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WTR Energy Perspectives: Navigating Volatile Commodity Markets Heading Into 2027 · WTR Small-Cap Spotlight

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the WTR Small Cap Spotlight Podcast.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Tim Gerdeman, Vice Chair and Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Water Tower Research.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Today I'm joined by Jeff Robertson, Managing Director for Natural Resources of Water Tower Research.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning, Jeff, and thank you for joining today's podcast.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Tim.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Glad to be here.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Jeff, we last spoke in front of second quarter earnings season for the U.S.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: energy sector, and Entercom held their annual conference a couple weeks ago, so there's a lot to talk about.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Before we jump into company specifics, oil market volatility obviously continues with the evolving Iran conflict in the Middle East.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Based on management commentary on recent conference calls, how do you think companies are dealing with volatility as they close out 2026 and sharpen pencils for the 2027 budgeting process?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: Activity has increased.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think we heard some talk about that on uh conference calls.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Companies were more proactive about doing workover type projects and uh things that could add near-term production.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't I don't think there's been a dramatic change in drilling plans, but having said that, the rig count for the third quarter so far has averaged 570, 587 in the U.S., and that includes 420 oil rigs.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: In the first quarter of this year, really before the conflict started, there were 500, roughly 550 rigs working.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: The frack spread count, which is the the crews that are actually completing wells, averaged 194 so far in the third quarter.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: And that compares to about 159 in the first quarter.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a little bit of seasonality there because first quarter you have some adverse weather impacts.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: But I think uh companies have tried to increase the pace of completions, which supports near-term production, probably a little more than adding to their drilling budgets to drill new wells.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: So far, from a macro standpoint, third quarter crude oil prices for WTI have averaged about$81.25 a barrel in the last couple of days, with some of the increased strikes have edged above$90 a barrel.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: But continue to point out that the futures curve points toward lower prices uh out into the future, given the uncertainty with respect to lasting impacts from the situation Strait of Hormuz and with Iran.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: The 12-month futures curve this morning was about$79 a barrel and it trends really into the low 70s through the rest of 2027.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: So really, I think against a continued uncertain backdrop, there's not a big change in how companies are thinking about the rest of 2026 and starting to uh put a little bit sharper pencil toward their budgets in 2027.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think early this year the companies were using between$60 and$65 a barrel as a baseline price.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say now, with we think about 2027, maybe that's edged up into the high 60s, maybe closer to 70.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think there's the the prevailing thought that inventory restocking will add to global demand, and that could help support prices a little bit higher than what they were uh forecast to be earlier this year.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: All that being said, I think if if things calm down in the Middle East, there still seems to be plenty of oil that will find its way to market.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a matter of how much time.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think Aramco on their second quarter call uh said that that said that they pardon me, they could get back to production in relatively short order, and they're obviously one of the largest producers in the world.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so Watertowers energy coverage universe includes four oil field service companies and eight oil producers.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Are service providers seeing signs that oil field activity could be increasing in the coming months?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think they are.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think that we we are we talked about the red count.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're lot they're having conversations with customers about the future, and I think there's a little bit of optimism that there'll be uh increased activity.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I think the other thing that they're seeing is that um the intensity of what operators are doing, especially here in the U.S.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: unconventional plays, is increasing.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: Several companies talked on their most recent calls about drilling horizontal lateral links that were well over 20,000 feet and in some cases over 30,000 feet.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: And really the goal of all of that is to put more of the capital that they're investing in a well in contact with the reservoir, which is actually what makes the money from the well, and essentially amortize the vertical cost over a longer horizontal leg, with the ultimate goal of increasing capital efficiency by increasing the amount of production they can add or maintain per dollar spent.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think that type of activity, while it may not necessarily show up in the rig town itself, it shows up in consumable products that are used around a rig.