Source Energy Services Ltd.

Source Energy Services Ltd.

9.55
CAD
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-0.99EPS
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Nov 05Next Earn

Q1 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptMay 8, 2026

Operator

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator.

Welcome to the Source Energy Services First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded.

After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad.

Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star, then 0. I would now like to turn the conference over to Scott Melbourn, CEO.

Mr. Melbourn, please proceed.

Scott Melbourn

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to Source Energy Services' First Quarter 2026 Conference Call.

My name is Scott Melbourn, I'm the CEO of Source. I'm joined today by Derren Newell, our CFO.

This morning, we will provide a brief overview of the quarter, which will be immediately followed by a question and answer period. Before I get started, I would like to refer everyone to the financial statements and the MD&A that were posted to SEDAR and the company's website last night, and remind you of the advisory on forward-looking information found in our MD&A and press release.

On this call, Source's numbers are in Canadian dollars and metric tons, and we will refer to adjusted gross margin, adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow, which are non-IFRS measures as described in our MD&A. Except for the items just mentioned, our financial information is prepared in accordance with IFRS.

As we expected, first quarter activity levels were slower than the record levels we experienced in the first quarter of 2025. We sold 872,000 tons of sand in the quarter, a 16% decrease from the first quarter of 2025.

Over the balance of the year, we are still expecting 2026 sales volumes to be very similar to 2025, with an even sales profile across all four quarters. While the conflict in the Middle East has impacted near-term oil prices, the Canadian market has remained disciplined with their capital spending programs, due in most part to the continued weakness in Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin natural gas pricing.

A few noteworthy items from our quarter included: total revenue of $160.2 million, a decrease from the first quarter of 2025 due to lower customer activity levels and a significant increase in domestic sand sales, which has a lower selling price than Northern White sand. We realized gross margin of $22 million and adjusted gross margin of $35.4 million, decreases of 40% and 23% respectively, when compared to Q1 of last year.

Gross margins were impacted by a shift in sales mix and incremental costs for fuel. These margins were offset by increased domestic sand sales, which help improve overall gross margin.

Adjusted EBITDA was $26.3 million, a $7.4 million decrease from the same period in 2025. We recorded a net loss of $3.3 million, a reduction of $26.9 million from the first quarter of 2025, which benefited from the settlement of the Fox Creek lawsuit and higher sales volume.

We achieved 78% utilization across the 11-unit Sahara fleet, with the units in the United States achieving 100% utilization. We continue to enhance our shareholder return via the share repurchase program, which has repurchased and canceled 467,000 shares to date.

The Board of Directors has approved the renewal of the NCIB subject to TSX approval. Further details will be announced shortly.

With that, I will now turn it over to Derren.

Derren Newell

Thanks, Scott. In the first quarter, Source sold 872,000 metric tons of sand and generated $125.8 million in sand revenue.

The average realized sand price per metric ton decreased by $12.14 compared to the prior year, due to changes in the sales mix, more sales of lower-priced finer mesh sand, and increased domestic sand sales in the quarter. The strengthening of the Canadian dollar and increased mine gate sales also reduced average sales by $3.86 and $1.02 per metric ton, respectively.

Wellsite Solutions revenue was $33.4 million in the first quarter, a decrease of $11 million compared to the first quarter of 2025. This decrease was driven by lower volumes delivered through last-mile logistics, reflecting lower customer activity levels.

Sahara units in Canada were 70% utilized during the first quarter, and Sahara units deployed in the US were 100%. Terminal services revenue decreased by $0.2 million compared to first quarter last year, due to lower chemical elevation volumes.

Cost of sales, excluding depreciation, decreased by $37.5 million for Q1, primarily due to lower sales volumes. The decrease in cost of sales also reflects lower production costs at the Wisconsin and Peace River facilities, a higher proportion of volumes trucked by Source's trucking operations, and the production mix impact of increased domestic sand sales due to the lower landed cost of domestic sand.

These improvements were partly offset by incremental people costs in trucking and higher fuel. The impact of FX rates on US-denominated components of cost of sales drove a decrease of $5.12 per metric ton compared to Q1 last year.

Excluding gross margin from mine gate volumes, adjusted gross margin for Q1 2026 was $44.22 per metric ton compared to $45 for Q1 2025. The decrease reflects the shift in sales mix and higher fuel costs.

These impacts were partly offset by the benefit of increased domestic sand volumes compared to Q1 2025. The strengthening of the Canadian dollar improved adjusted gross margin by $1.26 compared to the same period last year.

For Q1 2026, total operating and G&A expenses decreased by $3.4 million compared to the same period in 2025. Operating expenses decreased by $1.7 million due to lower incentive compensation, professional fees, and railcar-related expenses.

G&A was also down $1.7 million due to lower incentive compensation. Finance expense for Q1 2026 increased by $0.5 million compared to Q1 2025.

The increase was primarily driven by higher accretion expense, higher interest for lease obligations due to the addition of heavy equipment, and higher interest incurred on the ABL facility. These increases were partly offset by lower interest expense incurred on term loan due to the lower average principal balance outstanding and lower other interest costs.

