Archrock, Inc. (AROC) Business

Item 1. Business

We are an energy infrastructure company with a primary focus on midstream natural gas compression and a commitment to helping our customers produce, compress and transport natural gas in a safe and environmentally responsible way. We are a premier provider of natural gas compression services, in terms of total compression fleet horsepower, to customers in the energy industry throughout the U.S., and a leading supplier of aftermarket services to customers that own compression equipment in the U.S. Our business supports a must–run service that is essential to the production, processing, transportation and storage of natural gas.

We operate in two business segments:

Natural Gas Compression Industry Overview

Natural gas compression is a mechanical process whereby the pressure of a given volume of natural gas is increased to a desired higher pressure for transportation from one point to another. It is essential to the production and transportation of natural gas. Compression is also critical to minimizing flaring and reducing the waste of natural gas and natural gas liquids that results from insufficient gathering and processing capacity.

Compression is typically required throughout the natural gas production and transportation cycle, including at the wellhead, throughout gathering and distribution systems, into and out of processing and storage facilities and along intrastate and interstate pipelines. Our service offerings focus primarily on midstream applications, with 60% of our operating fleet being used in the gathering and processing cycle stages. The remaining 40% of our operating fleet is used in gas lift applications.

Wellhead and Gathering Systems. Natural gas compression is used to transport natural gas from the wellhead through the gathering system. At some point during the life of natural gas wells, reservoir pressures typically fall below the line pressure of the natural gas gathering or pipeline system used to transport the natural gas to market. At that point, natural gas no longer naturally flows into the pipeline. Compression equipment is applied in both field and gathering systems to boost the pressure levels of the natural gas flowing from the well, allowing it to be transported to market. Changes in pressure levels in natural gas fields require periodic changes to the size and/or type of on–site compression equipment. Compression equipment is also used to increase the efficiency of a low–capacity natural gas field by providing a central compression point from which the natural gas can be produced and injected into a pipeline for transmission to facilities for further processing.

Processing Applications. Compressors may be used in combination with natural gas production and processing equipment to process natural gas into other marketable energy sources. In addition, compression services are used for compression applications in refineries and petrochemical plants. Processing applications typically utilize multiple large horsepower compressors.

Gas Lift Applications. Compression is used to reinject natural gas into producing oil wells to help lift liquids to the surface, which is known as natural gas lift. These applications utilize low– to mid–range horsepower compression equipment located at or near the wellhead or large horsepower compression equipment of over 1,000 horsepower for a centralized gas lift system servicing multiple wells.

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Many oil and natural gas producers, transporters and processors outsource their compression services due to the benefits and flexibility of contract compression. Changing well and pipeline pressures and conditions over the life of a well often require producers to reconfigure or replace their compression packages to optimize the well production or gathering system efficiency.

We believe outsourcing compression operations to compression service providers such as us offers customers:

We believe the U.S. natural gas compression services industry continues to have growth potential over time due to, among other things, increased natural gas production in the U.S. from unconventional sources, the aging of producing natural gas fields that will require more compression to continue producing the same volume of natural gas due to lower pressures and the rise in gas-to-oil ratios for maturing wells and expected increased demand for natural gas in the U.S. for power generation of AI data centers, industrial uses and exports, including liquefied natural gas exports and exports of natural gas via pipeline to Mexico.

Contract Operations Overview

Compression Services

We provide comprehensive contract operations services including the personnel, equipment, tools, materials and supplies to meet our customers’ natural gas compression needs. Based on the operating specifications at the customer location and each customer’s unique needs, these services include designing, sourcing, owning, installing, operating, servicing, repairing and maintaining the equipment. We work closely with our customers’ field service personnel so that compression services can be adjusted to efficiently match changing characteristics of the reservoir and the natural gas produced and may repackage or reconfigure our existing fleet to adapt to our customers’ compression needs.

During the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, we generated 85%, 85% and 82%, respectively, of our total revenue from contract operations.

Compression Fleet

The compressors that we own and use to provide contract operations services are predominantly large horsepower, which we define as greater than 1,000 horsepower per unit, and consist primarily of reciprocating compressors driven by natural gas–powered or electric motor drive engines. Our fleet is largely standardized around major components and key suppliers, which minimizes our fleet operating costs and maintenance capital requirements, reduces inventory costs, facilitates low–cost compressor resizing and improves technical proficiency in our maintenance and overhaul operations, which in turn allows us to achieve higher uptime while maintaining lower operating costs.

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All of our compressors are designed to automatically shut down if operating conditions deviate from a pre–determined range and substantially all are also equipped with telematic devices that enable us to remotely monitor the units. We maintain field service locations from which we service and overhaul our fleet. Our equipment undergoes routine and preventive maintenance in accordance with our established maintenance schedules, standards and procedures, which we update as technology changes and as our operations group develops new techniques and procedures to better service our equipment. In our experience, these maintenance practices maximize equipment life and unit availability, minimize emissions and avoidable downtime while reducing the overall maintenance expenditures over the equipment life. As of December 31, 2025, the average age of our operating fleet was 10 years.