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: And in some cases, if they're drilling longer laterals and bigger and developing bigger pads, there's more pad construction and more equipment and more fluid handling that needs to go on at the surface.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: And all of that I think draw or plays into the notion that the business environment is still pretty good despite the commodity price uncertainty because companies are really trying to maximize their efficiency.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Noted.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um I do recognize that Select Water Solutions operates one of the largest water infrastructure networks in the northern Delaware basis.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm curious from your perspective, why is that asset platform strategic to their future water infrastructure segment growth?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Select is is one of the leading water solutions providers to the industry.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: They operate in virtually every U.S.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: producing basin, including all of the unconventional basins.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: In the northern Delaware basin, they've taken a recycle first approach because water, fresh water is in short supply, and the need to dispose of and manage produced water is also somewhat limited by the ability to dispose of salt water underground.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: So they developed a recycle first, which allows producers to or allows them to recycle produced water and deliver it back to producers that they can use in their drilling and completion activity.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: And essentially it's almost like a closed loop system where the what produced water comes into the system, they recycle and reuse as much as they can, and there is some disposal.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: But the goal is to uh for Select to have a barrel of water that they can then maximize the value to them by recycling it, repurposing it, delivering it back to producers.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they've signed several mineral extraction deals, so they're recovering lithium and iodine in West Texas in their uh East Texas system.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: They have a uh lithium extraction project on their East Texas system as well.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: But I think from a so it builds out long-term cash flow supported by contracts that extend uh now.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think they've got some that are about 12 years, and it really increases the um the visibility of Select's earnings and cash flow out into the future periods.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: And what's important for the customers is it gives them a long-term partner or infrastructure partner that will manage that part of their business, which is a big cost, both on capital and then operating costs.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so Select really fills that niche.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: And as this business grows, which has margins in the 55 to 60 percent uh type of range, that and becomes a bigger part of Select's business, their margin profile uh is expected to increase.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: The one thing they announced in uh after they reported earnings, really it was the week of the intercom conference, is a new agreement with the large independent uh operator out in West Texas to significantly expand their system, which brings in additional acreage and ultimately will allow us an expansion down to the New Mexico Texas state line.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: So their footprint is getting bigger, they become more important to more customers and a really good value proposition, I think.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: And ultimately it changes the nature of the business, moving to long date, long-dated contractual revenue from a call-out service business, which is what they were probably five, five to ten years ago.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Sounds like an interesting margin expansion story ahead.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um if we move if we move along, Jeff, to D now, I know they've been working on integrating the operating systems of MRC Global, which is the company they acquired in November of 25.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: How are those efforts progressing and are there new growth opportunities likely ahead in 2027?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: I think they've gotten over the hump on the uh integration of the ERP issues or resolving those issues and migrating uh to the to the D Now platform.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Their Permian base, the Permian Activity or Permian Basin business unit is is, I think, fully migrated to D now.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: So that business is functioning uh as we expected.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think the focus now has turned from maybe recovery, if you call it that, to recapturing revenue.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: Management's focused on recapturing the highest revenue they can.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that that was that went elsewhere in the MRC global.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: That'll take a little time, but I think we're seeing the green shoots that that is having a benefit uh benefit.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: One important thing of getting a lot of this work behind them is in 2026, they were kind of precluded from participating in some of the first half of the year refinery turnaround work because of the issues with respect to processing orders and things like that for customers.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're going into 2027, they seem much better positioned to participate in that.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: And between that business, uh recapturing business in the upstream, uh, slit steady growth in their gas utilities business, which was a part of the MRC merger in midstream, they're much better positioned as we think about 2027 than some of the challenges that they were confronting earlier this year.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: The companies talked a little bit about 2027 just on a very high level and kind of pointed toward the possibility of a$350 million EBITDA number, which would be a big jump over what they what they what we think they'll achieve in 2027.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, 2026.