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spk04: Good day and welcome to the DELIC Logistics Partners first quarter 2023 conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. And to withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Rosie Zuklik. Please go ahead, ma'am.
spk00: Good morning and welcome to the DELEC Logistics Partners First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Participants on today's call will include Avigal Sorek, President, Joseph Israel, EVP Operations, Ruben Spiegel, EVP and Chief Financial Officer, and Odeli Sakasi, SVP, DELEC Logistics. As a reminder, This conference call will contain forward-looking statements as defined under the federal securities laws, including, without limitations, statements regarding guidance and future business outlook. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from our forecast. For more information, please refer to the risk factors discussed in the company's most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. along with the press release associated with this call. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak of their respective dates. Before I turn the call over to Avigal, I just want to remind everyone of a reporting change we made last quarter. After the three bear acquisition, we reorganized our business and changed the naming of Delic Permian Gathering to Midland Gathering. The three bear gathering assets are now referred to as Delaware Gathering. Avigol?
spk03: Thank you, Rosie. Delic Logistics partners started 2023 with another record quarter. Our logistics system ran well, contributing to a record figure of over $93 million. Delic Logistics continues to deliver a solid operation performance and generating strong cash flow. This is due to investment we have made to develop our assets As an example, compared with last year, we have more than doubled the volume in the Midland Gathering system. In addition, during the quarter, TechLogistic continued its track record of a safe and reliable operation. As of the end of March, DKL employees and contractors have worked a combined of 4 million man-hours with zero lost-time injuries. I am extremely proud of our employees and contractors who continue to focus on safety and achieve milestones. On April 28th, our board of directors approved a 4.6% increase in the quarterly distribution to $1.02 per limited partner unit for the first quarter. This marks 41 consecutive quarterly distribution increases for the partnership, and we are committed to continuing this trend. This increase demonstrates our commitment to our unit holders and our confidence in our business. We continue to be optimistic on the outlook for the midstream business and believe DELEC Logistics is well positioned to continue its strong track record of growth. I will now hand it over to Ruben.
spk02: Thank you, Avigal. Total EBITDA for DKL was 93 million for the first quarter of 23, compared with 66 million in the same period in 22. For the first quarter of 23, distributable cash flow was 62 million, and the DCF coverage ratio was 1.38 times. For the gathering and processing segment, EBITDA this quarter was 55 million, compared with 32 million in the first quarter of 22. The increase was primarily driven by strong contribution by the Midland Gathering system, as well as Delaware Gathering, which was added in June of 22. Throughput of the Midland Gathering averaged approximately 222,000 barrels per day for the first quarter of 23. This was up from an average of about 100,000 barrels per day in the first quarter of 22. The wholesale marketing and terminal link segment EBITDA of $22 million for the quarter and was in line with our prior year. The storage and transportation segment had EBITDA of $13 million this first quarter, compared with $11 million during the same period last year. The increase was primarily from higher utilization and fees. And lastly, the investment in pipeline joint venture segment contributed $6 million toward the first quarter of 2023, compared with $7 million in the first quarter of 2022. The decrease was from lower throughput due to the delectile refinery turnaround in the first quarter of 23. Going forward, we expect JV contribution to DKL to revert to normal levels of approximately $8 million a quarter. Moving to capital expenditure, first quarter of 23 capital spending was $36 million, of which $33 million was for growth project, namely advancing new connections in the Delaware and Midland gathering system. For 23, we maintain with our capital outlook of $81 million. With that, we can open the call for questions.
spk04: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your touchtone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. And to withdraw your question, please press star then 2. And at this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble our roster. And the first question will come from Justin Jenkins with Raymond James. Please go ahead.
spk06: Great, thanks. I think we covered a good bit already on the DK call, but just a couple high-level questions, if I could, probably for Abigail. First, on Permian operations, just with the commodity price moves and rig count changes that we've seen, can we get an update on what you're seeing in the overall operating environment and what that means for the volume outlook for both of the systems?
