TABLE OF CONTENTS

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GLOSSARY

The following terms and abbreviations appearing in the text of this report have the meanings indicated below.

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FORWARD-LOOKINGFORWARD–LOOKING STATEMENTS

This 20212022 Form 10-K10–K contains “forward-looking“forward–looking statements” intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this 20212022 Form 10-K10–K are forward-lookingforward–looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Exchange Act, including, without limitation, statements regarding the effects of the COVID-19COVID–19 pandemic on our business, operations, customers and financial condition; our business growth strategy and projected costs; future financial position; the sufficiency of available cash flows to fund continuing operations and pay dividends; the expected amount of our capital expenditures; anticipated cost savings; future revenue, gross margin and other financial or operational measures related to our business; the future value of our equipment; and plans and objectives of our management for our future operations. You can identify many of these statements by words such as “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “project,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “will continue” or similar words or the negative thereof.

Such forward-lookingforward–looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated as of the date of this 20212022 Form 10-K.10–K. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-lookingforward–looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. Known material factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those in these forward-lookingforward–looking statements are described in Part I, Item 1A1A. “Risk Factors” and Part II, Item 77. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of this 20212022 Form 10-K.10–K.

All forward-lookingforward–looking statements included in this 20212022 Form 10-K10–K are based on information available to us on the date of this 20212022 Form 10-K.10–K. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-lookingforward–looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. All subsequent written and oral forward-lookingforward–looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained throughout this 20212022 Form 10-K.10–K.

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PART I

ItemITEM 1. BusinessBUSINESS

We were incorporated in February 2007 as a wholly-ownedwholly–owned subsidiary of Universal Compression Holdings, Inc. In August 2007, Universal Compression Holdings, Inc. and Hanover Compressor Company merged into our wholly-ownedwholly–owned subsidiaries and we became Exterran Holdings, Inc., the parent entity of Universal Compression Holdings, Inc. and Hanover Compressor Company, named “Exterran Holdings, Inc.”Company. In November 2015, we completed the Spin-offspin–off of our international contract operations, international aftermarket services and global fabrication business into a standalone public company operating as “ExterranExterran Corporation,” and we were renamed “Archrock, Inc.”

We are an energy infrastructure company with a pure-playprimary focus on midstream natural gas compression.compression and a commitment to helping our customers produce, compress and transport natural gas in a safe and environmentally responsible way. We are the leading provider of natural gas compression services to customers in the oil and natural gasenergy industry throughout the U.S., in terms of total compression fleet horsepower, and a leading supplier of aftermarket services to customers that own compression equipment in the U.S. Our business supports a must-runmust–run service that is essential to the production, processing, transportation and storage of natural gas. TheOur mission to help our customers deliver natural gas, that we help transport satisfies demand froman affordable and cleaner energy source, to a variety of critical industries, to generate electricity generation, heating and cookingto directly heat and the industrial and manufacturing sectors. Our geographic diversity, technically experienced personnel and large fleet of natural gas compression equipment enable us to provide reliable contract operations services topower our customers.homes, is more critical than ever.

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 77%79% of our operating fleet being used in the gathering and processing cycle stages. The remaining 23%21% 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-siteon–site compression equipment. Compression equipment is also used to increase the efficiency of a low-capacitylow–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-low– to mid-rangemid–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.

Many oil and natural gas and crude oil 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 and expected increased demand for natural gas in the U.S. for power generation, 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, 2022, 2021 2020 and 2019,2020, we generated 83%80%, 84%83% and 80%84%, 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-poweredgas–powered engines. Additionally, we provide a small but growing number of electric motor-drivenmotor–driven compressors. 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-costlow–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.

All of our compressors are designed to automatically shut down if operating conditions deviate from a pre-determinedpre–determined range and are also equipped with telematic devices that enable us to remotely monitor the units. We maintain field service locations from which our field technicians 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, minimize avoidable downtime and reduce the overall maintenance expenditures over the equipment life. As of December 31, 2021,2022, the average age of our operating fleet was 11 years.

The following table summarizes the size of our natural gas compression fleet as of December 31, 2021:2022:

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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-sitesite–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 48 months, contract operations services generally continue on a month-to-monthmonth–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 expected natural gas volumes and pressuresthe amount of horsepower associated with a specific application, and are required to pay a reduced monthly fee during periods of limited or disrupted natural gas flows, which enhances the stability and predictability of our cash flows. We are typically responsible for the costs and expenses associated with our compression equipment except for fuel gas, 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-keyturn–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-waterover–water job site upon which we provide the contract operations services.

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, maintenance, overhaul and reconfiguration services to customers who own compression equipment. We believe that we are particularly well-qualifiedwell–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-sellcross–sell our contract operations services.business. During the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 2020 and 2019,2020, we generated 17%20%, 16%17% and 20%16%, respectively, of our total revenue from aftermarket services.

Competitive Strengths

We believe we have the following key competitive strengths:

Large horsepower. We have the largest fleet of large horsepower equipment among all outsourced compression service providers in the U.S. As of December 31, 2021, 80%2022, 84% 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 isare 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-intensiverelationship–driven, service–intensive industry and therefore need to provide superior customer service. We believe that our regionally-basedregionally–based network, local presence, experience and in-depthin–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. We guarantee our customers 98% availability in all of our contract operations service agreements, and during the year ended December 31, 2021,2022, our availability was 99.3%99.1%. Our sales efforts concentrate on demonstrating our commitment to enhancing our customers’ cash flows through superior customer service and after-marketafter–market support.

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-centricsafety–centric culture has consistently produced industry-leadingindustry–leading safety performance for many years, including a 20212022 total recordable incident rate of 0.10.0.32.

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 400340 customers operating throughout all major U.S. natural gas and crude oil producing regions.

Fee-basedFee–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 threefour years. We believe this fee structure and the longevity of our operations reduces volatility and enhances the stability and predictability of our cash flows.

