OPAL Fuels Inc. (OPAL) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to OPAL Fuels' Second Quarter 2020 Earnings Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press *11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press *11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would like now to turn the conference over to Todd Firestone, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the OPAL Fuels Second Quarter 26 Earnings Conference Call. With me today are Co-CEOs, Adam Comora and Jonathan Maurer, as well as Kazi Hasan, OPAL's Chief financial officer. Opel Fuels released financial and operating results for the second quarter 2020 this morning. And those results are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at opalfuels.com. A presentation and access to the webcast for this call are also available on our website. After completion of today's call, a replay will be available for 90 days. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that our remarks including answers to your questions, contain forward looking statements. Which involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions, Forward looking statements are not a guarantee of performance and actual results could differ materially from what is contained in such statements. Several factors that could cause or contribute to such differences are described on slides 2 and 3 of our presentation. These forward looking statements reflect our views as of the date of this call and OPAL Fuels does not undertake any obligation to update forward looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this call. Additionally, this call will contain discussion of certain non-GAAP measures. A definition of non-GAAP measures used, and a reconciliation of these measures to the nearest GAAP measure, is included in the appendix of the release and presentation. Adam will begin today's call by providing an overview of the quarter's results and recent highlights. John will then give a commercial business development update. Afterwards, Kazi will review financial results. We will then open the call for questions. So now I will turn the call over to Adam J. Comora, Co-CEO of OPAL Fuels.

Thank you, Todd. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating in OPAL Fuels' second quarter 26 earnings call. We delivered solid second quarter financial results with adjusted EBITDA of $23.1 million increasing 40% from the second quarter of 25. With flat RIN pricing in the second quarter versus last year, growth was driven by 45z production tax credits, our Fuel Station Services segment and G and A cost savings. We are maintaining our annual guidance. Second quarter RNG production was 1.3 million MMBtus, approximately 8% higher from last year. While production performance was modestly below our expectations this quarter, We continue to see meaningful opportunities to grow volumes through our existing facilities and drive our second half results. It is important to note how powerful these plant improvement initiatives can be and they are not capital intensive. Operating leverage on our existing facilities is high. With almost all of the incremental production and revenues flowing down to EBITDA. Our primary variable cost is the royalty shared with our feedstock hosts. We are focused on capturing these opportunities as they would result in incremental production and EBITDA without having to invest significant capital. 1 example of these initiatives is using technology to improve gas collection and tuning of the wellfields. These improvements can take some time to install, and to coordinate with the landfill owners. I want to shift gears and discuss what gives us confidence in the stability of our cash flows and the macros driving the long term growth for OPAL Fuels. Over its 20 year history, the renewable fuel standard has become a fixture in the country's regulatory backdrop, much like the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. Many industries are built around supporting these key laws. Such as water treatment and other environmental services. Similar to those examples, the biofuels industry is expected to continue to play a vital role in satisfying the goals of the renewable fuel standard mandated by law. Our industry is further supported by programs like the production tax credit and investment tax credit. These programs reflect increasing bipartisan support and seek to accelerate the growth and myriad benefits of capturing biogas, or waste in place energy and using it productively. Opal Fuels generate significant annual discretionary free cash flow today. Approximately $0.30 per share for the last 12 months. Which we are choosing to reinvest to lift the value of OPAL. Kazi will discuss a bit later about our capital expenditures and capital allocation plans for new RNG facilities and fueling station projects. As a reminder, all of our maintenance capital expenditures are on our existing assets is expensed. Our upstream segment growth over the next 12 to 24 months is anticipated to be driven by incremental volumes from our existing assets and the completion of our projects in construction. These initiatives show a pathway to increasing our discretionary free cash flow over the coming years. Future growth of our Downstream segment will be driven by the economics of fuel switching between diesel and natural gas. These economics are underpinned by the structural advantages of low cost natural gas. Natural gas versus diesel in North America. We have seen numerous industries take advantage of lower cost natural gas at the technology becomes available. We have seen it in chemicals, steel, power generation, and in heavy-duty transportation's case, the natural gas engine. Notably, the refuse sector, which has had the appropriate 9 and 12 liter engines for the last decade, is now at a 50% adoption rate of CNG trucks ordered versus diesel. The 15-liter engine is now poised to address the largest segment of the 44 billion gallon diesel market in The United States. For OPAL, we have the strategic advantage of selling RNG with the same compelling natural gas economics plus the added sustainability benefits to accelerate adoption. OPAL is positioned to be at the forefront of what is anticipated to be a long and large energy arbitrage opportunity. With that, I will turn it over to John for some additional comments before Kazi reviews the financial performance.

