Revenue during the quarter plunged 32.75 percent to $173.22 million from $257.59 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter contracted 4 basis points over the previous year period to 1.03 percent. Operating margin for the quarter stood at negative 14.32 percent as compared to a negative 84.79 percent for the previous year period.

Operating loss for the quarter was $24.80 million, compared with an operating loss of $218.41 million in the previous year period.

However, the adjusted EBITDA for the quarter stood at $14.95 million compared with $55.49 million in the prior year period. At the same time, adjusted EBITDA margin contracted 1291 basis points in the quarter to 8.63 percent from 21.54 percent in the last year period.

Stuart M. Brightman, TETRA's president and chief executive officer, stated, "We believe we are seeing the initial impact of a recovering U.S. onshore market with another strong sequential quarterly improvement in the Fluids Division's water management operations, improving utilization of the compression services fleet, particularly at the higher horsepower equipment size coupled with related favorable pricing trends and higher orders for new compression equipment. Based on feedback from our customers, we anticipate that a recovery in the deep water Gulf of Mexico will lag the onshore recovery. We are entering 2017 with one significant TETRA CS Neptune fluid project scheduled for the first half of 2017 and expect to complete another such project that was started in 2016."

Debt comes down significantly
TETRA Technologies, Inc. has recorded a decline in total debt over the last one year. It stood at $623.73 million as on Dec. 31, 2016, down 26.90 percent or $229.50 million from $853.23 million on Dec. 31, 2015. Total debt was 47.41 percent of total assets as on Dec. 31, 2016, compared with 51.51 percent on Dec. 31, 2015. Debt to equity ratio was at 1.56 as on Dec. 31, 2016, down from 1.66 as on Dec. 31, 2015.