speaker
Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Enterprise Products Partners LP second quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you'll need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To remove yourself from the queue, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Randy Burkhalter, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

speaker
Randy Burkhalter

Thank you, Norma. And good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Enterprise Products Conference call today to discuss second quarter earnings. Our speakers today will be Co-Chief Executive Officers of Enterprises General Partner Jim Teague and Randy Fowler. Other members of our senior management team are also in attendance for the call. During this call, we will make forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, based on the beliefs of the company, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to Enterprise's management team. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Please refer to our latest filings with the SEC or list of factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements that may join the call today. And so with that, I'll turn it over to Jim.

speaker
Norma

Thank you, Randy. Today we reported adjusted EBITDA at $2.2 billion for the second quarter of 23 compared to $2.4 for the second quarter of 22 and $2.3 for the first quarter of 23. We generated $1.7 billion of DCF, providing 1.6 times coverage Enterprise retained $639 million of DCF in the second quarter, and we've retained $1.5 billion year-to-date. We had resilient financial results despite the impact of lower prices for crude, natural gas, NGOs, and petrochemicals. Our profits were negatively impacted by weaker processing margins for the first part of the year. Our petrochemical service segment continued to perform in spite of the low price and lower margin environment. During the quarter, we established six operational records, including our natural gas pipeline volumes, NGL fractionation volumes, and 11.9 million barrels of oil equivalent of total pipeline volumes. We're also extremely proud of the fact that with the increase in our distribution last quarter, we crossed the threshold of 25 consecutive years of distribution growth, literally unheard of in the midstream industry. This is truly an exceptional milestone across all industries, and most importantly, a real tribute to the core principles laid out from our very beginnings that RANDA continues to prioritize today. Moving to growth capital, we started the second quarter with $6.1 billion of major growth projects under construction. We have since completed construction on four major growth projects that will provide new sources of cash. We have an additional $4.1 billion under construction. Completed major projects during the second quarter and early July include a 400 million cubic foot a day expansion of the Hainesville extension of the Acadian natural gas pipeline system, which is sold out. Our Poseidon cryogenic natural gas processing plant, which is our sixth processing plant in the Midland Basin, which is sold out. Our 19th NGL fractionator, which is sold out, and our PDEH2 plant in Chambers County, which is sold out and ramping up currently between 65% and 70% and climbing. The three remaining natural gas processing plants we have under construction in the Permian Basin will go into service in late 23 and early 24, one in Midland and one in Delaware. And the first phase of the Texas Western Products Pipeline will be put into service in December. When we complete the next three Permian plants, we'll have 16 processing plants in the Permian with the capability to process 3.8 BCF a day of natural gas and extract more than 520,000 barrels a day of NGLs, all destined for additional value-added services in our Gulf Coast NGL system. Meanwhile, downstream of the Permian, we have major expansions underway for ethane, ethylene, polymer grade propylene, and LPG, expanding and upgrading our export capacity at the ship channel at Morgan's Point and at Beaumont. Our new export projects are designed with an emphasis on flexibility and reliability, centered around a highly integrated footprint with multi-product capabilities. Even as the world works its way through a significant petrochemical downturn, U.S. NGOs and opens continue to get a lot of attention from petrochemicals focused on feedstock diversity and advantage prices. In addition to multiple long-term export contracts we recently signed, we are also in discussions with counterparties from several countries for substantial amounts of additional natural gas liquids and olefin exports. This level of customer interest is what supports further expansion of our export capabilities. A wide gas to crude spread gives the petrochemical industry a feedstock advantage that is proving both durable and permanent. As Randy's heard me say a million times, I grew up in that business, and I've lived through more than a few cycles. Only the strong prosper through times like these, and U.S. NGL feedstocks sourced from shale oil and gas are again proving their growing importance. The durability of U.S. shales is evident in ever-increasing U.S. exports of crude, natural gas, natural gas liquids, and in exports of petrochemicals in various forms. In July, enterprise crude oil exports will exceed a record 30 million barrels. Oil and gas has faced commodity price headwinds, especially compared to the premiums of last year, when crude averaged over $100 a barrel during the first six months of 2022. We see no reason that crude should have been trading at the low levels of the last few months. In early June, OPEC Plus announced they were extending their reductions into 2024. On top of that, the Saudis announced they would unilaterally cut an additional 1 million barrels a day of production in July and August with the option to extend these cuts as needed. Meanwhile, waterborne data confirms that Russia's exports are coming down. Inventories of crude and refined products, both in the U.S. and globally, remain very low. while OPEC Plus continues to demonstrate they are committed to price stability. Even though industrial demand continues to lag, consumer demand is strong, especially in developed nations. Good oil supply demand fundamentals continue to indicate that we're in store for much tighter balances for the remainder of the year and in 2024. And with that, I turn it over to Randy.