Diversified geographic footprint. We operate in substantially all major natural gas and crude oil producing regions in the U.S. 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-termlong–term strategies and positions us to take advantage of future growth opportunities as they arise.

Technology Transformation. As of the end of 2021, we had completed several major phases of a process and technology transformation project that enables us to harness technology in all aspects of our business to drive operational efficiencies and enhance our value proposition to our customers. Our investments have focused on the automation of workflows, integration of digital and mobile tools for our field service technicians and expanded remote monitoring capabilities of our vehicle and compressor fleets. We expect thisThis project, to, among other things, helphas helped us achieve increased asset uptime, improveimproved the efficiency of our field service technicians, improveimproved our supply chain and inventory management and reducereduced 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-termlong–term fundamentals for the U.S. natural gas compression industry. We believe our ability to efficiently meet our customers’ evolving compression needs, our long-standinglong–standing customer relationships and our large compression fleet will enable us to capitalize on what we believe are favorable long-termlong–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 and crude oil production, decreasing natural reservoir pressures 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 and industrial uses.

equipment, and, ultimately, predict failures before they occur. We expect this will increase the number of units a field service technician can oversee and also reduce vehicle miles traveled and fuel consumption, thereby also reducing emissions.

In addition, we continue to focus on increasing the percentage of large horsepower equipment within our fleet in order to capitalize on the trends that have been driving, and that we believe will continue to drive, demand for large horsepower units. As part of this strategy, we sold approximately 341,000 and 147,000 and 74,000 non-corenon–core horsepower during the years ended December 31, 20212022 and 2020,2021, respectively, which drove an increase in our large operating horsepower from 74%77% of our fleet as of year end 2019,December 31, 2020, to 80%84% as of December 31, 2021.2022.

Optimize our business to generate attractive returns. We plan to continue to invest in strategically growing our business both organically and through third-partythird–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.

Market, Suppliers and Customers

We conduct our contract operations activities in substantially all major natural gas and crude oil producing areas throughout the U.S.

Customers

Our customer base consists primarily of companies engaged in all aspects of the oil and gas natural 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, 2022, 2021 and 2020, our five most significant customers collectively accounted for 32%, 31% and 28%, respectively, of our contract operations and aftermarket services revenue. No single customer accounted for 10% or more of our revenue during the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020.

Suppliers

We have pricing agreements in place with all of our primary suppliers of compression equipment, parts and services, including Ariel Corporation, Waukesha Pearce Industries and Caterpillar, Inc. and its distributors, 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.

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-hazardousnon–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.

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-approvalpre–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 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 contains 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 establish methane standards for a subset of equipment that the current NSPS regulates, including reciprocating compressors and pneumatic controllers, and extend the current VOC standards to the remaining unregulated equipment.

While the EPA in 2020 adopted deregulatory amendments to the 2016 rule that removed the transmission and storage segments from the oil and natural gas source category and rescinded the methane-specificmethane–specific requirements for production and processing facilities, that 2020 rulemaking was voided by action of Congress and the President effective June 30, 2021. As a result, the 2016 rules became effective again immediately. Further, in November 2021, the EPA proposed the framework for more stringent methane rules for newer sources, along with emissions standards that will for the first time be applicable to existing sources. The actual proposedsources, with both a supplemental rule language is expected to be published in early 2022,proposal by the EPA and a finalseparate BoLM rule likely in the second half of 2022, following a public notice and comment period. The current administration and the EPA have indicated that additional rule proposals on oil and gas-relatedproposal addressing methane emissions areon public lands issued in November 2022. Among the works.  newly proposed methane requirements that may impact our operations broader applicability to compression equipment relative to the existing rules, increased work practices and inspection requirements and mandates for certain new zero–emissions equipment.

Meanwhile, several states — including, most notably, New Mexico and Colorado — have been developing their own more stringent methane rules that will or are anticipated to impose additional requirements on the industry and that may be effective sooner than any new EPA rules. We, together with a consortium of other Gas Compressor Association member companies, were actively involved in the rulemaking effort in New Mexico, including working directly with the New Mexico Environmental Department and participating in the New Mexico Environmental Improvement Board’s hearing in late 2021.

We do not believe that the current 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. On October 1, 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-attainmentnon–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 announced it will reconsider the December 2020 decision, with a decision expected in 2023. In a draft assessment in April 2022, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee favored maintaining the 2015 NAAQS ozone standard. Those decisions have been subject to judicial challenge. In October 2021, the EPA revealed in court filings that it will revisit the December 2020 decision to retain the existing ozone standard. 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 or of the possible reconsideration and issuance ofinvolving 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 states such as Massachusetts and Virginia. 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 greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane.

Congress has previously considered legislation to restrict or regulate emissions of greenhouse gases. Energy legislation and other initiatives continue to be proposed that may be relevant to greenhouse gas emissions issues. Almost half of the states, either individually or through multi-statemulti–state regional initiatives, have begun to address greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through the planned development of emission inventories or regional greenhouse gas cap and trade programs. Although most of the state-levelstate–level initiatives have to date been focused on large sources of greenhouse gas emissions, such as electric power plants, it is possible that smaller sources such as our natural gas-poweredgas–powered compressors could become subject to greenhouse gas-relatedgas–related regulation. Depending on the particular program, we could be required to control emissions or to purchase and surrender allowances for greenhouse gas emissions resulting from our operations. The $1 trillion legislative infrastructure package passed by Congress in November 2021 includes a number of climate-focusedclimate–focused spending initiatives targeted at climate resilience, enhanced response and preparation for extreme weather events, and clean energy and transportation investments. Significant additional legislative proposals areaction by Congress also under considerationoccurred in CongressAugust 2022 with the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides $391 billion in early 2022 that reportedly could provide significant funding for research and development of low-carbonand incentives for low–carbon energy production methods, carbon capture, and other programs directed at encouraging de–carbonization and addressing climate change.

