Kolibri Global Energy Q1 2026 Earnings Call - Record Production and EBITDA Drive Debt Paydown Amid Rising Oil Prices
Summary
Kolibri Global Energy delivered a record-breaking first quarter of 2026, with production, net revenue, and adjusted EBITDA all hitting all-time highs. The company benefited from a favorable timing of the oil price spike in March, which boosted net revenue by 20% quarter-over-quarter to $19.6 million. Despite a non-cash mark-to-market loss on commodity contracts, the underlying operational performance was strong, with average production up 15% to 4,685 BOE per day and adjusted EBITDA rising 16% to $14.8 million.
Management is in a strong position to allocate excess cash flow, with plans to drill three additional Clifton Mac wells, continue paying down debt, and potentially buy back shares. The credit facility borrowing capacity was increased to $75 million, though net debt has been reduced to $45 million. The company has hedged approximately 50% of its projected production using costless collars and deferred puts, positioning itself to capture upside if oil prices remain elevated while protecting against downside risk. Operating costs saw a one-time increase due to workovers and water hauling, but management expects these to normalize in coming quarters.
Key Takeaways
- Kolibri Global Energy reported record first quarter 2026 production, net revenue, and adjusted EBITDA, marking the highest quarterly results in company history.
- Average production increased 15% quarter-over-quarter to 4,685 BOE per day, driven by wells drilled during 2025.
- Net revenue rose 20% to $19.6 million, while adjusted EBITDA climbed 16% to $14.8 million, reflecting strong operational performance and higher oil prices.
- Net income of $4 million was impacted by a $2.9 million non-cash mark-to-market loss on commodity contracts due to the March oil price spike.
- Operating expenses increased 13% to $8 per BOE, primarily due to one-time workover costs and higher water hauling fees, which management expects to decline in future quarters.
- The company’s credit facility borrowing capacity was increased from $65 million to $75 million, while net debt was reduced to $45 million, with an additional $8 million in paydowns planned.
- Kolibri is advancing a three-well drilling program at the Clifton Mac location, with completions expected in the third quarter and working interest increased to approximately 88%.
- Management has hedged roughly 50% of projected production using costless collars and deferred puts, aiming to capture upside if oil prices remain elevated while mitigating downside risk.
- Operating cost inflation has not yet materialized, and most costs remain locked in, with management attributing the Q1 increase to non-recurring items.
- The new board of directors is reviewing capital allocation options, including drilling more wells, further debt reduction, and potential share buybacks, with a decision expected in the coming weeks.
Full Transcript
Conference Operator: Day, welcome to Kolibri Global Energy’s first quarter 2026 financials conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Media may monitor this call in a listen-only mode. They are free to quote any member of management, are asked to not quote remarks from any other participant without that participant’s permission. If anyone has any trouble and needs assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the Star key followed by 0. After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press Star, then 1 on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press Star then 2. Please note this event is being recorded. I advise participants that this conference is being recorded today, May fourteenth, 2026. This call will be available on the company’s website at www.kolibrienergy.com. Here is a disclaimer.
This call may include forward-looking information regarding Kolibri’s strategic plans, anticipated production, capital expenditures, exit rates and cash flows, reserves and other estimates and forecasts. Actual results will vary from the forward-looking statements. This call may include future-oriented financial information and financial outlook information, which Kolibri discloses in order to provide readers with a more complete perspective on Kolibri’s potential future operations, and such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. For a description of the assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based and the applicable risks and uncertainties, and Kolibri’s policy for updating such statements, we direct you to Kolibri’s most recent annual information form and management’s discussion and analysis for the period under discussion, as well as Kolibri’s most recent corporate presentation, all of which are available on Kolibri’s website.
Listeners should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Kolibri undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking, future-oriented financial or financial outlook information other than as required by applicable law. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Wolf E. Regener, the President and CEO of Kolibri Global Energy Inc. Please go ahead, sir.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Hi. Thank you for the introduction, thank you everyone for joining us today. With me on today’s call is Gary Johnson, our Chief Financial Officer. As I’m sure you’re all aware, we released our first quarter 2026 results this morning, and we’re very pleased with our quarterly results. Our first quarter resulted in the highest quarterly production, net revenue and EBITDA in the history of the company. This was achieved even though only March had the impact of the oil price increase. Our production in the first quarter of 4,685 BOE per day is up from the fourth quarter 2025 production of 4,493 barrels per day.
Keep in mind that using our 2025 annual production, that calculates us to having a 35% compound annual production growth rate over the last 3 years. The timing of this oil price increase is fantastic for us. We’re looking to further increase our production this year as our drilling program for drilling the Clifton Mac wells is already underway. With that, I’ll turn it over to Gary to discuss our financial results.
Gary Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Thanks, Wolf, thanks to everyone for joining the call. I’m just going to go over a few highlights of the first quarter results, and then we can take questions at the end of the call. All amounts are in US dollars unless otherwise stated. As you can see from the earnings release today, we had an excellent quarter with our highest recorded quarterly revenue and adjusted EBITDA and a strong increase in production. Net revenue increased by 20% to $19.6 million, compared to $16.4 million in the prior quarter due to the higher production. Average production was up 15% to 4,685 BOE per day, compared to 4,077 BOE per day in the prior quarter. The increase was due to the wells that were drilled during 2025.
Adjusted EBITDA was $14.8 million, compared to $12.8 million in the prior quarter, which was an increase of 16%, mainly due to higher revenues. Our net income was $4 million or $0.11 per basic share, compared to $5.8 million or $0.16 per basic share in the same period of 2025. That decrease was due to a large non-cash mark-to-market unrealized loss on commodity contracts of $2.9 million. That was due to the significant increase in oil prices in March of 2026. Operating expense was $8 per BOE for the quarter, compared to $7.07 per BOE in the prior year first quarter, which was an increase of 13%.
The increase was due to workover costs on a non-operated well, reassessed, natural gas and NGL prior year gathering and processing fees, and higher water hauling costs compared to the prior year first quarter. Our netback from operations increased 2% to $38.41 per BOE, compared to $37.55 per BOE in the prior quarter. Netback including commodity contracts for the first quarter was $37.72 per BOE, compared to $37.55 per BOE in the first quarter of 2025. The increases were due to higher average prices. As you may have seen earlier this week, we announced that our credit facility was redetermined and the borrowing capacity was increased from $65 million to $75 million. Even though our borrowing capacity has increased, we have been paying down on our credit facility.
Our net debt at the end of the first quarter was $45 million, which was down from $46 million at the end of the year. Subsequent to the end of the quarter, we made a debt pay down of $4 million, and we plan to make an additional $4 million net pay down later in May. With that, I’ll hand it back to Wolf.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Thanks, Gary. As Gary laid out, we had a very good quarter with us hitting our highest quarterly revenue and adjusted EBITDA in the company’s history. Even though the average oil prices were only $70.31 per barrel, it’s nice being able to say only $71 right now, given where current prices are. The company is in solid financial shape, paying down some of our debt from drilling the wells at the end of last year, and we’re looking to continue that success we’ve had over the last few years. I must say that the timing of the oil price increase right now is really great, and it’s benefiting our cash flow. Overall, our plan is to continue to execute and build and grow company value for all shareholders. We’re looking to continue buying back shares and drilling more wells.
We’ll also continue to get the word out about the company to shareholders and potential shareholders. For instance, Gary and I will be attending and having one-on-one meetings at the Louisiana Energy Conference, which is from May 26th to the 28th. I will be on a panel at that conference on the 27th. In addition, we’ll also be presenting at the Latham Virtual Spring Conference on May 28th. With that concludes the formal part of our presentation, and we’d be happy to answer any questions that you now may have.
Conference Operator: The first question today comes from Steve Ferazani with Sidoti. Please go ahead.
Steve Ferazani, Analyst, Sidoti: Afternoon, Wolf. Gary, obviously strong production quarter, seeing the benefit of those 2025 wells. You know, Wolf, even since you guided, the Iran conflict seems to be now prolonged. Maybe we get an end shorter term than that longer, but the damage to global production is clear. We see a pretty healthy strip. Obviously, that’s gonna be a positive impact to your cash flow as we move through this year. How are you thinking now about capital allocation? You’ve laid out this three well drilling program. How are you thinking about cash usage as we move through this year? Has it changed?
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Thank you, Steve. Good to hear from you. We did just have our AGM and where we have three new board members that came on board, and so we’ve had a good meeting with them, and we’re gonna come up with some proposals and options that we’re gonna present to the board here in the coming weeks in order to determine what we do with all this extra cash flow, drilling some more wells, paying down more debt or buying back shares. We’ll have some clarity here in the future, and hopefully we’ll put out a different forecast in the future with what’s going on now. I agree with you, prices are hopefully staying elevated. The back end of the curve has come up a bit.
It’s not as high as really where I think it should be still.
Steve Ferazani, Analyst, Sidoti: Yeah.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: It does give some guidance, and I’m on the same page with you as far as I think oil prices are staying up longer, the damage has been done, and that the market hasn’t really taken that into account yet, on a forward curve basis yet.
Steve Ferazani, Analyst, Sidoti: All right. Can you give an update on the three well drilling program? Where are you in the drilling process? What’s your thoughts on timing on completions and?
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Just drilling and then, you know, third quarter, like we put in the press release, that we’ll be, you know, hopefully bringing those wells on at that point in time when we get closer. I try to stay away from that because there’s some fluctuations when you get exact weeks of having completions equipment out there and things like that. I’d rather be a little vague, no offense, in order to not have anything wrong.
Steve Ferazani, Analyst, Sidoti: Got it. The higher OpEx this quarter sounds like it was primarily one-timers. Are you starting to see any inflationary pressures?
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: No, not yet. Not yet, not on the operating side of things. That shouldn’t really change. Most of our costs are pretty locked in. Like you said, it’s that was out of our control, out of our hands, non-op rework and stuff like that. Then a little bit on the water handling things. It’s just from our fracture stimulations that we did last year for the offset wells. That a little higher water handling costs, which will should start coming down again too for the future quarters.
Gary Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Just to give more color on that.
Steve Ferazani, Analyst, Sidoti: Yeah.
Gary Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: The March cost was the 1 water hauling cost, the March cost was half of January, so it really was front loaded to the beginning of the quarter, so it should keep coming down. Just giving more color.
Steve Ferazani, Analyst, Sidoti: Got it. That’s helpful. Realized prices came in a little bit better than we were modeling. Wolf, looks like the differentials were narrower. Any color you can provide around that?
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: No, not really. I mean, our differential still should be around $1.85. It doesn’t really fluctuate much per contract itself. It’s just a matter of where pricing was and what they must be the fluctuations in mid-month type of thing of, what took care of that, so.
Steve Ferazani, Analyst, Sidoti: Got it. That’s what I got. Thanks, Wolf. Thanks, Gary.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: All right. Thank you, Steve.
Conference Operator: The next question comes from Poe Fratt with Alliance Global Partners. Please go ahead.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Hi, good morning, Wolf. Can you just give me an idea of sort of how the March production looked versus the January production or maybe a run rate for April? You know, looking at sort of how the wells that came on at the end of last year are doing so far.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: You know, we haven’t put that out publicly, so I can’t really say that on this call either. I mean, they’re just going through the natural declines like our like normal shale wells do, and like they do as well. Our wells do as well. The wells overall are performing as expected, I can say. Everything’s matching what we have forecasted for the year as well. We’re comfortable with our forecast that we’ve put together for the year, based on just drilling those three wells at a lower percentage rate.
By the way, if you noticed that our percentage rate on those wells was, I think we said 67% or something like that, and when we first announced them, and we’re up to, in the 80s now on, working interest in those wells.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Great. Then what will the working interest be on the next wells that you drill?
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: You mean these three that we’re drilling, you mean?
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Yeah.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Right now they’re about 88% now.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Okay, great. If you could, I scanned your 10-Q, and I didn’t see any subsequent event discussing hedging. Have you done any hedging since the end of the first quarter? Would you discuss, sort of given your posture, your comments earlier on prices, are you going to, you know, wait to hedge a little bit more or sort of what’s your strategy on the hedging front?
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: The hedging, I mean, I’ll give you kind of my overall thoughts on hedging in general, or what it’s always been is like, you know, if you can hedge in, you know, $90 to $100 longer term, you should probably do that for a portion of your production. Like I said, the back end of the curve really hasn’t come up. It’s come up, but not as much as I would like to see it come up. I think we’re gonna be in for a bit stronger till then. Gary, I think we put all of our hedges in by March thirty-first, right?
Gary Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Yeah. We didn’t have anything subsequent to March 31st because we met the bank requirements by the end of March.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: As soon as the prices spiked up, we added some hedges right away. We were a little patient on some of them by adding some more longer term. It was all done before the end of the first quarter.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Yeah. It seems like you’re using more collars than you are swaps, at least, you know, beyond this second quarter. Okay.
Gary Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: That’s correct. We also have some deferred puts in there as well. You know, as we go out farther just to protect them.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Yeah. No, I’m just looking at page-
Gary Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Not having any ceiling.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Yeah, I’m looking at page 6 on the, on the Q. Great.
Gary Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Got it.
Poe Fratt, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Thanks for your time.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Absolutely. Thanks for the questions.
Gary Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Thank you.
Conference Operator: The next question comes from Leigh Stephen Curry with Curry Partners. Please go ahead.
Leigh Stephen Curry, Analyst, Curry Partners: Thank you. Congratulations, Wolf, on your continued progress here with the company. Very eager to see how things go with your new board members when that gradually shakes out. The question I have today is how and when or if does this dramatic decline in oil inventories here in the U.S. affect you? Is all of your oil sold on the spot market? Is any of it contracted on a longer-term basis? Are there any takeaway concerns? I know Exxon is in charge of that, but are there any kinda concerns or problems that the lower inventories and maybe even some rationing, you know, of distillate that may not be too far away here in the U.S.? Any impact on you?
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: It’ll just be extremely along the lines of just what the price is of WTI for us for on the oil side of things.
Leigh Stephen Curry, Analyst, Curry Partners: All right.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: WTI is up, we’re making more money. We do have some hedges in place that we just talked about. It was about 50% of what our projected production is not including the new wells. Whatever our projected production was here a few months ago. We have about 50% of that hedged. Some of that, you know, as we were talking about before with costless collars, we can capture some of that upside that was above where the prices were at the time. The rest of it is all free floating still. We will definitely take advantage or have the advantage of, I should say, because not anything we’re doing of having the higher prices affect our bottom line.
We had said for every $5 increase on our forecast, I think it was adding about $2.8 million, if I’m correct, Gary.
Gary Johnson, Chief Financial Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Yeah, that’s correct. That’s net of the hedges we have in place.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Yeah. To our EBITDA for the year. As far as takeaway, no, there’s no issues. We actually handle our own oil takeaways, but gas and NGLs are handled through Exxon.
Leigh Stephen Curry, Analyst, Curry Partners: Oh, all right. Thank you very much, and I look forward to hearing the details of y’all’s presentation that you work with the new board. Again, congratulations, Wolf.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Thank you very much. Appreciate your calling in. Good to hear from you.
Conference Operator: The next question comes from Richard Dearnley with Longport Partners. Please go ahead.
Richard Dearnley, Analyst, Longport Partners: Good morning. Sorry, I got a cold, so I’m a little croaky.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Not a problem at all.
Richard Dearnley, Analyst, Longport Partners: I realize the board is new, very new.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Yep.
Richard Dearnley, Analyst, Longport Partners: Are the initial indications that you will complete these 3 wells differently than you would have planned them before the board arrived?
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: We are doing our completion designs right now. New ideas are definitely being taken into account, and those are being attributed to that. We will potentially do some tweaks to our completion designs on those wells.
Richard Dearnley, Analyst, Longport Partners: Would you characterize the design changes as substantial or minimal or in the middle?
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: You know, that’ll be the end result as far as how they perform.
Richard Dearnley, Analyst, Longport Partners: Oh. Well.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: So sometimes-
Richard Dearnley, Analyst, Longport Partners: That’s the truth.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Sometimes a small tweak could make a big difference. Sometimes a larger tweak doesn’t make that much of a difference. The truth will be in the pudding, so to speak. We’re hoping that some of these tweaks do make a substantial difference.
Richard Dearnley, Analyst, Longport Partners: Right.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: We’ll see.
Richard Dearnley, Analyst, Longport Partners: When should you finish drilling?
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Generally, I mean, we budgeted about 20 days per each well, you know, between moves and everything else that happens. It’s about 2 months worth of drilling and then, you know, waiting for the rig out of the way, getting everything cleaned up, and getting ready for the frack crews. In general.
Richard Dearnley, Analyst, Longport Partners: Right
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: it’s about three months from start to finish.
Richard Dearnley, Analyst, Longport Partners: Okie-doke. Thank you.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Thank you.
Conference Operator: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over for any closing remarks.
Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, Kolibri Global Energy Inc.: Thank you very much, and thank you everyone for joining, listening, and all the questions. Hope everyone has a great rest of your day, and we thank everyone for your support in the company.
Conference Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.