Tetra Technologies Inc (TTI) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

 Good morning, and welcome to TETRA Technologies Fourth Quarter 2022 Results Conference Call. The speakers for today's call are Brady Murphy, Chief Executive Officer; and Elijio Serrano, Chief Financial Officer. (Operator Instructions) please note, this event is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Serrano.Â

早上好，歡迎來到 TETRA Technologies 2022 年第四季度業績電話會議。今天電話會議的發言人是首席執行官 Brady Murphy；和首席財務官 Elijio Serrano。 （操作員說明）請注意，正在記錄此事件。我現在將會議轉交給塞拉諾先生。

 Good morning, and thank you for joining TETRA's Fourth quarter 2022 Results Call. I'd like to remind you that this conference call may contain statements that are or may be deemed to be forward-looking. These statements are based on certain assumptions and analysis made by TETRA and are based on several factors. These statements are subject to several risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the company. You are cautioned that such statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. In addition, in the course of the call, we may refer to EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA gross margins, free cash flow, net debt, net leverage ratio, liquidity or other non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to yesterday's press release or to our public website for a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the nearest GAAP measures. These reconciliations are not a substitute for financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP and should be considered within the context of our complete financial results for the period. In addition to our press release announcement that we announced yesterday, we also encourage you to refer to our 10-K that we filed yesterday. Brady, I'll turn it over to you.

早上好，感謝您加入 TETRA 的 2022 年第四季度業績電話會議。我想提醒您，本次電話會議可能包含前瞻性或可能被視為前瞻性的陳述。這些陳述基於 TETRA 做出的某些假設和分析，並基於多個因素。這些陳述受多種風險和不確定因素的影響，其中許多是公司無法控制的。請注意，此類陳述並不是對未來業績的保證，實際結果可能與前瞻性陳述中預測的結果存在重大差異。此外，在通話過程中，我們可能會參考 EBITDA、調整後的 EBITDA、調整後的 EBITDA 毛利率、自由現金流、淨債務、淨槓桿率、流動性或其他非 GAAP 財務指標。請參閱昨天的新聞稿或我們的公共網站，了解這些非 GAAP 財務指標與最近的 GAAP 指標的對賬情況。這些對賬不能替代根據公認會計原則編制的財務信息，應在我們當期完整財務業績的背景下加以考慮。除了我們昨天宣布的新聞稿外，我們還鼓勵您參考我們昨天提交的 10-K。布雷迪，我會把它交給你。

 Thanks, Elijio. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to TETRA's Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. I'll summarize some highlights for the fourth quarter, comment on the current outlook as well as provide an update on our strategic initiatives before turning it back to Elijio to discuss cash flow, working capital on the balance sheet, liquidity and add some color to the SK 1300 Section 19 economic analysis that we issued last night. We closed out a strong year in 2022 with a strong fourth quarter, growing revenue sequentially 9% over the third quarter and 42% for the full year over 2021. Adjusted EBITDA of $20.3 million increased from $18.6 million in the third quarter and for the full year, excluding mark-to-market gains in 2021, our adjusted EBITDA for 2022 more than doubled, increasing by 112% over 2021, with almost a 30% fall-through on incremental EBITDA to incremental revenue. Despite some headwinds during the fourth quarter that we mentioned in our last quarterly call, including the postponement of pure flow orders and the need to purchase additional bromine at spot market prices, we more than overcame these challenges by capturing multiple high-margin completion fluid sales in an increasingly and strengthening offshore market. For the combined markets of the Gulf of Mexico and our international offshore businesses, we increased quarterly sequential revenue by 20% and more than 50% year-on-year. The completion of our first U.K. Neptune job along with continued improvements to the disrupted supply chain for our European Chemicals business contributed to our successful Q4 results. We are scheduled for another North Sea Neptune job in the second quarter this time in Norway. We continue to believe we're entering a multiyear growth cycle for the offshore markets and the increases in floater day rates, contract durations and subsea tree orders are underpinnings for that belief. As a result of the offshore deepwater market concentration over the past 8 years, certain oilfield services segments are already in a tight supply situation. This, why Rystad Energy Services is projecting a 25% increase in deepwater floater rigs by 2025. We -- in the fourth quarter, we took steps to further strengthen and expand our offshore completion fluids business with 2 key investments with the acquisition of the North Sea Completion Fluids business and acquiring Newpark's completion fluids inventory and deepwater base in Port Fourchon in Louisiana, servicing the Gulf of Mexico. These investments will increase TETRA's fluid capacity by 70% in the U.K. sector of the North Sea and by almost 15% in deepwater Gulf of Mexico operations. Both operations contributed financially upon a close and approximately 40% of the acquired Newpark inventory has already been sold. The segment results for Completion Fluids & Products fourth quarter 2022 revenue of $66 billion increased from the third quarter of 2022 by 12%. Adjusted EBITDA of $16 million increased $1.3 million sequentially, while adjusted EBITDA margins improved by 40 basis points sequentially when excluding unrealized gains and losses from both periods.

謝謝，Elijio。大家早上好，歡迎來到 TETRA 的 2022 年第四季度財報電話會議。我將總結第四季度的一些亮點，評論當前的前景，並提供我們戰略計劃的最新情況，然後再回到 Elijio 討論現金流、資產負債表上的營運資金、流動性，並為我們昨晚發布的 SK 1300 Section 19 經濟分析。我們在 2022 年以強勁的第四季度結束了強勁的一年，收入比第三季度連續增長 9%，比 2021 年全年增長 42%。調整後的 EBITDA 為 2030 萬美元，高於第三季度的 1860 萬美元，並且全年今年，不包括 2021 年按市值計算的收益，我們調整後的 2022 年 EBITDA 翻了一番以上，比 2021 年增長了 112%，增量 EBITDA 與增量收入之間的差距接近 30%。儘管我們在上一個季度電話會議中提到了第四季度的一些不利因素，包括推遲純流動訂單以及需要以現貨市場價格購買額外的溴，但我們通過獲得多個高利潤的完井液銷售克服了這些挑戰在日益壯大的離岸市場。對於墨西哥灣和我們的國際離岸業務的合併市場，我們的季度收入環比增長 20%，同比增長超過 50%。我們在英國海王星的第一份工作的完成，以及對歐洲化學品業務中斷的供應鏈的持續改進，為我們成功的第四季度業績做出了貢獻。這次我們計劃在第二季度在挪威進行另一項北海海王星工作。我們仍然相信我們正在進入離岸市場的多年增長周期，浮動日費率、合同期限和海底樹訂單的增加是這種信念的基礎。由於過去8年海上深水市場的集中，某些油田服務領域已經處於供應緊張的局面。這就是為什麼 Rystad Energy Services 預計到 2025 年深水浮式鑽井平台增加 25% 的原因。我們在第四季度採取措施進一步加強和擴大我們的海上完井液業務，通過收購 North 進行了兩項關鍵投資Sea Completion Fluids 業務並收購 Newpark 在路易斯安那州 Fourchon 港的完井液庫存和深水基地，為墨西哥灣提供服務。這些投資將使 TETRA 在北海英國部分的流體容量增加 70%，在墨西哥灣深水作業中增加近 15%。這兩項業務在交易結束時都做出了財務貢獻，大約 40% 的已收購 Newpark 存貨已經售出。完井液和產品部門 2022 年第四季度收入為 660 億美元，比 2022 年第三季度增長 12%。調整後的 EBITDA 為 1600 萬美元，環比增加 130 萬美元，而在剔除兩個期間的未實現損益後，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率環比提高了 40 個基點。

