Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Tidewater Midstream and Infrastructure and Tidewater Renewables first quarter 2026 financial results conference call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If anyone has any difficulties hearing the conference, please press star for operator assistance at any time. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Ian Quartly, CFO. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Jenny, and welcome everyone to the joint conference call for the first quarter 2026 results of both Tidewater Midstream and Infrastructure Ltd. and Tidewater Renewables Ltd. Joining me today is our CEO, Jeremy Baines, who will provide an update on our operational performance, regulatory tailwinds and favorable market conditions we have seen to start the year. I will follow with the financial results and details on the increased 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance, and then we'll open the line for your questions. This morning, both Tidewater Midstream and Tidewater Renewables reported results for the first quarter ended March 31st, 2026. A copy of the news releases, financial statements, and MD&A may be accessed on SEDAR+ or on the respective company websites.
Before we get started, I'd like to note that today's call is being recorded for the benefit of individual shareholders, the media, and other interested parties who may want to review the call at a later time. The recorded call will be available through Cision. Some of the comments made today may be forward-looking in nature and are based on Tidewater's current expectations, judgments, and projections. Forward-looking statements we express today are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ from expectations. Further, some of the information provided refers to non-GAAP measures. To know more about these forward-looking statements, non-GAAP measures, and risk factors, please see the company's various financial reports, which are available on the company's websites and on SEDAR+. I'll now turn the call over to Jeremy.
Thanks, Ian. Thanks to everyone for joining us today. I will start with Tidewater Renewables, covering regulatory, commercial, and operational updates. On the regulatory front, during the first quarter of 2026, Tidewater Renewables received conditional approval from Natural Resources Canada for the Biofuel Production Incentive program. This approval confirmed that funding under the incentive program would be available in line with the full annual production capacity of the HDRD Complex. We expect the contribution agreement will be executed during the second quarter of 2026. Once executed, Tidewater Renewables will receive the cash incentive payments quarterly in arrears, providing a consistent boost to our cash flow and liquidity. South of the border, on March 27th, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized record high renewable volume obligations for 2026 and 2027.
Crucially, the EPA finalized record levels of biofuels, which are required to be blended into the conventional fuel supply and a 70% reallocation of 2023 to 2025 exempted volumes from smaller refineries to large obligated parties. The EPA confirmed that the RIN multiplier for renewable diesel would remain at 1.7 x for 2026. This multi-year mandate is a major catalyst for Tidewater Renewables' realized margins. For context, these regulatory changes, in association with broader market geopolitical changes, have increased the market prices of D4 RINs from less than $1.20 per RIN in early 2026 to over $2 per RIN in May. The higher D4 RIN pricing increases the price at which Tidewater Renewables sells renewable diesel, inclusive of all environmental attributes under the U.S. import parity offtake contracts we've entered into.
Moving to commercial activities, our focus has been on securing longer-term offtake contracts for renewable diesel, inclusive of all environmental attributes to provide multi-year cash flow certainty for the business. For 2026, we currently have over 90% of forecasted renewable diesel production committed under offtake agreements and over 40% of forecasted production for each of 2027 and 2028 is also under contract. The vast majority of these contracted offtakes are structured with U.S. import pricing benchmarks, aligning pricing with prevailing U.S. market values when the renewable diesel is produced and sold. This contracting structure also benefits the corporation by accelerating cash flows compared to selling British Columbia LCFS credits and Canadian CFR credits stripped from the renewable diesel.
Moving to operations, the HDRD Complex achieved an average daily throughput of 2,837 barrels per day, representing a 95% utilization rate in the quarter. This is a testament to our team's ability to operate the facility at near nameplate capacity throughout the winter months, producing high quality, low cloud point renewable diesel that meets the rigorous Canadian cold weather specifications. Now we'll move over to Tidewater Midstream, starting first with the Prince George Refinery. Throughput at the Prince George Refinery averaged 10,784 barrels per day in the first quarter, a 9% increase over the same period in 2025. Market conditions for refined products strengthened significantly following the start of the Middle East conflict in late February.
The blockage of the Strait of Hormuz and the reduction of global refining capacity due to feedstock constraints and damage to infrastructure has created a global supply shock. The Prince George crack spread averaged CAD 102 per barrel in the first quarter of 2026, an increase of CAD 8 per barrel from the fourth quarter of 2025. During April and the first part of May, the Prince George crack spread has continued to strengthen, which supports the increased 2026 consolidated adjusted EBITDA guidance we provided this morning. Looking ahead to the second quarter, I want to highlight that we successfully executed a scheduled maintenance outage at the Prince George Refinery during April 2026.
