Hunting PLC

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Q2 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptAugust 21, 2026

Jim Johnson

Good morning, everyone, and good to have you in attendance today to listen to Bruce and me talk about our results for the first half of the year. Before we get started, as always, I just want to do a thanks out to the team at Hunting.

Again, we delivered excellent results in the first half of the year and a lot of hard work to make that happen. Special thanks today to Graham Goodall and the team in the Middle East.

As everybody knows, it is a very challenging environment and a lot of stress in that area these days, and so I just want to say thanks for all that they do. Getting into our results today, we are very pleased with what has happened in the first 6 months of the year.

I think the results today show that our strategy that we have laid out and put in place is definitely working. We have delivered a diversified array of results and opportunities that have come into our fold.

We have performed very well, and we are not focused on just one basin or one geographic area, and it played out today with the broad positive results that we had. Today, as we get started, there are really three points that I want to get across, or three main themes, and we will go into more detail with everything throughout this report.

I think the first theme is the incredible turnaround that we have seen in the performance of our Titan perforating business. Credit to the team for all the advances that they have made from a sales point of view, from a cost point of view, supply chain point of view, and maintaining our technology lead in that field.

As clients continue to have more challenging wells in the unconventionals regarding the length of these wells, I think the Titan products continue to be the call of choice when it comes to those type 2 equipment needs. Additionally, our international business with Titan has been very strong.

We are looking at a 50% increase there year-over-year. The second part of the story that is amazing to me as well has been the success we have had in our subsea business.

That is really a catalyst on how we have decided to change the company and change our strategy to really, again, be in markets globally. If you look at pre-2019, we had one very small segment in the subsea business.

Today, with the acquisitions we have done, we have expanded that greatly, and that has led to a higher margin profile. Even if you look at our performance so far this year, our second quarter overall margin profile increased with EBITDA ranges close to 15%.

A lot of that is driven by the subsea business and a lot of the optimism we have in the future because of things like energy security, reserve life, and the like, is really going to be focused on that subsea business. The third point is really to address what I would call the 800-pound elephant in the room, and that is what is going on in the Middle East and what is going on with KOC.

Our virtual mill concept proved how successful it could be earlier this year with a number of big tenders out from KOC. We were in first place to receive what would have been the largest tender awards in the company's history, and I am talking well in excess of $300 million.

As you all know, the war came on, dragging on. How do you get material through the Strait of Hormuz?

Long and short of it is we were asked to reverify delivery times and pricing like our competitors on our work. Even up until the last announcement that we put up in July, we had actually received a purchase order for $20 million for one of the line items.

We felt confident that this was going to happen. What was the mill delivery going to be like?

When would it fall into our P&L statement and the like? There was still challenges there.

Long and short of it is those tenders have all been canceled. KOC has canceled everything in that tender, and it will be coming out again, we think within the next 60 days.

At the end of the day, we performed well. We were so close to getting the award, but now it is being pushed out, and it will definitely be a 2027 event.

I would say the good news about all this, if there is any good news, is the fact that as of just this week, a new tender has been placed out in the market by KOC for a different field. This is not the redo, but this tender value alone is in that $120 million to $180 million range.

We will be bidding that within the next 60 days. It is for delivery starting in June of next year.

With the retender process of the major projects, we still are very optimistic that giving our technology, our relationship with KOC, and in the fact that we have our virtual mill concept that can do a competitive package, that we will be successful on those tenders in 2027. Now I will get into the presentation.

Again, the highlights, I have talked a lot about that already. Again, it has been a Subsea story with a high margin.

It has been a Titan turnaround story. It has been a steady business in North America on the OCTG side.

On the accessory business, Guyana continues to be a strong part of our business. On top of all that, the good sales work being done, we continue to focus on our cost reductions.

