Hess Midstream LP

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the second quarter 2025 HESS Midstream Conference Call. My name is Gigi, and I'll be your operator for today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jennifer Gordon, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please proceed.

Thank you, Gigi. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for participating in our second quarter earnings conference call. Our earnings release was issued this morning and appears on our website, www.hessmidstream.com. Today's conference call contains projections and other forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied in such statements. These risks include those set forth in the risk factors section of HES Midstream's filings with the SEC. Also, on today's conference call, we may discuss certain GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of the differences between these non-GAAP financial measures and the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the earnings release. With me today are Jonathan Stein, Chief Executive Officer, John Gatling, President and Chief Operating Officer and Mike Chadwick, Chief Financial Officer. I'll now turn the call over to Jonathan Stein.

Thanks, Jennifer. Welcome, everyone, to our second quarter 2025 earnings call. I have a few opening comments, and I will hand the call over to John Gatling to review our operations and Mike Chadwick to review our financials. I wanted to first say that we are all excited and eager to work together with our new Chevron colleagues to continue to drive value for our shareholders. Our new board members, including our new chair, Andy Walz, Chevron's President of Downstream, Midstream, and Chemicals, have significant experience across the upstream, midstream, and downstream businesses, and compliment the operational financial expertise of our current board members. I am also excited to welcome Mike Chadwick to his new role as Chief Financial Officer of Hess Midstream. I've worked alongside Mike for the past 20 years, as he's progressed through various financial roles at Hess Corporation, and we are fortunate to have his experience and leadership capabilities working with the midstream. I am also excited to step into my new role as CEO of Hess Midstream. Since our IPO, we have created value for shareholders through operational excellence and execution that drives a visible trajectory of growth and supported by a financial strategy that includes a differentiated combination of balance sheet strength and a priority on shareholder returns. With the continuity of the Midstream team in place, we are excited to take this strategy forward as we continue to build HES Midstream with a unique combination of sector-leading growth and shareholder returns. Today, I want to focus briefly on three themes. First, we continue to deliver outstanding operational performance, which you can see reflected in the quarter that we reported today and also in our fourth annual sustainability report, which we issued a few weeks ago. and which highlights our commitment and track record of safe and reliable execution. In the second quarter, throughputs increased across all segments, and we are in line with our annual guidance for volumes to grow by approximately 10% across all oil and gas systems in 2025 compared with 2024. Second, we continue to deliver outstanding financial performance. We are estimating an approximate 11% increase in adjusted EBITDA growth in 2025, with approximately 7% growth at the midpoint in the second half of the year. With total expected capital expenditures of approximately $300 million, we expect to generate adjusted free cash flow of approximately $725 to $775 million, which more than covers our targeted 5% annual distribution growth and generates excess free cash flow. And third, we are committed to our ongoing financial strategy. which prioritizes return of capital to our shareholders and has made Hess Midstream's total shareholder return yield one of the highest of our midstream peers, while also maintaining one of the lowest leverage ratios. Highlighting our balance sheet strength, last week Hess Midstream's senior unsecured debt was upgraded by S&P to an investment-grade rating of BBB-, following the close of the Chevron-Hess merger. Since 2021, we have returned greater than $2 billion to shareholders through accretive repurchases and have increased our distribution per Class A share by more than 60% through 5% targeted annual distribution growth and distribution level increases following each share repurchase transaction. We expect to generate greater than $1.25 billion of financial flexibility through 2027 for incremental shareholder returns, including the potential for further unit and share repurchases over this period. With a consistent strategy at Hesbit Stream, we are excited for the future. We have a visible trajectory of growth that underpins our unique and differentiated financial strategy with a continued focus on consistent and ongoing return of capital to our shareholders. With that, I'll hand the call over to John to review our operational performance for the second quarter.