Good morning and welcome to TETRA Technologies Investor Update following the company's deconsolidation press release issued last week. The speakers for today's call are Brady Murphy, Chief Executive Officer and Elijio Serrano, Chief Financial Officer. All participants will be in listen only mode. Please note that this event is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Mr.
Serrano. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Tom. Good morning and thank you for joining us. I would 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 a number of 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 might differ materially from those projected in the forward looking statements. In addition, during the call, we may refer to EBITDA, gross margins, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA gross margins, adjusted free cash flow, leverage ratio or other non GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the press release issued on January 19 and 01/29/2021. We also ask you to go to our public website for reconciliations of non GAAP financial measures to the nearest GAAP measure. 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.
The company has prepared the preliminary financial information on a materially consistent basis with its historical financial information and in good faith based upon its internal reporting for the three months ended 12/31/2020. This financial information is preliminary and unaudited and is thus inherently uncertain and subject to changes as the company finalizes its financial statements and related audit for the year ended 12/31/2020. The company is in the process of completing its customary quarterly close and review procedures and related audit as of and for the year ended 12/31/2020. And there can be no assurances that its financial results for this period will not differ from these preliminary financial information. During the preparation of the company's consolidated financial statements and related notes as of and for the year ended 12/31/2020, the company may identify items that could cause its financial reported results to be materially different from the preliminary financial information set forth above.
The preliminary financial information should not be viewed as a substitute for fully audited financial statements referred in accordance with GAAP. In addition, the preliminary financial information for the three months ended 12/31/2020, is not necessarily indicative of the result to be achieved for any future period. This preliminary financial information has been prepared by and is the responsibility of management. In addition, the preliminary financial information presented above has not been audited, reviewed, or compiled by the company's independent registered public accounting firm. Accordingly, the company's independent registered public accounting firm has not expressed an opinion or other form of assurance with respect thereto and has no responsibility for and disclaims any association with this information.
On today's call, we intend to cover four topics. Number one, the deconsolidation of CSI Compressco that we announced on January 29. Number two, provide comments on the fourth quarter TETRA results we announced on January 29, and share some thoughts on the current environment. Number three, talk about the historical TETRA results excluding CSI Compressco. And number four, add some color to the press release we issued on January 19 regarding carbon capture and key mineral reserves.
With that, let
me turn it over to Brady. Thank you, Elijio, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Elijio mentioned the topics that we intend to cover on the call. So I'll start with some comments and views on the series of transactions that we announced on Friday that will allow us to deconsolidate the financial results of CSI Compressco.
It's been clear to us for some time that the consolidated debt of CSI Compressco onto TETRA's financial results has made it difficult for investors to fully appreciate and give the company credit for the strength of Tetanus business segments and our financial performance. The impact of COVID-nineteen on the energy markets in 2020 highlighted the importance of a well understood and strong balance sheet. And despite generating strong financial results with consistent positive EBITDA, cash flow positive cash flow and strong relative performance to our peers, our share price has not reflected our performance or the underlying strength of our businesses. In 2019, we engaged a financial advisor to explore all options available to us to deconsolidate CSI Compressco's debt from TETRA's balance sheet. The global pandemic in 2020 and the maturities of CSI Compressco's debt made this a difficult process.
The volatility in the capital markets also added to the difficulty of advancing this initiative. However, once we completed the debt swap and the extension of the maturity of the CCL bonds in June 2020, we were able to find a path to simplify our capital structure and make TETRA's performance more transparent to our shareholders. Late in November 2020, we received a non binding letter of intent from Spartan Energy Partners to purchase our GP, IDRs, and a certain amount of the common units of CSI Compressco. Given that this was not a binding commitment and bringing the transaction to conclusion carried some risk, we were also simultaneously working with CSI Compressco to potentially exchange our GT and IDRs for more common units. During December and January, we worked with Spartan to bring this transaction to conclusion, with the transaction being announced and closed on January 29.