The following table summarizes the size of our natural gas compression fleet as of December 31, 2025:

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General Terms of our Contract Operations Service Agreements

We typically enter into a master service agreement with each customer that sets forth the general terms and conditions of our services, and then enter into a separate supplemental service agreement for each distinct site at which we provide contract operations services. The following describes select material terms common to our standard contract operations service agreements.

Term and Termination. Our customers typically contract for our contract operations services on a site–by–site basis that is generally reduced if we fail to operate in accordance with the contract requirements. Following the initial minimum term, which generally ranges from 12 to 36 months, or generally up to 60 months for the largest horsepower units in our fleet, contract operations services generally continue on a month–to–month basis until terminated by either party with 30 days’ advance notice.

Fees and Expenses. Our customers pay a fixed monthly fee for our contract operations services, which generally is based on the amount of horsepower associated with a specific application. In certain circumstances, such as limited or disrupted natural gas flows, our customers may be provided a reduced monthly fee. We are typically responsible for the costs and expenses associated with our compression equipment except for fuel gas or electricity, which is provided by our customers.

Service Standards and Specifications. We provide contract operations services according to the particular specifications of each job, as set forth in the applicable contract. These are typically turn–key service contracts under which we supply all services and support and use our compression equipment to provide the contract operations services necessary for a particular application. In certain circumstances, if the availability of our services does not meet certain percentages specified in our contracts, our customers are generally entitled, upon request, to specified credits against our service fees.

Title and Risk of Loss. We own and retain title to or have an exclusive possessory interest in all compression equipment used to provide contract operations services and we generally bear risk of loss for such equipment to the extent the loss is not caused by gas conditions, our customers’ acts or omissions or the failure or collapse of the customer’s over–water job site upon which we provide the contract operations services.

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Insurance. Typically, both we and our customers are required to carry general liability, workers’ compensation, employer’s liability, automobile and excess liability insurance. Our insurance coverage includes property damage, general liability and commercial automobile liability and other coverage we believe is appropriate. Additionally, we are substantially self-insured for workers’ compensation and employee group health claims in view of the relatively high per-incident deductibles we absorb under our insurance arrangements for these risks. We are also self-insured for property damage to our offshore assets.

Aftermarket Services Overview

Our aftermarket services business sells parts and components and provides operations, major and routine maintenance, overhaul and reconfiguration services to customers who own compression equipment. We believe that we are particularly well–qualified to provide these services because our highly experienced operating personnel have access to the full range of our compression services and facilities. In addition, our aftermarket services business provides opportunities to cross–sell our contract operations services. During the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, we generated 15%, 15% and 18%, respectively, of our total revenue from aftermarket services.

Competitive Strengths

We believe we have the following key competitive strengths:

Superior safety performance. We believe our collective safety performance is pivotal to the success of our business and is of primary importance to our customers. We have a strong safety culture and a proven ability to safely manage our business in a variety of commodity and economic environments. Our safety–centric culture has consistently produced industry–leading safety performance for many years, including a 2025 total recordable incident rate of 0.22.

Large horsepower. As of December 31, 2025, we have the largest fleet of large horsepower equipment among all outsourced compression service providers in the U.S. In addition, 74% of our fleet, as measured by operating horsepower, was comprised of units that exceed 1,000 horsepower per unit. We believe the trends driving demand for large horsepower units will continue. These trends include (i) high levels of associated gas production from shale wells, which are generally produced at a lower initial pressure than dry gas wells, (ii) pad drilling, which brings multiple wells to a single well site with larger volumes of gas, (iii) increasing well lateral lengths, which increase natural gas flow through gas gathering systems, and (iv) high probability drilling programs that allow for efficient infrastructure planning.

Excellent customer service. We operate in a relationship–driven, service–intensive industry and therefore need to provide superior customer service. We believe that our regionally–based network, local presence, experience and in–depth knowledge of our customers’ operating needs and growth plans enable us to respond to our customers’ needs and meet their evolving demands on a timely basis. In addition, we focus on achieving a high level of reliability for the services we provide in order to maximize uptime and our customers’ production levels. Our sales efforts concentrate on demonstrating our commitment to enhancing our customers’ cash flows through superior customer service and after–market support.

Large and stable customer base. We have strong relationships with a deep base of midstream companies and natural gas and crude oil producers. Our contract operations revenue base is sourced from approximately 300 customers operating throughout all major U.S. natural gas and crude oil producing regions.

Fee–based cash flows. We charge a fixed monthly fee for our contract operations services and a reduced monthly fee during periods of limited or disrupted natural gas flows. Our compression packages, on average, operate at a customer location for approximately six years. We believe this fee structure and the longevity of our operations reduces volatility and enhances the stability and predictability of our cash flows.

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Diversified geographic footprint. We operate in substantially all major natural gas and crude oil producing regions in the U.S. We have a meaningful presence in associated gas plays, including the Permian and Eagle Ford shales, which, combined, account for approximately three-fourths of our operating horsepower. Increased size and geographic density offer compression services providers operating and cost advantages. As the number of compression locations and size of the compression fleet increases, the number of required sales, administrative and maintenance personnel increases at a lesser rate, resulting in operational efficiencies and potential cost advantages. Additionally, broad geographic scope allows compression service providers to more efficiently provide services to all customers, particularly those with compression applications in remote locations. Our large fleet and numerous operating locations throughout the U.S., combined with our ability to efficiently move equipment among producing regions, mean that we are not dependent on production activity in any particular region. We believe our size, geographic scope and broad customer base give us more flexibility in meeting our customers’ needs than many of our competitors and provide us with improved operating expertise and business development opportunities.