speaker
Randy

Okay.

speaker
Norma

Thank you, Jim, and good morning, everyone.

speaker
Jim

Starting with the income statement, net income attributable to common unit holders for the second quarter of 2023 was $1.3 billion or $0.57 per common unit on a fully diluted basis. This compares to $1.4 billion or $0.64 per common unit for the second quarter of last year. Adjusted cash flow from operations, or we call it adjusted CFFO, which is cash flow from operating activities before changes in working capital was 1.9 billion for the second quarter of this year, compared to 2.1 billion for the second quarter of 2022. As Jim mentioned, 2023 marks our 25th consecutive year distribution growth. We declared a distribution of 50 cents per common unit for the second quarter of 2023, which is a 5.3% increase over the distribution declared for the second quarter of last year. and a 2% increase over the distribution that we declared last quarter. This distribution will be paid August 14th to common holders of record as of close of business July 31st. In the second quarter, we purchased 2.9 million common units for the quarter at a total cost of $75 million. For the first half of the year, unit purchases totaled approximately 3.6 million common units for a total purchase price of approximately $92 million. Inclusive of these purchases, we have now utilized 41% of the authorized $2 billion buyback program. In addition, our distribution reinvestment plan and our employee unit purchase plan purchased approximately 2 million common units on the open market for a total purchase price of approximately $51 million, and that was also during the second quarter. For the 12 months ending June 30, 2023, Enterprise paid out approximately $4.2 billion in distributions to limited partners. These distributions, combined with $307 million in buybacks for this period, result in Enterprise having a payout ratio of adjusted cash flow from operations of 57% and a ratio of payout for adjusted free cash flow of 86%. Total capital investments in the second quarter of 2023 were $784 million, which included $683 million for growth capital projects and $101 million of sustaining capital expenditures. As Jim noted, we have $4.1 billion of major growth projects under construction, $1.1 billion of which are expected to begin service in the remainder of 2023. We continue to expect our growth capital expenditures for 2023 will be in the range of $2.4 to $2.8 billion, depending on any incremental system expansions and timing. We continue to expect sustaining capital expenditures for 2023 will be approximately $400 million. Turning to capitalization, our total debt principal outstanding was approximately $28.9 billion as of June 30th. Assuming the final maturity date for our hybrids, the weighted average life of our debt portfolio was 20 years. Our weighted average cost of debt is 4.6%, and at June 30, approximately 97% of our debt was fixed rate. Our consolidated liquidity at quarter end was approximately $4 billion, and that includes both availability under our credit facilities and unrestricted cash. For the 12 months ended June 30, 2023, our adjusted EBITDA was $9.1 billion. This compares to $8.8 billion for the trailing 12 months ending June 30 of 2022. We ended the quarter with a consolidated leverage ratio of 3.0 times on a net basis after adjusting debt for the partial equity treatment of our hybrid debt and reduced by the partnership's unrestricted cash on hand. As a reminder, our leverage target remains three times plus or minus 0.25, so if you would, 2.75 to three and a quarter times, so we're right in the middle of that range. And with that, Randy, I think we can open it up for questions.

speaker
Randy Burkhalter

Okay, thank you, Randy. Norma, we're ready to open it up to questions from our listeners, and I would like to remind our listeners to restrict your questions, please, to one question and one follow-up question. And I'll take it from, and you can go ahead and take it from there, Norma.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you'll need to press star 11 on your telephone. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please wait for your name to be announced. Again, we ask that you limit your questions to one with one follow-up. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. One moment for our first question. Our first question comes from the line of Theresa Chen with Barclays. Your line is now open.