CSI Compressco's unit price at the time we received the offer was $0.90 and since then it increased to approximately 1 point dollars 2 which is the final effective sale price. In December, we sold the Spartan 15 compressors we had previously purchased and we're leasing to CSI Compressco for $14,200,000 That plus the collection of intercompany balances will generate gross proceeds of $30,700,000 We intend to use the majority of those proceeds to reduce our term loan balance and therefore reduce interest expense. Elijoh and I are no officers nor on the board of CSI Compressco allowing us to focus exclusively on TETRA. I want to thank the management team and employees of CSI Compressco for reshaping that business and delivering such strong results to get through this past year. I would like to emphasize that we maintain 11% ownership in the common units of CSI Compressco and we see our existing stake as part of Spartan Energy Partners with significant upside potential.
For this transaction, we have a much following this transaction, we have a much cleaner balance sheet and an easier to understand business model. One that requires low capital investments, has consistently generated positive EBITDA and free cash flow, and has a diversified revenue base from the oil and gas segment, industrial markets, domestic and international, onshore and offshore, and including deepwater. In addition, our vertically integrated chemical business has significant capacity to increase volumes with very little requirement for manpower or capital. In the press release we issued Friday and in our updated investor presentation that we posted to our website this morning, we published our historical and recent results without including CSI Compressco. Elijio will highlight some of the key items in a couple of minutes.
Next, I'd like to share some comments on the fourth quarter preliminary results that we preannounced on Friday and on the current market environment. Our adjusted EBITDA margins increased approximately four sixty basis points with contributing strong performance from both segments. Despite lower sequential revenues from lower international oil and gas activity, we expect Completion Products and Fluids adjusted EBITDA margins to be between 3233%, a record high for a non CS Neptune quarter. Following the third quarter hurricanes, we saw a strong rebound in the Gulf Of Mexico for completion fluids. We continue to see consistent and predictable earnings from our Industrial Chemicals business and we are now seeing meaningful earnings from our lithium agreement with Standard Lithium.
In 2020, for the full year, we recorded EBITDA of $3,100,000 from the proceeds and value of the shares we own in Standard Lithium. As a reminder, our year on year Q4 comparison for this segment has results from a large fourth quarter twenty nineteen Gulf Of Mexico Deepwater CS Neptune project. Looking forward, we believe the international oil and gas activity will bottom during the 2021 with meaningful recovery including deepwater into the 2021 and into 2022. As we have received several investor questions regarding the recent executive order on pausing new drilling permits for federal lands and waters, we'd like to highlight that according to The US Department Of Interior fact sheet published on January 27, quote, The target pause does not impact existing operations or permits for valid existing leases which are continuing to be reviewed and approved. The key here is existing leases which for deepwater projects extends many years into the future.
It is also worth noting that all the operator projects where we are qualifying CS Neptune for deepwater wells are part of existing leases and many with existing drilling permits. Switching to the Water Management and Flowback Services segment, revenue increased approximately 45% in the fourth quarter from the third quarter. Adjusted EBITDA went from slightly above breakeven to adjusted EBITDA margins between 11% to 12.5%. Our strategy to focus on the treatment and recycling of water is paying off. With those services' fourth quarter revenues more than doubling sequentially and above the average twenty nineteen quarterly run rate.
As we continue to bring more differentiated technology to this business segment such as TETRA Steel, our Sandstorm Flowback solution, and using automation to deliver the most cost effective and safest operation, our strategy around integrated water management continues to pay benefits. Despite active frac crews in the fourth quarter at less than half the 2018 peak, we sequentially increased the number of integrated water management operations from 16 to 26 for a record 18 different customers. We believe these combinations of technology and solutions are helping us continue to gain market share, which is supported by the fact that adjusting for lower pricing during 2020 downturn, our revenue per active frac crew has increased 33% since 2018. The combination of these efforts has also allowed us to stay adjusted EBITDA positive in a very challenging environment and quickly benefit as the market recovers. Again, with respect to the executive order of pausing on new drilling permits for federal land, even without the prior comments exempting existing leases, according to Rysted Energy, there is a multi year inventory of drilled but uncompleted wells and wells with approved drilling permits on federal lands.
We believe this will give customers most potentially impacted by operating on federal lands plenty of opportunity to adjust their future acreage positions. The third topic I'd like to cover is to provide more color to the January 19 press release on which we have received a lot of interest and questions. First, I'd like to say that I believe it is important for any oil and gas related company to have an ESG low carbon strategy. I don't pretend to be able to predict the future as it relates to a future oil and gas transition to renewables or low carbon energy sources. But there's clearly enough investor sentiment and ongoing developments in the renewable energy space that are and could make renewables much more competitive to traditional oil and gas energy.