Our consolidation of facilities is nearly complete in EMEA, as far as specifically on the European assets, and we look forward to getting more synergies as next year we move into an international presentation, international combination, and North America. Supporting the market itself, there is a strong demand out there again for hydrocarbon security, and one of the upsides to the events in the Middle East has been the new light, I would say, or positive outlook for more international markets and more offshore markets.

On top of that, the whole AI-driven power demand issue is really playing into the strengths we have in our Titan business, as well as our North American OCTG business. Financial numbers, you all have these here.

I am not going to go into a whole lot of details on them, but you can see the difference. Nearly $500 million in revenue in the first half of the year.

The key number, the $62.1 million of EBITDA in the period. We continued our share buyback.

We want to continue to be shareholder friendly and take excessive cash and show that there is going to be a return with this company, hopefully through ups and downs in the market, that we remain a good place to invest. We have announced an increase in our dividend proposal.

The next one will be $0.07 a share. Capital outlays are continuing to rise in areas like offshore.

The market in the U.S., so capital spending should be on the uptick right now due to the fact that I think people are more comfortable that we are not going to see a big reversal in oil prices anytime soon. This slide here really shows to the fact that what I mentioned from a revenue point of view on the diversification we have had in the product lines going back to 2019 versus today.

You will see the big, big growth in the Subsea side of the business. It is again, the highest margin business that we have right now, but it is a nice balance.

One of the keys when we looked at our strategy and where we were at years ago, is we just do not want to be one basin-focused, one country-focused, or one product line-focused. Fortunately, this year, it is really proven out.

The recovery at Hunting Titan has been strong. The international opportunities, both in OCTG and Subsea, remain healthy.

Our Advanced Manufacturing business continues to book good business, partly due to aerospace and defense, as well as to power gen business. We continue to focus on cost, as I mentioned.

We have had a lean manufacturing program in. We are well into our second decade of that.

There is never a time when that ends. It is kind of in the same line of the efficiency you see in our customers drilling wells in the Permian.

Today, they are drilling in 14 days what used to be 28. We look at that same kind of philosophy in our manufacturing shops to see how we can do it quicker, faster and better.

We talk about versus 2019, a 24% decrease in our headcount. The fact that we are more efficient.

We are using things like AI in some back-office applications to speed up processes. I think a key note is the fact that our treasury share purchases, we talk about a 300% increase there to fund our LTIP programs and the like, but we have not issued any shares, so there is no dilution.

The buyback, as we mentioned, kind of a newer thing for us in the past year. We are continuing that, and we will give you some more highlights on that later on.

Just one other thing on the cost reduction side. I would also like to comment that our health and safety record, our quality record remains stellar.

Oil and gas demand. I am a big believer that the world is going to use hydrocarbons for a long, long time.

If you look at the trends, especially as it relates to the need for more and more electrons globally for things like data centers and the like, natural gas is going to be a key driver of supplying those needs. For our business, natural gas or oil really does not matter.

We also continue to play in the geothermal market. We landed a successful order in OCTG in the recent months for some geothermal work on premium connections.

We continue to supply perforating equipment in geothermal applications, and we look that as while it is small, it is an area that we want to play in and we continue to pursue. Power demand, as I mentioned earlier, most of you have probably seen these slides before.

There is just a huge amount of need for, like I said, the electrons. This is not going away.

All you have to do is look at the spending that is going on by the major players in the data world, and this is an issue that you are going to see growth internationally because you are seeing the need for data centers in Europe, in other markets, in Japan. All of this has to have a steady stream of electricity to make sure they do not turn off.

One of the main parts of our story or our thesis on why I think we are in kind of the earlier days of a really upswing in activity is this page here. What it really shows is the fact that we have had a lost decade or so when it comes to exploration.

Across the board, the majors are out there right now saying, "Where are we going to extend our reserve life?" We know what is there in the unconventionals in places like North America.

The alternative is more unconventional development in areas from Algeria to obviously Argentina, Mexico. Literally, there is not an area around the world where there is not unconventional opportunities.