Shifting to our Water & Flowback segment, revenues of $81 million grew 52% year-on-year and 7% quarter-on-quarter and a flat to slightly down active frac fleet market in the fourth quarter, somewhat due to year-end weather. This marks the seventh consecutive quarter of sequential revenue increases and the highest quarterly revenue since the second quarter of 2018. Adjusted EBITDA of $12.1 million improved by $5.2 million or 75% year-on-year, although adjusted fourth quarter EBITDA margins of 14.9% fell slightly from Q3, mainly due to a mix of lower-margin services. For the full year, Water & Flowback revenue for 2022 grew by 66% and adjusted EBITDA increased by 191% for a fall-through of slightly over 25%. The -- we achieved our target set for 2022, a 15% adjusted EBITDA margin with adjusted EBITDA of $43.4 million or 15.5% of revenue. Growth was driven by capital investments made in technology to expand our fleet of TETRA sandstorms through international expansion from the deployment of the early production facilities in Argentina and leveraging our investments in automation by reducing operations personnel at the job site. We expect adjusted EBITDA margins to rebound in the first quarter and beyond for the full year of 2023. International contribution is also expected to increase in 2023 as we bring online an additional EPF in Argentina in the second quarter. To date, the 2 operating EPS have been operating consistent with expectations. For 2023, we will continue to opportunistically invest in new capital projects with short-term returns, but our focus will be on EBITDA margin expansion and cash generation and less on new growth as we have achieved over the last couple of years.

轉向我們的水和回流部門，8100 萬美元的收入同比增長 52%，環比增長 7%，第四季度活躍的壓裂船隊市場持平或略有下降，部分原因是年底的天氣.這是收入連續第七個季度增長，也是自 2018 年第二季度以來最高的季度收入。調整後的 EBITDA 為 1210 萬美元，同比增長 520 萬美元或 75%，儘管調整後的第四季度 EBITDA 利潤率下降了 14.9%與第三季度相比略有下降，主要是由於混合了利潤率較低的服務。全年來看，2022 年水和回流收入增長了 66%，調整後的 EBITDA 增長了 191%，跌幅略高於 25%。 - 我們實現了為 2022 年設定的目標，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率為 15%，調整後的 EBITDA 為 4340 萬美元，佔收入的 15.5%。增長是由技術資本投資推動的，通過在阿根廷部署早期生產設施的國際擴張來擴大我們的 TETRA 沙塵暴車隊，並通過減少工作現場的操作人員來利用我們在自動化方面的投資。我們預計調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率將在第一季度及 2023 年全年反彈。隨著我們在第二季度在阿根廷推出額外的 EPF，國際貢獻預計也將在 2023 年增加。迄今為止，2 個運營每股收益的運行符合預期。到 2023 年，我們將繼續投機取巧地投資於具有短期回報的新資本項目，但我們的重點將放在 EBITDA 利潤率擴張和現金產生上，而不是過去幾年取得的新增長。

As previously announced in December, we're very pleased with the results of our first field pilot project for desalination of produced water for beneficial re-use in Texas for a major oil and gas operator. The results yielded as high as 92% desal native water from the produced water with total dissolved solids below that of the average municipal tap water. The equipment has returned to our R&D facility and is undergoing further enhancements for our final commercial plant design, with the recent and increasingly seismicity events in the Permian Basin, along with expected increase in produced water and disposal restrictions, we continue to see significant customer interest in produced water beneficial reuse, including mineral extraction.

正如之前在 12 月宣布的那樣，我們對德克薩斯州一家大型石油和天然氣運營商的第一個采出水淡化以進行有益再利用的現場試點項目的結果感到非常滿意。結果表明，采出水的脫鹽率高達 92%，總溶解固體低於普通市政自來水。該設備已返回我們的研發設施，並正在為我們的最終商業工廠設計進行進一步改進，隨著最近二疊紀盆地地震事件的增加，以及預計采出水和處置限制的增加，我們繼續看到客戶的重大興趣在采出水中進行有益的再利用，包括礦物提取。

Finally, in the fourth quarter, we continued to advance our strategic initiatives, including the technical and financial analysis for the development of our bromine and lithium brine resources in the Smackover formation in Southwest Arkansas. We issued a press release yesterday announcing the progress on our bromine project with an SK 1300 Section 19 report available now on our website for review. A few key points regarding this potential project that supports our continued efforts to fully evaluate this resource development. Our current long-term bromine supply agreement has plenty of runway, so we will be very methodical about our evaluation and investment decision. As a reminder, the inferred resource report provides estimates for both bromine and lithium within our targeted 5,000 acres. And although our SK 1300 Section 19 report focuses on bromine, 35% of the estimated project CapEx in our Section 19 report would be for wells and pipelines for brine production that would have both bromine and lithium in the brine. The proposed bromine plant as part of the hard grow FEED study would initially support 45% to 50% more volume than our current long-term supply agreement. However, the bromine tower itself is designed to accommodate up to 150% of our current supply agreement. If the multiple conditions that are laid out in our press release from yesterday are met, that would support us moving forward on this project, we could meet our projected oil and gas demand for this upcoming offshore cycle as well as what we believe to be a conservative estimate of the energy storage demand. Although methodical in our evaluation, we are committed to putting up the right effort and right resources to fully explore this significant opportunity.

最後，在第四季度，我們繼續推進我們的戰略舉措，包括對我們位於阿肯色州西南部 Smackover 地層的溴和鋰鹵水資源開發的技術和財務分析。我們昨天發布了一份新聞稿，宣布了我們溴項目的進展情況，並在我們的網站上提供了一份 SK 1300 第 19 節報告以供審查。關於這個潛在項目的幾個關鍵點支持我們繼續努力全面評估這個資源開發。我們目前的長期溴供應協議有很多跑道，因此我們將非常有條不紊地進行評估和投資決策。提醒一下，推斷資源報告提供了我們目標 5,000 英畝範圍內溴和鋰的估計值。儘管我們的 SK 1300 第 19 節報告側重於溴，但我們第 19 節報告中估計項目資本支出的 35% 將用於鹽水生產的井和管道，鹽水中同時含有溴和鋰。擬議的溴工廠作為硬增長 FEED 研究的一部分，最初將支持比我們目前的長期供應協議多 45% 至 50% 的產量。但是，溴塔本身的設計最多可容納我們當前供應協議的 150%。如果滿足我們昨天發布的新聞稿中規定的多項條件，這將支持我們推進該項目，我們可以滿足我們對即將到來的海上週期的預計石油和天然氣需求，以及我們認為的儲能需求的保守估計。儘管我們的評估有條不紊，但我們致力於投入正確的努力和正確的資源來充分探索這一重要機會。

Finally, progress of our Woodlands Texas R&D center continues on lithium extraction technology as we're establishing pilot units to address each stage of the process, starting with our raw Smackover from our well in Arkansas to successfully producing a lithium carbonate, which we've already demonstrated at lab scale. We will continue to communicate our progress as this work advances. With that, I'll turn it over to Elijio to provide some additional commentary, then we'll open up for some questions.