Long operating history. We have a long, sustained history of operating in the compression industry and a robust database of fleet financial and operating metrics that provides an advantage compared to our younger competitors. We have extensive experience working with our customers to meet their evolving needs.

Financial resilience and flexibility. We have historically shown and are committed to maintaining capital discipline and financial strength, which is critical in a cyclical industry and business such as ours. Maintaining ample liquidity and a prudent balance sheet supports our ability to continue to deliver on our long–term strategies and positions us to take advantage of future growth opportunities as they arise.

Technology Deployment. We are focused on harnessing technology across all aspects of our business to drive operational efficiencies and enhance our value proposition to our customers. This includes the automation of workflows, integration of digital and mobile tools for our field service technicians, expanded remote monitoring capabilities of our compression fleet and emissions solutions. We believe these efforts, among other things, will help us achieve increased asset uptime, improve the efficiency of our field service technicians, improve our supply chain and inventory management and reduce our emissions and carbon footprint, thereby improving our profitability as discussed further below in “Business Strategies.”

Business Strategies

We intend to continue to capitalize on our competitive strengths to meet our customers’ needs through the following key strategies:

Capitalize on the long–term fundamentals for the U.S. natural gas compression industry. We believe our ability to efficiently meet our customers’ evolving compression needs, our long–standing customer relationships and our large compression fleet will enable us to capitalize on what we believe are favorable long–term fundamentals for the U.S. natural gas compression industry. These fundamentals include significant natural gas resources in the U.S., increased unconventional oil and natural gas production, decreasing natural reservoir pressures, rising gas-to-oil ratios for maturing wells and expected increased natural gas demand in the U.S. from the growth of liquefied natural gas exports, exports of natural gas via pipeline to Mexico, power generation of AI data centers and industrial uses.

Improve profitability. We utilize technology in all aspects of our business to drive operational efficiencies and enhance our value proposition to our customers. Our investments have focused on implementing cloud-based solutions to replace legacy systems, the automation of workflows, integration of digital and mobile tools for our field service technicians and expanded remote monitoring capabilities of our compression fleet. Implementing telematics and advanced data analysis across our fleet has enabled us to respond more quickly and optimally to downtime events, minimize prolonged troubleshooting, prevent unnecessary unit touches and stops, which are the primary cause of wear and tear of the equipment, and, ultimately, predict failures before they occur. We expect this will increase the number of units a field service technician can oversee and reduce vehicle miles traveled and fuel consumption, thereby also reducing emissions.

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In addition, our primary focus is on large horsepower equipment as we aim to continue to capitalize on the trends that have been driving, and that we believe will continue to drive the demand for these units. As part of this strategy, we sold approximately 325,000 and 175,000 of horsepower units during the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. Of the units sold during the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, approximately 85% and 75%, respectively, were small horsepower units.

Optimize our business to generate attractive returns. We plan to continue to invest in strategically growing our business both organically and through third–party acquisitions. We see opportunities to grow our contract operations business over the long term by putting idle units back to work and profitably adding new horsepower in key growth areas. In addition, because a large amount of compression equipment is owned by natural gas and crude oil producers, processors, gatherers, transporters and storage providers, we believe there will be additional opportunities for our aftermarket services business to provide services and parts to support the operation of this equipment.

Oil and Natural Gas Industry Cyclicality and Volatility

Demand for our products and services is correlated to natural gas and crude oil production. Fluctuations in energy prices can affect the levels of expenditures by our customers, production volumes and ultimately, demand for our products and services; however, we believe our contract operations business is typically less impacted by commodity prices for the following reasons:

Seasonal Fluctuations

Our results of operations have not historically reflected any material seasonal tendencies and we do not believe that seasonal fluctuations will have a material impact on us in the foreseeable future.

Sales and Marketing

Our marketing and client service functions are coordinated and performed by our sales and field service personnel. Salespeople, application engineers and field service personnel qualify, analyze and scope new compression applications as well as regularly visit our customers to ensure customer satisfaction, determine customer needs as to services currently being provided and ascertain potential future compression services requirements. This ongoing communication allows us to respond swiftly to customer requests.

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Customers

Our customer base consists primarily of companies engaged in all aspects of the oil and natural gas industry, including large integrated and independent oil and natural gas processors, gatherers and transporters. We have entered into preferred vendor arrangements with some of our customers that give us preferential consideration for their compression needs. In exchange, we provide these customers with enhanced product availability, product support and favorable pricing. During the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, our five most significant customers collectively accounted for 35%, 35% and 33%, respectively, of our contract operations and aftermarket services revenue. During the year ended December 31, 2025, no customers accounted for more than 10% of our consolidated revenue and as of December 31, 2025, two customers accounted for approximately 30% of our consolidated trade accounts receivable, primarily related to our contract operations segment.

