Organization, Basis of Presentation, and Significant Accounting Policies

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2023

Organization, Basis of Presentation, and Significant Accounting Policies

ORGANIZATION, BASIS OF PRESENTATION, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Organization

We are an energy services and solutions company operating on six continents, focused on calcium chloride, completion fluids and associated products and services, comprehensive water management solutions, frac flowback, and production well testing. We were incorporated in Delaware in 1981 and are composed of two segments – Completion Fluids & Products Division and Water & Flowback Services Division. Unless the context requires otherwise, when we refer to “we,” “us,” and “our,” we are describing TETRA Technologies, Inc. and its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis.

Presentation

Our unaudited consolidated financial statements include the accounts of our wholly owned or controlled subsidiaries. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. The information furnished reflects all normal recurring adjustments, which are, in the opinion of management, necessary to provide a fair statement of the results for the interim periods. Operating results for the period ended September 30, 2023 are not necessarily indicative of results that may be expected for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023.

We have reflected the operations of our former Compression Division and Offshore Division as discontinued operations for all periods presented. See Note 2 - “Discontinued Operations” for further information. Unless otherwise noted, amounts and disclosures throughout these Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements relate solely to continuing operations and exclude all discontinued operations.

The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X for interim financial statements required to be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and do not include all information and footnotes required by U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”) for complete financial statements. These financial statements should be read in conjunction with the financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2022 and notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 27, 2023 (the “2022 Annual Report”).

Tax Benefits Preservation Plan

On February 28, 2023, the Board of Directors adopted a Tax Benefits Preservation Plan (the “Tax Plan”) designed to protect the availability of the Company’s net operating loss carryforwards (“NOLs”) and other tax attributes (collectively, the “Tax Attributes”), which may be utilized in certain circumstances to reduce the Company’s future income tax obligations. The Tax Plan is intended to reduce the likelihood that any changes in the Company’s investor base would limit the Company’s future use of its Tax Attributes as a result of the Company experiencing an “ownership change” under Section 382 (“Section 382”) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). If a corporation experiences an “ownership change,” any NOLs, losses or deductions attributable to a “net unrealized built-in loss” and other Tax Attributes could be substantially limited, and timing of the usage of such Tax Attributes could be substantially delayed. A corporation generally will experience an ownership change if one or more stockholders (or group of stockholders) who are each deemed to own at least 5% of the corporation’s stock increase their ownership by more than 50 percentage points over their lowest ownership percentage within a testing period (generally, a rolling three-year period).

In adopting the Tax Plan, the Board of Directors declared a dividend of one Series A Junior Participating Preferred Stock purchase right (the “Rights”) for each outstanding share of Common Stock pursuant to the terms of the Tax Plan. Initially, each Right entitles the registered holder to purchase from the Company one one-thousandth of a share of Series A Junior Participating Preferred Stock, par value $0.01 per share, of the Company (the “Preferred Stock”) at a price of $20.00 per one one-thousandth of a share of Preferred Stock (the “Purchase Price”), subject to adjustment. The Rights will cause substantial dilution to a person or group that acquires 4.99% or more of the Common Stock (or to a person or group that already owns 4.99% or more of the Company’s Common Stock if

such person or group acquires additional shares representing 2% of the Company’s then outstanding shares of Common Stock) without prior approval from the Board of Directors.

The Rights will expire at the earliest of: (i) the close of business on February 28, 2026 (the “Final Expiration Date”); (ii) the time at which the Rights are redeemed pursuant to the Tax Plan, (iii) the time at which the Rights are exchanged pursuant to the Tax Plan; (iv) the closing of any merger or other acquisition transaction involving the Company pursuant to an agreement as described in the penultimate paragraph of Section 1.3 of the Tax Plan; (v) the close of business on the effective date of the repeal of Section 382 of the Code if the Board determines that the Tax Plan is no longer necessary or desirable for the preservation of the Tax Attributes; or (vi) the close of business on the first day of a taxable year of the Company following a Board determination that no Tax Attributes may be carried forward or otherwise utilized.

The Tax Plan adopted by the Board of Directors is similar to plans adopted by other publicly held companies with significant NOLs or other substantial tax benefits and is not designed to prevent any action that the Board of Directors determines to be in the best interest of the Company and its stockholders. At the Company’s 2023 annual meeting of stockholders held on May 24, 2023, the Company’s stockholders ratified the adoption of the Tax Plan.

The Rights are in all respects subject to and governed by the provisions of the Tax Plan. The foregoing summary provides only a general description of the Tax Plan and does not purport to be complete. The Tax Plan, which specifies the terms of the Rights and includes as Exhibit A the Form of Certificate of Designation of Series A Junior Participating Preferred Stock of the Company and as Exhibit B the Form of Right Certificate, is attached to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K, which was filed with the SEC on March 1, 2023, as Exhibit 4.1 and is incorporated herein by reference. The foregoing summary should be read together with the entire Tax Plan and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the Tax Plan.