On top of that, one of the big drivers, when you see the names up there like the Petrobras', the Exxons, the Chevrons, the Shells, it is offshore, and that plays into the strength of our subsea business. But it is a trend that these companies need to correct because they cannot produce themselves out of business.

With that, I am turning it to Bruce.

Jim Johnson

Bruce Ferguson

Thanks, Jim. I am pleased to talk to a strong set of results for the first half of the year.

As Jim mentioned, EBITDA for the first half was $62.1 million, with an EBITDA margin of 12%. These results do not include the QOC results we saw in last year.

Pleasing to see the non-oil and gas revenues increase year-on-year to $38 million. Our EPS slightly down from $0.196 to $0.152.

That reflects the lower profitability. The order book normalized now, we do not have the KOC order through there, but $386.

260 of that will get booked in 2026, which supports the 2026 outturn as well. It is important to us to see that dividend increase.

That is up 13% to $0.07 declared for the first half. Return on capital, key metric for us.

That is slightly down at 9.1% for the first half of the year. We see that improve as our phasing, our activity improves the second half, and that should get us back to over 10% by the end of the year.

Working capital are phasing for the first half of the year. We had $24 million EBITDA for quarter one, $38 million for the second quarter.

We have a bit of a build there. June was a good month in terms of sales, so those receivables are sitting on the balance sheet, and that is up the working capital ratios there, but will unwind over the second half of the year.

In terms of the income statements, we have our revenue sitting there at $497 million. $38 million of that is the non-oil and gas.

Gross profit sitting fairly steady at 27%. We have seen an improvement in terms of margins coming through Perforating Systems, in terms of the volumes coming through, in terms of the international business coming through as well, which tends to be at a higher margin.

If you go through to the profit after tax at $24.8 million, that gives us an EPS of 15.2 with the dividend sitting at $0.07. One of the reasons for the strong performance was in terms of the segments.

We have two strong segments there in terms of Hunting Titan. We saw that the revenues increased 45% year-on-year.

That is a combination of a strong U.S. market.

We have seen the rig count increase 45%. We have seen international sales double in the likes of Argentina and into the Middle East as well.

That is really a stellar performance into Hunting Titan. North America is steady.

Subsea, fantastic growth there. We are looking at 95% year-on-year.

$50 million of that comes from our recent acquisition in terms of Flexible Engineered Solutions. Really good to see there, but really good activity in our Subsea key markets there, the likes of Guyana are picking up really well.

EMEA, again, lots of restructure been going on, lots of disruption in terms of the Middle East, but they are getting through that. We believe the second half of the year will be stronger.

We seem to likely be profitable as well. Asia Pac, you will see the difference between this time last year and first half this year.

That is basically the absence of Kuwait Oil Company. That gives us the $497 million for the first half.

If we look at the balance sheet, balance sheet is in great order. Not much difference in terms of our assets, our depreciation, our CapEx tend to wash each other out.

Working capital build is probably a key feature of this. We are $60 million higher in terms of working capital.

That has affected cash flow, but that is a timing issue, and that will unwind over the second half of the year as well. That does leave us with a slight net borrowings position of $19 million, but that in terms of leverage is very low in terms of our EBITDA.

We are in a really good pristine position there in terms of future capital allocations or optionality over our M&A. Our working capital, a little bit more detail here.

Really the key number here is on the receivables. That has increased $60 million from up to $293 million.

In many ways that is a positive thing. That strong June trading position that has come through in terms of receivables, and it also shows the build for some of our large Subsea contracts as well.

Cash flow, in terms of main items there, you will see the GBP 58 million coming off the working capital movements. We have also had a net one-off import tax liability that was paid.

That was a one-off. That comes through to -GBP 27.8 million in terms of our cash flow.

We started on a strong position in terms of the year at GBP 62 million, so we are still in a good place. We have made GBP 33 million in terms of share buybacks, dividends at GBP 10 million.