speaker
Theresa Chen

Hi. I'd love to get your sense on the third quarter outlook and beyond, just given the recent action we saw in NGL pricing, and ethane in particular. Would you be able to comment on this, and what you expect pricing to do as the quarter progresses, and how does this fit with your ability to earn outside margins along your integrated NGL value chain, as well as potentially cheat the $9.3 billion runway basis?

speaker
Norma

Yeah, this is Jim. I think we feel pretty constructive on the second half of the year. If we look at our processing margins, Natalie, they're better than they've been moving up. That's right. Okay. And in terms of outsized spreads, my experience is you can't predict them, but they're always there. And I think we might see more opportunity in the second half than we have seen in the first half.

speaker
Theresa Chen

Thank you. And then on the pet chem front, can you just comment on what you're seeing as far as demand goes and the ramp up of PDH utilization and or the underutilization on the ethylene production side?

speaker
Norma

Chris, you got it? Of course, Chris.

speaker
Chris

Yeah, Teresa, this is Chris Dana. On the pet chem side, overall demand, you know, non-durables, we're seeing healthy exports, whether it's in the form of pellets or whether it's in the form of ethylene across our dock, which remains full. On the durable side, we've seen numbers increasing over the last four months, but it really hasn't translated to higher overall demand. So as we talk to customers... You know, what originally was going to be a strong second half is probably pushed out maybe six months or so. And then on the MTBE side, you know, it's really a business that's driven by normal Arbob and Octane. That remains strong. So there was a lot in your question. PDH, it's ramping up. As it ramps up, we're sold out all the way up to the maximum nameplate. And so we'll continue to see that perform.

speaker
Chris Dana

Thank you. Thank you. One moment for our next question, please.

speaker
Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Tristan Richardson with Scotiabank. Your line is now open.

speaker
Tristan Richardson

Hey, good morning, guys. Just curious, Jim, you mentioned discussions with new international customers that maybe you haven't had relationships with before in the past, should we think of these incremental customers as largely around filling export expansions currently underway, or would these potential relationships be for further expansion to your export capacity down the road?

speaker
Norma

We signed that contract yesterday. Okay, you about ready to execute it? The one that we're going to execute, I think we've We had one large one, I think it was 200,000 barrels a day that we executed recently. And we're in discussions with at least two more, four more. And our guys are headed to Asia for an extended trip here, not too long. So I guess it's both what we've built and what we expect to sign.

speaker
Tristan Richardson

Okay, helpful. Thanks, Jim. And then maybe, Randy, just curious, as we've now seen PDH come online and FRAC 12 commission, as well as a processing plant, you know, I know it's too early to talk about 2024 capital, but just thinking about, you know, the potential for this elevated spend for these large and critical projects, kind of coming to a conclusion in 23, such that 24 could be lower than 23?

speaker
Jim

Yeah, Tristan, on that, you know, certainly getting PDH-2 completed, that was a big capital project. But when we come in and see the opportunities just in and around our system, I think, frankly, we're going to be in that $2, $2.5 billion range for the next two to three years. And some of that, you know, I'll have to say that $2 to $2.5 really is still excluding spots. which is still going through the licensing process. But I tell you what, we're just seeing a lot of good activity, a lot of good growth opportunities across the system.

speaker
Tristan Richardson

Appreciate it. Thank you guys very much.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. Our next question comes from the line of Spiro Dunas with Citi. Your line is now open.

speaker
Spiro Dunas

Thanks, operator. Morning, everybody. I actually want to go back to that a little bit, if we could, just on capital allocation. So I guess on my math, I think you still have you guys generating about 10 to 15 percent of operating cash flow. That's sort of unspoken for over the next few years, even with spot in there as well. So just curious to get your latest thoughts on preferred ways to allocate that capital, given your leverage levels are really already at sector lows.

speaker
Jim

Yes, Vera, I think it comes back to really what you've seen out of us the last two or three years is sort of all the above. You know, certainly in the last year, year and a half, we've picked back up on the cadence of our distribution growth. So, you know, we're, and again, that seems like the most direct way to return capital to our partners is through distribution bumps. But, you know, I think we'll, you know, continue to come in and sort of use all the above.