Independent of Congress, the EPA has promulgated regulations controlling greenhouse gas 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 greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, 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 greenhouse gas emissions. The requirement for large sources of greenhouse gas 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 undertaken efforts to regulate emissions of methane, considered a greenhouse gas, in the oil and gas sector, with the development of additional, more stringent rules under way.

In an executive order issued on January 20, 2021, the POTUS 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 greenhouse gas emissions, including the “social cost of carbon,” “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.” The current administration adopted an interim social cost of carbon of $51 per ton in February 2021, with an updated cost figure of $190 per ton, as suggested by the EPA, expected earlyto be announced by the Interagency Working Group in 2022.April 2023. That figure is intended to be used to guide federal decisions on the costs and benefits of various policies and approvals, althoughapprovals; such efforts have been the subject of a series of judicial challenges.challenges, which have been largely unsuccessful to date. At this

time, we cannot determine whether the administration’s efforts on social cost or other interagency climate efforts will lead to any particular actions that give rise to a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

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-hazardousnon–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.

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 sub-contractedsub–contracted 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-knowright–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.

On January 21, 2021,The COVID–19 pandemic has largely run its course in the POTUS issued an executive order on protecting worker health and safety,U.S. While we do have comprehensive pandemic–focused procedures in place, we relaxed many of the stated goalCOVID–19–specific requirements in late 2022 in light of, which is to protect the health and safety of workers from COVID-19. In the executive order, Department of Labor leaders and, in some cases, the leaders of other Federal Departments are called on to, among other things, issue revised guidance to employersour COVID–19 case trends and similar relaxation of restrictions and controls by local and federal government authorities, in reliance on workplace safety during the pandemic, consider whether emergency temporary standards (e.g., masklatest recommendations and assessments of relevant medical experts. If conditions change, such as we see an increase in the workplace) are necessary, review OSHA enforcement efforts related to COVID-19, focus those enforcement efforts on violations that put the largest number of workers at serious risknew COVID–19 cases or are contrary to anti-retaliation principlesgovernmental and/or medical advice changes, we will carefully consider reimplementing appropriate procedures geared toward ensuring the health, safety and coordinate with State and local government entities responsible for public employee safety. The widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines and apparent improvements in health outcomes present important opportunities for the safe operationwell–being of our business.

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. Diversity and inclusion are foundational to our leadership approach and our focus is on how our actions and the actions of our employees foster diversity and inclusion in our everyday activities at Archrock. We support diversity in hiring, as is reflected in the diversity of our Board of Directors, of which three of nineour seven independent directors are genderfemale or ethnically diverse.identify as a member of an underrepresented racial/ethnic group. Similarly, one one–third of our executive leadership team is female and 40%29% of our total workforce is gender or ethnically diverse.

We support gender and ethnic pay equity and believe we offer competitive and comprehensive compensation and benefits packages that include annual bonuses, stock awards, 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 NominatingGovernance and Corporate GovernanceSustainability Committee of our Board of Directors provides oversight of our policies, practices and programs regarding the promotion of diversity and inclusion 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 40,500 hours of operational and technical training during 2022. Every new hire field employee enters 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.

Safety, Health and Wellness

The success of our business is fundamentally connected to the well-beingwell–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-termshort–term incentive program for over 1516 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, that are designed to foster a mindset that integrates safety into every work process. Through this program, we have successfully lowered ourachieved excellent safety performance, with a total recordable incident rate from 0.54of 0.32 in 2019, to 0.252022. While no incidents are acceptable, the incidents we experienced were extremely minor in 2020,nature and to 0.10resulted in 2021, and itno 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-ledemployee–led RockFIT program that develops and sponsors corporate health and fitness challenges throughout the year.

The extent to which our operating and financial results continue to be affected by the COVID-19COVID–19 pandemic and may be affected by future pandemics or other public health crises will depend on various factors and consequences beyond our control, such as the duration and scope of thesuch pandemic or public health crisis, additional actions by businesses and governments in response to the pandemic and the speed and effectiveness of responses to combat the virus. The COVID-19any such pandemic or public health crisis. Any future pandemic or public health crisis may materially adversely affect our operating and financial results in a manner that is not currently known to us or that we do not currently consider to present significant risks to our operations.

An increase in inflation could have adverse effects on our results of operation.

Inflation continues to rise and has caused the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates with indications of future increases, which has created further uncertainty for the economy and for our customers. If inflationary pressures continue into 2023, this will increase our labor costs and the costs of parts, lube oil and other materials used in our operations. Continued inflation or an increase in inflation rates could negatively affect our profitability and cash flows, due to higher wages, higher operating costs, higher financing costs, and/or higher supplier prices. We may be unable to pass along such higher costs to our customers. In addition, inflation may adversely affect customers’ financing costs, cash flows, and profitability, which could adversely impact their operations and our ability to collect receivables.

The conflict in Ukraine and related price volatility and geopolitical instability could negatively impact our business.

In late February 2022, Russia launched significant military action against Ukraine. The conflict has caused, and could intensify, volatility in natural gas prices, and the extent and duration of the military action, sanctions and resulting market disruptions could be significant and could potentially have a substantial negative impact on the global economy and/or our business for an unknown period of time. Any such volatility and disruptions may also magnify the impact of other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section.

Business and Operational Risks

Our operations entail inherent risks that may result in substantial liability. We do not insure against all potential losses and could be seriously harmed by unexpected liabilities.

Our operations entail inherent risks, including equipment defects, malfunctions and failures and natural disasters, which could result in uncontrollable flows of natural gas or well fluids, fires and explosions. These risks may expose us, as an equipment operator, to liability for personal injury, wrongful death, property damage, pollution and other environmental damage. The insurance we carry against many of these risks may not be adequate to cover our claims or losses. Our insurance coverage includes property damage, general liability and commercial automobile liability and other coverage we believe is appropriate. Additionally, we are substantially self-insuredself–insured for workers’ compensation and employee group health claims in view of the relatively high per-incidentper–incident deductibles we absorb under our insurance arrangements for these risks. We are also self-insuredself–insured for property damage to our offshore assets. Further, insurance covering the risks we expect to face or in the amounts we desire may not be available in the future or, if available, the premiums may not be commercially justifiable. If we were to incur substantial liability and such damages were not covered by insurance or were in excess of policy limits, or if we were to incur liability at a time when we are not able to obtain liability insurance, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be negatively impacted.