最後，我們的 Woodlands Texas 研發中心在鋰提取技術方面繼續取得進展，因為我們正在建立試驗裝置來解決該過程的每個階段，從我們在阿肯色州的井中提取的原始 Smackover 開始，到成功生產碳酸鋰，我們已經已經在實驗室規模上得到證明。隨著這項工作的推進，我們將繼續通報我們的進展。有了這個，我會把它交給 Elijio 來提供一些額外的評論，然後我們會開放一些問題。

Thank you, Brady. Cash from operating activities was a use of $7 million in the fourth quarter, while adjusted free cash flow from continuing operations was a use of $14 million in the quarter. Accounts receivable increased by $24 million from the end of the third quarter to the end of the fourth quarter, reflecting the strong ramp-up in activity by the end of the quarter, driven by some large fluid sales in December that Brady previously mentioned. Working capital at the end of the year was $101 million and compares to $87.5 billion at the end of the third quarter. Working capital consumed $18.8 million of cash in the fourth quarter as compared to a use of cash of $8.6 million in the third quarter. Capital expenditures were $7.2 million and compared to $12 million in the third quarter. Full year capital expenditures were $38 million and reflect the investments made with quick payback investments, such as our 10% storm then filtration technology and to strengthen our long-term position in international and offshore markets due to the investments in early production facilities in Argentina and increased capacity for our offshore completion fluids business. The payback on this -- on the Sand storms and the early production facilities was very evident is our quarterly EBITDA margins increased materially in the second half of the year compared to the first half of 2022. In 2023, we expect to achieve strong revenue growth on lower CapEx investments while monetizing much of the accounts receivable that was built at the end of the year. These combinations should result in significant free cash flow generation in 2023. Capital expenditures in 2023 is expected to be below what we expended in 2022. At the end of the fourth quarter, unrestricted cash was $14 million and availability under our credit reagreement was $72 million. As of yesterday, liquidity had improved by the end of the year by $10 million to $95 million with no borrowings under our existing asset-based lending facility. Long-term debt with a September 2025 maturity is $156 million, while net debt is $143 million. TETRA's net leverage ratio was 1.99x at the end of the fourth quarter. Outstanding borrowings under our term loan have been reduced by over $57 million from $220 million September 30, 2020 to $163 million as of September 31, 2022.

謝謝你，布雷迪。來自經營活動的現金在第四季度使用了 700 萬美元，而來自持續經營的調整後自由現金流在本季度使用了 1400 萬美元。從第三季度末到第四季度末，應收賬款增加了 2400 萬美元，反映出本季度末活動的強勁增長，這是由 Brady 先前提到的 12 月份的一些大量流動銷售推動的。年末營運資金為 1.01 億美元，而第三季度末為 875 億美元。營運資金在第四季度消耗了 1880 萬美元的現金，而第三季度使用了 860 萬美元的現金。資本支出為 720 萬美元，而第三季度為 1200 萬美元。全年資本支出為 3800 萬美元，反映了通過快速回報投資進行的投資，例如我們的 10% 風暴然後過濾技術，以及由於對阿根廷和巴西的早期生產設施的投資，加強了我們在國際和離岸市場的長期地位提高了我們海上完井液業務的產能。與 2022 年上半年相比，我們下半年的季度 EBITDA 利潤率在沙塵暴和早期生產設施方面的回報非常明顯。到 2023 年，我們預計將實現強勁的收入增長資本支出較低的投資，同時將年底建立的大部分應收賬款貨幣化。這些組合應該會在 2023 年產生大量的自由現金流。預計 2023 年的資本支出將低於我們 2022 年的支出。第四季度末，不受限制的現金為 1400 萬美元，我們的信貸重新協議下的可用現金為 7200 萬美元.截至昨天，在我們現有的基於資產的貸款機制下沒有借款的情況下，到年底流動性增加了 1000 萬美元至 9500 萬美元。 2025 年 9 月到期的長期債務為 1.56 億美元，淨債務為 1.43 億美元。 TETRA 第四季度末的淨槓桿率為 1.99 倍。截至 2022 年 9 月 31 日，我們定期貸款下的未償借款已從 2020 年 9 月 30 日的 2.2 億美元減少超過 5700 萬美元至 1.63 億美元。

In addition to the liquidity and cash I mentioned earlier, we are holding some significant marketable securities. We are currently holding 400,000 shares of standard lithium with a market value of approximately $1.7 million based on yesterday's closing price. We do not have any restrictions on selling this year. We expect to receive another 400,000 shares in May. We are also holding approximately 5.1 million common units of CSI Compressco with a market value of approximately $7 million based on yesterday's closing price. We also don't have any restrictions from selling these common units. And our investment in carbon free is currently valued at approximately $6 million. This one is not publicly traded. The total of these investments is slightly less than $15 million. Recall that in late 2021, we sold a 1.6 million shares that we had accumulated in standard list and slightly under $11 per share, generating almost $18 million of cash proceeds. Also, as a reminder, we have accumulated approximately $411 million of tax loss carryforwards in the United States that can offset future taxable income. In addition to the $411 million of federal net operating loss carryforwards, we also have significant state income tax loss carryforwards and some international tax loss carryforwards. This will become very important as we continue to improve our profitability, allowing a higher conversion of net income to cash flow. In 2022, we generated over $11 million of pretax income and paid income taxes overseas, but no U.S. income taxes. These tax loss carryforwards will also be valuable to us as we look for process from our Arkansas, bromine and lithium investments in the future. I'd like now to spend a few minutes on the other press release that we issued last night. Brady mentioned that some of the work that we have been focused upon using a significant amount of internal and external resources have been accomplished. We are taking a very methodical and measured process to assess our Arkansas assets I want to be sure that our investor base fully understands this process as there are no imminent significant investments to be made. We will aim to be very transparent as we go through various case. We previously announced that we had completed an deferred resource study. We estimated the potential amount of bromine and lithium on our leased acreage, an inferred resource is one that is based on limited sampling and is based on reasonably assumed but limited information. Samples might include data that is publicly available.

除了我之前提到的流動性和現金外，我們還持有一些重要的有價證券。我們目前持有標準鋰40萬股，按昨日收盤價計算市值約為170萬美元。我們今年沒有任何銷售限制。我們預計 5 月份將再收到 400,000 股。我們還持有約 510 萬股 CSI Compressco 普通股，按昨日收盤價計算，其市值約為 700 萬美元。我們也沒有任何銷售這些普通單位的限制。我們在無碳方面的投資目前價值約為 600 萬美元。這個不是公開交易的。這些投資總額略低於 1500 萬美元。回想一下，在 2021 年底，我們出售了我們在標準列表中積累的 160 萬股股票，略低於每股 11 美元，產生了近 1800 萬美元的現金收益。此外，提醒一下，我們在美國積累了大約 4.11 億美元的稅收虧損結轉，可以抵消未來的應稅收入。除了 4.11 億美元的聯邦淨營業虧損結轉外，我們還有大量的州所得稅虧損結轉和一些國際稅收虧損結轉。這將變得非常重要，因為我們將繼續提高盈利能力，從而實現更高的淨收入轉化為現金流。 2022 年，我們產生了超過 1100 萬美元的稅前收入，並在海外繳納了所得稅，但沒有繳納美國所得稅。這些稅收虧損結轉對我們也很有價值，因為我們在未來尋找阿肯色州、溴和鋰投資的過程。現在我想花幾分鐘時間談談我們昨晚發布的另一份新聞稿。 Brady 提到，我們一直專注於使用大量內部和外部資源的一些工作已經完成。我們正在採取一個非常有條理和慎重的過程來評估我們在阿肯色州的資產，我想確保我們的投資者群體完全理解這個過程，因為沒有迫在眉睫的重大投資。在處理各種案例時，我們的目標是非常透明。我們之前宣布我們已經完成了一項延期資源研究。我們估計了我們租賃面積上溴和鋰的潛在含量，這是一種推斷資源，是基於有限的抽樣和合理假設但信息有限的資源。樣本可能包括公開可用的數據。

Previous geological maps and well data from the surrounding area allow for reasonable assumptions about the size and scope of this resource. We drilled a test well in 2022 that allowed us to capture incremental data points. Other than to make some expenditures to further assess these assets, we would not make any significant investment decisions simply on the basis of an inferred resource study. One step up from an inferred resource is an indicated resource study for the quantity, grade and quality, shape, size and continuity can be more confidently reported. We are drilling a second well to get to this stage. Then the next step is a measured resource, which represents the highest level of geological knowledge and confidence in the resource. At this stage, the resource characteristics are well established through detailed and reliable exploration work. Economic and technical factors can be more comparably applied. Mining and production planning can give more detailed estimates of economic viability. The economic analysis we published on our website yesterday is from the inferred resource analysis from the reservoir modeling that we have done and from a front-end engineering design study we did with a third-party engineering firm. The economics are preliminary, and there is no certainty that the economics contained in the report will be realized. However, the outcome of such that it gives us confidence to invest approximately $5 million to get to the next stage, inclusive of the second test well and further economic assessments. Note that the stages that I just mentioned all arrive at estimated resource each with a greater degree of confidence and each with incremental data points to move from resources to reserves, additional work is required beyond proving the quantities of minerals available to us. To move from resources to reserves, we now need to do further engineering and economic assessment to demonstrate that we can take these resources and commercialize them successfully. Inferred mineral resources are considered to have the lowest level of geological components of all mineral resources. Inferred mineral resources have a high degree of uncertainty as their existence and to whether they can be economically or legally commercialized. A significant amount of exploration work must be completed in order to determine whether an inferred resource, mineral can be upgraded to a higher category.