speaker
Spiro Dunas

Yeah, fair enough. Second question on Chinook, and Jim, I'll preface this question with I know you're going to expand Chinook at some point, but I also know you've talked about short-term bridging solutions to get there. I'm just curious if you guys have any updated thoughts on that.

speaker
Norma

Yeah, I've got a lot of thoughts on that, Kisraera. I was in a two-hour meeting yesterday with Brent and Justin. So you can imagine what it's like spending two hours with Brent and Justin looking at all of our options, all of our options. And our options could be we'll add another line called, what are we calling that, Bahia? Or we could partially loop Shin Oak and take Seminole out of NGL service. The bottom line is we have to have more takeaway out of the Permian. And, you know, I guess I've got to have another two or three hours with Justin and Brent. We'll come up with a solution.

speaker
Spiro Dunas

Sounds good. Appreciate the color, guys. Thanks again.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. Our next question comes from the line of Jeremy Tenet with JPMorgan Securities. Your line is now open.

speaker
Jeremy Tenet

Hi, good morning. All right. Just wanted to start off with some of the NGL dynamics as you were talking about before. I think you mentioned how the ethane prices have been volatile as of late. And just wondering if you see that as kind of logistics constraints given heat in Texas or otherwise, and I guess future outlook for ethane and propane prices at this point, given the volatility that we've seen recently.

speaker
Norma

Doug or Brent?

speaker
Tony

On ethane, I think what you saw last month is when nominations were due for ethane recoveries, The forward curve probably said not to recover, so you saw a bunch of ethane get rejected in the Permian Basin. You couple that with some operational issues on various plants across the entire basin. There was probably some frac rates that were lower than normal, and that made ethane very, very tight. I think if you look out forward, I think some of that volatility is going to suppress, and I think we get back to probably more of a normal type ratio between ethane and natural gas, but there was a culmination of factors that caused that.

speaker
Norma

Hey, Graham, turn on your mic. We always talk, you know, we worry about plants going down in the winter. What's 103 temperatures done?

speaker
Graham

Certainly there's some challenges with that, but I wouldn't say it's been a material impact on our operating rates. We generally design for those conditions. What about others? I can't speak for others. Well, I'm trying to get you to.

speaker
Tony

Just real quick on propane, when you look at just overall global demand, I think we've had four PDH plants come up in China so far this year. There's 11 other PDH plants scheduled to come online for the balance of this year. How much propane is that all in? I mean, if you say 100% capacity factor, that's another 250,000 barrels a day. Those plants aren't running at those higher rates, but call it 65% to 70%. It'll certainly put another bid under propane, just a matter of how fast production comes online.

speaker
Jeremy Tenet

Got it.

speaker
Tony

I would hope that we've seen the bottom on propane. That's my hope.

speaker
Norma

If not, it will still price to export, right? That's right.

speaker
Jeremy Tenet

Got it. That's helpful. Thanks. And just as we look going forward here, we keep seeing enterprises leverage dipping down below three. And just wondering if that trend continues, what should we expect at that point? Leverages continue to decline or I think two to two and a half billion of CapEx next year. Could that increase or just any other thoughts in general on capital allocations?

speaker
Jim

Yeah, Jeremy, you know, again, we're sort of in the middle of our range at 3.0 times. You know, and I think, again, the team is really bringing in some good commercial opportunities. We think growth capex would be $2.5 billion. And, again, as I mentioned earlier, that is without spot. And so, you know, I think we would just like to develop, see it develop, you know, as far as returning capital. You know, like I said, we picked up the pace on distribution growth. Still doing some buybacks. Balance sheet is in great shape. And, Jeremy, I guess just staying in a position that, you know, a lot of opportunities come along, and we just want to be in a good position to execute on.

speaker
Jeremy Tenet

Got it. That's helpful. Thank you.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. Our next question comes from the line of Jean Anne Salisbury with Bernstein. Your line is now open.

speaker
Jean Anne Salisbury

Hi, good morning. Has the scope changed a bit for the Beaumont export terminal? It looks like from the slides you're adding propane exports there.

speaker
Norma

You're pretty observant, Jean Anne. Go ahead, Tug.