Suppliers

We have pricing agreements in place with all of our primary suppliers of compression equipment, parts and services, and work closely with these key suppliers on value engineering, to lower total lifecycle cost and improve equipment reliability. Though we rely on these suppliers to a significant degree, we believe alternative sources for compression equipment, parts and services are generally available.

Competition

The natural gas compression services business is highly competitive with low barriers to entry. Overall, we experience considerable competition from companies that may be able to more quickly adapt to changing technology within our industry and changes in economic conditions as a whole, more readily take advantage of acquisitions and other opportunities and adopt more aggressive pricing policies. We believe we are competitive with respect to price, equipment availability, customer service, flexibility in meeting customer needs, technical expertise and quality and reliability of our compression packages and related services. See “Competitive Strengths” above for further discussion.

Governmental Regulation

Environmental Regulation

Our operations are subject to stringent and complex U.S. federal, state and local laws and regulations governing the discharge of materials into the environment or otherwise relating to protection of the environment and to occupational safety and health. Compliance with these environmental laws and regulations may expose us to significant costs and liabilities and cause us to incur significant capital expenditures in our operations. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations may result in the assessment of administrative, civil and criminal penalties, imposition of investigatory and remedial obligations and the issuance of injunctions delaying or prohibiting operations. We believe that our operations are in substantial compliance with applicable environmental, health and safety laws and regulations and that continued compliance with currently applicable requirements would not have a material adverse effect on us. However, the trend in environmental regulation has been to place more restrictions on activities that may affect the environment, and thus, any changes in these laws and regulations that result in more stringent and costly waste handling, storage, transport, disposal, emission or remediation requirements could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial position.

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The primary U.S. federal environmental laws to which our operations are subject include the CAA and regulations thereunder, which regulate air emissions; the CWA and regulations thereunder, which regulate the discharge of pollutants in industrial wastewater and storm water runoff; the RCRA and regulations thereunder, which regulate the management and disposal of hazardous and non–hazardous solid wastes; and the CERCLA and regulations thereunder, known more commonly as “Superfund,” which impose liability for the remediation of releases of hazardous substances in the environment. We are also subject to regulation under the OSHA and regulations thereunder, which regulate the protection of the safety and health of workers. Analogous state and local laws and regulations may also apply. We also acknowledge the potential for policy shifts that could impact our operations. In January 2025, the current administration issued a series of executive orders and memoranda signaling a shift in environmental and energy policy in the U.S., including the revocation of approximately 80 former administration-era executive orders related to public health, the environment, climate change and climate-related financial risks. The current administration also declared a “national energy emergency,” directing agencies to expedite conventional energy projects. While the extent of the current administration’s changes to the environmental regulatory landscape in the U.S. is unknown at this time, it is possible that additional changes in the future could impact our results of operation and those of our customers.

Air Emissions

The CAA and analogous state laws and their implementing regulations regulate emissions of air pollutants from various sources, including natural gas compressors, and also impose various monitoring and reporting requirements. Such laws and regulations may require a facility to obtain pre–approval for the construction or modification of certain projects or facilities expected to produce air emissions or result in the increase of existing air emissions, obtain and strictly comply with air permits containing various emissions and operational limitations, or utilize specific emission control technologies to limit emissions. Our standard contract operations agreement typically provides that the customer will assume permitting responsibilities and certain environmental risks related to site operations.

New Source Performance Standards. In June 2016, the EPA issued final regulations under the CAA amending the NSPS for the oil and natural gas source category and applying to sources of emissions of methane and VOC from certain processes, activities and equipment that is constructed, modified or reconstructed after September 18, 2015. Specifically, the regulation imposed both methane and VOC standards for several emission sources not previously covered by the NSPS, such as fugitive emissions from compressor stations and pneumatic pumps and methane standards for certain emission sources that are already regulated for VOC, such as equipment leaks at natural gas processing plants. The amendments also established methane standards for a subset of equipment that the NSPS regulates, including reciprocating compressors and pneumatic controllers, and extend the VOC standards to the remaining unregulated equipment.

In March 2024, the EPA published even more stringent rules with respect to methane and VOC for new and existing sources, via NSPS Subparts OOOOb and OOOOc, with the OOOOb rules for sources constructed, modified, or reconstructed after December 6, 2022, which became effective on May 7, 2024. The OOOOc rules for existing sources give the States a two-year deadline to develop and submit to EPA plans for addressing emissions from those sources. However, EPA issued a direct interim final rule in July 2025 and a final rule in December 2025 that pushed the substantive deadlines in OOOOb and OOOOc back to January 2027. EPA has also been working on a proposed rule to roll back significant portions of the OOOOb and OOOOc, which rule proposal is in interagency review at the White House Office of Management and Budget and is expected for publication soon.

In April 2024, BoLM published a separate final rule, known as the “Waste Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties, and Resource Conservation” rule, to address methane emissions from oil and gas activities on public lands, which became effective on June 10, 2024. The rule is currently stayed pending litigation in North Dakota, Texas, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah. Among the newly adopted methane requirements that may impact our operations are broader applicability to compression equipment relative to the existing rules, increased work practices and inspection requirements and mandates for certain new zero–emissions equipment. Notably, however, in November 2025, BoLM announced that it will not enforce requirements of the rule that carried a December 10, 2025 deadline until December 10, 2026.