This was a proactive planned event designed to maintain high throughput at the refinery through to the next scheduled full refinery turnaround, which is currently planned for the spring of 2028. To prepare for this downtime, we strategically built up our conventional diesel inventories during the latter half of the first quarter. This ensured that we could continue to serve our core customers without interruption while the refinery was temporarily offline. The refinery has since returned to normal operations and daily throughput has steadily increased back to the design capacity of 12,000 barrels per day. As a result, we are well-positioned to capture the current strength in refined product margins. At the BRC gas processing plant, throughput averaged 114 million cubic feet a day during the first quarter of 2026, a 12% increase over the previous quarter.
This growth was largely supported by the long-term agreements we executed in January of this year, which secured an existing 65 million cubic feet a day of natural gas to the facility for a further five-year term, and also contracted an additional 10 million cubic feet per day of additional volume from dedicated producer locations. The BRC fractionation facility also saw high utilization at 90% during the first quarter due to the increased producer inlet volumes. The Ram River gas plant remains temporarily curtailed while sulfur handling operations continue to operate. Current market prices are at levels that we believe are highly economic for sour gas producers. Our intent is to restart the gas plant when production in the area resumes.
Looking ahead, we remain focused on driving operational excellence, enhancing margins, and executing strategic initiatives, including maximizing utilization at the PGR and HDRD Complex, strengthening commercial platforms and offtakes, advancing our SAF project while managing capital prudently, progressing non-core asset sales to unlock liquidity, and continue to advocate for a fair regulatory environment. We believe these building blocks position us for both revenue growth and margin expansion during 2026. With that, I'll now turn it to Ian for the financial review.
Thanks, Jeremy. Tidewater Renewables delivered a strong start to the year, generating adjusted EBITDA of CAD 24.1 million. This performance was underpinned by the HDRD Complex running at near nameplate capacity, which allowed us to capture improving market pricing by leveraging our offtake contracts that are indexed to U.S. import pricing benchmarks. In addition, Tidewater Renewables recognized CAD 6.1 million of expected funding from the Biofuel Production Incentive, further strengthening the gross margin. Tidewater Midstream generated consolidated adjusted EBITDA of CAD 49.7 million, representing a significant increase from 2025. This performance was primarily driven by stronger crack spreads at the Prince George Refinery and the higher adjusted EBITDA from the HDRD Complex, which I just described.
Moving to the balance sheet, as previously disclosed with the 2025 year-end results, we completed a significant step towards strengthening Tidewater's financial position by successfully amending the Tidewater Midstream senior credit facility on March 23rd, 2026. These amendments extended the maturity of the CAD 175 million operating and syndicated credit facilities from September 2026 to August 2027. These amendments also allow Tidewater Midstream to calculate deconsolidated financial covenants on an annualized basis for Q1 to Q3 2026, which reflects the step change in financial results forecasted for 2026. In that regard, I'm pleased to report that both Tidewater Midstream and Tidewater Renewables were in full compliance with all financial covenants at the end of the first quarter, and both companies are forecasting to be within financial covenants throughout 2026.
With the release of the first quarter financial results this morning, we also announced an increase to full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA financial guidance. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA is now forecasted to be between CAD 190 million and CAD 210 million. Tidewater Renewables adjusted EBITDA guidance was increased to CAD 100 million to CAD 110 million. This adjusted EBITDA guidance includes the expected proceeds to be received from the Biofuel Production Incentive, with full-year 2026 renewable diesel production of between 150 million and 170 million liters, and an incentive rate of CAD 0.16 per liter. The primary driver for the increased adjusted EBITDA guidance is the improving pricing environment resulting from the ongoing geopolitical conflict in the Middle East and the U.S. biofuels regulatory changes that Jeremy discussed earlier.
Forecasted 2026 capital expenditures remain unchanged at CAD 2 million-CAD 3 million for Tidewater Renewables and CAD 20 million-CAD 25 million for Tidewater consolidated. This capital guidance includes both growth and maintenance capital and is net of the BC LCFS credits expected to be received under executed initiative agreements for capital projects. By maintaining a disciplined capital program, the resulting free cash flow will primarily be directed towards debt reduction.
That concludes our prepared remarks. Jenny, can you please open the line for questions?
Yes, thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your touch-tone phone. If you wish to cancel your request, please press the star followed by the two. If you are using a speaker phone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. Once again, that is star one if you wish to ask a question. Your first question is from Rob Hope from Scotiabank. Your line is now open.
Hello, everyone, congrats on the higher guidance. Just a question on the guidance. Can you maybe add a little bit of color, at least on the conventional side, what levels you've hedged at in terms of pricing, as well as what range of pricing the 2026 guidance is based off of?