Mineral Resources Arrangement

We have rights to the brine underlying our approximately 40,000 gross acres of brine leases in the Smackover Formation in Southwest Arkansas, including rights to the bromine and lithium contained in the brine. We recognized approximately $3.8 million and $6.8 million of expense during the three-month and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2023, respectively, and $0.9 million and $3.5 million of expense during the three-month and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2022, respectively, for exploration and pre-development costs representing expenditures incurred to evaluate potential future development of our lithium and bromine properties in Arkansas. We are also party to agreements whereby Standard Lithium Ltd. (NYSE: SLI) (“Standard Lithium”) has the right to explore for, and an option to acquire the rights to produce and extract, lithium in our Arkansas leases and other potential resources in the Mojave region of California. Standard Lithium delivered a notice to exercise this option to acquire those lithium rights in our Arkansas leases on October 6, 2023.

In June 2023, we entered into a memorandum of understanding (“MOU”) with Saltwerx LLC (“Saltwerx”), an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of a Fortune 500 company, relating to a newly-proposed brine unit in the Smackover Formation in Southwest Arkansas and potential bromine and lithium production from brine produced from the unit. We filed an amended brine unit application (“the Application”) covering approximately 6,138 acres, which expands the size of the unit area and also combines brine acreage that was previously leased by each of TETRA and Saltwerx (“the Brine Unit”), with the Arkansas Oil & Gas Commission (“AOGC”). On September 26, 2023, the AOGC held a public hearing and unanimously approved our application to establish the Brine Unit. On October 17, 2023, the AOGC issued formal orders establishing the Brine Unit and integrating all unleased parties within the Brine Unit, subject to a 60-day statutory election period for each unleased party, to elect whether or not to participate and share in costs of development of the Brine Unit. If no such election is made within the election period, such unleased parties will be deemed integrated within the Brine Unit as described in the formal orders. The MOU includes provisions relating to: (i) initial brine ownership percentages within the Brine Unit, including the bromine and lithium contained in the brine, (ii) the transfer of certain leased acres outside the proposed Brine Unit from the Company to Saltwerx after the expiration of the 60-day election period, (iii) Saltwerx reimbursing the Company for certain expenses incurred by the Company to date regarding the development of leased acreage to be included in the Brine Unit, and (iv) an allocation of certain future costs for the drilling of a brine production test well and other development operations, including front-end engineering and design studies for bromine and lithium production facilities.

Significant Accounting Policies

Our significant accounting policies are described in the notes to our consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2022 included in our 2022 Annual Report. There have been no significant changes in our accounting policies or the application thereof during the third quarter of 2023.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclose contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues, expenses, and impairments during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates, and such differences could be material.

Reclassifications

Certain previously reported financial information has been reclassified to conform to the current year's presentation. The impact of reclassifications was not significant to the prior year's overall presentation.

Foreign Currency Translation

We have designated the Euro, the British pound, the Canadian dollar, the Brazilian real, and the Mexican peso as the functional currencies for our operations in Finland and Sweden, the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, and certain of our operations in Mexico, respectively. The United States dollar is the designated functional currency for all of our other non-U.S. operations. The cumulative translation effects of translating the applicable accounts from the functional currencies into the United States dollar at current exchange rates are included as a separate component of equity. Foreign currency exchange (gains) losses are included in other (income) expense, net and totaled less than $0.1 million and $0.3 million during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023, respectively, and $(1.1) million and $(2.7) million during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, respectively.

Fair Value Measurements

We utilize fair value measurements to account for certain items and account balances within our consolidated financial statements. Fair value measurements are utilized on a recurring basis in the determination of the carrying values of certain investments. See Note 8 - “Fair Value Measurements” for further discussion. Fair value measurements are also utilized on a nonrecurring basis in certain circumstances, including the impairment of long-lived assets (a Level 3 fair value measurement).

Supplemental Cash Flow Information

Supplemental cash flow information is as follows:


	Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2023		2022
	(in thousands)
Interest paid	$	14,282	$	11,578
Income taxes paid	$	3,918	$	2,525

	September 30, 2023		December 31, 2022
	(in thousands)
Accrued capital expenditures	$	1,271	$	4,901

New Accounting Pronouncements

Standards adopted during 2023

In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-13, “Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments”. ASU 2016-13 amends the impairment model to utilize an expected loss methodology in place of the previously-used incurred loss methodology, which will result in the more timely recognition of losses on financial instruments not accounted for at fair value through net income. The provisions require credit impairments to be measured over the contractual life of an asset and developed with consideration for past events, current conditions, and forecasts of future economic information. Credit impairment will be accounted for as an allowance for credit losses deducted from the amortized cost basis at each reporting date. Updates at each reporting date after initial adoption will be recorded through selling, general, and administrative expense. On January 1, 2023, we adopted ASU 2016-13. The adoption of this standard did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

In March 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-04, “Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848)”, which provides optional expedients and exceptions for applying U.S. GAAP to contracts, hedging relationships, and other transactions affected by the discontinuation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) or by another reference rate expected to be discontinued. In December 2022, the FASB issued ASU 2022-06, “Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Deferral of the Sunset Date of Topic 848.” During the three months ended June 30, 2023, our asset-based credit agreement and term credit agreement were amended to replace LIBOR and Eurodollar rates with the secured overnight financing rate (“SOFR”). There were no significant costs associated with the amendments and the amendments did not have a significant impact on our consolidated financial statements.