以前的地質圖和周邊地區的鑽井數據可以對這一資源的規模和範圍做出合理的假設。我們在 2022 年鑽了一口測試井，使我們能夠捕獲增量數據點。除了進行一些支出以進一步評估這些資產外，我們不會僅根據推斷資源研究做出任何重大投資決定。推斷資源的一個步驟是對數量、等級和質量、形狀、大小和連續性的指示資源研究，可以更有信心地報告。我們正在鑽第二口井以達到這個階段。那麼下一步就是實測資源，它代表了最高水平的地質知識和對資源的信心。在此階段，資源特徵已通過詳細可靠的勘探工作得到很好的確立。經濟和技術因素可以比較適用。採礦和生產規劃可以更詳細地估計經濟可行性。我們昨天在網站上發布的經濟分析是根據我們所做的油藏建模和我們與第三方工程公司進行的前端工程設計研究的推斷資源分析。經濟效益是初步的，並不確定報告中所包含的經濟效益是否會實現。然而，這樣的結果使我們有信心投資約 500 萬美元進入下一階段，包括第二口測試井和進一步的經濟評估。請注意，我剛才提到的所有階段都以更大的置信度到達估計資源，並且每個階段都有增量數據點以從資源轉移到儲量，除了證明我們可用的礦物數量之外，還需要額外的工作。為了從資源轉向儲量，我們現在需要進行進一步的工程和經濟評估，以證明我們可以利用這些資源並將其成功商業化。推斷的礦產資源被認為是所有礦產資源中地質成分含量最低的。推斷的礦產資源的存在以及是否可以經濟或合法地商業化具有高度的不確定性。必須完成大量的勘探工作，以確定推斷的資源、礦物是否可以升級到更高的類別。

The difference between a resource and a reserve comes down to a feasibility study, which takes into account non-geological factors. This includes technical factors, which include extracting the brine and processing the bromine. This also includes additional economic planning such as a detailed engineering design and environmental and permitting analysis.

資源和儲量之間的差異歸結為可行性研究，該研究考慮了非地質因素。這包括技術因素，包括提取鹽水和處理溴。這還包括額外的經濟規劃，例如詳細的工程設計以及環境和許可分析。

A reserve is defined as problem when economic extraction can be justified. A reserve is defined as proven when economic extraction is justified. Our next step is to gather incremental data points to move from inferred to indicated and to complete a feasibility study. This will take several months. From here, we can have more confidence that we can successfully from an economic point of view, proceed with the investment in wells pipelines and a processing plant. The fact that LANXESS and Obama are doing exactly what we are evaluating gives us confidence that we are likely to have a successful project if and when we make a decision to move forward. And as a reminder, the process and knowledge have been in practice for many years and no new technologies or processes need to be developed to accomplish that whereafter. The FEED study we completed with the engineering firm estimated at the cost of the well to source a brine inject a leftover or the tail brine, build the pipeline and construct the brine to bromine processing facility could be approximately $280 million, inclusive of $35 million of contingencies and inclusive of about an estimated $20 million of work to allow us to upsize the facility in the future for potentially higher volumes of bromine processing. And as Brady mentioned earlier, the $99 million identified for wells and pipelines to extract and move the brine can also be used for lithium in the future. Thus, the $280 million entailed an investment that includes what we believe to be significant contingencies, investments lay the groundwork to increase production in the future and has wells and pipelines that can leverage future lithium production. The bromine plant, as we mentioned in our press release, as a multipurpose focus. The first is to increase the amount of cost-effective bromine available to TETRA above the volumes currently available to us from our long-term agreement to address an expected multiyear growth in the offshore oil and gas market, assuming commodity prices remain relatively constant. TETRA's already experiencing an increase in demand that exceeds volume available under a long-term supply agreement. The second is to address emerging demand for zinc bromine-based battery storage, which may be significant TETRA's perf customers are successful in ramping up their operations. The third is to reduce TETRA's dependence on open market purchase -- third-party purchases of bromine by producing bromine at potentially materially lower production costs. And the fourth and final objective will be to control our own supply chain for the longer term and beyond the life of our current multiyear agreement, we still have several years to go.

當可以證明經濟開採是合理的時，儲備就被定義為問題。當經濟開採是合理的時，儲量被定義為已探明。我們的下一步是收集增量數據點，從推斷轉變為指示，並完成可行性研究。這將需要幾個月的時間。從這裡，我們更有信心從經濟角度成功地進行油井管道和加工廠的投資。事實上，朗盛和奧巴馬正在做我們正在評估的事情，這讓我們相信，如果我們決定繼續推進，我們很可能會有一個成功的項目。提醒一下，該流程和知識已在實踐中應用多年，此後無需開發新技術或流程即可實現這一目標。我們與工程公司完成的 FEED 研究估計，以井的成本來獲取鹽水注入剩餘或尾鹵水、建造管道和建造鹽水到溴處理設施的成本約為 2.8 億美元，其中包括 3500 萬美元應急費用，包括大約 2000 萬美元的工作，使我們能夠在未來擴大設施規模，以應對可能更高的溴加工量。正如 Brady 之前提到的，為提取和移動鹽水的水井和管道確定的 9900 萬美元在未來也可用於鋰。因此，2.8 億美元的投資包括我們認為重大的意外事件，投資為未來增加產量奠定基礎，並擁有可以利用未來鋰生產的油井和管道。正如我們在新聞稿中提到的那樣，溴工廠是一個多用途的焦點。首先是將 TETRA 可用的具有成本效益的溴的數量增加到我們長期協議中目前可用的數量以上，以解決海上石油和天然氣市場預期的多年增長，假設大宗商品價格保持相對穩定。 TETRA 的需求增長已經超過了長期供應協議規定的供應量。第二個是解決對基於鋅溴的電池存儲的新興需求，這可能對 TETRA 的 perf 客戶成功地提高其業務具有重要意義。第三是減少 TETRA 對公開市場採購的依賴——通過以可能大大降低的生產成本生產溴來第三方採購溴。第四個也是最後一個目標是長期控制我們自己的供應鏈，在我們目前的多年協議期限之後，我們還有幾年的時間。

We also mentioned that we have engaged an investment banking firm to help us identify potential strategic partners should we make the decision to potentially proceed after completing an indicated resource study with a feasibility study to move from resources to reserves. At this point, we have not made a decision to proceed with this investment. The economics based on preliminary work look attractive for us only to move to the next phase of analysis and to reach out to identify potential partners. The decision to partner with someone will be based on whether we identify potential partners with the structure we believe is appropriate for TETRA and our investors. Given that the size of the investment required and realizing we will not put too much leverage on TETRA's balance sheet, we believe identifying potential strategic partners will be the best path forward. We are also in preliminary discussions with the Department of Energy, discussing opportunities for loans and grants for our bromine project. The final item I'd like to add is that we'll be participating at the Scotia Harweel Conference next Tuesday, hosting one-on-ones and making a presentation Tuesday afternoon, they will be webcast. If you'd like to participate, please reach out to me or Rego. Again, I encourage everyone to read our news release that we issued yesterday, the bromine project report we posted to our website and the 10-K that we filed yesterday for all the supporting details and additional financial and operational metrics. Please call me if you would like to discuss any of these items further. Turn it back over to Brady for closing comments.