We face significant competitive pressures that may cause us to lose market share and harm our financial performance.

Our business is highly competitive and there are low barriers to entry. Our competitors may be able to more quickly adapt to technological changes within our industry and changes in economic and market conditions as a whole, more readily take advantage of acquisitions and other opportunities and adopt more aggressive pricing policies. Our ability to renew or replace existing contract operations service agreements with our customers at rates sufficient to maintain current revenue and cash flows could be adversely affected by the activities of our competitors. If our competitors substantially increase the resources they devote to the development and marketing of competitive products, equipment or services or substantially decrease the price at which they offer their products, equipment or services, we may not be able to compete effectively.

While we paid quarterly dividends of $0.145 per share of common stock during the year ended December 31, 2021,2022, there can be no assurance that we will pay dividends in the future.

We paid quarterly cash dividends of $0.145 per share of common stock during the year ended December 31, 2021.2022. We cannot provide assurance that we will, at any time in the future, again generate sufficient surplus cash that would be available for distribution to the holders of our common stock as a dividend or that our Board of Directors would determine to use any such surplus orof our net profits to pay a dividend.

Future dividends may be affected by, among other factors:

Our inability to fund purchases of additional compression equipment could adversely impact our financial results.

We may not be able to maintain or increase our asset and customer base unless we have access to sufficient capital to purchase additional compression equipment. Cash flow from our operations and availability under our Credit Facility may not provide us with sufficient cash to fund our capital expenditure requirements, including any funding requirements related to acquisitions. Our ability to grow our asset and customer base could be impacted by limits on our ability to access additional capital.

We may be vulnerable to interest rate increases due to our variable rate debt obligations.

After taking into consideration interest rate swaps, we did not have any outstanding indebtedness that was subject to variable interest rates as of December 31, 2021. However, our interest rate swaps mature in the first quarter of 2022, at which time all borrowingsBorrowings under our Credit Facility will beare subject to variable interest rates. Changes in economic conditions outside of our control could result in higher interest rates, thereby increasing our interest expense and reducing the funds available for capital investment, operations or other purposes. In addition, a substantial portion of our cash flow must be used to service our debt obligations. Any increase in our interest expense could negatively impact our results of operations and cash flows, including our ability to pay dividends in the future.

Our Credit Facility contains LIBOR benchmark replacement provisions. However, at this time, there can be no assurance as to whether any alternative benchmark or resulting interest rates may be more or less favorable than LIBOR or any other unforeseen impacts of the discontinuation of LIBOR. As a result, the proposals or consequences related to this transition could have a material adverse effect on our debt service obligations, financing costs, liquidity, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows and could impair our access to the financial markets.

Uncertainty relating to the phasing out of LIBOR may adversely affect the market value of our current or future debt obligations, including our Credit Facility.

On May 3, 2021,Borrowings under our Credit Facility bear interest at a rate per annum of either, at our election, the FCA announced that certainU.S. dollar LIBOR rate for specified interest periods or a base rate, plus an applicable margin. The publication of U.S. dollar LIBOR rates includingfor the 1-month rate used to determine the amount of interest payable related to borrowings under our Credit Facility,most common tenors (overnight and one, three, six and twelve months) will cease to be provided afterpublication on June 30, 2023. In the U.S., efforts to identify a set of alternative U.S. dollar reference interest rates that could replace LIBOR include proposals by the Alternative Reference Rates Committee of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Our Credit Facility agreement requires that we execute an amendment that establishes an alternate reference rate should the 1-month U.S. dollar LIBOR cease to be published (among other circumstances), to be agreed upon by us and the administrative agent under our Credit Facility and giving due consideration to the then-prevailing market convention for determining a rate of interest for syndicated loans in the U.S. at such time, with notice rights subject to objection by required lenders under the facility. TheCredit Facility. Until an alternate reference rate selected may result in interest obligations which are more than or do not otherwise correlate over time with the payments that would have been made on any current or future debt obligations, including theis established, borrowings under our Credit Facility ifwill be limited to base rate borrowings, which may bear a higher interest rate than LIBOR and, in turn, potentially increase our interest expense. Uncertainty regarding the continued use and reliability of LIBOR as a benchmark rate and uncertainty regarding its replacement could disrupt the financial markets or adversely affect arrangements tied to LIBOR.

The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York organized the Alternative Reference Rates Committee (“ARRC”), which identified the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) as its preferred alternative to U.S. dollar LIBOR was available in its current form. Replacementfinancial contracts. There can be no assurance that SOFR or any other alternative reference rate will perform in the same way as LIBOR would have at any time, including as a result of changes in interest and yield rates in the market, market volatility or global or regional economic, financial, political, regulatory, judicial or other events. Additionally, ARRC has recommended credit spread adjustments for use with SOFR due to LIBOR representing an unsecured lending rate while SOFR represents a secured lending rate. However, market acceptance of the 1-month U.S. dollarARRC–recommended credit spread adjustments, as opposed to no or alternative credit spread adjustments, has been mixed. Accordingly, we cannot predict whether changes related to the phase–out of LIBOR, may, therefore, materially adversely affect including any credit spread adjustments, insufficient liquidity in the SOFR or alternative reference rate markets or other reforms, as they occur, will have an adverse effect on the market value of, the applicable interest rate on and the amount of interest paid on our current or future debt obligations, including the Credit Facility.

Customer and Contract Risks

The erosion of the financial condition of our customers could adversely affect our business.