Thank you, Adam, and good morning, everyone. Execution remains our highest priority. On the upstream side, Adam mentioned our improvement initiatives that are expected to drive production growth at our existing facilities. In addition, we continue to advance construction across our RNG project portfolio. With over 2 million MMBtu of annual design capacity, expected to come online over the next 12 months. Cottonwood, followed by Burlington, and then our CMS RNG project we have visibility into near term production growth. As we look beyond the next 12 months, during the quarter, we announced the release of our general contractor for another 1 million MMBtu of annual design capacity at the Stones Throw and Grady Road projects. These GFL joint venture projects are slated to contribute to 2028 production and financial results. Together, all of these projects upon completion will increase our production by approximately 3 million MMBtu of annual design capacity coming online over the next 24 months. These upstream opportunities are supported by OPAL's vertical integration and fleet offtake generated by our downstream business development opportunities. Beyond these projects, OPAL continues to pursue development opportunities. Several of which are conversion candidates from our renewable power portfolio. We are disciplined in allocating capital between our upstream and downstream investment opportunities to achieve targeted risk adjusted returns and portfolio balance. Overall, as Adam mentioned, we are pleased with the progress we made in the second quarter and our ability to deliver financial results which kept us on track for the year. I will now turn the call over to Kazi to discuss the quarter's financial performance. Kazi?

Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. We delivered solid financial performance in the second quarter. With adjusted EBITDA increasing 40% year-over-year to $23.1 million driven by contributions from 45z production tax credits, growth in our fuel station services business, and G and A cost savings. Second quarter consolidated revenue increased 4% to $83.4 million. Driven primarily by growth in our FSS segment compared with the second quarter of 2025. Within RNG fuel segment, EBITDA increased to $18.6 million from $13.3 million last year. Reflecting 45Z tax credits and production growth amidst flat realized RIN prices. Fuel station services also delivered improved performance, with segment EBITDA increasing to $12.5 million from $10.9 million last year. As we anticipated, renewable power segment performed lower compared to the prior year period driven by lower production, and pricing. Adjusted EBITDA was $0.3 million for the second quarter compared to $2.2 million in the prior year. We expect to see lower contributions from this segment as we are converting renewable power assets into RNG plants. In addition, we had a noncash impairment this quarter from a renewable power project decommissioning in connection with our CMS RNG project. We continue to actively manage discretionary spending with G&A at $3.2 million lower versus the second quarter of 2025. As we move into third quarter, we expect SG and A to increase from the second quarter as certain professional services organizational investments, and transformation initiatives normalized. These costs are anticipated and remain fully incorporated within our full year plan. We ended the quarter with $162.2 million of liquidity, including $91.4 million of cash, $19.3 million of available revolver capacity, and $51.6 million of undrawn preferred capital commitments. During the first 6 months of the year, we invested more than $52 million in the RNG projects, under construction. OPAL owned fuel stations and financed transformation initiatives while maintaining significant financial flexibility. We expect that our available cash generated from operations and availability on the existing debt and preferred stock facilities, are sufficient to fund our projects that have entered construction. Finally, as Adam mentioned, the business is generating significant and growing discretionary free cash flow. We continue to be disciplined in our capital allocation strategy. Between new RNG project development and growing opportunity to invest in fueling infrastructure. These investments are expected to increase recurring earnings and cash flow improve returns on invested capital, and further differentiate OPAL's integrated business model. We are encouraged by our second quarter results and are maintaining our full year guidance. With that, I will turn the call back to John.

In closing, we remain well positioned for continued disciplined execution of our strategic growth objectives and the expansion of OPAL's vertically integrated platform, I will now turn the call over to the operator for Q and A. Thank you all for your interest in OPAL Fuels.

Thank you. And wait for your name to be announced. And to withdraw your call, please press *11 again. And our first question will come from Derrick Whitfield with Texas Capital. Your line is open.

Good morning, and thanks for your time.