我們還提到，我們已經聘請了一家投資銀行公司來幫助我們確定潛在的戰略合作夥伴，如果我們在完成指示資源研究以及從資源轉向儲量的可行性研究後做出可能繼續進行的決定的話。在這一點上，我們還沒有做出繼續這項投資的決定。基於初步工作的經濟學看起來對我們很有吸引力，只是為了進入下一階段的分析並伸出手來確定潛在的合作夥伴。與某人合作的決定將取決於我們是否確定了具有我們認為適合 TETRA 和我們投資者的結構的潛在合作夥伴。考慮到所需的投資規模並意識到我們不會對 TETRA 的資產負債表施加過多影響，我們認為確定潛在的戰略合作夥伴將是最好的前進道路。我們還在與能源部進行初步討論，討論為我們的溴項目提供貸款和贈款的機會。我想補充的最後一項是，我們將參加下週二的 Scotia Harweel 會議，主持一對一會議並在周二下午進行演示，他們將進行網絡直播。如果您想參加，請聯繫我或 Rego。我再次鼓勵大家閱讀我們昨天發布的新聞稿、我們發佈在我們網站上的溴項目報告以及我們昨天提交的 10-K，以了解所有支持細節以及其他財務和運營指標。如果您想進一步討論這些項目，請給我打電話。將其轉回 Brady 以徵求結束意見。

Thank you, Elijio . To recap 2022, not only did our base business performed very well, but we've also made significant investments in our business to expand our earnings base in the coming years. Over the last several quarters, we've nearly doubled our fleet of TETRA SandStorm advanced cyclone technology, which remain at a very high utilization. We've also invested in international markets via the deployment of EPS as well as our completion fluids business expansion. And we have invested to boost our capacity in the Gulf of Mexico to support increasing deepwater activity. While increased offshore activity is already contributing very meaningfully to our earnings, significant upside remains with deep broader projects due to our CS Neptune offering. As Elijio mentioned, we expect to achieve strong growth in '23 over 2022, that coupled with our focus on margin expansion and cash generation should drive meaningful cash flow generation in 2023. -- we're excited and committed to fully evaluating the Arkansas brine resource, and we'll continue to communicate updates as appropriate. With that, we'll open it up to questions...

謝謝你，伊利吉奧。回顧 2022 年，我們的基礎業務不僅表現出色，而且我們還對我們的業務進行了大量投資，以擴大未來幾年的盈利基礎。在過去的幾個季度裡，我們的 TETRA SandStorm 先進旋風分離器技術數量幾乎翻了一番，而且利用率仍然很高。我們還通過部署 EPS 以及完井液業務擴展來投資國際市場。我們還進行了投資，以提高我們在墨西哥灣的能力，以支持不斷增加的深水活動。雖然離岸活動的增加已經對我們的收益做出了非常有意義的貢獻，但由於我們的 CS Neptune 產品，更廣泛的項目仍有顯著的上行空間。正如 Elijio 所提到的，我們預計到 2022 年將在 23 年實現強勁增長，再加上我們對利潤率擴張和現金產生的關注應該會在 2023 年推動有意義的現金流產生。——我們很高興並致力於全面評估阿肯色州的鹽水資源，我們將繼續酌情傳達更新。有了這個，我們將打開它來提問......

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. upon. (Operator Instructions)Our first question comes from Martin Malloy with Johnson Rice.

謝謝。我們現在開始問答環節。之上。 （操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Martin Malloy 和 Johnson Rice。

I wanted to ask about the offshore completion fluids market. And it certainly seems like there's an inflection point here in activity going on. Could you maybe talk about the pipeline and the visibility as you talk with customers and maybe in particular on the Neptune product?

我想問一下海上完井液市場。顯然，這裡的活動似乎出現了一個轉折點。在與客戶交談時，您能否談談管道和可見性，尤其是關於 Neptune 產品？

Yes, Martin. So as we mentioned, we covered our first U.K. Neptune job. We've previously performed Neptune job, both in the Gulf of Mexico and in Norway. We have another Norway project that we plan to be executing in the second quarter. And really, our objective has been to get a more repetitive projects in our business as opposed to the lumpiness that we've seen in the past. And I think we're getting some traction with that, certainly in the North Sea. And I think we expect to have more repetitive jobs in the North Sea business. The Gulf of Mexico, obviously, these are much larger projects. Those 4 pipelines where we're very engaged with our customers on those projects. We may see some projects come forward in -- before the end of this year, but it's more likely that we won't see a meaningful uptick in our Neptune opportunities until we get into the '24 and beyond.

是的，馬丁。因此，正如我們提到的，我們涵蓋了我們在英國的第一份海王星工作。我們之前曾在墨西哥灣和挪威進行過海王星作業。我們還有另一個挪威項目，我們計劃在第二季度執行。事實上，我們的目標是在我們的業務中獲得更多的重複項目，而不是我們過去看到的塊狀。而且我認為我們正在獲得一些牽引力，當然是在北海。我認為我們希望在北海業務中有更多重複性工作。墨西哥灣，顯然，這些都是更大的項目。我們在這些項目上與客戶密切合作的那 4 條管道。我們可能會看到一些項目在今年年底之前出現，但更有可能的是，在我們進入 24 世紀及以後之前，我們不會看到海王星機會的有意義的增加。

Great. And my second question, I wanted to ask about PureFlow and the ability to ramp up, assuming that your customers are able to increase capacity and throughput and get the government funding that they're looking for. Could you maybe talk about your ability to ramp pure flow and any additional CapEx would be required?

偉大的。我的第二個問題，我想問一下 PureFlow 和提升能力，假設您的客戶能夠增加容量和吞吐量並獲得他們正在尋找的政府資金。您能否談談您提升純流量的能力以及是否需要任何額外的資本支出？

Yes. Martin, our ability to ramp up production of Pure Flow through our West Memphis facility, we need very little to no capital at our West Memphis production facility. We have plenty of capacity at that plant. The issue really for PureFlow longer term is the ramp-up in energy storage if our customers are successful, as you noted, in ramping up the demand levels will pretty dramatically exceed our current supply agreement for bromine, which is one of the reasons why we are looking so carefully at our Arkansas project and the timing of that Arkansas project as it relates to the success -- potential success of our PureFlow customers because the -- if they are successful based on the demand opportunities that are there, it will have a meaningful impact to the bromine market.

是的。馬丁，我們有能力通過我們的西孟菲斯工廠提高 Pure Flow 的產量，我們在西孟菲斯的生產工廠幾乎不需要資金。我們在那家工廠有足夠的產能。 PureFlow 長期面臨的真正問題是，如果我們的客戶成功的話，儲能的增加，正如您所指出的那樣，需求水平的增加將大大超過我們目前的溴供應協議，這是我們為什麼選擇的原因之一正在仔細研究我們的阿肯色州項目以及該阿肯色州項目的時間安排，因為它與成功有關——我們 PureFlow 客戶的潛在成功，因為——如果他們根據現有的需求機會取得成功，它將有對溴市場產生重大影響。

The next question comes from Stephen Gengaro Stifel.