Many of our customers finance their exploration and production activities through cash flow from operations, the incurrence of debt or the issuance of equity. During times when the oil or natural gas markets weaken, our customers are more likely to experience a downturn in their financial condition. Additionally, some of our midstream customers may provide their gathering, transportation and related services to a limited number of companies in the oil and gas production business. A reduction in borrowing bases under reserve-basedreserve–based credit facilities, the lack of availability of debt or equity financing or other factors that negatively impact our customers’ financial condition could result in a reduction in our customers’ spending for our products and services, which may result in their cancellation of contracts, the cancellation or delay of scheduled maintenance of their existing natural gas compression equipment, their determination not to enter into new natural gas compression service contracts or their determination to cancel or delay orders for our services. Furthermore, the loss by our midstream customers of their key customers could reduce demand for their services and result in a deterioration of their financial condition, which would in turn decrease their demand for our services. Any such action by our customers would reduce demand for our services. Reduced demand for our services could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows. In addition, in the event of the financial failure of a customer, we could experience a loss on all or a portion of our outstanding accounts receivable associated with that customer.

Labor and Supply Chain Risks

Our ability to manage and grow our business effectively may be adversely affected if we lose management or operational personnel.

We believe that our ability to hire, train and retain qualified personnel will continue to be challenging and important. The supply of experienced operational and field personnel, in particular, decreases as other energy companies’ needs for the same personnel increase. Our ability to grow and to continue our current level of service to our customers will be adversely impacted if we are unable to successfully hire, train and retain these important personnel. In addition, the cost of labor has increased and may continue to increase in the future with increases in demand, which could require us to incur additional costs and negatively impact our results of operations.

We depend on particular suppliers and are vulnerable to product shortages and price increases. With respect to our suppliers of newly-fabricatednewly–fabricated compression equipment specifically, we occasionally experience long lead times, and therefore may at times make purchases in anticipation of future business. If we are unable to purchase compression equipment or other integral equipment, materials and services from third party suppliers, we may be unable to retain existing customers or compete for new customers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Some equipment, materials and services used in our business are obtained from a limited group of suppliers. Our reliance on these suppliers involves several risks, including price increases (as a result of inflation or otherwise), inferior quality and a potential inability to obtain an adequate supply of such equipment, materials and services in a timely manner. Additionally, we occasionally experience long lead times from our suppliers of newly-fabricatednewly–fabricated compression equipment and may at times make purchases in anticipation of future business. We do not have long-termlong–term contracts with some of these suppliers, and the partial or complete loss of certain of these suppliers could have a negative impact on our results of operations and could damage our customer relationships.

systems are vulnerable to disability or failures due to hacking, viruses, acts of war or terrorism and other causes. If our information technology systems were to fail and we were unable to recover in a timely way, we may be unable to fulfill critical business functions, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.condition.

In addition, our assets may be targets of terrorist activities that could disrupt our ability to service our customers. We may be required by our regulators or by the future terrorist threat environment to make investments in security that we cannot currently predict. The implementation of security guidelines and measures and maintenance of insurance, to the extent available, addressing such activities could increase costs. These types of events could materially adversely affect our business and results of operations. In addition, these types of events could require significant management attention and resources and could adversely affect our reputation among customers and the public.

Tax-relatedTax–related Risks

Tax legislation and administrative initiatives or challenges to our tax positions could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We operate in locations throughout the U.S. and, as a result, we are subject to the tax laws and regulations of U.S. federal, state and local governments. From time to time, various legislative or administrative initiatives may be proposed that could adversely affect our tax positions. There can be no assurance that our tax provision or tax payments will not be adversely affected by these initiatives. In addition, U.S. federal, state and local tax laws and regulations are extremely complex and subject to varying interpretations. There can be no assurance that our tax positions will not be challenged by relevant tax authorities or that we would be successful in any such challenge.

compete effectively or obtain adequate insurance in the future. See Part I, Item 3 “Legal Proceedings” and Note 26 (“Commitments and Contingencies”)15 to our Financial Statements for additional information regarding certain legal proceedings to which we are a party.

U.S. federal, state and local legislative and regulatory initiatives relating to hydraulic fracturing as well as governmental reviews of such activities could result in increased costs and additional operating restrictions or delays in the completion of oil and natural gas wells and adversely affect demand for our contract operations services.

Hydraulic fracturing is an important and common practice that is used to stimulate production of natural gas and/or oil from dense subsurface rock formations. We do not perform hydraulic fracturing, but many of our customers do. Hydraulic fracturing involves the injection of water, sand or alternative proppant and chemicals under pressure into target geological formations to fracture the surrounding rock and stimulate production. Hydraulic fracturing is typically regulated by state agencies, but recently, there has been increased public concern regarding an alleged potential for hydraulic fracturing to adversely affect drinking water supplies, and proposals have been made to enact separate U.S. federal, state and local legislation that would increase the regulatory burden imposed on hydraulic fracturing.

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 states such as Massachusetts and Virginia. 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, could potentially give rise to material impacts in the future.

We are subject to a variety of governmental regulations; failure to comply with these regulations may result in administrative, civil and criminal enforcement measures and changes in these regulations could increase our costs or liabilities.

We are subject to a variety of U.S. federal, state and local laws and regulations, including relating to the environment, health and safety, labor and employment and taxation. Many of these laws and regulations are complex, change frequently, are becoming increasingly stringent, and the cost of compliance with these requirements can be expected to increase over time. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations may result in a variety of administrative, civil and criminal enforcement measures, including assessment of monetary penalties, imposition of remedial requirements and issuance of injunctions as to future compliance. From time to time, as part of our operations, including newly acquired operations or in the future might otherwise have an opportunity to provide contract operations, we may be subject to compliance audits by regulatory authorities in the various states in which we operate.