As Jim said, we are ahead of the game in terms of purchase of treasury shares for the LTIP program as well. A little bit of commentary around our order book.

We are sitting at GBP 386 million. We have got a tender pipeline behind that, which gives us comfort as well of just under $1 billion.

$260 million of this $380 million will be booked in 2026, which gives us support for the second half of the year. We do see the order book upside with the Middle East, the Subsea orders for Guyana, Organic Oil Recovery coming through in terms of, got some really good opportunities commercializing on that side.

We are very excited about that, and that sets us well for the second half and beyond. In terms of guidance, a little bit of trimming in terms of EBITDA to reflect the delay in that KOC tender.

We are now looking at $138 million to $141 million, so roughly $10 million down from that side. EBITDA margins reflecting the stronger Titan coming through there, the product mix of Subsea as well, so at 12%-13%.

Really key metric for us to get up to 15%, as per our capital markets day targets, and we believe we are on track to do that as well. CapEx will step up slightly in the second half of the year.

We are forecasting that around about $40 million to $50 million. Free cash conversion still at 50%.

With that, pleased to hand back to Jim.

Bruce Ferguson

Jim Johnson

Thank you, Bruce. Let me see.

Growth path. End market diversification, again, it is one of the things that we wanted to do when we laid out our business, is how do we diversify the business?

One of the upsides that we have seen even more recently has been the great strides we have made at our Dearborn operation. If you look in recent months, up to 90% of the business has been non-oil and gas, and that has been a heavy focus on aerospace, defense, and power gen.

Subsea, again, a big driver. We are looking for growth in those regions around the world that are going to utilize all of our products.

We are working hard to make sure that we are bundling in front of the client, and that we can give more opportunities to tender different products. We are seeing that come through already with the FES acquisition.

We're seeing it in the decommissioning side in the U.K. So lots of upside there.

North America, we have a continuous strong position in the onshore marketplace there, both in Perforating Systems and in the premium connection business. Strong market outlook.

You guys see all this. What I'm really excited about is the opportunities.

We talk a lot about the offshore market, but if you look at unconventionals, as I've always said, it's the most common hydrocarbon rock in the world, and it's all over the place. We've seen a huge amount of growth coming from Argentina, where we're a key supplier down there.

Mexico is kind of fits and starts, but there is a market there. Algeria, a new one.

But one of the interesting facts in this period has been that the unconventional work that we're doing in Saudi Arabia really has not been affected by anything going on in the Gulf. So we continue, in some cases, even flying in product.

But the unconventional work remains very healthy there and is a huge resource base that's going to continue to be utilized. Even in areas like the UAE, we have supplied OCTG products with our TEC-LOCK product line for some of the first unconventional wells there.

So there's a huge upside, we think. One of them that's not listed there, for example, is Australia, where you see people like the venture with Liberty looking at a huge resource in Australia, and we have supplied product there and see that also as a growth area.

Now, again, I've talked about this, kind of just some examples of what we're doing. We don't want to be slacking on our technology.

Part of the reason we get to the table with KOC is because of our test lab in Houston and the design greatness, I will say, of our design teams in solving customers' problems with new connection technology. You would think after all these years, there can't be anything more, but there always is.

Again, it's pushing the envelope. How do you get more performance out of these tubulars, whether it's through metallurgical issues in grades of material or designs of connections?

So we're on top of that. We've got a busy schedule.

We continue to look at CRA opportunities, which will be more on the high spec end for areas like high temperature geothermal and the like. On the gun system side, we're rolling out our H-5 perforating system.

Really on that, what I will say is it's more of a lean initiative for us. As we look at our products, how can we make them quicker, faster, and better?

So you'll see more about that 6 months from now as this gets more introduced into the marketplace. South America, we talk about a strong area for us.

Guyana has just been the gift that keeps on giving, and we expect, thanks to our relationship with Exxon Mobil, to see many years of strong business there for multiple product lines. The domestic North American business remains steady.