下一個問題來自 Stephen Gengaro Stifel。

Two things for me. And pardon, if you hear background noise because I'm on a lobby of all, so I'm sorry about that. The -- when we think about the -- the quarter was obviously very good on the top line. And I was -- as I sort of think about the progression going forward, was there anything in the quarter that I should be kind of contemplating as I think about sequential performance in the first quarter of 2023. And maybe in addition to that, how should we think about the water and flowback business if we -- given sort of a plateauing in North American activity right now?

對我來說有兩件事。請原諒，如果您因為我在大廳而聽到背景噪音，我對此深表歉意。 - 當我們考慮 - 這個季度的收入顯然非常好。而且我是 - 當我考慮未來的進展時，當我考慮 2023 年第一季度的連續表現時，這個季度有什麼我應該考慮的。也許除此之外，如何我們是否應該考慮水和回流業務，如果我們現在北美活動處於平穩狀態？

Yes, Stephen. I'll cover the water and flowback first. I would mention we've had significant growth in this business for us. Quite frankly, the pace of growth that we achieved in 2022, well exceeded the market. And when you grow like that, you typically take on some costs and it's difficult to be as efficient as you would like to be with your business. And that caught up a little bit with us in the fourth quarter. Some of it was a mix issue where we dropped slightly on our margins. But we fully see a rebound to -- back to increasing margins as we go forward in Q1 and beyond for the full year. I think from a margin expectation, we would build on the second half of the margins for our water and flow business, the activity that you saw -- so we feel pretty good about that as well as getting additional contribution from international, particularly Argentina, as we get full years of growth and margins from the 2 EPS that we have deployed as well as a third one that is due to come online in -- at the end of the second quarter, start of the third quarter. So we fully expect to grow in 2023 based off the investments that we made in 2022, contributions from international, but also get back to expanding our margins as we have been. Probably the completion fluids side of the business in Q1, when the market remains strong, there's always a little bit more lumpiness in larger projects that come and go in the completion fluids side, but we feel extremely well positioned to take advantage of this market as we go through the full year of 2023. And there's nothing exceptional about the Q1 relative to our Q4 that I would note. We do plan to ramp up in our typical second quarter with our TCE European chemicals business. That business has recovered very nicely, not back to 100% yet due to the supply chain the disruption that we had, but we are well on our way to getting back to that just in time for our second quarter ramp.

是的，斯蒂芬。我會先覆蓋水和回流。我會提到我們在這項業務中取得了顯著增長。坦率地說，我們在 2022 年實現的增長速度遠遠超過了市場。當你像那樣成長時，你通常會承擔一些成本，而且很難像你希望的那樣高效地開展業務。在第四季度，這讓我們有點趕上了。其中一些是混合問題，我們的利潤率略有下降。但我們完全看到了反彈——隨著我們在第一季度及以後全年的前進，利潤率會增加。我認為從利潤率預期來看，我們將在水和流量業務的下半年利潤率基礎上，您看到的活動 - 所以我們對此感覺非常好，並從國際上獲得額外貢獻，特別是阿根廷，隨著我們從我們部署的 2 個 EPS 以及第三個即將上線的 EPS 中獲得全年的增長和利潤 - 在第二季度末，第三季度開始時。因此，我們完全希望在 2022 年的投資、國際貢獻的基礎上，在 2023 年實現增長，但也會像以往一樣重新擴大我們的利潤率。可能是第一季度業務的完井液方面，當市場保持強勁時，在完井液方面來來去去的大型項目總是會有更多的波動，但我們感覺非常有能力利用這個市場，因為我們經歷了 2023 年全年。我會注意到，相對於我們的第四季度，第一季度沒有什麼特別之處。我們確實計劃在典型的第二季度增加我們的 TCE 歐洲化學品業務。由於供應鏈中斷，該業務恢復得非常好，尚未恢復到 100%，但我們正在努力趕上第二季度的增長。

And then 2 other things, one pretty straightforward. Do you think the target for $100 million in EBITDA in '23 is reasonable? -- not your target, the Street target. I mean is that in the ballpark, you think?

然後是另外兩件事，一件非常簡單。您認為 23 年 1 億美元的 EBITDA 目標合理嗎？ -- 不是你的目標，街道目標。我的意思是在球場上，你覺得呢？

So Marty, we're going to refrain from providing -- I'm sorry Stephen, we're going to refrain from providing full year guidance. We believe that there's still too many economic factors that move around that are unpredictable, such as the recent drop in the price of gas that is out there. So we won't be commenting on total year guidance.

所以馬蒂，我們將不再提供——對不起斯蒂芬，我們將不再提供全年指導。我們認為，仍然有太多不可預測的經濟因素在變化，例如最近天然氣價格的下跌。所以我們不會評論全年指導。

Okay. And then when we think about your opportunities, and obviously, you have a couple of really exciting things going on right now. If we're sitting down in 24 months, then it's beginning of 2025, right? Where would you -- where do you see the company? Like what do you think are the biggest key drivers of earnings? And how do you -- what are your vision the TETRA  2 years down the road?

好的。然後當我們考慮你的機會時，很明顯，你現在有幾件非常令人興奮的事情正在發生。如果我們在 24 個月後坐下來，那就是 2025 年初，對嗎？你會在哪裡 - 你在哪裡看到公司？比如您認為收入的最大關鍵驅動因素是什麼？您如何 - 您對 TETRA 2 年後的願景是什麼？

Yes, Stephen, I think we're very pleased with the current position of our 2 business segments. I think our water and flowback business, even though frac activity may have plateaued some. We still have considerable growth opportunities on the produced water side, particularly with our desalination and beneficial reuse and mineral extraction. I think that's a whole new market that no one is benefitting from today. And we actually think we have a really good leadership position in that space to benefit from whether it's 24 months, whether it's 48 months, that will be remaining to be determined. But the opportunities are there, and we feel good about our ability to lead in that effort. On our completion fluids side, as I said, I think we're in the early stages of a really strong offshore market. I think our Neptune projects will be hitting with a higher cadence certainly in that period of time. And I'm hopeful that our Arkansas project will be fully evaluated, and we will have met the criteria that we've listed to move forward with that project, which if we're successful with that and that project is approved will be somewhat game-changing for the company.Â

是的，斯蒂芬，我認為我們對我們 2 個業務部門的當前狀況感到非常滿意。我認為我們的水和回流業務，儘管壓裂活動可能已經趨於平穩。我們在采出水方面仍有相當大的增長機會，特別是在我們的海水淡化和有益再利用以及礦物提取方面。我認為這是一個全新的市場，今天沒有人從中受益。實際上，我們認為我們在該領域擁有非常好的領導地位，可以從 24 個月、48 個月中獲益，這還有待確定。但機會就在那裡，我們對自己在這方面發揮領導作用的能力感到滿意。正如我所說，在我們的完井液方面，我認為我們正處於一個非常強大的海上市場的早期階段。我認為我們的海王星項目在那段時間里肯定會以更高的節奏進行。我希望我們的阿肯色州項目能夠得到全面評估，我們將達到我們列出的推進該項目的標準，如果我們成功並且該項目獲得批准，那將有點遊戲-為公司改變。

The next question comes from Tim Moore with ES Huber.

下一個問題來自 Tim Moore 和 ES Huber。

Thanks... And it was nice to see the detailed preliminary economic assessment on the bromine project. My first question, Elijio, I mean, how should we think about free cash flow generation possibility for this year that you -- because you won't have as much working capital drain or capital expenditures as you lap the Latin America projects, but maybe you could have a little bit more calcium chloride supply buildup. Just kind of wondering, is $30 million free cash flow in the renopossibility given all the puts and takes?