Environmental laws and regulations may, in certain circumstances, impose strict liability for environmental contamination, which may render us liable for remediation costs, natural resource damages and other damages as a result of our conduct that was lawful at the time it occurred or the conduct of, or conditions caused by, prior owners or operators or other third parties. In addition, where contamination may be present, it is not uncommon for neighboring land owners and other third parties to file claims for personal injury, property damage and recovery of response costs. Remediation costs and other damages arising as a result of environmental laws and regulations, and costs associated with new information, changes in existing environmental laws and regulations or the adoption of new environmental laws and regulations could be substantial and could negatively impact our financial condition, profitability and results of operations. Moreover, failure to comply with these environmental laws and regulations may result in the imposition of administrative, civil and criminal penalties and the issuance of injunctions delaying or prohibiting operations. Notably, the current administration has indicated an intention to expand environmental enforcement efforts, and that it plans to target for enhanced enforcement locations and violations that involve harm to minority and low-income communities that historically have faced disproportionate environmental burdens.

We routinely deal with oil, natural gas oil and other petroleum products. Hydrocarbons or other hazardous substances or wastes may have been disposed or released on, under or from properties used by us to provide contract operations services or inactive compression storage or on or under other locations where such substances or wastes have been taken for disposal. These properties may be subject to investigatory, remediation and monitoring requirements under environmental laws and regulations.regulations, and such requirements may vary.

The modification or interpretation of existing environmental laws or regulations, the more vigorous enforcement of existing environmental laws or regulations, or the adoption of new environmental laws or regulations may also negatively impact oil and natural gas exploration and production, gathering and pipeline companies, including our customers, which in turn could have a negative impact on us.

Climate change legislation, regulatory initiatives and stakeholder pressures could result in increased compliance costs, financial risks and potential reduction in demand for our services.

Climate change legislation andregulatoryinitiatives may ariseoccur from avarietyofsources, includinginternational, national, regional and state levels of government and associated administrative bodies, seeking to restrict or regulate emissions of greenhousegases,suchascarbondioxideandmethane.

Congress Attheinternationallevel,theParisAgreement,whichwentintoeffectin November2016,seekstocombatclimatechangethroughtheestablishmentofindividually–determined GHGemissions reductiongoals.U.S.climatechangestrategyandimplementationofthatstrategythroughlegislationandregulationmaychange fromoneadministration tothenext,asPresident Bidenhas previously consideredrecently recommitted theU.S.totheParisAgreement afterhis predecessor withdrewtheU.S.fromtheagreement. Giventhisuncertainty, U.S.companies mayneedtoremain prepared to complywithrequirementsarisingfromparticipationintheParisAgreementgoingforward.Ithasbecomeincreasinglylikelythat the U.S. willdevelop federal climate legislation in addition to restrict or regulate emissions of greenhouse gases. Energyexisting energy legislation and other initiatives continue to be proposed that may be relevant to greenhouse gasGHGemissionsissues.ManyU.S.states,eitherindividuallyorthroughmulti–stateregionalinitiatives,havebegunto addressGHG emissions, issues. Almost half of primarilythroughthe states, either individually or through multi-state regional initiatives, have begun to address greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through the planneddevelopment ofemissioninventoriesorregional greenhouse gasGHG capandtradeprograms.Althoughmostofthe state-level state–levelinitiativeshavetodatebeenfocusedonlargesourcesof greenhouse gasGHG emissions, suchaselectricpowerplants,itispossiblethatsmallersourcessuchasournatural gas-poweredgas–powered compressors couldbecomesubjecttoGHG–relatedregulation.Dependingontheparticularprogram,wecouldberequiredtocontrol emissionsortopurchaseandsurrenderallowancesforGHG emissionsresultingfromouroperations.

Thelegislative landscapecontinuestochange andtobemetwithlegalchallengeswithrespect toclimate–related lawsand regulations, makingitdifficulttopredictwithcertainty theultimateimpacttheywillhave on usintheaggregate. AlthoughitisnotcurrentlypossibletopredicthowanyproposedorfutureGHG legislationorregulationpromulgated attheinternational,national,stateorlocallevelswillimpactourbusiness,anyregulationofGHG emissionsthatmay beimposedinareasinwhichweconductbusinesscouldresultinincreasedcompliancecosts,additionaloperatingrestrictionsor reduced demand for our services, and could have amaterial adverse effect onour business, financial condition, results of operationsandcashflows.

Additionally, in March 2022, the SEC proposed new rules relating to greenhouse gas-related regulation. Depending on the particular program, we could be required to controldisclosure of a range of climate–related data risks and opportunities, including financial impacts, physical and transition risks, related governance and strategy and GHG emissions, or to purchase and surrender allowances for greenhouse gas emissions resulting from our operations. The $1 trillion legislative infrastructure package passed by Congress in November 2021 includes 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 proposals are also under consideration in Congress in early 2022 that reportedly could provide significant funding for research and development of low-carbon energy production methods, carbon capture, and other programs directed at addressing climate change.

A climate–related decrease in demand for oil and natural gas could negatively affect our business.

Supply and demand for oil and natural gas is dependent upon a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. These factors include, among others, the potential adoption of new government regulations, including those related to fuel conservation measures and climate change regulations, technological advances in fuel economy and energy generation devices. For example, legislative, regulatory or executive actions intended to reduce emissions of GHGs could increase the cost of consuming crude oil and natural gas, thereby potentially causing a reduction in the demand for such products. A broader transition to alternative fuels or energy sources, whether resulting from potential new government regulation, carbon taxes or consumer preferences could result in decreased demand for crude oil, natural gas and NGLs. Any decrease in demand for these products could consequently reduce demand for our services and could have a negative effect on our business.

Also, recent activism directed at shifting funding away from companies with energy-related assets could result in a reduction of funding for the energy sector overall, which could have an adverse effect on our ability to obtain external financing as well as negatively affect the cost of, and terms for, financing to fund capital expenditures or other aspects of our business.

Climate change may increase the frequency and severity of weather events that could result in severe personal injury, property and environmental damage, which could curtail our or our customers’ operations and otherwise materially adversely affect our cash flows.