Morning, Derek.

Wanted to start on the plant improvement initiatives you highlighted in your opening comments. Could you elaborate on a couple of the more impactful initiatives you are pursuing? And help frame the upside you could achieve in production uplift or EBITDA expansion?

Sure. Hi, Derek. Sure, a couple of things. First off, I want to point out that we do have some seasonality in our production. Principally colder weather in the first quarter followed by drilling in the well fields during the second quarter. Usually results in improvements in the third and fourth quarter. In terms of ongoing improvements, we have the operations group who has continued their training and improvements within the operations of the existing projects. that is resulting in improved efficiency improved availability, and so combined with the inlet design capacity utilization improvements that we will see coming out, we will see increases in those areas as well. So a lot of that is just the team getting better at operating the projects and improving their capabilities. But, importantly, working with the landfills to improve collection. is 1 area that we have been focusing on significantly. Putting in place technology that can improve gas collection—not just quantity of gas collected, but quality as well. And both the quantity and the quality is what we are starting to see some of the improvements coming out. We have put some of this improvement in place at 2 of our projects, and we expect to see this rollout across more of our fleet during the remainder of the year and into next year. So all of that When it comes to you know, some of the improvements, when you think about the overall capacity that we have of 9 million MMBtu of nameplate and you add you know, 5% or 10% improvement on those combined with the from the collection of the gas to the improved availability and efficiency, you can understand how that can really have a significant impact on future results. And as Adam mentioned, that operating leverage that we have most of that improvement will fall to the bottom line. So we are very excited about the opportunity and working really hard and diligently to bring it across the line.

Very helpful. Thanks, John. And as my follow-up, and this is perhaps for you, Adam, wanted to focus on the regulatory environment. Throughout earnings, we have heard some commentary from the larger refineries and ag companies on Set Rule 3. And while we are clearly far from legislation, I would appreciate your views on what the community would like to see in the policy and what is achievable in growth of the RVO mandate and potential for the EPA to revisit ERINs?

Yeah, thanks, Derek. You are right. Set Rule 3 is what people will be focused on, over the balance of the year. A little unclear on timing for when that proposed rule may come out. What we would like to see is the EPA to acknowledge the potential for the use of RNG as a transportation fuel Listen to some of the industry estimates out there in terms of the potential for the adoption curve, and incentivize growth in the cellulosic category as is the law mentioned in the statute. And we have been having discussions with the EPA, and you know, the interesting thing is I think there is a recognition amongst policy makers about how powerful a transition to gas for heavy duty transportation could be to support not only this administration's goals, but, you know, really bipartisan goals to drive energy dominance and help keep inflation in check. And I think there is an acknowledgment that renewable natural gas can play a catalyst to help accelerate that use of economical nat gas at home and perhaps export more of the, you know, the expensive oil that we are producing. And then, you know, you have got all those other investment and jobs and cleaner air benefits as well. So, we are focused on educating, the EPA. On, you know, how to support, you know, additional you know, RNG investment and acknowledging the adoption curve for natural gas vehicles.

And, Adam, do you think we could revisit Eren's with this next legislation?

I feel like eREN pathways might be a little tougher. I do feel like, you know, in our discussions, people are getting educated. Educated and understand the benefits of natural gas and renewable natural gas. As a transportation fuel. eRINs, I am not sure about. I am not sure we are going to get a lot of, you know, pathway discussions in Set Rule 3. I think there is more of a focus on what to do about imported feedstocks. Again, everything we produce is domestically produced. We do not really have a horse in that race in what happens on the import side of things. I do feel like that is gonna be a key focus. To support domestically produced agricultural biofuels. And have not heard a lot of talk about expanded pathways and new pathways. Just yet.

Terrific. Great update. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. And our next question is gonna come from Matthew Blair with TPH. Your line is open.

Thanks, and good morning. So you maintained your 2026 guidance which I think implies about $55 to $70 million of EBITDA in the second half of the year versus the $40 million in the first half of the Is it fair to say this guide implies both higher production as well as higher unit profitability. And if so, could you talk about the drivers and your overall level of confidence in each of those variables?