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: So things are getting better.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then if I move along to uh Nesser and FET, are there pockets of strength in international markets that could present opportunities in the years ahead?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Nesser's been uh Nesser stock has almost doubled, I think, since the Iran conflict started.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: And they're despite their 100% uh exposed in the Middle East.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I think what that tells you is that there's tremendous opportunity in the markets they serve.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: They have a contract that they were awarded uh almost a year ago in Saudi Arabia to provide integrated frack services at the Jafura field, which is a giant unconventional gas field.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Their operations onshore Saudi Arabia have been minimally impacted uh by the situation in the Middle East.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: They're adding a fifth flak frack fleet to that uh contract before the end of the year, so that business will continue to grow over the next several years or be a bigger contributor.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: They've added tenders for contracts and elsewhere in the Middle East, and they went from an earlier plan of targeting a$2 billion type revenue run rate, which we think they'll probably be on pace to achieve toward the end of this year, to a$3 billion revenue run rate over the next couple of years.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I and it seems that the tender pro the tender activity and the underlying business is pretty supportive of achieving those goals.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: So they are well positioned to benefit from growth in the region.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: For FET, they also have exposure to unconventional work in the Middle East as countries look to uh increase their gas activity.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: They also have exposure in Argentina and Navaca Muerta shale plate.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: And now with the developments this week, the opening up or potentially opening up things in Venezuela, that's another new market that FET, some of FET's products could be used to help exploit the reservoirs there.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a I think that's a market that's really wasn't included in their original contemplation of what they call FET 2030, which is to increase EBITA, increase free cash flow over the next several years.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: And really it's through uh execution of their game plan and doesn't really require anything heroic in terms of accelerated market growth.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad I'm glad you mentioned Venezuela.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um I've done a fair bit of reading on that topic over the past week, including uh developments with Chevron.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a that's a topic for another day that we'll come back and revisit for sure because I think it's important, I think it's an important one.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um so Watertower Research's producer group includes companies active onshore in the U.S., in the Gulf of America, and in certain African countries.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a common thing, theme rather, among the onshore focused companies?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: No, I think for the U.S.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: onshore, there's there's there's two themes.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: One is modest production growth, although for for Riley exploration and and ring, both of whom operate in the Permian, Riley's oil production in 2026 is going to grow probably north of 30%.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: In part that's from a full-year contribution of an acquisition that they closed mid-year 2025, but it's also from their development drilling program, which is underpinned by a solid inventory of conventional opportunities in the San Andrews Formation in Texas and turning into 2027 more activity in New Mexico in a field they call Red Lake, which is in a trade uh play called the Yeso Trend.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Activity there has been not curtailed, but it's been hampered a little bit by lack of uh flow assurance for natural gas because in New Mexico you can't flare natural gas.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: So they've they initiated a pipeline project in 2025, which was sold to Targa in the fourth quarter of 25.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: And that pipeline is expected to be in service sometime in the fourth quarter, which will allow them to do more in New Mexico in 2027 than they were have been able to do in 2025.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: So, really, what all this sets up is attractive growth in Texas, and the Texas panhandle, part of the Permian or in Yocum County, and then in 2027, a better balance between what they have in Texas and in New Mexico, and at least for starting points, we're talking, we think oil production in 2027 is probably north of 10% above year on year versus 2026.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: Ring, which has been really focused intently on trying to reduce leverage, and they did an equity offering back in May to try to accelerate those goals.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: They were talking on their call about trying to grow oil production in 2027 about 10% year on year, which is a bit of a change because I think previously they had really been talking about maintaining production and using cash flow to d-lever.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think maybe what that change signifies is the increasing confidence in the underlying organic opportunity set they have for growth, but also that they will be able to generate cash flow to reach to keep continued chipping away at their uh at the leverage on their balance sheet.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: The last company we cover in the that we work with in the Permian Basin is Hype, and they're really focused on leverage.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they have a$1.2 billion term loan that begins to amortize at the end of September at about at$30 million per quarter.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: So they're geared toward generating free cash flow to support the amortization while maintaining their current production base with a CapEx plan.