

Operator

We have reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now turn the call back over to Steven Kobos for closing remarks.

Steven Kobos
Steven Kobos
President and CEO at Excelerate Energy

Thank you all for joining us this morning. It should be clear, I've never been more proud of this company, of our employees around the globe that are delivering all these milestones that we've been talking about, as well as this executive team around this table. Top to bottom, we are doing great things all around the world, and thank you for taking an interest in those efforts.

Operator

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

Executives
    • Craig Hicks
      Craig Hicks
      VP of Investor Relations and Strategy
    • Steven Kobos
      Steven Kobos
      President and CEO
    • Dana Armstrong
      Dana Armstrong
      CFO
    • David Liner
      David Liner
      COO
    • Oliver Simpson
      Oliver Simpson
      Chief Commercial Officer
Analysts
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