謝謝...很高興看到關於溴化物項目的詳細初步經濟評估。我的第一個問題，Elijio，我的意思是，我們應該如何考慮今年你產生自由現金流的可能性——因為你不會像拉丁美洲項目那樣有那麼多的營運資本流失或資本支出，但也許你可能會有更多的氯化鈣供應積累。只是有點想知道，考慮到所有的看跌期權，是否有 3000 萬美元的自由現金流在不可逆轉的情況下？

So we expect EBITDA at '23 to be above '24. We expect capital expenditures to be lower '23 versus '22. While we would be pleased to see a spike in year-end activity like at the end of '23, like we saw at the end of '22, we don't think that's going to happen. So we think working capital will be neutral worst-case positive best case. So we expect that we will be strongly free cash flow positive in 2023.

因此，我們預計 23 年的 EBITDA 將高於 24 年。我們預計 23 年的資本支出將低於 22 年。雖然我們很高興看到像 23 年底那樣的年終活動激增，就像我們在 22 年底看到的那樣，但我們認為這不會發生。因此，我們認為營運資金將是中性的最壞情況積極最好的情況。因此，我們預計我們將在 2023 年實現強勁的自由現金流。

 Good. That's helpful. And you reported -- that report had the volume potential for the bromine project compared to your long-term supply, it was nice to see that. I think it was 45% to 50% more. Can you give us any rough sense of maybe how much lower your cost of bromine could be after the project is done, I don't know, a year out after efficient operating well compared to your supply now? I mean, are we talking like a 30% savings.

一個好的。這很有幫助。而且你報告 - 與你的長期供應相比，該報告具有溴項目的數量潛力，很高興看到這一點。我認為它增加了 45% 到 50%。您能否粗略地告訴我們，在項目完成後，您的溴成本可能會降低多少，我不知道，與您現在的供應相比，高效運營一年後？我的意思是，我們說的是節省 30% 的費用嗎？

 Yes, Tim, we -- for competitive reasons, we're not giving the specifics on that. Hopefully, you can tell from the financial information that we included in our economic assessment what the profitability of the project could be if we're successful. -- but we're not giving specific details on bromine cost or purchase prices that we pay.

是的，蒂姆，我們——出於競爭原因，我們沒有給出具體細節。希望你能從我們經濟評估中包含的財務信息中看出，如果我們成功的話，該項目的盈利能力是多少。 -- 但我們沒有提供有關溴成本或我們支付的購買價格的具體細節。

Understood. I had to try. But if I heard your comments earlier, Elijio mentioned, maybe I misunderstood this, did you expect to spend $5 million more for kind of the second speeds drilling? And any sense of maybe what your exploration pre-development costs could be this year? And I believe they were $6.6 million last year.

明白了。我不得不嘗試。但如果我早些時候聽到你的評論，Elijio 提到，也許我誤解了這一點，你是否期望再花費 500 萬美元用於第二速度的鑽探？您對今年的勘探開發前成本有何看法？我相信他們去年是 660 萬美元。

Yes. So we're going to drill an exploration well. That's probably going to run in the $2.5 million to $3 million range. But we have some other efforts that we plan to kick off this year, potentially a prefeasibility study, some additional engineering that is accounted for in our full budget for this year for our consultant. Our intention is really to ensure we get to an indicated resource report. We've got one well planned for that, and we're hopeful that, that will be enough information to get us to an indicated resource report. But until we drill that well and get the results, there could always be another well we may have to get to finally get there, but that's our expectations.

是的。所以我們要鑽一口探井。這可能會在 250 萬到 300 萬美元之間。但是我們計劃在今年開始一些其他的工作，可能是一項預可行性研究，一些額外的工程已計入我們今年顧問的全部預算中。我們的意圖確實是確保我們獲得指定的資源報告。我們為此制定了一個周密的計劃，我們希望這將有足夠的信息讓我們獲得指定的資源報告。但在我們鑽出那口井並獲得結果之前，我們可能總是需要打另一口井才能最終到達那裡，但這是我們的期望。

That's helpful. I'm just curious, how is that new automated drill out technology going? And when do you think maybe those sales could be material figure? Do they kick in more spring or summer?

這很有幫助。我很好奇，新的自動鑽孔技術進展如何？你認為這些銷售額什麼時候可能成為重要數字？他們是在春天還是夏天踢得更多？

Yes. We actually have a lot of interest in that unit. We -- at this point, because of the capital associated with it, Tim, we're probably only going to do take-or-pay or long-term contracts for that unit. We are in discussions with several operators in that regard. But that's an area we're going to be ensuring we have long-term commitments before we start putting additional capital into it. And we think we'll get there, but those are ongoing discussions.

是的。我們實際上對該單元很感興趣。我們——在這一點上，由於與之相關的資本，蒂姆，我們可能只會為該部門簽訂照付不議或長期合同。我們正在與幾家運營商就此進行討論。但這是一個我們將確保在開始投入額外資金之前有長期承諾的領域。我們認為我們會到達那裡，但這些仍在討論中。

Good. That's helpful. And then just lastly, my last question is on the desalination of produced water. I'm always curious about this. I've got a 2-part question. Is there any update on the regulatory agencies review and possible approval timing? And then it also sounds like you've learned a few things during that pilot. Just wondering if you can elaborate on that as you refine the membrane sizes for treatment or do any design tweaks that are showing better efficiency?

好的。這很有幫助。最後，我的最後一個問題是關於產出水的淡化。我總是很好奇這個。我有一個由兩部分組成的問題。監管機構的審查和可能的批准時間是否有任何更新？然後聽起來您在該試點期間也學到了一些東西。只是想知道您是否可以在改進處理膜尺寸或進行任何顯示出更高效率的設計調整時詳細說明這一點？

Right. So on the regulatory side, it's apparent that each operator of the produced water is going to have to get their own permits for their produced water projects. The project that we work on with our pilot project is in process. We've seen the requirements for the regulatory. And we feel very confident that our technology will meet those requirements. But each operator is going to have to go through a permitting process before we can deploy a desalination unit to the project. As far as the pilot goes itself, the membrane technologies, whether it's the KMX or the Hirax that we have negotiated the agreements with performed extremely well the Hirax in this case. The pre-treatment also performed well, but we've got to do some field worthiness and kind of long-term plant design upgrades to the -- both the -- primarily the pre-treatment. That's pretty critical to the process, and that's the stage that we're performing right now before we would be ready to take on a long-term plan. So...

正確的。因此，在監管方面，顯然每個采出水運營商都必須為其采出水項目獲得自己的許可證。我們與我們的試點項目合作的項目正在進行中。我們已經看到了監管要求。我們非常有信心我們的技術能夠滿足這些要求。但是在我們可以為項目部署海水淡化裝置之前，每個運營商都必須經過許可程序。就試點本身而言，膜技術，無論是 KMX 還是我們與之談判達成協議的 Hirax，在這種情況下都表現得非常好。預處理也表現良好，但我們必須對 - 主要是 - 預處理進行一些現場價值和長期工廠設計升級。這對流程來說非常關鍵，這就是我們在準備好制定長期計劃之前正在執行的階段。所以...

Good enough. That seems like that's progressing well.

夠好了。這似乎進展順利。

The next question comes from Samantha Ho with Evercore ISI.

下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Samantha Ho。

So most of my questions have been answered, but I wanted to maybe drill down a little bit more on this produced water initiative. So you mentioned that each operator needs their own permit for their own projects. I'm kind of wondering how you're thinking about that in terms of as you do start to deploy this technology. Are you taking a similar model as like how you deploy the SandStorm technology where you're just going to lease it? Or do you need to partner up with a large producer to have more scale as we start to roll out that new initiative?