At quarter-end, Source had available liquidity of $28.6 million. Capital expenditures net of proceeds on disposals, reimbursements, and excluding expenditures for Taylor and customer-funded equipment purchases were $16 million for Q1 2026, an increase of $8.9 million compared to Q1 last year.

Growth capital expenditures, excluding construction for Taylor facility and customer-funded equipment purchases, increased by $4.6 million, largely attributed to expenditures for the Peace River facility, including amounts related to dismantling the domestic sand processing assets acquired last year and debottlenecking activities. Maintenance equipment capital expenditures increased by $4.3 million compared to the same period last year, due to various maintenance projects completed at the terminal facilities and in Wisconsin, leasehold improvements for the new corporate office which will subsequently be reimbursed by landlord, and an increase in overburden removal at the mining operations.

Lease obligations increased from the prior-year quarter, largely due to the timing of the addition of heavy equipment for Peace River and higher renewal rates on yellow iron leases for the Wisconsin mining operations. With that, I'll turn it back to you, Scott.

Scott Melbourn

Thanks, Derren. For the remainder of the year, we are anticipating that most customers will maintain a flexible approach to their capital budgets as they deal with increased geopolitical uncertainty and the fluctuating commodity price environment.

Despite a softer than expected first quarter, Source continues to expect the full-year 2026 Canadian customer activity levels to be broadly consistent with 2025 activity levels. The recent movement in crude oil prices driven by the conflict in the Middle East has created a very strong mine gate margin for deliveries into the Lower 48, which we expect will be a larger part of our Q2 and Q3 sales mix than we have seen historically.

As we look at industry activity in 2026 and beyond, the continued development of the Montney will be a key growth driver for the industry and for Source. Source has an unparalleled mine-to-wellsite services for both Northern White and domestic sand, which will continue to support market share gains in the Montney and specifically in the northeast BC.

In addition to our offerings in frac sand and related logistics, we have expanded our chemical transloading capabilities, which we believe will be a growth area for Source in 2026. Over the longer term, we continue to believe the increased demand for natural gas driven by LNG exports, increased natural gas pipeline export capabilities, and power generation will drive incremental demand for Source's services.

Thank you for your time this morning. That concludes the formal portion of the call.

We'll now ask the operator to open the lines for questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad.

You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys.

To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. The first question comes from Nick Corcoran with Acumen Capital Partners.

Please go ahead.

Nick Corcoran

Good morning, guys. Just a couple of Morning, Nick.

for me. The first is, you indicated activity levels in the first quarter were relatively soft due in part to commodity prices.

I'm just wondering what you've seen in the second quarter to date.

Scott Melbourn

I think and for the Canadian activity levels, we continue to see a little bit of the same for the second quarter. As we mentioned, we continue to think that the year will play out with a very balanced profile across the quarters.

I expect that we're going to see a fairly similar Q2 to Q1. I think as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, the one thing that we hadn't factored in before was the strengthening in the mine gate market for deliveries into the Lower 48, which has really transpired over the last couple weeks.

We do expect that market to continue its strength as long as we see continued strength in WTI. We expect that to be a bigger part of our program for Q2.

Nick Corcoran

I guess just at high level, how big can those mine gate sales as a portion of the total revenue be?

Scott Melbourn

There's still like we we're always going to, prioritize the sales that that go through the entire logistics chains, cuz those are going to be the highest gross margin sales for us. It will depend on on the on the capacity availability at at the facilities, and it can depend it will depend on the timing of of of Canadian the job profile in Canada.

I expect that, the probably, 10% to maybe 20% of our sales profile, just depending on those two factors, will be mine gate sales in in Q2 for sure. Q3 is is once again, we'll we'll have to get a better idea of of our Canadian customers' programs, but it could be a similar number in Q3.

Nick Corcoran

That's helpful. I guess the last question for me is just on the Peace River expansion.

Can you give any indication where you're at in that expansion and when you expect to be complete?

Scott Melbourn

Where we wanted to get it to this year is pretty much complete. We're fairly front-end loaded on the remaining capital for the facility to get it up to where we are.

We're feeling like we're in a pretty good spot right now. There'll be some debottlenecking and some optimization that continues to happen throughout the year.

In terms of the major capital expenditures, we're for the most part done with those at Peace. I think one thing to note on Peace is as we progress in the year and as we have our customers continuing to look for cost savings, we can sell every ton of sand out of that facility right now, and so we're excited what it can do in the last sort of three quarters of the year.

Nick Corcoran

Great. What do you expect for full-year CapEx?

Scott Melbourn

Go ahead, Derren.

Derren Newell

Including stuff we're spending at Taylor and the customer-funded stuff, we're probably going to be between mid-40s and low 50s is probably where we're at.

Nick Corcoran

Great. That's all for me.

Thanks for taking my questions.

Scott Melbourn

Thanks, Nick.

Operator

This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Scott Melbourn for any closing remarks.

Please go ahead.

Scott Melbourn

Thank you, everyone, for joining the call today, and thanks for your interest in Source. If there's any follow-on questions, please feel free to reach out to myself or Derren.

Operator

This brings to a close today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines.

Thank you for participating, and have a pleasant day.