Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Source Energy Services third quarter 2021 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 one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Brad Thomson, CEO. Mr. Thomson, please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to Source Energy Services third quarter 2021 conference call. My name is Brad Thomson, and I'm the CEO of Source. I'm joined today by Derren Newell, our CFO, and Scott Melbourn, our COO. Today, I'll cover off the formal part of the call, and Scott and Derren will be available to answer any questions you may have. Before we get started, I'd like to refer everyone to the financial statements in the MD&A that were posted to SEDAR on the company's website last night and to 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 tonnes and will refer to the adjusted gross margin, adjusted EBITDA, which are both non-IFRS measures as described in our MD&A.
Except for the items just mentioned, our financial information is prepared in accordance with IFRS. The third quarter of 2021 saw the continued recovery to the natural gas and crude oil prices as energy demand has continued to rise with the increase in economic activity. Strong commodity prices have given our customers confidence to continue their capital programs while they've been strengthening the balance sheets and improving returns to their shareholders. The third quarter was extremely busy in July when most of the customers seemed to wanna complete several wells in a very efficient manner. This led to Source setting new records for monthly and daily sales records and daily throughput records at two of our terminals. It's times like these when Source's logistics capabilities from the mine to the well site set us apart from other suppliers in the WCSB.
With the increase in activity levels in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and the increased attention on frac efficiencies, Source is uniquely set up to handle the delivery of high volumes of sand in short periods of time. From our production facilities through to our in-basin storage facilities and our logistics operations, our past investments in our unique storage and distribution infrastructure have paid dividends as we service our customers. As validation of these abilities and the value we bring to our customers, we had two new customers enter into contracts during and immediately after the end of the third quarter. In Q3, we also made over 89% of our sales under contracts or directly to operators that are active in the Montney and the Duvernay. Moving on to our results for the third quarter of 2021, Source achieved the following accomplishments in the quarter.
We realized sand sales volumes of 751,611 metric tonnes. These sales generated revenues of CAD 79.3 million, which was 22% higher than revenues for the same quarter last year. We achieved a utilization rate for our Canadian Sahara fleet of 73% for the entire quarter, including a 99% utilization for the month of July. We were also able to deploy our U.S.-based Sahara unit into Utah to work for a large E&P customer late in September. That unit will be busy through the fourth quarter and into Q1 of 2022. Regardless of whether you're talking about the Sahara units in Canada or the unit we have in Utah, we continue to see strong demand for our Sahara as customers search for ways to improve their frac efficiencies.
In the quarter, we also realized adjusted gross margin of CAD 23.54 per metric ton. This was slightly lower than the adjusted gross margin per metric ton realized in the second quarter due to an increase in fuel costs, due to a change in the mix of terminals from which our sales were being made, and due to the impact of a weaker Canadian dollar. This increase in the cost of sales is short-term and will normalize back to historic margins as sales prices are adjusted to reflect the increased cost of sales and the benefits of our currency hedging program that were established early in the fourth quarter. This hedging program will reduce the risk of the disconnect between our US dollar production costs and our Canadian dollar sales. Through all of this, Source continues to focus on maintaining lower costs, improving production efficiencies.
Moving on, we ended the third quarter in a strong liquidity position with CAD 1.4 million of cash on our balance sheet and nothing drawn on our ABL facility. Finally, we recorded adjusted EBITDA for the quarter of CAD 11.3 million, which was a 9% increase in adjusted EBITDA from the second quarter of 2021 after removing the impact of the PPP loan forgiveness that we realized in the second quarter. The strong results that we saw in the third quarter as well as our ability to meet the demands of our customers can be attributed to the capabilities of our operating teams, can also be attributed to the asset base that Source has developed over the last two decades.
Source's asset base allows Source to reliably operate and will allow Source to operate reliably in 2021 and beyond without the expenditure of significant amounts of capital. Source. On the issue of capital spend, Source's capital spend for the third quarter of 2021 was only CAD 1.9 million. To date, Source has just spent CAD 4.5 million of its 2021 capital budget of CAD 6.6 million. As this shows, Source has a very scalable business that can deal with the peaks and valleys of the energy industry while still having the capacity to provide service to a more diversified customer base at our terminals. Before I turn to the outlook for the rest of the year, I'll take a couple of minutes just to discuss our balance sheet.