speaker
Jean Anne

All right, so yeah, the scope has changed on that. We previously announced 120,000 broil a day ethane train at Beaumont. And now what we're doing is we're proceeding with that train in addition to a 180,000-barrel-a-day ethane train that can also do up to 360,000 barrels a day of propane. So we're not adding any additional ethane-only capacity. We're adding what we like to call flex capacity. We're doing that in lieu of our REF4 expansion, and we're opting for a much smaller capital project at our ship channel facility to increase our butane loading rates and allow for fully refrigerated PGP.

speaker
Norma

So, Jeannie, in my script, I said multi-product and flexibility. So Tug can go to somebody and say, look, you can take three tanks of ethane and a tank of ethylene. Or you can take three tanks of ethane and a tank of propane, or vice versa. So we're trying to fix it where those things will always be full. but not necessarily the same product.

speaker
Jean Anne

Butane, propylene, ethane, ethylene, you name it.

speaker
Jean Anne Salisbury

Interesting. Thank you. And then is the Acadian expansion running full already? And maybe more broadly, in your opinion, is Haynesville just completely full on gas takeaway now as new pipes come on?

speaker
spk01

Hey, Janine, this is Natalie. Haynesville, for us, our Acadian extension is full gas continues to produce in the, even on our gathering systems, we're getting more and more gas every day. Great. Thanks. That's all for me.

speaker
Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Colton Bean with TPH and Company. Your line is now open.

speaker
spk08

Morning. Just shifting back to the backlog, on the expected 24 growth capital range, Randy, I think you outlined the 2 to 2.5 billion. Currently improved projects look to be closer to 1.4. Can you just characterize the type of projects that you're expecting to reach FID on and then the hurdles you would need to clear to move those projects into the official backlog?

speaker
Jim

Yeah, Colton. Brent, you want to take some of this because you're on the front line of it.

speaker
Tony

Yeah, I mean, just to generalize this, Colton, I think everything's going to be centered around the Permian Basin. So whether that's an NGL pipe solution, whether that's processing plants, or whether that's an additional fractionator, it's going to be all centered around Permian production growth.

speaker
spk08

Got it. So effectively all in the NGL supply chain. Makes sense. And then on the operations side, it looks like midland processing earnings were relatively flat Q1Q despite the lower NGL pricing. So have we effectively reached fee floors for the acquired system at this point?

speaker
Randy Burkhalter

Yes.

speaker
spk08

Perfect. Thank you.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. Our next question comes from the line of Keith Stanley. With Wolf Research, your line is now open.

speaker
Brent

Hi, good morning. Wanted to start on SPA, just any update on commercial momentum and remaining permitting process and how soon you could conceivably get to an FID on that project?

speaker
Norma

I think we should have our license to construct, Graham, in September, October.

speaker
Graham

That's where it's trending right now. Everything's going well. right now on the licensing stage, and we're expecting within the next few months.

speaker
Norma

In terms of, I mean, we're traveling the world on spot. We have a laser focus on getting customers on spot, and I think we will, and I believe we'll end up building it.

speaker
Brent

Okay, and that could be by next year even? to be starting construction on that, do you think?

speaker
Norma

Well, if Tug and Brent would get off their rear end and get to Asia and see everybody, it would probably be sooner rather than later. But we're going to commercialize this thing, and we've got meetings. Brent and I are going to Europe later this month, Brent? September. In September. And the focus is on spot. We're pulling out all... Thanks to get it done.

speaker
Brent

Okay. Thanks for that. And the second question is just on the year overall. So the project $9.3 billion target for EBITDA, you did four and a half in the first half. But as you've pointed out a lot, you have a lot of major projects starting up. Commodities are improving. Just any updated thoughts on how you're feeling on that target, things that need to go right, areas where you may have cushioned?

speaker
Norma

You know, I say this every time. That's not guidance, but it's a goal. And we reward all of our employees if we hit that goal. And somebody asked on one earnings call, have we ever had a goal that we didn't meet? We're bound and determined that our employees are going to be rewarded by that. meeting 9.3 ago. What's going to help us, I think, is if you talk to Tony. I mean, crude prices, I don't know what they're doing today, Tony, but they've been up $10 in the last, what, 30 days. The balances are tight. All of our plants are full of the key, and Graham knows this. I think the key is keep the plants running because we will capitalize on any volatility.