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: They they spent most of the CapEx they envisioned for 2026 through the first two quarters of the year.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: So they should increase their cash free cash flow generation as we go toward the end of this year and next year.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: They'll probably be a little bit more active in the first half again and continue the same pattern, but with the notion of continuing to work off, work, work around the term loan that they have.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Evolution is a company that recently announced an acquisition and an equity offering.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: They've been focused on growing their mineral and royalty position.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: They now have minerals in the mid-continent in Louisiana, and their most recent deal was a$16 million purchase in the Midland Basin that was funded again through equity and cash.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think in over the next 12 months, they think roughly 20% of their cash flow will be from high margin royalty and mineral acreage.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: And importantly, for them, since most of their asset base is non-operated, their mineral position does give them a little bit of organic growth exposure without the capital obligation that goes with drilling new wells.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, Prairie, uh Prairie Operating Company, which has been trying to uh deal with uh pretty onerous anniversary warrant and the dilution potential from that.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: They lowered their guidance for the rest of 26 on both production and CapEx to take a little bit more conservative approach toward uh generating free cash flow.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: On Monday this week, on uh August 31st, they filed an AK, which extended the anniversary date uh issue from August 31 out to December 1st of 2026.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: So they've got some time to work with the holder to see if they can't find a solution that helps minimize uh the dilution, but that's still a big overhang uh on the equity, which obviously is reflected in the way the stock is traded.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then we WT, which is an offshore company, they're really uh, I think their results uh this year and probably for the rest of the year continue to highlight the capital-like nature of their asset base.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: They're able to maintain a pretty steady production profile with very minimal capital.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: And by doing that, they're able to put cash on the balance sheet that ultimately they would look to use or deploy for an acquisition that ideally is going to be a creative ad long live production uh that generates excess free cash flow, which is really how management has tried to build that business over the last 40 years.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, Jeff, if we pivot for a moment to Marin Energy and Valco Energy, I know their assets are in Africa, which uh leads to the question: is the Persian Gulf conflict having any impact on their respective businesses?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's had it's there's been some pricing benefits because, at least near term, because uh the because of spiking oil prices.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: But I uh uh for West African bear uh cargoes because of the disruption in the Strait of Ormuz.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a good and a bad.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: One thing is it's good because spot prices have been pretty high, but secondly, crude marketers don't want to buy anything or they don't want to take the price risk of agreeing to something and then have the price change dramatically one way or the other between when they agreed and when they take delivery.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: So that's made it a little bit more challenging in that sense.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think what you see in West Africa, though, is countries that are um trying to attract foreign capital.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Nigeria changed its hydrocarbon law several years ago to be more to be friendlier toward uh deep water investment.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's where Mirin primarily operates.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Valco primarily operates in offshore Gabon and the Côte d'Ivoire.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I think what you see there is two companies that are exposed in basins where there's a lot of hydrocarbon, there's a lot of majors uh that are active there.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's attracting more capital over the next several years.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's a good place for those two companies to be as they try to uh effectively manage a risk award profile as a small company competing for big-size reserve opportunities and really long-dated organic growth.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, knowing that Merrin and Valco are both commencing development drilling campaigns during the second half of 2026, what should investors expect in terms of production impact from those campaigns?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think we've seen some impact on Valco.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Let's touch on them first.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: They've had some production impact this year from their campaign in Gabon, which is wrapping up toward the end of this year.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um the real emphasis for them in 2027 is they they brought the FPSO back for their Baobob field in Cote d'Ivoire.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: That was reinstalled in the second quarter and is ramping up uh as we speak.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: And the operator, Canadian Natural Resources, is expected to start a drilling campaign in September that could have a first completion, probably maybe by the end of the year.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: So that will have a bigger impact on their production profile in Cote d'Ivoire in 2027 and beyond, because there's there are quite a few opportunities that will be part of that program in 2027.