spk03: Yeah, absolutely, Justin. Thanks for taking the time to join us this call. Thank you for the question. And so over the last year, we have seen the Midland total production going up, call it 10%. And in our area, we've seen that more than doubled. And that's a great trend. And we are extremely happy with the results we are seeing. And we are extremely happy with the relationship we have with the producer and the amount of rigs we see on site. So it's really encouraging the results and the trend that we are seeing around the rock and around the operation. So I think that on the area side of DPG, we got it right. Very happy with the performance that we see on what used to be Tree Bear, now the Dallow area, and that went extremely well for us. That will present, Justin, and you know that, a good opportunity and a good way to going forward and keep increasing the distribution. Forty-one quarters in a row, and we have a long way ahead of us to continue that trend.
spk06: Perfect. I guess second one, even more broad than my first question, just how you see Navigol's DKL evolving here in 2023 and maybe what the overall M&A backdrop looks like as well.
spk03: So we have demonstrated in the TRIBER area that there is a gap between the private market and the public market. We think that DKL as a unit is a great unit to hold because of distribution, because of how solid it is, and because of the consistency we did over that. And I'm sure that we'll find a path forward to keep bridging those gaps and bring the investors Great distribution and great performance going forward. Extremely encouraging and good times.
spk04: Great. Thanks, Abigail. I'll leave it there. Thank you. The next question will come from Doug Irwin with Citi. Please go ahead.
spk05: Hey, thanks for the question. Just wanted to start with the balance sheet maybe. If we kind of look at leverage this quarter, it moves a little bit lower. but the absolute debt level actually increased a bit. Can you maybe just talk about where you see leverage trending throughout the year and maybe give a little context about kind of how much of that is driven by EBITDA growth versus maybe the ability to pay down some debt later this year?
spk03: Yeah. Thanks for the question, Doug. I will start and Ruben will continue. So the only reasoning we did draw some interest some funds for capital projects, which were very nice for us with the improvement in EBITDA, so that was a good decision. Going forward towards the year, Doug, we see the leverage ratio going down, and we have a good pathway for that, so we're optimistic on that as well. I don't know, Ruben, if you want to add anything?
spk02: Just a little bit of color, 36 million of CapEx in the first quarter was 45% of our annual plan, and we say we expect to stay within that guideline of 81 million. So that was one reason why the draw, especially that most of the draw was for growth capital projects. And we do expect the trend of the leverage ratio to continue to go down every quarter.
spk05: Okay, great. That's helpful. One, maybe around costs. I know you've outlined kind of a cost reduction initiative at the DK level. Just curious kind of where DKL might fit into that and if you're seeing any kind of potential opportunities for cost reduction at the MLP level as well.
spk03: So, thanks. And that's a great question. We are looking on all areas of the business, how we can make it more tight and focused and productive. Obviously, DKL is part of that, and I'm sure that we'll see some improvement over there as well. Odell, you want to say anything on that? You are leading that spirit.
spk01: No, no, for sure. Just to give a little bit of color, we do looking on a couple of opportunity to be able to achieve later the year, specifically from efficiencies and also capabilities that we're doing. That's obviously reflected both in the gross margin, but also on the OPEX to make sure that we're doing everything right and safe. So it definitely will be applied. Most of the capital, as Ruben mentioned, was done from Q1. So as we're going to move forward, we're going to see that so that's going to be resolved with also improvement optics as well.
spk04: Got it. That's all I had. Thanks for the time. Thank you. Again, if you have a question, please press star, then 1. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Avigol Zorich for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.
spk03: Avigol Zorich Yeah, so I would like to thank our DKL employees, first of all, for the safe and reliable operation. The mark of four million hours without lost time injury is really remarkable, and we are looking forward to hit the five now. So first of all, our employees, our investors, board of directors, and everyone that took the time to join us today for the call. Really impressive time to have best quarter after best quarter, and really enjoying the ride. Thank you so much, and we'll see you soon next quarter.
spk04: The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
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