That in itself makes an ESG strategy for companies like TETRA a business imperative. As mentioned in the press release, TETRA has some unique resources in our Arkansas and California leases as well as chemistry technology that positions us well to pursue two key markets, carbon capture and battery productionenergy storage. The inferred lithium carbonate equivalent resources of 884,000 tons and an estimated 3,900,000 tons of bromine resources represent significant value. And in addition to supporting our high value completion fluids, including Neptune, we plan to maximize the potential of these resources to address future demand for battery production and energy storage. In the case of lithium, I previously mentioned the 2020 benefit of $2,100,000 through cash payments and shares of standard lithium.
Additional cash payments and shares of standard lithium will continue until such time that they produce commercial volumes when TETRA will benefit from a royalty on the sales of lithium. The financial potential for our high purity zinc bromide beyond the oil and gas market is dependent on the success of flow battery technology to address future energy storage. The future demand for lithium ion batteries is well documented and understood. Flow batteries have been around for some time, but as the technology has improved and applications for slower and longer charge and discharge requirements, such as storing and discharging energy at wind farms and solar farms during peak and off hours, flow batteries are evolving to address a market need. As this is an emerging technology, our growth to supply our patented high purity zinc bromide largely depends on the success of the technology to meet this growing demand.
But we are optimistic we can help accelerate that success. ID Tech EX estimates the flow battery market to be worth about $4,500,000,000 by 2028. We're currently working with multiple flow battery companies to test and qualify our zinc bromide. And finally is the opportunity to provide calcium chloride for the purpose of carbon capture. We're currently in discussions with a company that has developed a patented process to capture CO2 from a flue gas waste stream.
And we believe this technology has potential to be game changing as it relates to the cost and economics for carbon capture. With TETRA's market leading position in the production and sale of calcium chloride in The US and Northern Europe, TETRA is well positioned to take advantage as this solution develops. Before handing things over to Elijio, I'd like to say that we're pleased with our fourth quarter results and believe we are well positioned for a recovering oil and gas market. I believe we have a solid ESG and low carbon business strategy and some unique resources in chemistry technology to create significant shareholder value over time. Where appropriate, will look to partner with leading industry players through joint ventures or commercial agreements to advance these technologies or to fund significant required capital investments.
I'll have Elijio add some comments to some of these topics that we've discussed. Elijio?
Thank you, Brady. Our fourth quarter earnings call is scheduled for February 25. At that time, we will go through more details on our fourth quarter results, balance sheet and cash flow. We preannounced our fourth quarter results on Friday and provided some preliminary revenue, income before taxes and adjusted EBITDA. On this call, we'll refrain from providing incremental details until our fourth quarter results are formally completed and the 2020 audit is essentially done.
I encourage you to read the entire press release we issued on Friday that is available on our website. Also, this morning, we published on our website a few slides that further highlight and add color to some of the recent press releases and to our preliminary fourth quarter results. We encourage you to review those at your leisure. TETRA's net debt at the end of the third quarter was $148,000,000 which reflects a $2.00 $6,000,000 term loan that does not mature until the year 2025. The coupon on this loan is currently at 7.25%, and the only maintenance covenant we have is onetime interest coverage.
At the December, following the receipt of the proceeds from the sale of the 15 compressors sold to Spartan, our net debt dropped to less than $140,000,000 With the first quarter proceeds from the sale of the GP, IVRs and common units, we have the opportunity to drop net debt to between $125,000,000 and $130,000,000 a meaningful reduction from the $189,000,000 we had at the 2020. TETRA's leverage ratio at the September, our last reported quarter, was 2.47x. We are expecting to report positive TETRA only free cash flow in the fourth quarter. We will have reported positive free cash flow in each quarter of twenty twenty in addition to positive adjusted EBITDA in each quarter of very difficult COVID-nineteen environment. For 2020, we will be free cash flow positive even without the benefit of monetizing working capital.
In other words, in a difficult 2020 environment impacted by a global pandemic and depressed oil prices, TETRA generated enough EBITDA to cover interest expense, cash taxes and all capital expenditures without having to rely on monetizing working capital. We believe this to be a significant accomplishment in a difficult environment and demonstrates the strength of our business model that allows us to flex down operating costs and capital expenditures. Brady earlier highlighted the segment performance and the numbers we preannounced for the fourth quarter. Let me comment on corporate and other expenses in the fourth quarter. The midpoint of our fourth quarter guidance was corporate and other G and A expenses of $7,100,000 which among other things includes currency gains and losses.
