Tidewater Inc. has announced a revenue drop for the three months ended March 31 of $326.2 million compared with $333.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025.
Tidewater's net income for the three months ended March 31, 2026, was $6.1 million ($0.12 per common share), compared with net income of $42.7 million ($0.83 per common share) for the three months ended March 31, 2025.
Quintin Kneen, Tidewater’s President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “The first quarter of 2026 exceeded our expectations across all key financial and operational measures, with revenue, gross margin, day rate and utilization all outperforming. Revenue for the quarter came in at $326.2 million, and we generated a gross margin of 48.8%, a slight improvement over the fourth quarter of 2025.
“We continued to benefit from stronger than anticipated vessel up-time, which is a continued testament to our company-wide focus on operational excellence and a product of the significant investments we’ve made over the last few years into the fleet. Day rate increased nicely in the first quarter, improving nearly $240 per day, bolstered by a particularly tight AHTS market in the North Sea: this is notable as the first quarter typically represents the slowest quarter of the year due to seasonality with activity typically picking up in the second and third quarter, particularly in regions like the North Sea.
“We view this dynamic as indicative of a market that has tightened earlier than normal as rigs mobilize to pursue new projects and tightening offshore vessel supply. Further, term contract fixtures appear to have reached an inflection point in the first quarter with our weighted average term contract day rate increasing for the first time since the second quarter of 2025.
“During the first quarter, Operation Epic Fury commenced in the Middle East, one of our principal operating regions. To date, we have not experienced any disruptions in activity due to the conflict. In fact we experienced higher than anticipated utilization during the first quarter. However, late in the quarter after the conflict commenced, we did experience higher than anticipated costs associated with the conflict, particularly as it relates to insurance and the costs of our crews in the region. We anticipate that this elevated level of operating expense to persist until such time the conflict is resolved.”
During the first quarter, Tidetech announced the acquisition of Wilson Sons Ultratug, a 22-vessel fleet of PSVs exclusively focused on serving the Brazilian market. “We have been pleased with the organization as we’ve begun our integration efforts and are excited to continue the work to on-board this important acquisition onto the Tidewater platform. We still expect to close the transaction by the end of the second quarter.
“As pleased as we are with the strong start to the year, uncertainty remains at a macro level as to how the conflict in the Middle East is ultimately resolved. However, we believe that the outlook for offshore vessel activity has fundamentally improved over the past quarter.
“In addition to prior expectations of offshore demand building into the back half of 2026 and into 2027, the global energy equation is being reshaped through the conflict in the Middle East and is likely to have long-term implications. We anticipate that energy security, particularly access to localized sources of energy, along with the need to replace existing production and depleted inventories, should drive incremental activity beyond what was anticipated prior to the conflict in the Middle East. It is clear that commodity prices will likely remain at a more constructive level to provide support for this activity.
“Tidewater remains well-positioned to support this reshaping of the global energy value chain given the scale of our fleet and the geographic diversification of our business, both in terms of our ability to respond to an increase in demand given our current geographic dispersion and with our ability to rapidly reposition vessels into markets with disproportionate demand growth given our footprint in every major offshore market around the world.
“We are comfortable reiterating our 2026 revenue guidance of $1.43 billion to $1.48 billion and a 49% to 51% margin, assuming a closing of the Wilsons acquisition by the end of the second quarter of 2026, given the positive momentum we see for the business in the back half of the year somewhat tempered by some near-term friction we see on the cost side in the Middle East.”