Both the EPA rules and the BoLM rules are subject to ongoing judicial challenges.

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Meanwhile, several states — including, most notably, New Mexico and Colorado — have continued to develop their own more stringent methane rules that will or are anticipated to impose additional requirements on the industry. For example, Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission adopted the “Midstream Rule” on December 20, 2024, to address GHG emissions from midstream oil and gas operations, including from natural gas compressor stations. Under the Midstream Rule, midstream facilities were required to begin taking steps to reduce GHG emissions from combustion fuel equipment by February 14, 2025, and are required to meet certain GHG emissions limits by the end of 2030.  The Midstream Rule is subject to ongoing judicial challenges.

We do not believe that these rules will have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows, but we cannot yet definitively predict the impact of any revision of the current rules or issuance of new rules, which impact could be material.

National Ambient Air Quality Standards. In October 2015, the EPA issued a new NAAQS ozone standard of 70 ppb, which is a tightening from the 75-ppb standard set in 2008. This new standard became effective on December 28, 2015, and the EPA completed designating attainment/non–attainment regions under the revised ozone standard in 2018. In November 2016, the EPA proposed an implementation rule for the 2015 NAAQS ozone standard, but the agency has yet to issue a final implementation rule. State implementation of the revised NAAQS could result in stricter permitting requirements, delay or prohibit our customers’ ability to obtain such permits and result in increased expenditures for pollution control equipment, the costs of which could be significant. By law, the EPA must review each NAAQS every five years. In December 2018 and again in December 2020, the EPA announced that it was retaining without revision the 2015 NAAQS ozone standard. In June 2021, the EPA commenced a process for reconsidering the December 2020 decision. In August 2023, the EPA announced a new review of the ozone NAAQS and most recently released reports on December 23, 2024, related to its review. We do not believe continued implementation of the NAAQS ozone standard will have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows, but we cannot yet predict the impact, if any, of any new Federal Implementation Plan involving new NAAQS standards.

General. New environmental regulations and proposals similar to these, when finalized, and any other new regulations requiring the installation of more sophisticated pollution control equipment or the adoption of other environmental protection measures, could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Notably, opposition to energy development and infrastructure projects has led to regulatory and judicial challenges to new facilities, including compression facilities, in many states. While we have not directly faced any such challenges to the facilities at which we provide contract operations and know of no pending or threatened efforts targeting those facilities, expanded opposition to energy infrastructure, including facilities at which we provide contract operations or in the future might otherwise have an opportunity to provide contract operations, could potentially give rise to material impacts in the future.

Climate Change

Climate change legislation and regulatory initiatives may arise from a variety of sources, including international, national, regional and state levels of government and associated administrative bodies, seeking to restrict or regulate emissions of GHGs such as carbon dioxide and methane.

Congress and various federal and state legislative and regulatory bodies have previously considered legislation to restrict or regulate emissions of GHG. Energy legislation and other initiatives continue to be proposed that may be relevant to GHG emissions issues. For example, the SEC adopted rules in March 2024 that would have mandated extensive disclosure for certain public companies of climate-related data, risks and opportunities, including financial impacts, physical and transition risks, related governance and strategy, and greenhouse gas emissions. The SEC quickly stayed those rules in April 2024, however, and in March 2025 voted not to defend the rules against ongoing legal challenges. Those legal challenges remain in abeyance pending an SEC decision on whether to rescind, repeal, or modify the rules but, in the meantime, the SEC climate rules remain suspended and without effect.

Almost half of the states, either individually or through multi–state regional initiatives, have begun to address GHG emissions, primarily through the planned development of emission inventories or regional GHG cap and trade programs. Various states, such as California, Colorado and New York have passed or proposed similar climate change disclosure

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laws. Although most of the state–level initiatives have to date been focused on large sources of GHG emissions, such as electric power plants, it is possible that smaller sources such as our natural gas–powered compressors could become subject to GHG–related regulation. Depending on the particular program, we could be required to control emissions or to purchase and surrender allowances for GHG emissions resulting from our operations. Our customers or other business partners may require us to provide additional climate-related information if they are also subject to these or additional climate-related disclosure laws or regulations. These actions could result in increased (i) costs to operate and maintain our facilities, (ii) capital expenditures to install new emission controls on our facilities, and (iii) costs to administer and manage any potential GHG emissions regulations or carbon trading or tax programs. Such climate-related disclosure requirements could result in increased compliance costs, and possible litigation and reputational risks if such disclosures are incomplete, inaccurate, misleading or do not otherwise meet the expectations of our stakeholders. Moreover, such requirements may not always be uniform across jurisdictions, which may result in increased complexity and cost for compliance. In addition, we may take voluntary steps to mitigate any impact our operations might have on climate change. As a result, we may experience increases in energy, transportation and raw material costs, capital expenditures or insurance premiums; however, there is no guarantee that such efforts will have the desired effects.