所以我的大部分問題都得到了回答，但我想深入了解一下這個采出水計劃。所以你提到每個運營商都需要為自己的項目獲得自己的許可。我有點想知道您在開始部署這項技術時是如何考慮的。您是否採用類似的模型來部署 SandStorm 技術，而您只是要租用它？或者在我們開始推出新計劃時，您是否需要與大型生產商合作以擴大規模？

Yes.Samantha -- so each project, I think, is going to be very specific to that operator. I think you're going to see projects range from 10,000 barrels a day, which would be a smallish project. But again, this is a 10 15-year 20-year potentially type of plant up to potentially 100,000 barrels a day or more. And so -- and the capital costs associated with each of those are going to be very different. Whether the customer will fund the capital for the projects or we will fund them if they're smaller. We're going to take that on a case-by-case basis, Samantha, based on how we see the opportunity and the operators that kind of partnership agreement.

是的，薩曼莎——所以我認為每個項目都將非常針對該運營商。我想你會看到每天 10,000 桶的項目，這將是一個小項目。但同樣，這是一個 10 15 年 20 年潛在類型的工廠，每天可能生產 100,000 桶或更多。因此 - 與每一個相關的資本成本將非常不同。客戶是否會為項目提供資金，或者如果項目規模較小，我們會為其提供資金。薩曼莎，我們將根據我們對機會和運營商那種合作協議的看法，逐案處理。

And then you kind of mentioned that there's still a lot of uncertainty out there, mostly with gas activity. I'm kind of wondering where your exposure is on the U.S. land side forecast? Is it pretty easy just to like move some of that Sandstorm fleet and houses around like an oily basin.

然後你有點提到那裡仍然有很多不確定性，主要是天然氣活動。我有點想知道您在美國陸地方面的預測中的位置？只是喜歡像油盆一樣移動一些 Sandstorm 艦隊和房屋是不是很容易。

Yes. So we do have a good operation in the Marcellus. Tech's been there a long time with a strong water business and a flowback business. We have not seen any meaningful results changes yet, but it's something we're going to keep an eye on. The good news is that our demand for all of our assets, whether it's water, flowback or sand storms are all very high in the Permian or South Texas or Mid-Con, where, again, we have strong market position. So I'm not concerned at all about moving those assets if we need to. But so far, we haven't seen any material change that would warrant that type of movement. We don't have a big presence in the Haynesville. So less exposure on that. But we have plenty of other market outside of the Marcellus that if we do see some pullback, we'll be -- we think we'll be in great shape.

是的。所以我們在 Marcellus 確實有很好的操作。 Tech 長期以來一直擁有強大的水務業務和回流業務。我們還沒有看到任何有意義的結果變化，但這是我們要密切關注的事情。好消息是，我們對所有資產的需求，無論是水、回流還是沙塵暴，在二疊紀、南德克薩斯或中部地區都非常高，我們在這些地方再次擁有強大的市場地位。因此，如果需要，我根本不關心移動這些資產。但到目前為止，我們還沒有看到任何可以保證這種運動的實質性變化。我們在海恩斯維爾的影響力不大。所以少曝光。但我們在 Marcellus 之外還有很多其他市場，如果我們確實看到一些回調，我們將 - 我們認為我們將處於良好狀態。

Okay. And then if I could just squeeze one more in. I'm kind of curious on the deepwater completion fluid side. Like you guys have been so kind to provide the breakout of fluid revenue mix. I wonder if you had a similar type of high chart, for example, for the margin front? Like is it a similar type of profitability depending on the 3 different like end markets that you guys apply to on the fluids business? And then how do you view like your market share amongst like the offshore -- like the deepwater rigs, for example, can you provide any sort of like share based on the data for us?

好的。然後如果我能再擠一個進去。我對深水完井液方面有點好奇。就像你們這麼友好地提供了流動收入組合的突破。我想知道你們是否有類似類型的高圖表，例如，保證金前沿？根據你們在流體業務中應用的 3 個不同的類似終端市場，它是否是一種類似的盈利能力？然後你如何看待你在海上的市場份額——比如深水鑽井平台，例如，你能根據數據為我們提供任何類似的份額嗎？

Yes, Samantha. So for deepwater, give me -- I think we gave an example in our press release yesterday. Our team estimates about 70% of the deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico, as an example, require a bromine-based completion fluid. And we have -- we estimate we have roughly a 30% market share of the -- what we call high-value completion fluids, which typically contain bromine. And that would be North Sea deepwater that would be Gulf of Mexico deepwater, that would be Brazil deepwater. A little less so in other markets. But overall, we think we have a very strong position with our -- what we call high-value completion fluids business, if that's helpful. On the margin side, I'm not sure we would share the details of a breakdown -- family breakdown of our products. If I understood the question correctly, -- was that the question?

是的，薩曼莎。所以對於深水，給我 - 我想我們在昨天的新聞稿中舉了一個例子。例如，我們的團隊估計墨西哥灣大約 70% 的深水井需要溴基完井液。而且我們 - 我們估計我們擁有大約 30% 的市場份額 - 我們稱之為高價值完井液，通常含有溴。那將是北海深水，墨西哥灣深水，巴西深水。其他市場的情況略有不同。但總的來說，我們認為我們在我們所謂的高價值完井液業務方面擁有非常強大的地位，如果這有幫助的話。在保證金方面，我不確定我們是否會分享細分的細節——我們產品的系列細分。如果我正確地理解了這個問題，- 是那個問題嗎？

The next question is a follow-up from Martin Malloy with Johnson Rice.

下一個問題是 Martin Malloy 和 Johnson Rice 的後續問題。

Just had one follow-up. -- carbon-free, I saw the announcement that they made with respect to collaborating with BP on developing solutions for industrial facilities. Could anything to report there in terms of potential demand for calcium chloride from for these type of projects?

剛剛進行了一次跟進。 -- 無碳，我看到了他們關於與 BP 合作開發工業設施解決方案的公告。關於此類項目對氯化鈣的潛在需求，有什麼可以報告的嗎？

Yes. We saw the announcement as well. And we knew that carbon-free had been working with BP for some time as they're actually one of their investors in carbon free. And we continue to engage very carefully with carbon-free as they look for the deployments of their plants. And, Elijio I know you have say in touch with our CFO quite a bit. Any update from your side.

是的。我們也看到了公告。我們知道 carbon-free 已經與 BP 合作了一段時間，因為他們實際上是 carbon-free 的投資者之一。在他們尋找工廠部署的過程中，我們繼續非常謹慎地參與無碳項目。而且，Elijio 我知道你與我們的首席財務官有過多次聯繫。您身邊的任何更新。

Yes. So carbon-free from our dialogue with them continues to make progress with our pilot plant with their design of their technology. Clearly, the announcement with BP is further endorsement of the technology. We believe that their next step is to secure the proper capital then launch their program. And once they get to that stage, we expect to participate from them with them. But practically speaking, we think that any significant calcium chloride sales to them is still quite a bit out a minimum of a year before they have any significant impact.Â

是的。因此，從我們與他們的對話中可以看出，無碳通過他們的技術設計繼續在我們的試點工廠取得進展。顯然，與 BP 的聲明是對該技術的進一步認可。我們相信他們的下一步是獲得適當的資金，然後啟動他們的計劃。一旦他們到達那個階段，我們希望與他們一起參與。但實際上，我們認為向他們出售任何重要的氯化鈣至少要在一年後才能產生重大影響。

(Operator Instructions)This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Murphy for any closing remarks.

（操作員說明）問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回給墨菲先生作閉幕詞。

Well, thank you very much for joining us on our call. That concludes our Q4 earnings call.Â

好吧，非常感謝您加入我們的電話會議。我們的第四季度財報電話會議到此結束。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may all now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。你們現在可能都斷開連接了。