Some scientists have concluded that increasing concentrations of GHG in the Earth’s atmosphere may produce climate changes that have significant weather–related effects, such as increased frequency and severity of storms, droughts, floods and other climatic events. If any of those effects were to occur, they could have an adverse effect on our assets and operations, including damages to our or our customers’ facilities and assets from powerful wind or rising waters. We may experience increased insurance costs, or difficulty obtaining adequate insurance coverage, for our assets in areas subject to more frequent severe weather. We may not be able to recoup these increased costs through the rates we charge our customers. Extreme weather events could cause damage to property or facilities that could exceed our insurance coverage and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Another possible consequence of climate change is increased volatility in seasonal temperatures. The market for natural gas and natural gas liquids is generally impacted by periods of colder weather and warmer weather, so any changes in climate could affect the market for those fuels, and thus demand for our services. Despite the use of the term “global warming” as a shorthand for climate change, some studies indicate that climate change could cause some areas to experience temperatures substantially colder than their historical averages. As a result, it is difficult to predict how the market for our services could be affected by increased temperature volatility.

Increased environmental, social and governance scrutiny and changing expectations from stakeholders may impose additional costs or additional risks.

In recent years, increasing attention has been given to corporate activities related to ESG matters. A number of advocacy groups, both domestically and internationally, have campaigned for governmental and private action to promote change at public companies related to ESG matters, including increasing attention and demands for action related to climate change, promoting the use of substitutes to fossil fuel products and encouraging the divestment of companies in the fossil fuel industry. Companies which do not adapt to or comply with expectations and standards on ESG matters, as they continue to evolve, or which are perceived to have not responded appropriately to the growing concern for ESG issues, regardless of whether there is a legal requirement to do so, may suffer from reputational damage and the business, financial condition and/or stock price of such a company could be materially and adversely affected.

could erode our stakeholder trust and thereby affect our brand and reputation. Such erosion of confidence could negatively impact our business through decreased demand and growth opportunities, delays in projects, increased legal action and regulatory oversight, adverse press coverage and other adverse public statements, difficulty hiring and retaining top talent, difficulty obtaining necessary approvals and permits from governments and regulatory agencies on a timely basis and on acceptable terms, and difficulty securing investors and access to capital. The occurrence of any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

ItemITEM 1B. Unresolved Staff CommentsUNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

ItemITEM 2. PropertiesPROPERTIES

The following table describes the material facilities that we owned or leased at December 31, 2021:2022:

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Our executive office is located at 9807 Katy Freeway, Suite 100, Houston, Texas 77024 and our telephone number is 281-836-8000.281–836–8000.

Overview

We are an energy infrastructure company with a pure-playpure–play focus on midstream natural gas compression. We are the leading provider of natural gas compression services to customers in the oil and natural gas industry throughout the U.S., in terms of total compression fleet horsepower, and a leading supplier of aftermarket services to customers that own compression equipment in the U.S. Our business supports a must-runmust–run service that is essential to the production, processing, transportation and storage of natural gas. The natural gas that we help transport satisfies demand from electricity generation, heating and cooking and the industrial and manufacturing sectors. Our geographic diversity, technically experienced personnel and large fleet of natural gas compression equipment enable us to provide reliable contract operations services to our customers.

We operate in two business segments:

Significant 20212022 Transactions

July 2021 Dispositions

In July 2021,During the year ended December 31, 2022, we completed sales of certain contract operations customer service agreements and approximately 575770 compressors, comprising approximately 100,000 horsepower, used to provide compression services under those agreements, as well as other assets used to support the operations. We received cash consideration of $60.3 million for the sales and recorded gains on the sales of $13.0 million during the year ended December 31, 2021. The proceeds received from the sales were used to repay borrowings outstanding under our Credit Facility. See Note 4 (“Business Transactions”) to our Financial Statements for further details of these transactions.

February 2021 Disposition

In February 2021, we completed the sale of certain contract operations customer service agreements and approximately 300 compressors, comprising approximately 40,000172,000 horsepower, used to provide compression services under those agreements, as well as other assets used to support the operations. We recorded aan aggregate gain on the salesales of $6.0 million during the year ended December 31, 2021.$28.1 million. See Note 4 (“Business Transactions”)3 to our Financial Statements for further detailsadditional information about these dispositions.

In April 2022, we agreed to acquire for cash a 25% equity interest in ECOTEC, a company specializing in methane emissions detection, monitoring and management. As of this transaction.

Current Trends

In 2019, increased global demand for U.S. natural gas and crude oil production contributed to increased production for both resources and record U.S. natural gas production. Production fell sharply, however, in the second quarter of 2020 as a result of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and remained at depressed levels until the latter half of 2021, at which point production rose relatively consistently through the remainder of the year. According to the EIA’s February 2022 Short-Term EnergyEIA Outlook, average U.S. oil and dry natural gas and crude oil production in 2021, 2020 and 2019 were as follows:

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The increasesLooking back to 2021, the economic recovery from the effects of the COVID–19 pandemic brought a rebound in production in 2019 resulted in strongenergy demand for our compression services in that year and intoaround the first quarter of 2020. Additionally, we increased our investment in new fleet units in 2019 to take advantage of improved market conditions. As a result of this increased demand and investment, our contract operations revenue and average operating horsepower increased 15% and 10%, respectively, in 2019. In 2020,globe; however, the decrease in demand and production brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic drove revenue and average operating horsepower to below 2019 levels, where they remained through all of 2021, as producers limited drilling and completion activity to achieve maintenance levels of production and cash flows in the course of the pandemic.

In 2022, the rebound in energy demand triggered supply constraints and price spikes for multiple commodities. That, coupled with the conflict in Ukraine, increased market uncertainty and price spikes as the market and consumers balance supply security and affordability. Even given this uncertainty in the market, oil and natural gas production in 2022 continued to rebound, particularly natural gas production. The increases in production in 2022 resulted in strong demand for our compression services and we increased our investment in new fleet units. Our contract operations revenue and total operating horsepower increased 5% and 6%, respectively in 2022. Similar decreasesincreases in demand as a result of the pandemicin 2022 were seen in our aftermarket services business, where we experienced a risean increase of 26% in customer deferrals of maintenance activities throughout 2020 and the beginning of 2021, before demand picked upaftermarket services revenue in the second quarter of 2021 and continued to improve through the remainder of the year.2022.