As we mentioned, the rig count in the U.S. is up about 40 to 50 rigs year-over-year.

The frac spread count has increased. We think that that business is going to stay steady throughout the year with some growth.

We've been exceptionally happy with what we've also seen in Canada. We've seen a nice uptick in the Canadian market, some of that driven by unconventionals.

But overall, I think the U.S. is still poised for further expansion.

We had a recent Gulf of Mexico lease sale 2 weeks ago, brought in the U.S. government another $84 million.

You're seeing a lot of interest in the majors looking at their asset base and potential asset base in the Gulf of America, and that'll play into, again, not only our subsea business, but our premium connection business and our accessory business as well. Middle East, as I mentioned, there's lots of plans with people like the UAE leaving OPEC.

They want to ramp up production. Kuwait wants to ramp up production.

At the end of the day, you got to put holes in the ground. While the war has been disruptive, it's not like these projects are going away.

They will happen, and we are well prepared. I just can't today give you a time on when we're going to see purchase orders and start threading tubulars for Kuwait.

Again, we talked about South America. This is just a graph that just shows some of the subsea offerings and where we're at.

Organic Oil Recovery, we'll talk about that in a little bit more for questions. We're seeing a lot of optimism in there, a lot of work going forward as far as trials turning into actual field projects.

West Africa, we've seen tender activity pick up there on the subsea side as well as OCTG. Brazil, with the establishment of a new office there 2 years ago, we're ingrained with some of the independents there.

What a lot of people don't look at, they only think of Petrobras, but there is a group of independents also working down there. Within the last month, we secured a significant order from OOR for one of the independents in Brazil.

Going into the next slide. Dearborn, as I talked about earlier, just kind of a list right now on some of the key clients.

Again, it's aerospace, it's power generation, and it has been a lot less oil and gas. As I've mentioned in the past, we've had a bit of a transformation in that operation in Maine, because if you go back 10 years ago, it was literally 80%, 90% oil and gas.

That has shifted right now. Companies like Solar, which is the division of Caterpillar, they remain very trusting in Hunting and a long-term relationship, and that is strictly power generation demand that we see accelerating.

Enhanced oil technology. Bruce, again, I always pass to Bruce because I give him credit for bringing that to the table and developing it.

But at the end of the day, customers or clients going back to the reserve replacement life, it's how do you get more barrels out of each foot of wellbore, and what are you going to do to push out things like the abandonment issues in the North Sea. We think OOR is one of the solutions to that.

We've had very good results back from Harbour that we can talk to later, but we are seeing positive indications on trials that we've done, and a lot of those moving to the next phase. We are very optimistic that it is early days for OOR, but it is a process and a product that really the industry should be embracing more.

But nobody ever wants to be first, so you are always in that process of dealing with the clients and working on the trials. But we see light at the end of the tunnel, for sure.

Again, there is some of the acceleration. It talks about the steps that we do.

You can see the players up there. I think the most exciting ones we are dealing with right now are Exxon for a number of projects globally, and again, there are some opportunities in the Middle East as well.

Harbour, again, has been positive. We should be getting more purchase orders from them.

It is an area where it is enhancing production and, again, the results have been very good. In summary, this company is well-positioned to take advantage of what I think is early days of a strong bull market in the oilfield service business.

It comes down to energy security. It comes down to the cost involved for the standard of living of people.

It comes down to things like the AI revolution that is ramping up power demand that has to be supplied to a large extent by natural gas. And it is a portfolio that we have today that is really the broadest I have seen in the company's history as far as oilfield services go.

So everything from, we will take part in wells in 5,000 feet of water in the Gulf of America, to onshore wells in Alberta, Canada, to whatever. So we play in a lot of different areas right now, and that exposure puts us in front of the client in a lot of places.

I just think the list of opportunities is just going to continue to expand. And I give credit, our sales team, commercial team, has done an excellent job, again, solving customers' needs, which is the number one thing that Hunting does.

