Atlas Energy Solutions Inc. (NYSE:AESI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Doug Becker: Makes sense. And just on the timing of Kermit, I know we’ve been highlighting late fourth quarter. I’ve been assuming December 1st, but just wanted to get a sense. Is there potential or any visibility it’s a little bit earlier a little bit later? Obviously it can have a pretty big impact on the fourth quarter.

John Turner: I think we’re still looking at a December start up on that when it comes to coming on that. I don’t know that we’re going to get that on any sooner than that or have those volumes available earlier than that.

Doug Becker: Thank you very much.

Bud Brigham: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Keith Mackey with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Keith Mackey: Hi. Thanks and good morning. Just following up on Doug’s question on the Kermit volumes. Can you just talk a little bit more about how those volumes should trend — the sales volumes should trend through 2024 as the plant expansion comes online? Is it a step up in Q1, or is it a slow and steady ramp throughout the year?

John Turner: We haven’t given any guidance on that. But it’s going to be more of a slow, it’s probably a more — probably a slow and steady ramp is what we’re thinking. However, we do — we’re bringing this on because we were asked to by our customer. So I think we could see some increased activities, but we’ll just have to see if it’s probably a more slow and steady it’s probably what we’re thinking.

Keith Mackey: Yeah, got it. Got it. And just one last one on the Dune’s Sagebrush Lizard, I know there was some discussion about that potentially becoming added to the endangered list — endangered species list. And you feel you’ve mitigated a lot of potential risk around that. But can you just give us an update on your latest thoughts around that potential?

Bud Brigham: Yeah this — I’ll start and these guys can add. I mean, we feel like obviously we’re in great shape given that we’re one of the early members of the conservation agreement. So even if it is listed, we should be fully operational and it shouldn’t affect our business. The numerous and very voluminous responses have been filed to the potential listing. It’s going to take — I’m told by our general council, Rick Fletcher that it’s going to take probably quite a while for the Department of Interior and Fish and Wildlife to work through and respond to all of those. And so it’s probably — at least a year or a couple of years out is our best projection right now before a determination on that.

John Turner: Yeah. And I — and so we just — like Bud said, we just responded to the question period for the Department of Interior that put it out.

Bud Brigham: So we’re coming in that way.

John Turner: We’re in that CCAA. We’re early adopters. We were instrumental in getting it put in place. And so we feel like it’s — in the event of a listing — that we’re pretty well covered.

Q – Keith Mackey: All right. Thanks very much. Appreciate the comments.

Operator: Our next question comes Scott Grubber with Citi Group. Please proceed with your question.

Q – Scott Grubber: Yes. Thanks for squeezing me in. Just a quick follow up on logistics. If the revenue trend there is flat-ish in 4Q where you continue to add trucks, it seems like you guys will be a bit underutilized. Just trying to get a sense of — as you step into 2024 and completion activity improves how quickly do you think you can get the asset turns on the trucks, back to where you were mid year in 2024. Is that a 1Q event? Is it 2Q? How quickly do you get those assets nearly fully utilized?

John Turner: Yeah. Thanks, Scott. Just as a reminder from an asset side of things, we’ve been fully utilized. Our trucks and trailers — at this point, we do have strategic third-party partnerships as we started this business with third parties and transitioned to a mix of having our own and third parties. We do still run a significant amount of third-party trucks on that. So as we continue that flat and growth trend in the future, we’ll make sure that our trucks are also — remain at that 100% utilization rate.

Q – Scott Grubber: Yes. So you’ll be able to – well, we did some tracking revenue per truck. So will the 1Q be back to a 3Q rate then?

John Turner: Yeah. Our revenue per truck should on the 1Q I would agree with that being aligned to the Q3 rates.

Q – Scott Grubber: Okay. Okay. That’s it. Thank you.

Bud Brigham: Good. Thank you.

Operator: We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back over to Bud Brigham for closing comments.

Bud Brigham: Well, I want to thank everybody for joining our call. And we look forward to reporting on our fourth-quarter results. Thank you, again.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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