Adjusted for unusual items, we have been able to reduce corporate SG and A expenses by 44% in the 2020 compared to the 2019. For the first quarter of this year, we expect to further reduce corporate and other expenses by about $1,000,000 We remain very focused on streamlining and leaning out support and G and A costs. In the press release we issued on Friday, we listed in Appendix A the historical results of TETRA excluding CSI Compressco. On a trailing twelve month basis through the end of the 2020, as we've only reported formal results through then, revenue for TETRA, excluding CSI Compressco, was $438,000,000 with adjusted EBITDA of $60,000,000 Cash flow from operations was $57,000,000 capital expenditures were $12,000,000 and free cash flow was $45,000,000 While deconsolidating CSI Compressco from the results makes us a smaller entity, from the figures I just shared, our profitability and free cash flow remain very meaningful and we believe to be very attractive. And when combined with no debt maturities until the year 2025 and opportunities to exploit the industrial markets while the oil and gas sector recovers, we are positioned to take advantage of our capital efficient business model.
And on top of that, we are starting to see some early benefits from our initiatives on lithium. A couple of other notes, of interest. Number one, given the performance of TETRA stock price in January and the closing price on Friday, we received notice yesterday from the New York Stock Exchange that we are back in compliance with the listing standards of the TETRA share price being above $1 And the final topic I'd like to cover is the Russell two thousand. In June 2020, when the Russell two thousand was reconstructed, we were dropped from the Russell two thousand given the decline of our market cap. As a result, most of the index based holders that try to match the Russell two thousand and own TETRA begin selling their positions in TETRA around May, and it is my opinion that they continued into July and August.
I estimate that as many as $40,000,000 to $50,000,000 of TETRA's 127,000,000 shares outstanding were sold into the market. This clearly put pressure on our share price in addition to the overall negative sentiment at that time. And despite our strong performance that we were reporting for the first, second and third quarters of last year. In early May of last year, the Russell two thousand was being reconstructed, our market cap was down to about $60,000,000 This morning, our market cap is approximately $220,000,000. And based on research we've done, we believe that the cutoff to be included in the Russell two thousand this year will be between 175,000,000 and $200,000,000.
We have the opportunity to be included in the Russell two thousand again this year when it is reconstructed in June, of which index funds begin anticipating the cutoff in May and begin adjusting their holdings accordingly. Therefore, we are of the opinion that by making it back into the Russell two thousand this year, we could see a significant amount of index based holders begin building positions in TETRA. This should represent a catalyst for better stock price performance in the second quarter. And by then, we will have published our first quarter twenty twenty one results with CSI Compressco excluded from our balance sheet, allowing TETRA to screen much better than we have in the past with the inclusion of CSI Compressco's debt. The timing of our deconsolidation transaction is important, but we have positioned ourselves to be more appealing to index space holders and to momentum players.
With that, let me turn this back over to Brady.
Well, Thank you, Elijio, and thank you again, everyone, for joining us on the call. Before we close, let me just provide a few closing thoughts on our go forward strategy. We previously sold our offshore decommissioning Ameritech business, eliminating almost $50,000,000 of asset retirement obligations and with the recent divestiture of CSI Compressco, we've eliminated from our consolidated balance sheet $646,000,000 of CSI Compressco debt. TETRA
has
a solid history of innovation with a core competency around fluids and aqueous chemistry. And with these transactions, we are in a great position to refocus on our existing businesses. This combined with significant mineral resources and solid ESG low carbon energy business opportunities gives us a compelling case to really create shareholder value. We're committed to a capital efficient, high cash generating business model. As we generate cash, we will reduce our debt levels to reduce interest expense to further increase free cash flow.
We have over $300,000,000 of U. S. Tax loss carry forwards to shield our future U. S. Cash profits.
We will also continue to reduce our SG and A and corporate support costs to drive up earnings. I'm pleased with where we are today and where we are heading for our future. That concludes our call. We thank you for your participation. Please call Aliyahiyo or myself directly if you have any follow-up questions or would like to further discuss any of the topics we covered today.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.