With that, we are about ready to go to questions.

Jim Johnson

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, questions are being taken across the webcast.

Please click on the control panel at the bottom of your screen, and click on the Questions icon and type them in. Our first question comes from Victoria at RBC.

Are you seeing any progress in expanding titanium stress joints to new operators or geographies?

Operator

Jim Johnson

The answer is yes. We did not make a press release, but just within the last 10 days, we received a $16 million order from a new client in the Gulf of America for an independent that I will not name right now, displacing one of the competing solutions.

That was a nice win, and again, it kind of goes with that whole momentum that we're seeing in the product line offering. The best thing that ever happened to us was having Exxon standardize on that product for a lot of their FPSO work in Guyana.

Because it's almost like we would say in the States, the good housekeeping seal of approval, and if Exxon's using it, why aren't we? We're seeing more of those opportunities coming up.

We're tendering for those products in places like West Africa right now. We think there's lots of upside still ahead.

Jim Johnson

Operator

Thank you. Two more from Victoria.

How has pricing and market share in Titan evolved in H1, and what are you anticipating in your guidance for H2? What levels of facilities utilization are you currently operating at Titan?

Operator

Jim Johnson

Titan is pretty busy right now. Pricing, what I would say is we've been ahead of the game on the cost inflation side of the business.

If you look at our charge manufacturing, one of our costs, for example, is tungsten, and tungsten prices are up 500% year-over-year. We've managed to stay ahead of that and maintain and grow our margins.

It's still a competitive business right now, but I think pricing-wise, we're not giving anything away. I think it's one of the keys that our performance has been better than we saw a few years ago, is we're really focusing on clients that value the technology, not doing three bids and a buy.

Utilization at Pampa right now is pretty high. Exact number I can't off the top of my head.

We have room for capacity increases on the charge side, but those are things that we're pushing the prices up on because of just the nature of explosive powder and the demands of that globally, since there seems to be lots of war issues going on. We want to make sure that we're watching those pricing levels.

Anything else you want to add, Bruce, on that?

Jim Johnson

Bruce Ferguson

No, just in terms of the financial performance of Hunting Titan, it was a nice step up quarter 2 over quarter 1. We're now up at $83 million sales for quarter 2, and we see that continuing improving.

Couple of points, margin improvements as well. We see that continuing throughout H2 as well.

Bruce Ferguson

Operator

Thank you. One from Thomas at Streetor.

Last name's Streetor. U.S.

shale is maturing, so which international regions do you see growth as opportunities for Hunting Titan?

Operator

Jim Johnson

The biggest upside that we're seeing is Argentina and Saudi Arabia right now. But there is new opportunities coming up.

Algeria's got unconventional opportunities. We're seeing that.

Mexico's kind of fit and starts because of their rules on fracking. Australia, it could be a huge marketplace just because of the size of the reserve down there.

But really the two strong ones are Saudi Arabia and Argentina.

Jim Johnson

Operator

Great, thank you. We've got quite a few now from Toby at Equity Development.

I'll do them one by one. Can you point to any examples of joint bidding success from the constituent companies in Subsea and/or are there tenders in process?

Operator

Jim Johnson

Yeah. Exxon Mobil in Guyana is using product from Flexible Engineered Solutions as well as our titanium stress joints, as well as the fact that we're in there talking to them on Organic Oil Recovery.

So that's one key area and one key client right now where bundling is working out. There's been an effort with some clients in the Far East where we're looking at, now that we've opened up an office in KL, that we're looking at bundling more Flexible Engineered Solutions and the titanium stress joint business.

So it's early days, again, in the reconfigurations that we did with our Subsea business to add all the pieces to be able to bundle. I think I'm happy with the progress we've made to date.

Jim Johnson

Operator

Slippage in the KOC order process, obviously frustrating, though the OCTG product group order book grew noticeably over the 6 months to the end of June. Even absent KOC order revenue now, should we expect an improved performance here in H2 versus H1?