Outlook

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The EIA Outlook forecasts the following year-over-year changesyear–over–year changes:

The events of 2022 drove broad realization that a more diverse energy mix is needed to satisfy global energy demand and preserve energy security, making it a rewarding time to be in its February 2022 Short-Term Energy Outlook:

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Overall,the business of transporting U.S. natural gas. The EIA Outlook expects natural gas and crude oil production is expectedto continue to increase primarily in 2022the Permian region in West Texas and 2023, returningSoutheast New Mexico and in the Haynesville region in Louisiana and East Texas due to pre-COVID-19 levelsthe expected completion of new pipeline infrastructure expansions in 2023 as U.S. onshore activity continues the rise it began in mid-2021. Accordingly, we anticipate demand for our compression services to also increase as we move into 2022.

Longer term, per the EIA’s 2021 Annual Energy Outlook,and 2024. Although the EIA expects dry natural gas production to increase, 12%, 17% and 33% through 2025, 2030 and 2050, respectively. Natural gas provides an affordable and reliable solution that we believe will play a prominent role in a cleaner energy mix, even as energy generation from renewables increases. We believe that the U.S. natural gas compression services industry continuesconsumption is expected to have growth potential over time due to, among other things, increased natural gas productiondecrease slightly, reflecting a decrease in the U.S. from unconventional sources, aging producing natural gas fields that will require more compression to continue producing the same volumeusage of natural gas and expected increased demand for natural gas in the U.S. forelectric power generation industrial uses and exports, including liquefied natural gassector, as a result of increased power generation from renewables, partially offset by increased LNG exports and exports of natural gas via pipeline to Mexico.

We believe the outlook for the energy industry in the U.S. is positive. While we anticipate that the combination of commodity prices and demand may likely have a positive impact on activity levels in both the upstream and midstream sectors, we cannot predict the ultimate magnitude of that impact on our business and expect it to be varied across our operations, depending on the region, customer, nature of our services, contract term and other factors. However, we continue to believe that such an increase inoverall the long–term demand for U.S.our compression services will continue given the necessity of compression in facilitating the transportation and processing of natural gas will in turn lead to continued strong demand for compression services.gas.

Regarding our aftermarket services business, the base of owned compression in the U.S. has increased over the past several years, which we believe will help sustain our aftermarket services business over the long term.

Key Challenges and Uncertainties

In addition to general market conditions in the oil and natural gas industry – those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and otherwise – and competition in the natural gas compression industry, we believe the following represent the key challenges and uncertainties we will face in the future.

Capital Requirements and the Availability of External Sources of Capital. We have funded a significant portion of our capital expenditures and acquisitions through borrowings under theour Credit Facility and have issued a substantial amount of debt, which could limit our ability to fund future planned capital expenditures. Current conditions could limit our ability to access the debt and equity markets to raise capital on affordable terms in 20222023 and beyond. If we are not successful in raising capital within the time period required or at all, we may not be able to fund these capital expenditures, which could impair our ability to grow or maintain our business.

Cost Management. In anticipation of lower customer activity levels in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented a plan in the second quarter of 2020 to significantly reduce our annual operating, corporate and capital costs, many aspects of which we continued to execute on throughout 2021 and expect to continue in the foreseeable future. In addition, in order to improve our operations and further reduce operating expenses, we are investing significant resources into a process and technology transformation project that has, among other things, replaced our existing ERP, supply chain and inventory management systems and expanded the remote monitoring capabilities of our compression fleet. Cost management continues to be challenging, however, and there is no guarantee that our efforts will result in a reduction in our operating expenses. Natural gas production growth and resulting demand for our services once resumed in full, could cause us to experience increased operating expenses as we hire employees and incur additional expenses needed to support the rebound in market demand.

Further, we depend on suppliers for the materials, parts, equipment and lube oil necessary to our operations, which exposes us to volatility in prices. Significant price increases for these inputs could adversely affect our operating profits. Supply chain bottlenecks resulting from the COVID-19 pandemicdisruptions could also adversely affect our ability to obtain, or increase the cost of, such items. While we generally attempt to mitigate the impact of increased prices through strategic purchasing decisions, diversification of our supplier base, where possible, and the passing along of increased costs to customers, there may be a time delay between the increased commodity prices and the ability to increase the price of our services.

Labor. We believe that our ability to hire, train and retain qualified personnel will continue to be important. Although we have been able to historically satisfy our personnel needs, retaining employees in our industry continues to be a challenge. Our ability to grow and to continue our current level of service to our customers will depend in part on our success in hiring, training and retaining our employees, including those employees impacted by our headcount reduction and furloughs through the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.employees. Further, the cost of labor has increased and may continue to increase in the future with increases in demand, which will require us to incur additional costs.

Later-Cycle Market Participant. Compression service providers have traditionally been a later-cycle participant as energy markets fluctuate. As such, we anticipate that any significant change in the demand for our contract operations services will generally lag a change in drilling activity. Increased natural gas and crude oil production in 2018 and 2019 contributed to increased new orders for our compression services during those years and into the first quarter of 2020, the revenue gains from which were realized in 2019 and the first quarter of 2020. In the second quarter of 2020, however, customer demand dropped sharply in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the associated decrease in our revenue occurred almost immediately.

Dry natural gas production, one of the key drivers of our business, increased 10% in 2019, decreased 1% in 2020, increased 3% in 2021, and is expected to increase 12% in 2022 through 2025. We believe that, similar to the rapid drops in customer demand and associated revenue experienced in 2020, our revenue will increase closely behind the pickup in customer demand as the COVID-19 pandemic runs its course. Long term, we expect to return to the more traditional cycle in which production growth increases demand for compression services, which results in increases in revenue and gross margin, though on a lag of several quarters or more.