Thank you. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And you know, I would say a couple of things there where there is still some puts and takes on where we land in our EBITDA range. Between a couple of things that we are doing on the commercial side and where we are on RIN pricing and the end of the year and that sort of thing. I will say that our confidence comes from, you know, when you look at the second half versus the first half, we do anticipate our production growth to continue to ramp as we move through the year. You know, RIN pricing has been a little stronger in the second half versus the first half, and we have been participating, along in the markets. And you know, production, you know, may trend towards the lower end of our of our original production guide. And feel confident that, you know, given our financial discipline and you know, what we are doing, around some of those other items, that will be in the guidance range that we provided in the beginning of the year.

Sounds good. And then we note we noticed that your operating expenses in RNG fuel improved a little bit quarter over quarter in Q2. Was there anything notable to call out there? And could you also provide an update on the Prince William virtual pipeline? Is that set to roll off either in Q3 or Q4 this year?

Yeah. The virtual pipeline will not roll off in Q3 or Q4. This year. We are still rolling through the engineering of the permanent pipeline. We do feel like there is some opportunities to improve what we are doing on the virtual pipeline. And the operating expenses, I think we called out after our first quarter that the weather impacts did have not only some unplanned outages and higher operating expenses associated with it, But that was, you know, what was driving a little bit of the second quarter versus the first quarter. And I would highlight again just what John was mentioning, is the operating leverage in our business as well. where there is a meaningful contribution from additional MMBTUs that we are able to process through our existing facilities And, you know, operating leverage works the other way as well. where the vast majority of the costs are relatively fixed. So if you look at our operating costs on a per MMBtu basis, that is where there will be some impact as well based on that operating leverage.

Sounds good. Thank you.

Thank you. And our next question is going to come from Ryan Pfingst with B. Riley. Your line is open.

Hey. Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. On renewable power plant conversions, can you just talk about the size of the candidate pipeline today? And can you remind us of any potential CapEx savings for a conversion project compared to something more greenfield?

Yeah. I will jump in. Hi, Ryan. So in terms of magnitude, as we look at our curve portfolio, obviously, the CMS RNG project was a conversion from an RNG from a renewable power project. And as part of our Q2 earnings, we did shut down 1 of the 2 power projects located there to make room for the construction. As we go about converting additional projects, there is not any particular capital cost savings that are available to us through that conversion. Instead, by being on the site and knowing the gas collection and the trash in place and being put in place, gives us an inside insight into what gas capability is possible from these projects as we look further towards converting, we have probably 3, 4, 5 additional projects in our portfolio that we are looking at converting I would say the next 3 or so that are top candidates would be over 4 million MMBtu of design capacity. And then some additional opportunities that we continue to advance could be another 1 or 2 million on top of that. So those are the opportunities that we see right now from that conversion. Of course, in addition to converting renewable power projects, there is continued opportunities with some of our landfill partners and other municipal entities to build out additional projects. So we are pretty encouraged by what we see in terms of our pipeline of growth. Going forward. And I think that will cover us for the next couple of years.

Appreciate that. And then just given the recent commentary, from BP and Archaea, can you talk about what the market looks like from an M&A perspective and opportunities that you see for consolidation?

Yes. I did notice that news. I think they are really early in their process from what I can understand or from what I have read so far. And I think, you know, this industry still has a lot of room for consolidation, and, a lot of renewable electricity projects that have not been developed or converted over into RNG facilities. And you know, I think as we have said in the past, we really like what we are doing here at OPAL. We have a really good opportunity for organic growth within our own pipeline. Driving new fleet demand, and really, what we are laser focused on is improving the asset utilization that we have on our existing plants, which, you know, when you do the math on your operating leverage and what opportunities we see there, minimal capital investments. that is really exciting for us. And that is what we are really also laser focused on. But we do have an eye to see what else is going on in the market where 1 and 1 can equal 3. And, as our chairman likes to do that math. And, you know, we will evaluate as they are out there in the marketplace. And, we do expect that there will continue to be consolidation in M&A activity.

Thank you. And the next question will come from Adam Bubes with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Hi. Good morning. I think looking at your production in the quarter of around 1.3 million MMBtu, if I just divide that by your nameplate capacity, it is somewhere in the high 50% range. How are you just thinking about the timing of how utilization scales with these newer plants over time and, you know, particularly in light of some of the production initiatives you spoke to?