speaker
Randy

Thank you.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. Our next question comes from the line of Brian Reynolds with UBS. Your line is now open.

speaker
Brian Reynolds

hi good morning everyone um to talk on the crude business it seems to be finding its footing in terms of margin opportunity for the first time since covid so curious if you could just you know opine on whether you're seeing incremental barrels and opportunity come back to houston as corpus remains full and if we continue to see green shoots into the back half of 23. thanks and thank you my script what i said is we uh we set a record um for loading crude on the ships in a month of uh

speaker
Norma

July. July. Thank you, Tony. Brent, I think you're seeing barrels move toward Houston. Brent, we'll answer that, but also talk about our quality improvements across the system.

speaker
Tony

I think fundamentally we believe in Tony's production numbers as we go forward. We do think that the Corpus pipelines are full. We think that what we've done on our system as it relates to quality has brought more interest. And I do think when we speak to our customers, they want a bigger and bigger position in Houston. So I think over time, and the other piece on this is not all pipelines are created equal. There's other pipelines that go to Houston or go to Beaumont that are more challenged than our integrated crude pipelines. I think we're going to be the beneficiary of this volume going forward. HOU? HOU helps. And David Brent? Yeah, I mean, just HOU being able to deliver and David Brent, what we've done on our system, you're seeing the open interest on that contract continue to go up. We've sent records in the last couple weeks on daily traded volume. I think ICE had a press release recently. went through some of those details, but all this just put together lends itself to more interest in trying to get to Houston on our pipelines.

speaker
Norma

I'm not supposed to ask questions, but I will anyway. Where's Jay?

speaker
spk06

How many of your cargoes have met dated Brent specs? Since we implemented the new quality specification mimicking the plat spec we've met, every one of our export cargoes have met that specification since we adopted it in May.

speaker
Brian Reynolds

Great. Thanks for all the color. And maybe to just touch a little bit on M&A, you know, commentary coming out of the analyst, Dave, made it seem like it was coming or attractive for enterprise. But with nothing, you know, year to date and, you know, EPD continuing to maintain its high bar for returns, just kind of curious if you could just give us a forward-looking update on potential M&A appetite or whether other uses of capital could impact the use of M&A going forward. Thanks.

speaker
Norma

One of the things about building plants is you could build them where you want them. And that's what I love about building all these plants in the Permian, and we're probably not through, building a fractionator where you want it.

speaker
Jim

So that's my color, but Randy is the one you should ask. It makes me want to go back and reread our transcripts from the analyst day. I didn't know we were that bullish on M&A. But, you know, again, we'll take a look at opportunities that come up. We're on – We're on every banker's Rolodex, so we get an opportunity to take a look. But I can't say that we're predisposed to come in and jump on M&A. If it makes sense, a good return on capital, and if it fits the system, dovetails in. I think that's one discipline that we've had over the years. It's not building a collection of assets, but coming in and actually ties in and bolts onto our system and provides downstream or upstream opportunities. We'll continue to look at that. All makes sense.

speaker
Chris Dana

Appreciate the color. Thanks. One moment for our next question, please.

speaker
Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Michael Bloom with Wells Fargo. Your line is now open.

speaker
Michael Bloom

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I wanted to go back to, I think in the opening comments, you touched on this a little bit, but I wanted to ask just specifically how you're seeing China demand right now as it relates to NGLs and where you think that's headed.

speaker
Tony

Yeah, Michael, this is Brent. If you look at, and let's take LPGs first that came from our terminal. In first quarter, that number was 24% of our volumes went to China. Second quarter, we averaged 38%. So when we go back and talk about those PDH plans, I think that's some effect right there. And then when you go to ethane, first quarter, it was about 33%. Second quarter, 26% went to China. With what Tug's been doing on ethane contracts, I think you'll see that number go up of what's going to China.

speaker
Michael Bloom

Okay, got it. And then just have like a broad question on drilling activity. Are there any regions you'd highlight where you're just seeing a change in either rate activity or messaging from producers either up or down?