At September 30th, 2021, the principal balance outstanding on our notes was CAD 153.6 million, and the balance outstanding on our term loan was CAD 18 million. We had cash on hand of CAD 1.4 million, and our ABL facility had nothing drawn on it, other than the letters of credit it supports, leaving CAD 34.6 million of available capacity under that facility. With this financial position, Source has the liquidity it needs to operate effectively, and Source can now focus on paying down its debt as activity levels continue to ramp up in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. Now turning to our outlook.
The combined strength of both crude oil prices and natural gas prices have strengthened our customers' balance sheets and have given us confidence that the capital programs may be expanded in the fourth quarter of 2021, but more importantly, are setting the stage for an increase in activity levels in 2022. On the natural gas side of the industry, there's an interesting dynamic that should be continuing to see continued strengthening of natural gas prices and as a result of additional natural gas development activities. This dynamic consists of significant draws on North American natural gas storage during 2021, LNG Canada continued to progress to completion, and Alberta rapidly advancing its coal to gas power generation transition. Natural gas will also play a key role as a transition fuel in supporting the move to a lower carbon intensive world.
The combination of these developments, in our view, will lead to increased development activities in Western Canada and increased development of natural gas assets over the medium to long term. Given Source's terminal network, we're well-positioned to support our customers' development of their crude oil and natural gas assets in Western Canada, but especially in the Montney and Duvernay. While Source is well positioned to continue to expand our base frac sand business without the expenditure of significant capital, we continue to expand our logistics service offering to encompass other items that are consumed at the well site. Due to the strong market demand, we'll also be bringing on our ninth Sahara unit early in 2022. The addition of this unit will not increase our total capital spend for the year, which will remain under CAD 6.6 million.
We also continue to develop opportunities to utilize our Western Canadian terminals as a platform for diversification of our business. Now, before I sign off, one point I'd like to reiterate is that 2022 will be a time that we'll see Source increase prices for its products and its services. In the current environment where we're seeing escalation of costs and after years of softening revenues for Source and other companies operating in the oilfield service space, this step is long overdue. That concludes the formal portion of our call. Thank you for your time this morning. We now ask the operator to open the lines for questions.
Certainly. We will now begin the question and answer session. To join the question queue, you may press star then one 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 two. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. The first question comes from Paul Tepsich with High Rock Capital Management. Please go ahead.
Hi, Paul.
Good morning. Maybe a question for Darren. Given you may start increasing prices in 2022 as we move into the new year, and you've got your bonds outstanding trading in the mid- to high 80s now. When could you start actually acquiring bonds in the open market with newfound cash flow?
Under our banking covenant, once we go past the end of the peak period in February of 2022, we would be able to begin to look at doing that, Paul.
Is that something you would look at?
We absolutely need to deleverage this business, and so all opportunities to deleverage are on the table.
Great. Okay. Thanks very much.
Okay. Thanks, Paul.
Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. The next question comes from Michael Rapps with Converium Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, gentlemen. I'm curious if you can talk about two things. First, the working capital needs over the next quarter or two, and how you think those will fluctuate. Secondly, on a related note, whether the term loan payment in March you expect to make by drawing on the ABL or just through cash from operations, et cetera. Thanks.
Thanks, Michael. I'm gonna turn that over to Derren.
From the working capital side, you know, as we've seen in the last couple of years, we expect the fourth quarter to be a little bit slower. We would expect our receivables definitely to be on the collection side as opposed to the building side. As we have always done in the fourth quarter, though, we'll be making sure we have enough inventory in the basin, and so we'll have a little more inventory build, which has also been consistent. Net-net, we should see a bit of a working capital unwind in the fourth quarter and then a fairly rapid build in the first quarter. To part two of the question, I would suggest that a terminal payment will probably be made out of a combination of the two, but more likely using operating cash flow than the ABL line.
Thanks very much.
Great. Thanks, Mike.
Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one. There are no further questions at this time, and this does conclude the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Source Energy Services for any closing remarks.
Great. Thank you, operator. Thank you all for attending Source Energy Services third quarter 2021 conference call. As always, myself, Derren Newell, and Scott Melbourn are available for any calls you may have or any questions you may wanna have answered after this call. Thank you and have a good day.
This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.