Yeah, Adam. This is Adam here. And let me just be clear. We are not satisfied with where we are at currently in terms of the production from our existing facilities. And we have concrete plans to improve them at the facilities. And as far as the cadence of how quickly you realize that and how quickly it flows through, As we were chatting through earlier, it takes a little time on the front end to install some technology and coordinate with the landfill. Owners. And I think you get the most meaningful impact and largest and largest impact from those gas collection and gas quantity excuse me, quality improvement plans that you put in place. And as you look across our entire portfolio, there may be a single, or a couple of assets that drive it across the entire portfolio. And you try and roll them out as quickly as you can. So you know, we anticipate that we are going to start seeing those improvements here in the back half. We are trying to accelerate them as quickly as we can. And you know, we will be reporting back out on how successful and how quickly they ramp.

Great. And then can you just update us on your forward contract arrangements What percent of D3 RIN contracts are locked in for 2026? And how early would you be able to start entering forward contracts for 2027? And just how do you think about, you know, puts and takes between locking in 2027 prices versus you know, leaving some flexibility in the spot market?

Yeah. Historically, we have seen trading open up in any sort of material manner towards the fourth sometime in the fourth quarter. So we have not seen a lot of volumes being traded yet in 2027. And, you know, I would say for our for our 2026 book, we never talk too granularly about how many we have sold and how many we have yet to sell. We are still 1 of the larger participants in the market. I would say we have been participating in the market, and continue to do so. And you know, I think 2027 in particular, you know, that RIN price will also be impacted by what happens in the volumes in 2028 and 2029. And you know, we think that you know, what we are saying is resonating in terms of the potential growth in with policymakers, acknowledging not only what the statute says, but the benefits that come with RNG for the country, that we are cautiously optimistic for 2028 and 2029 volumes when we start rolling through Set Rule 3.

Great. Thanks so much.

Thank you. And as a reminder, to ask, our next question comes from Richard DeDios with UBS. Your line is open.

Hi. Thanks for taking our question. Now, focusing on the guide, this is kind of a follow-up but can you rank the biggest factors that determine whether you land at the midpoint versus landing at the upper end of the range? I know you mentioned the commercial side and RIN pricing to help you land within the guide. Can you dive deeper into what may help you in landing towards the upper end?

Yeah. That it would really be driven by production and RIN pricing and you know, I would say though in terms of the upper end of the guide, we would we would probably need to see, you know, stronger production growth and stronger RIN pricing. Than is currently in the market. I see Kazi has some additional comments.

Yeah. I just I just want to make sure that you there are multiple levers that we work with as you know. We do have definitely we are expecting higher production as well as we are also very keenly managing the production cost too. Operating cost and, to some extent, SG and A's going forward. So there are a number of levers. In addition to we have the downstream the construction portfolio as well as the dispensing portfolio. So number of levers will contribute to that.

Alright. Thank you for the color on that. And focusing on the project front, within your projects, what would you say is the biggest execution risk to date? You know, is it permitting equipment, etcetera. If you could share, that would be helpful.

Well, this is John. On our existing and construction projects that we have, once we release a contractor, which we have done for all of our projects, the risks are substantially transferred over to those contractors. So you know, while there is no certainty in life, I think that the front end risk of permitting and geotech and, you know, getting pipeline interconnections and electrical interconnections, etcetera, are substantially reduced. We still have pipeline interconnection risk on a couple of our projects. Notably CMS. But we have backup virtual pipeline interconnections for that, so it will not affect the timing. And that virtual pipeline interconnection you know, will be temporary and a time constraint. So when we look at Cottonwood Burlington, and CMS, all coming online, and the first half or into the middle part for CMS of 2027, Those construction time frames are holding well. And having released EPC contractor for Grady Road and Stones Throw on June 1st as we announced. We think that those timing factors are pretty well locked in as well. So, we see timing holding for the projects that we have in construction.

Yeah. And that is, this is Adam here. You know, we have now gone through first phase of construction and commissioning OPAL 1.0, if we wanna call it that. So, you know, we have we have good visibility on you know, the timing of the in construction projects. Thank you.

Let's I will turn it back.

Thank you. I am showing no further questions at this time. I will now turn it back over for closing remarks.

Yeah, we appreciate everybody, logging in here today, and appreciate your interest in Opal Fuels and hope everybody has a good rest of the day. Thanks, everybody.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.