The $1 trillion legislative infrastructure package passed by Congress in November 2021 included a number of climate-focused spending initiatives targeted at climate resilience, enhanced response and preparation for extreme weather events, and clean energy and transportation investments. Significant additional legislative action by Congress also occurred in August 2022 with the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by the former administration, which provided $391 billion in funding for research and development and incentives for low-carbon energy production methods, carbon capture, and other programs directed at encouraging de-carbonization and addressing climate change. The IRA also amended the Clean Air Act to include a Methane Emissions and Waste Reduction Incentive Program for petroleum and natural gas systems. This program required the EPA to impose a “waste emissions charge” on certain natural gas and oil sources that were already required to report under EPA’s GHG Reporting Program. In November 2024, the EPA released its final rule to implement the methane emissions fee with an effective date in January 2025, which is expected to apply to reporting year 2024 emissions. Twenty-three states have filed a lawsuit challenging the rule, and the change in U.S. presidential administration provides additional uncertainty as to the rule’s future. While the current administration issued an executive order pausing the disbursement of funds appropriated through the IRA and rolling back these environmental policies implemented during the former administration, with legislative action culminating in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which eliminated most of the Inflation Reduction Act’s incentives and delayed the commencement of the methane waste emissions charge on oil and gas sources by a decade to 2034. Notably, Congress eliminated EPA’s regulations in support of the waste emissions charge using the Congressional Review Act effective on March 14, 2025 and, as of September 12, 2025, EPA has proposed to suspend the GHG Reporting Program for oil and gas sources until 2034 and to eliminate such reporting for all other sources. U.S. climate leaders have vowed to continue pressing for climate progress although major new climate legislation seems unlikely in the immediate future. Such legislation, regulations, and initiatives, as well as uncertainty regarding the future success of such regulations and initiatives in reducing demand for oil and gas, could indirectly affect our business and our results of operations by reducing demand for our services.

Separately, the EPA has promulgated regulations controlling GHG emissions under its existing CAA authority. The EPA has adopted rules requiring many facilities, including petroleum and natural gas systems, to inventory and report their GHG emissions. As noted above, in September 2025, EPA proposed to suspend those requirements until 2034. In 2025, we did not operate any facilities that were subject to these reporting obligations. In addition, the EPA rules provide air permitting requirements for certain large sources of GHG emissions. The requirement for large sources of GHG emissions to obtain and comply with permits will affect some of our and our customers’ largest new or modified facilities going forward but is not expected to cause us to incur material costs. As noted above, the EPA has previously undertaken efforts to regulate emissions of methane, considered a GHG, in the oil and gas sector, and could develop additional, more stringent rules at some point in the future.

In an executive order issued in January 2021, the former administration asked the heads of all executive departments and agencies to review and take action to address any federal regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies and any similar agency actions promulgated during the prior administration that may be inconsistent with or present obstacles to the administration’s stated goals of protecting public health and the environment, and conserving national monuments and refuges. The executive order also established an Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases, which is called on to, among other things, capture the full costs of GHG emissions, including the “social cost of carbon,”

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“social cost of nitrous oxide” and “social cost of methane,” which are “the monetized damages associated with incremental increases in greenhouse gas emissions,” including “changes in net agricultural productivity, human health, property damage from increased flood risk, and the value of ecosystem services.” In early 2025, however, the new administration disbanded the Working Group and withdrew all of its published guidance, ordering EPA to review whether and how to use the social cost of carbon in federal permitting and regulatory decisions and directing the agencies in the meantime to follow OMB regulatory analysis guidance from 2003 that is virtually silent on climate. The current administration also released a series of executive orders impacting the energy sector, ranging from declaring a national emergency due to the U.S.’s inadequate energy supply, infrastructure, and prices, to halting wind energy leasing and promoting fossil fuel exploration. These executive orders are already reshaping the current direction of the U.S. climate agenda and have led to rulemaking actions by EPA that are beginning to undo U.S. climate regulation, including a February 12, 2026 final rule overturning the 2009 CAA endangerment finding respecting GHGs and all federal GHG emissions standards for vehicles and engines.  At this time, we cannot determine how the current administration will continue to proceed and cannot accurately predict the ensuing impact of climate-related policy shifts on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