speaker
spk11

Yeah, this is Tony, Michael. You know, we're in the middle of earnings season and producers are reporting. But if you look at, you know, think Exxon, think Chevron, Diamondback reported today. Everybody is saying the same thing. They continue to see drilling and completion efficiencies, and not by a little. They are seeing cost mitigation and predicting, depending on where they are in the value chain, some amount of even deflation on costs, so better returns. When you look at the longer laterals are key to what they're doing, cube development, I mean, the producer continues get even more and more efficient. So, you know, we look at it all the time. We talk about it. We talk about it with each of our producers. It's been difficult to look at the EIA numbers and try to figure out what production is doing, but I can tell you that we're on target per our own numbers to be in the 500,000 to 700,000 barrel a day range increase year into year end. And watch what the producers are saying during the second quarter. No one has a bad story. Everybody is very, very upbeat. And on top of that, I guess last but not least, our own calculation or ducks, they continue to grow. So not only are things going well for them, but they're building significant amount of headroom. What about Hainesville? Hainesville rigs, you know, Let's look at completions there. Completions, frack crews in the Hainesville went from, call it, 15 to 18 down at a point to 7. They're back up to around 14 today. And if you look at the forward curve, the forward curve says Hainesville drillers should keep drilling, that they have value there. So it is... The world is now watching it as that variable basin in the United States for natural gas production. I'm just going to use some generic numbers. It can go up to BCF or it can go down to BCF. That's a four BCF swing over in about an 18-month period. That's what you've seen through the cycles in Hainesville.

speaker
Michael Bloom

Perfect. Thank you.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. Our next question comes from the line of Neil Dingman with Truist Securities. Your line is now open.

speaker
Neil Dingman

Thanks for the time. My first question is on Permian processing margins, given Waha pricing. I'm just wondering, how do you see the margins going forward, including the impact from your feed floors?

speaker
Norma

I think they will be better in the second half. They weren't great in the first half. Is that fair? It's fair.

speaker
Tony

I think the trend, if you model out the forward curve, you know, which is a good thing, on the percent that hits the floor, it gets a lot less.

speaker
Neil Dingman

Okay. Thanks, Brent. And then second, just on the marine exports, I think you all previously mentioned strong demand. And, you know, Jim, I think you even mentioned, I think it was around 240,000 barrels a day of new contracts. Is this still expectations or are you seeing, you know, kind of production continue to grow in this area?

speaker
Norma

I think, you know, if you look at what we're doing, it kind of tells you what we believe. What we're doing is expanding our ability to export across the hydrocarbons chain. So, yeah, you know, we believe in Tony. If Tony's wrong, hell, he's somebody's houseboy, I guess, because that's the way we're doing it.

speaker
Neil Dingman

Thank you all.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Neil Mitra with Bank of America. Your line is now open.

speaker
Neil Mitra

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to ask your exposure to spot ethane prices. Were you able to sell spot ethane out of maybe some of your purity storage in Mont Bellevue? to downstream players and benefit from that? And conversely, did you have any downstream obligations like possibly being short on Morgan's Point because of outages? Just wanted to see how that would kind of play out for 3Q now that we have a full month with prices over 30 cents a gallon.

speaker
Norma

One of the most valuable assets we have is our storage. And yes, we were able to take advantage of the volatility on that thing. And no, we have no issues with being short at Morgan's Point or anywhere else.

speaker
Neil Mitra

Great. And then second question, you know, we started the year off in the first quarter with very high LPG exports. And I know we're seasonally weaker in the second quarter. When does that seasonality start to pick up so that it's a benefit again for the second half of the year?

speaker
Norma

Let's let Tug take it. I mean, what's our export volume?

speaker
Jean Anne

Yeah, we're going to be a little bit soft in the month of August. What do you call soft? 18 million barrels? Yeah, right around there. I don't call that soft. But around September, we're fully booked up, and then I'll just – Just note as well that we are seeing dock margins increase, specifically in the month of August and September forward.

speaker
Neil Mitra

Thank you.

speaker
Operator

Thank you. I'm currently showing no further questions at this time. I'd like to hand the conference back over to Mr. Randy Burkhalter for closing remarks.

speaker
Randy Burkhalter

Thank you, Norma. I think that covers it pretty well. I don't have any closing remarks. I'd just like to thank everybody for joining us today. for our call and have a good day. Goodbye now.

speaker
Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Everyone have a wonderful day.

Disclaimer

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