Operator

Jim Johnson

One of the things that, there's always little gremlins, as I call them, that run around through the business, right? Every day, that's why they pay us, there's always a challenge, and every day we come to work and address those challenges.

One of the things that kind of was a downer to a degree on the U.S. OCTG business was one of our mill partners actually had a mill outage that extended past 6 weeks when it was supposed to be 2 weeks.

The situation in the U.S. right now is, believe it or not, OCTG is a, it's a tight marketplace.

Because of tariff issues, there's less imports coming in. I mean, it's not hampering our business, but it is one of those issues where if you do have a mill situation, that's a problem.

Fortunately, again, that's fixed. We haven't lost clients.

We are still growing those businesses. I think the OCTG business will continue to be strong.

Again, like I like to say, if you look at our international OCTG business, we talk a lot about KOC, but it is also impacted tenders in places like Bahrain, like in Iraq, like in Qatar. Any players in that side of the Persian Gulf right now, it is just the big question is you cannot get the pipe there.

We need resolution of the crisis.

Jim Johnson

Operator

On Advanced Manufacturing, profitability and EBITDA margin both improved here despite lower revenues. Was this solely a mix effect or were there any fundamental underlying changes?

Operator

Jim Johnson

Well, I would say it is a lot of hard work. The electronics business, it has had some slow year or two because of the capital equipment cycle being down from our major OEM clients.

We have seen a pickup from specifically one of them in that area. So that is helping with absorption going through the shop and this and that.

The Titan business, the charge manufacturing is done there. The big uptick in Titan has helped the electronics business.

But we have also been successful in landing new non-oil and gas at Titan. We talked about the, not at Titan, I am sorry, at the electronics business.

We talked about the change in the portfolio of clients at Dearborn, but we are starting to see that happen in our electronics business, too. Overall, I would say it is a swinging customers, a changing customers, and it is not any one thing you can put your finger on.

It is a number of things.

Jim Johnson

Operator

Thank you. Another couple of questions from Mick at Barclays.

Two questions, please, on the Kuwait delay and re-tender. I know you think you are well-placed, but a new tender adds risk that competition increases.

Can you talk to the dynamics of competition and whether that is one contract or a series of contracts?

Operator

Jim Johnson

It is one big contract, the one that was passed. Yes, I hate the fact that now it is a redo.

It puts pressure on our supplier partners from a steel point of view. As I have said through my whole career, there is no 100% certainty on how any of these play out.

It depends on your competition's load basis of their mills, what other projects they have. One of the interesting things on OCTG right now is there is a massive demand in the world for line pipe.

That is because of projects in Canada, tons of pipeline issues in the U.S., deep water pipeline issues, all throughout the Middle East, and they have not even scratched the surface yet on what they are going to do to try to get around the Strait of Hormuz. Line pipe is an issue where it has usually a lower price per ton, but it is a very efficient product to run through a mill.

Why I am telling you that story is there are just a lot of factors that go into what will the pricing be on any given day on big international tenders. Mick, I have no idea if we are going to be successful.

I know that one of the reasons we were successful, though, is the fact our technology has shined through because of the connection testing we have done. That limits the field of competition, and it is literally bought on a size of pipe and grade of pipe basis.

That is why I mentioned the one order that we had, then they turned around and canceled it. That was just one line item for $20 million.

Jim Johnson

Operator

Decommissioning has been talked about for the first time in my recall. What are the opportunities and products that you hit the market with and the scale of opportunity?

Operator

Jim Johnson

The main driver for decommissioning revenue for Hunting has been the Enpro business, and that has really been working with Shell on some of our proprietary kit that is going into the basement of some of these concrete structures and the like, getting the nasty stuff in the bottom out of there. That will continue to be a good business for us, and we see that obviously with what's happening in the U.K., a growing business.