Hey, Rob. Thanks for the question. We hedged approximately 50% of the Prince George crack spread throughout the balance of 2026. As we've mentioned previously, we laid into those hedges kind of throughout March at the prevailing kind of market conditions at that time. There's strong crack spreads throughout the balance of the year, which is contributing to that margin. We've seen pricing increase over the past few months and we're expecting some strong results of the refinery throughout 2026.
All right. That's, appreciate that. Okay, just moving over to Ram River. Sulfur pricing is up, liquids pricing is up, AECO is still soft. Can you maybe outline the discussions you're having with producers at this point? You know, as we exit into spring, you know, is it more likely than not that this could be more of a winter 2027 return to service, or could you see that come back in the summer months?
Yeah. Thanks for the question, Rob. Given, take your point on the low AECO price, the extremely high sulfur price makes it very economic for sour gas producers in the area to produce. There are a number of conversations and negotiations ongoing. I think we believe that the probabilities are likely that the plant will be on in the second half of the year. Continuing to make good progress. Not quite there with something to announce, we're getting very close.
Thank you. I'll hop back in the queue. Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, that is star one should you wish to ask a question. Your next question is from Maurice Choy from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Just wanted to come back to the discussion about guidance for both companies. Obviously, you first introduced the initial guidance towards the end of March, which was about six weeks ago. At that point in time, the Middle East conflict was full swing and crack spreads were elevated already. Even back then, the BPI in Canada was known. When I think about the new news, it feels like the U.S. EPA decision is probably a true new news. I wonder if you could help us quantify the items that has led to this higher EBITDA guidance for both companies.
Yeah. Obviously, thanks for the question, Maurice. Good to talk to you. I think the reality is, when we gave that guidance, the conflict had been going for, I don't even know if it was two weeks at the time. The market and expectations for timing of it to end was probably much sooner than what we've seen. Over that time, we've continued to see a lot of things progress in the market, so to speak, with I think significantly more damage to global refining capacity than anyone expected. Obviously, the length and complexity of the end to this, I think people realized how long it was. I don't think there had been a Strait of Hormuz shut down quite yet.
It may have started then, but I don't think people were expecting it to progress the way it has. We've just seen an overall tightening in global refining capacity in general with the damage that was done since that time. Overall view in the market of the impacts that this is going to have on the long-term supply-demand balance, which has led to much more tightened crack spreads further out. That has led us to adjust our guidance.
Just to be clear, that seems to be on the conventional side. You're suggesting that when initial guidance was put out, the crack spread assumption that you had was relatively conservative, and maybe now it's a little bit more realistic. Is that fair?
I mean, there was a lot of information uncertainty when we put out our first piece of guidance, and we had been fairly, I guess, conservative trending back to a lower level of crack spread sooner. Now we're seeing that forecast go out much further, and we've seen significant damage since that time to global refining capacity, which has tightened up supply demand. This just reflects the new information that's come into the market over the last, whatever, four to six weeks.
Maybe just a final follow-up on this one. I suppose the event is obviously changing very rapidly. WTI is down 10% over the last two days. Are we to expect another change in guidance the next earnings release? Or do you view that this is fairly robust guidance for the year?
Given the amount of hedging we've layered in, and what we're seeing, we think this is fairly robust. Obviously things can change very quickly. It's like things seem to change within days, single days as we go here. We're very confident that we'll be able to deliver in this level of guidance, and there's some good things potentially coming that will help us ensure we at least get to this guidance and maybe a little more.
Understood. If I could just finish off with a question on balance sheet. I believe there was a comment that, you know, the strong free cash flow is going to be put towards debt reduction and the CapEx is maintained with no change. I recall that on the last call, conference call, you were progressing a few asset sales. Curious as to what update you have on that. Is that still progressing? Would you want to do more, given how it now has a better footing in your financials this year?
Yeah. Like things are continuing to progress. We still continue to trend towards the guidance we gave around asset dispositions for the year. We haven't got anything completely deep that we can announce, but hope to be announcing something before the middle of the year. You know, we're continuing to work along that path. You know, I think we've been looking at a number of assets. I don't, you know, I don't think the number of assets we're looking at has expanded. We're just continuing to work the ones we have.
Any thoughts on timelines as to when we might hear something, or is it out of your control?
Yeah. Hopefully, I think we're fairly close, and hopefully we'll have something announced on one potential disposition before the end of second quarter.
Oh, that's great to know. Thank you very much.
Thank you once again. That is star one should you wish to ask a question. There are no further questions at this time. Please proceed with the closing remarks.
Thanks, everyone, for joining the call. The team is available to address any outstanding items with our contact information at the bottom of each company's press release.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. The conference has now ended. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.