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing I think for Valco longer term is they have other projects that they're advancing toward field development plans in Cote d'Ivoire in Gabon and an FID on a project in Ecuador, Guinea, which really set them up for organic growth from the existing portfolio out through the end of the decade.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a similar story with uh with Mirin.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Mein has interests, owns interests in offshore Nigeria in three of the five largest producing fields uh in the country.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: Chevron is operator of one of their complexes, and Total Energies is operator of the other.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: Both of those companies are bringing rigs back into the field in the second half of this year with the expectation of starting off exploration development programs that will that could benefit production 2027.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: Importantly, one of the wells, which is called ACPO Far East, will be drilled by Total Energies.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that's essentially a near-term or near infrastructure exploration prospect, which is about five kilometers from the existing FPSO.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: So if it's a discovery, it should be a relatively short cycle development and could be on main roughly within 12 months of a decision to move forward after they drill that well.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: Also, the other thing that will impact Miran is toward the end of this year, Total Energies is expected to reach an FID on a development plan for a field called uh Venus offshore uh Namibia in the Orange Basin, which is a part of a big hydrocarbon complex that was discovered in recent years and has getting generated a lot of worldwide attention.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's a project that could is looking towards.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: To phase one, I think, of about 750 million BoE with a peak production of about 150,000 BoEs gross.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Mirian has a share of that, and then and really their share is carried through first production.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: So they have per structured their portfolio and some of their exploration exposure in a way to manage the risk profile and minimize their capital outlays and yet still expose their shareholders to incremental incrementally attractive growth.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's an it's an interesting place to be for a small and for small independence because there's a lot going on in West Africa and there's a lot of interesting targets for them to look at that set them up what could set them up for the years to come.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: So wrapping up today's podcast, Jeff, this has really been informative.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: You recently made the annual pilgrim pilgrimage rather to uh Denver for the Intercom conference.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Did you pick up on any notable market signals while you were there this year?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's nice to get out of the Dallas Heat for a few days and spend a few days in in August up in Denver.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think, you know, Intercom falls on the heels of second quarter earnings, so there's not a lot of new ground broken there, but I think maybe from the presentations and the the crowd, which seemed as big, if not bigger, than it has been in recent years, there's a lot of interest in the sector.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Intercom has a pretty broad cross-section of EMP producers of different sizes, U.S.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: companies, Canadian companies, oil field services companies, and some new energy type companies, including a couple of nuclear uh companies.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, unfortunately, I didn't get to sit in on those presentations because that's a that's an important aspect of U.S.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: energy policy over the in the coming years, or if not longer.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: But I think what what you did see is some optimism.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: I think that again, there's optimism, despite some of the near-term uncertainties on commodity prices, that there are opportunities both in the MA landscape and uh just within existing capital programs, that companies will be able to grow their businesses over the next couple of years.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: One thing I would mention is or want to highlight is that uh for people, Watertower is hosting a virtual insights conference on September 22 to 23, and that conference will consist of a series of fireside chat discussions across and across the industries that we cover.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: And those will really concentrate on companies' outlooks and their positioning for 2027 and beyond.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: Most of the companies that we've mentioned today on this podcast will be participating in that.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think if if people or if attendees want to get more information, you can uh check out the what the uh Watertower website at watertowerresearch.com for more information on that upcoming event.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you flagged that, Jeff.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's a very important event, and we're gonna have dozens of companies actually participating, so it's very exciting.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for sharing your insights today, and let's do this again soon and let's cover Brazil or rather, I was gonna say Brazil, but I meant to say Venezuela.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: So let's cover Venezuela the next time we catch up.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: All right, thanks, Jim.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening, and don't forget to subscribe, as well as visiting www.watertowerresearch.com to stay up to speed on the company's small cap written research reports, podcasts, fireside chats, industry specific symposiums, and conference schedules.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: We will see you next time for another edition of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight Podcast.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, a special thanks to the producer and editor of the podcast, Krista Fitzpatrick.