It is one of those ones that we have put Enpro product lines into the U.S. because there is an abandonment business that is going on in the Gulf of America as well.

I see that as a growth area for us. I really think we would like to not have as much of that because they should be using tons of the OOR technology to extend the field life.

It is kind of like we would like to play both ways, and that is our area there when it comes to decommissioning.

Jim Johnson

Operator

Thank you. Next question comes from Jim at Jefferies.

In Subsea, you previously gave segment guidance of $38 million EBITDA in 2026. It looks like you are on track to exceed this, or is there any reason revenues or margins in Subsea might decline in the second half?

Operator

Jim Johnson

No reason that I know. You, Bruce?

Jim Johnson

Bruce Ferguson

Nothing but a strong second half lined up in terms of order book, in terms of the margin. The good thing is the margin profile continues to be stronger and stronger.

I think every product line within the Subsea group

Bruce Ferguson

Jim Johnson

Yeah

Jim Johnson

Bruce Ferguson

is looking strong for not just the second half, but also beyond that as well. I think we are very comfortable there.

Bruce Ferguson

Jim Johnson

Yeah. Just as a reminder, Jim, our original Subsea business was our subsea coupling business manufacturing operation in Stafford, Texas.

That business, as I have said 100 times, is really tied into the subsea tree awards. Right now, we are at the highest levels definitely since before COVID, almost at levels back to 2014.

So it is very strong demand for subsea trees driving that Stafford business that we do not talk as much about, but delivering great results year-over-year. So yeah, we still remain really bullish on the whole platform we have put together.

Jim Johnson

Operator

Thank you. One more from Thomas.

Power gen could be your highest growth market in the next decade, so what kind of ability do you have to meet fast demand growth in that area?

Operator

Jim Johnson

Power gen, for what we do, our primary client is supplying Caterpillar. What we have done to enhance our deliverability is also utilize one of our facilities in Houston in conjunction with the Dearborn operation to ramp up supplies of material to that client.

We are constantly talking to other power gen equipment manufacturers, but they also make their own products, too. It is one of those, it is a growth area.

We see it as a growth area and a big driver, especially for Dearborn. But I think there is more news to come to that as time goes on.

Because there is a lot of talk of power gen, and if you talk to Caterpillar, they are booked out for two years in some cases on demand for some of their natural gas-fired equipment. But it is one that we are working hard and trying to grow.

As I mentioned earlier, we have really had to reimagine and rethink the manufacturing capabilities of our Dearborn operation as we became less of an oil field supplier and more of an aerospace and power gen supplier, because there is different equipment needs, different third-party relationships you have to have for processes and the like. I think we have made good progress on that.

We have done a significant amount of CapEx at Dearborn to be able to respond to those demands.

Jim Johnson

Operator

Great, thank you. We have no further questions to the webcast, so I will hand over to you for any closing remarks.

Operator

Jim Johnson

Yeah. Like I said, you have heard me say this before, the shares are on sale today, so it is time to buy because I just remain extremely bullish about our product offering.

More importantly, I remain extremely bullish and thankful for the team that I work with. Because at the end of the day, you can have this product or this shop or this piece of equipment, but it is the people that make it happen.

I do not know a better, more capable bunch of people than the ones I get to work with at Hunting. The upside to me, I think, is tremendous.

I think we are at that inflection point where the demand on the industry is going to accelerate. I am very bullish on natural gas.

Our position in North America is excellent when it comes to Titan, comes to OCTG. You just read of the amount of so many BCF of demand that is going to come online starting later this year, just for example, with LNG needs.

I think it is a product that obviously with what is going on in the Persian Gulf, the world is going to demand a lot more of. I am extremely positive.

I am happy with what we have done. I am disappointed on the whole KOC thing, but those are things out of our control.

Bruce, you got any comments?

Jim Johnson

Bruce Ferguson

Nothing to add, Jim.

Bruce Ferguson

Jim Johnson

Okay. Thanks for your time.

It has been a pleasure.