At the international level, the U.S. joined the international community at the 21st COP of the UNFCCC in Paris, France, which resulted in the “Paris Agreement,” which intended for signatory countries to nationally determine their contributions and set GHG emission reduction goals every five years beginning in 2020. While the Paris Agreement did not impose direct requirements on emitters, national plans to meet its pledge resulted in new regulatory requirements. After withdrawing from the Paris Agreement in November 2020, the U.S. re-entered the Paris Agreement in April 2021 along with a new “nationally determined contribution” that the U.S. would achieve GHG emissions reductions of at least 50% relative to 2005 levels by 2030. In November 2021, at COP26 in Glasgow, the U.S. and European Union jointly announced the launch of the “Global Methane Pledge,” by which signatory countries aim to cut global methane pollution at least 30% by 2030 relative to 2020 levels, including “all feasible reductions” in the energy sector. The December 2023 COP28 meeting in Dubai reaffirmed commitments to the Paris Agreement and concluded that the world should move away from fossil fuel energy in a just, orderly, and equitable manner and aim to achieve net zero GHG emissions by 2050, while recognizing a transitional role for fossil fuels. In November 2024, at COP29 in Azerbaijan, countries agreed on the final building blocks that set out how carbon markets will operate under the Paris Agreement, among other outcomes that further indicate the global push to mitigate climate change. However, the current administration issued an executive order in January 2025 that initiated the process to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement and from any commitments made under the UNFCCC.  COP30 took place in Brazil in November 2025 with no official participation or representatives attending from the U.S.  In January 2026, the U.S. officially withdrew from the Paris Agreement.  Just as we cannot fully anticipate the impact of the methane rules discussed above, we also cannot predict whether the withdrawal from or potential future re-entry into the Paris Agreement or other international pledges will result in any particular new federal regulatory requirements or whether such requirements will cause us to incur material costs. Nevertheless, several states and geographic regions in the U.S. have adopted legislation and regulations to reduce emissions of GHGs, including cap and trade regimes and commitments that contribute to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Increasingly, parties have sought to bring suit against various natural gas and oil companies alleging that the companies have been aware of the adverse effects of climate change but defrauded their investors or customers by failing to adequately disclose those impacts. Any such litigation targeting our customers could negatively impact their operations and, in turn, decrease demand for our operations, which could have an adverse impact on our financial condition.

In sum, any legislation, regulatory programs or social pressures related to climate change could increase our costs and require substantial capital, compliance, operating and maintenance costs, reduce demand for our services and reduce our access to financial markets. Current, as well as potential future, laws and regulations that limit GHG emissions or that otherwise promote the use of renewable energy over fossil fuel energy sources could increase the cost of our services and, thereby, further reduce demand and adversely affect our sales volumes, revenues and margins.

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Water Discharges

The CWA and analogous state laws and their implementing regulations impose restrictions and strict controls with respect to the discharge of pollutants into state waters or waters of the U.S. The discharge of pollutants into regulated waters is prohibited, except in accordance with the terms of a permit issued by the EPA or an analogous state agency. In addition, the CWA regulates storm water discharges associated with industrial activities depending on a facility’s primary standard industrial classification. Four of our facilities have applied for and obtained industrial wastewater discharge permits and/or have sought coverage under local wastewater ordinances. U.S. federal laws also require development and implementation of spill prevention, controls and countermeasure plans where petroleum storage quantities exceed certain thresholds, including appropriate containment berms and similar structures to help prevent the contamination of navigable waters in the event of a petroleum hydrocarbon tank spill, rupture or leak at such facilities. The definition of “waters of the U.S.” and, relatedly, the scope of CWA jurisdiction, have been the subject of notable rulemaking efforts and judicial challenges over several decades, which may continue. In May 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court announced a decision that sharply narrowed that definition to relatively permanent bodies of water connected to traditional navigable waters and wetlands with a continuous surface connection to other jurisdictional waters, thereby invalidating protections for many other historically regulated wetlands and waters. The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers issued a final rule effective September 8, 2023 to implement the terms of that decision. As a result of prior litigation, that amended rule has gone into effect in only part of the country, and new legislation with respect to the amended rule is ongoing. In November 2025, EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers released a proposed rule that would again redefine “waters of the United States” to be consistent with the most recent Supreme Court decision, further clarifying and narrowing CWA jurisdiction over wetlands and other waters.

Waste Management and Disposal

RCRA and analogous state laws and their implementing regulations govern the generation, transportation, treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous and non–hazardous solid wastes. During the course of our operations, we generate wastes (including, but not limited to, used oil, antifreeze, used oil filters, sludges, paints, solvents and abrasive blasting materials) in quantities regulated under RCRA. The EPA and various state agencies have limited the approved methods of disposal for these types of wastes. CERCLA and analogous state laws and their implementing regulations impose strict, and under certain conditions, joint and several liability without regard to fault or the legality of the original conduct on classes of persons who are considered to be responsible for the release of a hazardous substance into the environment. These persons include current and past owners and operators of the facility or disposal site where the release occurred and any company that transported, disposed of, or arranged for the transport or disposal of the hazardous substances released at the site. Under CERCLA, such persons may be subject to joint and several liability for the costs of cleaning up the hazardous substances that have been released into the environment, for damages to natural resources and for the costs of certain health studies. In addition, where contamination may be present, it is not uncommon for neighboring landowners and other third parties to file claims for personal injury, property damage and recovery of response costs allegedly caused by hazardous substances or other pollutants released into the environment. Additionally, emerging contaminants, like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances such as perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid compounds, have become subject to CERCLA regulation in addition to existing federal and state chemicals regulation, and polyfluoroalkyl substances have recently been regulated under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Other emerging contaminants could also become subject to regulation under CERCLA, Toxic Substances Control Act or comparable state laws. We cannot provide any assurance that the costs and liabilities associated with the future imposition of such remedial or regulatory compliance obligations upon us would not have a material adverse effect on our operations or financial position.

