History
TETRA Technologies survived a costly 2015-2016 debt squeeze, shed legacy offshore assets and most of its compression stake, and by 2026 was funding a large Arkansas bromine project.
2015-2016: The refinancing scramble
The record opens in March 2015 with TETRA Technologies refinancing debt as oil prices collapsed. It agreed to issue $50 million of Senior Secured Notes to Wells Fargo Energy Capital, and in May closed them and used the money, with other funds, to repay $90 million of maturing Series 2008-B Senior Notes. This time it pledged units of its subsidiary CSI Compressco LP as collateral, a sign that credit was tightening.
In November the company agreed to raise $125 million at a fixed 11.00% from GSO Tetra Holdings, a Blackstone/GSO credit fund. The money was to clear the revolving credit facility, fund a tender for other notes and prepay 5.90% notes due 2016. The deal closed on 20 November.
Pressure continued into 2016. In May, CSI Compressco's own credit facility was cut from $400 million to $340 million, with tighter covenants and permitted capital spending cut from $150 million to as little as $25 million. In June TETRA raised roughly $60 million by selling 11.5 million shares at $5.50 to repay debt. In July it amended its own revolving credit facility for the fourth time, so that loans had to be secured and permitted unsecured debt fell from $550 million to $100 million. In August CSI Compressco raised about $48 million from a private placement of convertible preferred units led by HBC MLP LLC, with TETRA contributing $10 million. In December TETRA raised about $114.9 million more, selling 19.4 million shares at $5.15 with warrants, again to repay debt. A fifth amendment followed, relaxing covenants and trimming lender commitments from $225 million to $200 million. These raisings explain the jump in shares on issue from about 80 million at the end of 2015 to about 115 million a year later.
2018-2021: Pivot to water and retreat from compression
The record is quiet through 2017. In February 2018 TETRA agreed to buy Swiftwater Energy Services, a Permian Basin water management company, for $40 million cash, 7.77 million shares (about $30 million) and up to $15 million in earnouts. It closed on 1 March, funding the cash from available cash and the credit facility. The same day it sold subsidiary Maritech's legacy offshore oil, gas and mineral leases to Orinoco Natural Resources and Epic Offshore, which took on substantially all the associated liabilities in return for a $7.5 million note.
In September 2018 TETRA replaced its revolving credit facility, in place since 2006, with a new $100 million asset-based lending facility maturing in 2023, on better terms than the covenant-heavy financing of 2015 to 2017.
In April 2020 the NYSE warned that the 30-day average share price had fallen below the $1.00 minimum, as the COVID-19 oil price crash hit the shares. The company had six months to cure, possibly with a reverse split. The record here does not show how this ended. In January 2021 TETRA sold its general partner interest, incentive distribution rights and 10.95 million of its 16.19 million CSI Compressco units (about 23.1%) to Spartan Energy for $14 million, cutting its ownership from 34% to 11%. In August 2021 it extended the asset-based facility's maturity from 2023 to 2025, added a UK borrowing subfacility and prepaid $8.2 million of term debt.
2023-2024: Into Arkansas brine
The record is again quiet between August 2021 and early 2023. In March 2023 the exchange certified TETRA's securities for listing. On 31 May 2023 TETRA amended its Bromine Requirements Sales Agreement with bromine customer LANXESS Corporation, with revised volume terms, in connection with a settlement of an arbitration. In June it signed a memorandum of understanding with Saltwerx LLC to pursue a roughly 6,138-acre brine production unit in the Smackover Formation in Arkansas, aimed at both bromine and lithium. In January 2024 it closed a $190 million term loan from Silver Point Finance, with up to $75 million of delayed-draw capacity, refinancing existing term debt and earmarked to build a new bromine processing facility.
2026: Committing to Evergreen
The record is quiet from January 2024 to mid-2026. On 2 June 2026 TETRA reached a final investment decision on its Arkansas Bromine Project, the Evergreen facility, which targets 75 million pounds a year of elemental bromine by early 2028, with about $220 million of capital spending remaining. It also formed a magnesium-production joint venture with Magrathea Metals and launched a $100 million equity offering. Shares on issue stood at about 148 million at the 2026 count, up from about 134 million at the end of 2025; the beats do not explain the rise. On 15 June 2026 TETRA signed a Master Services Agreement with Diversified Construction & Design covering roughly $95 million of the remaining Phase 2 and 3 construction near Stamps, Arkansas. At that date, the Evergreen project was in construction and funding was being raised.
Written from the 23 story beats below (2015 to 15 June 2026), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.