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We currently own or lease, and in the past have owned or leased, a number of properties that have been used in support of our operations for a number of years. Although we have utilized operating and disposal practices that were standard in the industry at the time, hydrocarbons, hazardous substances, or other regulated wastes may have been disposed of or released on or under the properties owned or leased by us or on or under other locations where such materials have been taken for disposal by companies subcontracted by us. In addition, many of these properties have been previously owned or operated by third parties whose treatment and disposal or release of hydrocarbons, hazardous substances or other regulated wastes was not under our control. These properties and the materials released or disposed thereon may be subject to CERCLA, RCRA and analogous state laws. Under such laws, we could be required to remove or remediate historical property contamination, or to perform certain operations to prevent future contamination. At certain of such sites, we are currently working with the prior owners who have undertaken to monitor and clean up contamination that occurred prior to our acquisition of these sites. We are not currently under any order requiring that we undertake or pay for any cleanup activities. However, we cannot provide any assurance that we will not receive any such order in the future.

Occupational Safety and Health

We are subject to the requirements of the OSHA and comparable state statutes. These laws and the implementing regulations strictly govern the protection of the safety and health of employees. The OSHA’s hazard communication standard, the EPA’s community right–to–know regulations under Title III of CERCLA and similar state statutes require that we organize and/or disclose information about hazardous materials used or produced in our operations.

Human Capital

As of December 31, 2025, we employed approximately 1,350 employees in 12 states and conducted business in 41 states. None of our employees are subject to a collective bargaining agreement.

We consider our employees to be our greatest asset and believe that our success depends on our ability to attract, develop and retain our employees. We operate on a merit-based approach, and we support the hiring of employees from a range of backgrounds.

We support pay equity and believe we offer competitive and comprehensive compensation benefits packages that include bonuses, an employee stock purchase plan, a 401(k) plan with employer contribution, healthcare and insurance benefits, health savings and flexible spending accounts with employer contribution, paid time off (including 16 hours per year as paid time to volunteer), family leave, an employee assistance program and tuition assistance, among many others.

We believe in the ultimate goal of serving as the best corporate citizen possible and are dedicated to inspiring and empowering our employees to operate continuously according to our core values of safety, service, integrity, respect and pride. To that end, the Governance and Sustainability Committee of our Board of Directors provides oversight of our policies, practices and programs regarding the fair and equitable promotion of employees within our company and the health and safety of our employees and communities.

Learning and Talent Development

We invest significant resources to develop the talent needed to provide our industry–leading natural gas compression services. We work closely with suppliers to develop training programs for our field service technicians. Our field service technicians are supported by a dedicated training team and collectively completed over 44,000 hours of operational and technical training during 2025. Generally, new hire field employees enter a program whereby they are assigned an experienced mentor, for an average of six months, under whose direct supervision they apply their classroom learning in the real world setting.

In addition, we offer a number of non–technical, targeted skills–based and career–enhancing training programs, including technical orientation for non–technical employees, supervisor coaching, performance management and conflict resolution. Our talent development programs provide employees with the resources they need to help achieve their career goals, build management skills and lead their organizations.

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Safety, Health and Wellness

The success of our business is fundamentally connected to the well–being of our people and so we are committed to the safety, health and wellness of our employees.

Safety is a core value of our company, and safety performance is a key measure of success that has been included in our short–term incentive program for approximately 20 years. We actively promote the highest standards of safety behavior and environmental awareness and strive to meet or exceed all applicable local and national regulations. “Stop the Job” is an adopted edict that establishes the obligation of and provides the authority to all employees to stop any task or operation where they perceive that a risk to people, the environment or assets is not properly controlled. We believe that all incidents are preventable and that through proper training, planning and hazard recognition, we can achieve a workplace with zero incidents. To this end, we created the TARGET ZERO program that includes over 90 safety and environmental procedures, and their necessary tools, equipment and training, which are designed to foster a mindset that integrates safety into every work process. Through this program, we have achieved excellent safety performance, with a total recordable incident rate of 0.22 in 2025. While no incidents are acceptable, the incidents we experienced were extremely minor in nature and resulted in no lost time. It will be our continuous goal that we achieve a rate of zero in all future periods.

We also provide our employees and their families with access to a variety of flexible and convenient health and wellness programs that support the maintenance or improvement of our employees’ physical and mental health and encourage engagement in healthy behaviors, including our employee–led RockFIT program that develops and sponsors corporate health and fitness challenges throughout the year.

Building Employee and Community Connections

We consider ourselves a member of every community in which we operate and believe that building connections between our employees, their families and our communities creates a more meaningful and enjoyable workplace. Our employees give generously and are passionate towards many causes, for which they receive 16 hours per year of paid time off to volunteer. Our employee–led Archrock Cares program brings together employees across functions and backgrounds to break down traditional corporate barriers and form strong bonds through the pursuit of shared interests and volunteering and giving opportunities across the country.

Available Information

Our annual reports on Form 10–K, quarterly reports on Form 10–Q, current reports on Form 8–K and any amendments to those reports are available free of charge on our website, www.archrock.com, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed electronically with the SEC. Information on our website is not incorporated by reference in this Form 10–K or any of our other securities filings. Paper copies of our filings are also available, without charge, from Archrock, Inc., 9807 Katy Freeway, Suite 100, Houston, Texas 77024, Attention: Investor Relations. The SEC also maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers who file electronically with the SEC. The SEC’s website address is www.sec.gov.

Additionally, we make available free of charge on our website: