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spk06: to the MPLX Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. My name is Sheila, and I will be your operator for today's call.
spk04: At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Press star one on your touchtone phone to enter the queue.
spk05: Good morning and welcome to the MPLX Third Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. The slides that accompany this call can be found on our website at MPLX.com under the Investors tab. Joining me on the call today are Mike Hennigan, Chairman and CEO, John Quaid, CFO, and other members of the executive team. We invite you to read the Safe Harbor Statements and Non-Gap Disclaimer on slide two. It's a reminder that we will be making forward-looking statements during the call and during the question and answer session that follows. actual results may differ materially from what we expect today. Factors that could cause actual results to differ are included there as well as in our filings with the SEC. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mike.
spk15: Thanks, Christina. Good morning and thank you for joining our call. First off, Shawn Lyon will be joining our calls as our new Senior Vice President of Logistics and Storage. Shawn has over 33 years experience in engineering and leadership roles across our midstream and downstream organizations. Most recently, Sean was president of Marathon Pipeline. Dave Heckman will also be joining our calls. He has over 34 years experience with the company. Dave's role as senior vice president of strategy and business development has been expanded to include a focus on midstream. Now turning to our business updates. Earlier today, we reported third quarter adjusted EBITDA of $1.5 billion and distributable cash flow of $1.3 billion, both of which represent record results and a 6% increase from the third quarter of last year. These results highlight the performance of our businesses and growth from our recent capital investments. Based on the strength and continued growth of our cash flows, today MPLX announced a 10% increase in the partnership's base distribution in addition to the $315 million of unit repurchases completed through the first nine months of the year. We continue to view this as a return on as well as a return of capital business, and this quarter we advanced several organic growth projects. In the L&S segment, we continue to expand natural gas long haul and crude gathering pipelines, supporting the growing Permian. Working with our partners, we are progressing our natural gas strategy with the expansion of the Whistler pipeline to 2.5 billion cubic feet per day, along with laterals into the Midland Basin and Corpus Christi markets. Driven by increasing Permian natural gas production, interest for Whistler's additional capacity has been high, and we continue to expect it to come online in the third quarter of 2023. In the GMP segment, our growth focus remains mainly in the Permian and Marcellus Basin, although all other basins are generating positive cash flow. In the Permian, Our 200 million cubic feet per day Tornado 2 processing plant is expected to be fully online by year end and then ramping through the middle of next year. We're progressing our Preakness 2 processing plant, which we expect will come online in the first half of 2024, bringing our total permanent processing capacity to 1.2 billion cubic feet per day. In the Marcellus, our Smithburg deacetylizer began operations this quarter. And the facility has been ramping in line with in-basin demand. We are progressing the Harmony Creek tube processing plant, which is expected to come online in the first half of 2024, bringing our total Marcellus processing capacity to 6.5 billion cubic feet per day. These asset additions will continue to support growing cash flows in our portfolio. Switching topics, we've received questions on the structure of MPLX and whether MPC will acquire the partnership's outstanding public units. So we want to restate what we've said in the past. First, we've grown MPLX into an entity with a public float of approximately $12 billion, which compared to recent MLP roll-ups is substantially larger. MPLX is a strategic part of MPC's portfolio. MPLX has continued to demonstrate earnings growth With the increased distribution announced today, MPC expects to receive $2 billion of distributions from MPLX annually. As MPLX pursues its growth opportunities, we expect the value of this strategic relationship will continue to be enhanced. MPC believes that its current capital allocation priorities are optimal for its shareholders, and MPC does not plan to roll up MPLX. As we continue to grow our cash flows, We also remain focused on executing the strategic priorities of strict capital discipline, fostering a low cost culture, and optimizing our asset portfolio. Shifting to slide four, last quarter we discussed our enhanced ESG commitments and disclosures with the June publication of both our annual sustainability and perspectives on climate related scenarios reports. We're making progress on our targets and challenging ourselves to lead in sustainable energy by meeting the needs of today while investing in an energy-diverse future that creates shared value for all stakeholders. Now let me turn the call over to John to discuss our operational and financial results for the quarter.
spk11: Thanks, Mike. Slide 5 outlines the third quarter operational and financial performance highlights for our logistics and storage segments. L&S segment adjusted EBITDA increased $65 million when compared to third quarter 2021. The increased results are primarily due to higher pipeline tariff rates and throughputs, partially offset by higher costs, including higher project expenses and fuel and power costs. Pipeline volumes were up 5%, driven primarily by increased utilization at MPC's refineries, while terminal volumes were down 1%, primarily due to the second quarter 2022 sale of several light product terminals. As you would have expected, our pipeline tariff rates increased in the third quarter. However, due to changes in the mix of throughputs, you will note our reported average rates were lower year over year. Moving to our gathering and processing segment on slide six, GMP segment adjusted EBITDA increased $17 million compared to third quarter 21, primarily due to increased volumes offset by increased operating costs. Higher NGL prices also benefited the quarter with average NGL prices five cents per gallon higher than the prior year. Gathered volumes were up 12% year over year due to increased production in the Utica and Southwest regions. Processing volumes were up 2% year over year, primarily from higher volumes in the Southwest which includes our Permian operations. In the Marcellus, while gathering and processing volumes were slightly lower year over year, we did see sequential increases for gathering, processing, and fractionation volumes in line with our expectations for increased producer activity in the back half of the year. Moving to our third quarter financial highlights on slide seven, Total adjusted EBITDA of $1.5 billion and distributable cash flow of $1.3 billion, both of which represent record quarterly results, also both increased 6% from the prior year. We returned $935 million to unit holders through $755 million of distributions and $180 million in repurchases of common units held by the public. As of September 30th, we had just over $1 billion remaining available under our unit repurchase authorizations. As Mike discussed, based on our confidence in the business, we increased the base distribution by 10% to 77.5 cents per common unit, while maintaining strong coverage of 1.6 times. During the quarter, we've refinanced near-term senior notes maturities. We issued $1 billion of 10-year notes and used the net proceeds to redeem notes that were due in December of this year and March of 2023. We ended the quarter with total debt of approximately $20 billion and a debt to EBITDA ratio of 3.5 times, comfortably below our target leverage of four times. In closing, given our commitment to strict capital discipline and our continued adoption of a low-cost culture, We expect to continue generating strong cash flow, enhancing our financial flexibility to invest and grow the business while also supporting the return of capital to MPLX unit holders. Now let me turn the call back over to Christina.
spk05: Thanks, John. As we open the call for questions, we ask that you limit yourself to one question plus one follow-up. We may reprompt for additional questions as time permits. With that, Sheila, would you help us with questions?
spk06: Absolutely. Thank you. Now begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press star then 1 on your touchtone phone. If you wish to be removed from the queue, please press star then 2. If you are using a speakerphone, you may need to pick up the handset first before pressing the numbers. Once again, if you have a question, please press star then 1 on your touchtone phone.
spk04: Our first question will come from Brian Reynolds with UBS. Hi, Sheila. If there is a question being asked, we can't hear it.
spk05: Would you mind reprompting, Brian?
spk06: Brian, if you please check the mute feature on your phone. We're not able to hear you in conference, but Brian Reynolds with UPS, we're able to take your question at this time.
spk04: Sheila, do you want to move to the next caller in the queue?
spk02: Oh, sorry. I was on. Sorry.
spk05: No, no worries, Brian. Good to hear you.
spk02: Sorry about that. Hi, good morning, everyone. And Mike, it's great to, you know, read about your recent positive update. You know, first to start off on capital allocation process, you know, particularly around the permanence, the distribution rates versus special, you know, how should we think about the continuance of buybacks going forward? And, you know, how should we think about, you know, the ultimate leverage target, given that leverage looks to be well below that four times target?
spk11: Hey, morning, Brian. It's John. I'll start with that, and then Mike can jump in as well. So, you know, first of all, talking about the distribution, look, as we said in our comments, it's really driven by our confidence in the business and the strength of our cash flows. You know, quarterly records on adjusted EBITDA and DCF, you know, year-to-date $3.7 billion of distributable cash flow, and the business also continues to generate cash both in excess of our capital and our distribution. uh you know running at about 730 million year to date um so all of that uh kind of gets us to the point as well we're maintaining strong a strong balance sheet with leverage of 3.5 times uh and looking at a coverage of 1.6 after this distribution so we our overall capital allocation right hasn't changed right we want to ensure the safety of our assets, look at our distribution, grow the business as well, and then look to return capital. And we've continued to optimize that around the business and where we are. So certainly confident in the strength of the business drives our comfort with that 10% increase. But overall, you know, we'll continue to look at other opportunities to return capital, right? We did 180 million of repurchases this quarter. but that'll be dynamic, right? I know you asked about the pace of buybacks. I don't know if there's necessarily a pace. It's certainly an avenue for us to return capital, but we want to be opportunistic as we think about that as well, which is partly, too, you've seen us maybe carrying some cash on the balance sheet from quarter to quarter. So, you know, I think our framework hasn't changed. We continue to optimize around that. And, you know, I think you'll see us doing that going forward, right? We'll probably see us look at that distribution, you know, certainly subject to the board's approval once a year. We'll continue to think about how we can be dynamic in our return of capital via unit repurchases. And just since you asked about it, the special we're actually now calling the supplemental. But look, while not a tool we're going to use this year, that is something that remains available to us as we go forward. So lots of levers and We're trying to work around that to optimize that return to capital.
spk15: Hey, Brian, it's Mike. Let me just add a couple comments. First off, before we get into how we're going to return capital, the key for us is to show the market that we're continuing to grow the partnership. Growing earnings and cash flows puts us in a good position to have this debate about what's the best way to return. At NPLX, distributions are tax-efficient. which is different than an MPC. At MPC, it's a little bit different situation for the C Corp, but at MPLX, distributions are preferred way. At the same time, we've said a couple times that we have an all of the above approach. So since we started the buyback program, we've executed somewhere around a little under $29 a unit. So as John says, we try and be dynamic. We look at the market conditions But it all starts with generating and growing cash flows inside the partnership and then debating what's the best way to return that capital. And, you know, we've said all of the above is the best way to describe it because given the market conditions, we may lean one way or the other. I hope that helps you a little bit. You know, right now, as John said, we're very confident, you know, of the cash flows, so the permanent increase makes more sense. Last year we debated a lot as to whether it was permanent, not permanent, because some of these calls are a little tricky. I used to use the term red bar and blue bar, and that's still in my thinking as we describe the cash flows. But as we feel confident about them, we're going to increase distributions. As we see the market conditions allow us to buy back units, we're going to do that as well. So hopefully that gives you a little more flavor. I know it's been hard for people to understand since it's bounced around a little bit, but it really has to do with where is the market at the time and how we feel about the cash flows. I hope that helps, Brian.
spk02: No, that's super helpful, and I appreciate the extra remarks there. Maybe as a follow-up, I appreciate the remarks around the potential low-carbon opportunities just for Marathon as a general family. Could you maybe just talk a little bit more in depth about these opportunities, kind of what has changed between this quarter and prior quarters? How does the IRA change things? And, you know, there is a peer refiner participating in a carbon pipeline in the Midwest. Is that something that, you know, MPLX could also participate in maybe supporting, you know, MPC, et cetera? Thanks.
spk15: Brian, it's another really good question. Let me let Dave take a shot at how we think about, you know, investing capital, et cetera.
spk14: Hey, Brian, appreciate the question. This is Dave. So, you know, as you would expect, you know, between MPC and MPLX, we look at, you know, numerous opportunities and a lot of them being driven in the low carbon footprint as the industry and the country evolves in the energy evolution. And as you stated with the recent announcement of the IRA, that will have some impact as we evaluate those opportunities. I will say a couple of things relative to that. It's still pretty early. There's a lot of clarification relative to the IRA that needs to you know, come to fruition before we can make forward-looking strategic decisions. Second is, as you touched on, between MPC and MPLX, there's a lot of integration opportunities along the value chain which make these opportunities more viable for the overall enterprise. But I'll leave you with this, that all our growth opportunities, whether it be in the base business or in this low-carbon energy evolution, It's all about return on capital, and if we can achieve those return on capitals versus our other alternatives for that capital, we wouldn't proceed with those projects.
spk07: Thank you.
spk02: Great. I really appreciate the color. Sorry about the mute hiccup, and really great to hear you doing better, Mike. Have a great rest of your day. Thanks again, Brian. Appreciate it.
spk06: Thank you. Our next question will come from John McKay with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.
spk09: Hey, everyone. Good morning. Thanks for the time. Maybe we'll do something on the operating side. Let's see. Northeast volumes are really strong. We've seen kind of mixed results from some others out there. Particularly, I think Utica was, I don't know, record volumes since 2019 or something. Can you just talk a little bit about what you're seeing in the Northeast?
spk03: whether these recent gains are sustainable whether or not you're taking share from others just how do we think about that going forward given the uh overall basin is still a little constrained john this is greg i'll take that that question the northeast you know our utilization remains high but there is room for growth there and uh the the gas processing facilities are distributed across uh the marcellus and utica around certain customers um and so we may be full at one plant and and we're actually expanding harming creek 2 is a good example of that which we announced last quarter so we're actually expanding there other plants still have room for for production growth the good news is is that gas and ngl prices are continue to be supportive in the northeast as well as elsewhere for more growth and we do think it's sustainable As certain producers potentially remain flat or decline a bit, it makes room on the takeaway residue lines and NGO lines for more growth there. In general, we remain bullish. We are seeing more activity in the Utica area. We see a lot of growth on the gathering side there and also anticipate growth on the rich gas and process side in the future.
spk09: All right, thanks for that. Maybe as a follow-up, turning to Permian, can you just give us an update on the Whistler extension? I think that's supposed to come online this quarter. Is that going to allow incremental egress out of the basin? And then maybe if you could just give us an update on what your position in Matterhorn is looking like. Thanks.
spk13: Hey, John, this is Sean. I'll take that. You know, we're really excited about our position for gas takeaway out of the Permians. You know, as we've seen differentials expand and widen from, you know, Oahu to Agua Dolce and Oahu to Houston. You know, we've seen on the original capacity for Whistler, that's, you know, that near capacity, it's really matched the expectations that we've had. And then, as we've announced before, we've had an expansion that will come online in September of 23, and that will, you know, again, help us for the gas takeaway there. As we had in our prepared remarks, we have – You know some lateral one coming in called the Martin county county lateral coming in to whistler and one on the end that we're really excited about in a partnership, we have with engineer. That again will you know go to look faction facility on the coast there so so that's that's where we stand they're kind of moving to matter horn, we have decided, and we announced it earlier to participate in matter horn and again that will help the gas take away there.
spk11: TAB, Mark McIntyre:" Okay, but no final sorry yeah I was just going to remind you on on matter horn right we've got a 5% interest there again that's driven by the producer volume we're able to bring to the project right I just. TAB, Mark McIntyre:" don't want folks to think it's some indication of our confidence in the in the project it's really just driven by the volume we were able to to bring in so your question, you may have been recalling at one point, we were. We were pushing for 15%, but we're coming in at 5% on that project, which is out a bit as well.
spk09: All right. Thanks for that. Appreciate the time today. Thanks, John.
spk06: Thank you. Our next question will come from Justin Jenkins with Raymond James. Your line is open.
spk00: Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Mike, I want to echo Brian's comments on your health update. That's great to see. I guess my first question is... Appreciate it. John, you mentioned project costs were up year over year in your remarks, but can I ask if that maybe came in lower than you expected in 3Q and been part of the upside in the quarter itself and just your outlook on that line item into the fourth quarter here?
spk11: Yeah. Hey, morning, Justin. Thanks for the question. Yeah. While still up year over year, the team just continues to do an outstanding job of managing risk and managing projects and looking for efficiencies. uh we probably did you know we had been kind of guiding to sequential changes that that probably came in a a good bit less than we were expecting and again just to talk about these projects in total right these are really larger maintenance programs we do um they are never going to be rateable quarter by quarter by quarter um and and one of the things we've typically seen is the first quarter is the lowest, and then the other quarters kind of ramp up, either driven off of weather or the timing of the program. So, yeah, I would say probably sequentially we did a really good job of managing those expenses. Still up year over year, but that probably is driving some of the variance versus what we would have expected last quarter.
spk00: And John, I think my second one for you as well on gross debt seems like we've been in the 20 to 21 billion dollar range for a while now. Is that just coincidental or should we think of that level starting to become more of a target here? And I guess related is the four times leverage target starting to turn into a ceiling, maybe?
spk11: Great questions, Justin. So, yeah, I mean, the 20.1 of kind of gross debt is where we've been, and we've been comfortable with it just because our leverage has been, you know, under our kind of four times guidepost. So you've seen us earlier this year twice go out and issue new notes to refinance upcoming maturities, and I would expect you'd see us to continue to do that, right? You know, looking out to next year, We've got a July maturity of about a billion dollars that we'll look to address at the right time. We also, too, maybe Justin, I'll just offer this up as well. We have some Series B preferred units. They're at a fixed rate now, but in February they moved to a floating rate, which as of this morning would be like 8.5%. So that'll be something we'll look to address as well. Now, that's not in the 20.1, right, because that 20.1 is just our senior notes. But that's something we've got on the radar as well. So I think you'll continue to see us to be comfortable with the leverage. It provides us some financial flexibility as we think about running the business. But you'll see us continue to refinance those. I don't think you'll see us paying down debt.
spk15: Justin, it's Mike. I just want to add what I said earlier is, The business model is we need to support our capital program and our distributions with cash flow generated through the partnership. And obviously, we want to have access. So we haven't increased our debt level in quite some time, to your point. It's been bouncing around that same level. The main reason the leverage has come down is because the earnings have gone up. So for relatively constant debt and earnings going up, that's what's driving our leverage numbers down. And we'll continue to look at that. But the key for us is run the partnership in such a way that we generate enough cash flows to self-sustain our capital program, our distribution, have access so we have a good return program, and obviously not increase our debt levels. Hope that helps. Perfect. Yep, perfect. Thanks, all.
spk06: Thank you. Our next question will come from Michael Bloom with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.
spk10: Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Just two quick ones for me. One, I'm sure you've seen diesel prices are really spiking in the Northeast, and I'm just curious if that presents any potential investment opportunities for MPLX.
spk15: Dave, you want to take that one?
spk14: Sure. Hey, Michael. Yeah, there's no question we're keeping an eye on that. And as I stated earlier, you know, we look at everything as far as investment opportunities. And with the expansive, you know, logistics and commercial footprint of MPC and MPLX, those opportunities, you know, pop up quite a bit. But, again, a couple things to keep in mind is these have to be long-term market opportunities. fundamental changes to justify a long-term investment. And getting back to the key point I touched on earlier, it's all about a return on capital and making sure that we can achieve the acceptable return on those capital investments for the long term.
spk10: Great. Thanks for that. And then I wanted to ask, you know, you guys have an extensive NGO marketing operation in the Northeast, and I wonder if you could just speak to, you know, the Shell cracker coming into service, you know, pretty soon here, how that might change dynamics for you in the Northeast.
spk03: Michael, this is Greg. Yeah, glad to answer that question or address that question. We're excited to see the, you know, Shell's MNAC updating cracker start to commission and ramp up in late third quarter. As I've mentioned before in previous calls, We expect to supply through our producers, recover and supply 80% to 90% of the flow into that plant. So that's driving growth in terms of ethane recovery. Our Smithburg deethanizer is fully online now supporting that. So the amount of ethane that we recover or where we recover is driven by the producers, but ultimately the producers have the arrangements with the end user, in this case, Shell. We do see growth in terms of methane recovery in the Northeast as that plant continues to ramp up.
spk15: Michael, it's Mike. I just want to add, we're still bullish the Marcellus. In the very short term, the gas has been a little constrained, but like Greg just mentioned, Shell's going to pull some methane out. As you heard us say earlier, we're going to start up another processing plant. As different producers execute their strategies up in the Northeast, we still think over the long term, it's a great resource. It's a low-cost resource, and it'll be an important part of U.S. natural gas supply for a long term. Obviously, the constraints on pipelines need to get sorted out. We think that'll happen, whether it's MVP or some of the others that are in process. But overall, we're still pretty bullish that the Marcellus is a good place to be. We have a strong position, as you mentioned, in And Greg has talked about it in the past. So we like our positioning there. We think it's a good area. And we believe it's going to continue to grow.
spk10: Thank you. Appreciate it.
spk15: You're welcome.
spk06: Thank you. Our next question will come from Teresa Chen with Barclays. Your line is open.
spk01: Good morning, everyone. And Mike, it is great, again, to hear your voice. I wanted to first ask on the Whistler expansion coming online in the third quarter of next year. So initially, is this going to be involving any sort of ramp period, or would that have to be immediate? And during any of the initial period, will it be completely belonging and set to the contract for the third-party customers, or will you have any sort of marketing capability in that initial startup?
spk13: Hey, Teresa, this is Sean. Hey, we've seen basically the interest in the expansion capacity be very high, and we expect that, you know, to be at our expectations or exceed it, you know, again, based on the differentials we've seen between coming out of the Permian there. So we think that's going to fill up, you know, fairly quickly along with what our expectations were.
spk15: First of all, thank you for the kind words on my health. As far as the marketing goes, we do not market in that area. The producers are the players in that, and we are the transporters of it. As Sean said, we're pretty excited. The area needs to take away. The business is continuing to grow. We're trying to be part of that growth profile, as Sean mentioned. At the end of the day, we believe it will ramp very quickly.
spk01: Got it. And in relation to the, I think, recovery dynamics as Shilmanaka comes online, I'm just curious as to your view on the utilization of that facility and the pull it will have across your system in light of the challenging pet chem dynamics globally right now and curtailments and utilization in existing plants as a result of these problematic netbacks.
spk03: This is Greg again. The producers ultimately, as I mentioned before, determine whether we recover or reject ethane. And obviously the residue gas prices in a region versus the ethane price has an impact on that. But the other thing that has a big impact is prior commitments that were made for ethane supply to downstream petrochemical companies and companies like Shell. So based on commitments that were made five, six, seven years ago or more when the plant was in the FID phase, there's an expectation that we'll continue to recover ethane to help supply, for example, a Monaco plant. And that's true of other downstream crackers to the markets that our C2 pipeline delivers to, whether it's Gulf Coast, Canada, or to Europe through the Marcus Hook connection. So we would expect... With our over 300,000 barrels a day now with SmithBird deethanizer online in the region, we have, you know, our utilization will clearly climb with ramp up of SmithBird with the Menaca plant, but we still have capacity. We don't see an issue in the near term there.
spk01: That's very helpful. Thank you.
spk06: Thank you. And once again, if you would like to ask a question at this time, you can press star 1 and record your name when prompted. Our next question will come from Keith Stanley with Wolf Research. Your line is open.
spk08: Hi. Thank you. I wanted to follow up first. You cited the Series B preferreds that go to variable rate in February and also just being below the leverage target. Is one of the options you would consider to actually just issue debt to repay those preferreds and take that up a little bit since you're below the target? Or if you take out the prefs, would it more likely come from excess cash flows?
spk11: Yeah. Hey, Keith, it's John. Thanks for the question. You know, certainly when you think about those preferreds, and I may not have mentioned it, you know, they've got a face of $600 million, right? So not a big turn on leverage. We've got some capacity there. thinking about where those notes might be relative to that floating rate of eight and a half, it certainly would be a strong possibility for us to look to just move that over in a different part of the capital structure.
spk08: Great. Second question, I think last quarter you talked about some cost inflation into 2023, and it's felt like the company's definitely had a more optimistic tone on growth the past couple of quarters. So wondering if you can give any directional sense of how you're thinking about CapEx into next year versus 2022 and any potential major projects you'd highlight aside from Whistler expansion and the processing plants that you're building. Thank you.
spk11: Hey, Keith. It's Shawn. I'll take that one again. I mean, again, I think we've tried to talk about the projects we've had and that we've announced, and some of those are rolling the next year. I think we'll be ready to talk to you about our 2023 capital on next quarter's call, but I think we've highlighted the areas we're focused on with the gas plants Greg talked about and the Marcellus and the Permian. Again, what's interesting, too, we've got opportunities around some of those Permian takeaway lines, but as you might recall us mentioning before, a lot of those will largely be financed at the JV level, so that's not going to draw too much capital against the budget as those move forward. So, well, we've got a favorable price deck that supports some of our producer activities, and we'll be back to you next quarter with what 2023 looks like.
spk15: Hey, Keith, it's Mike. Just to add, we have a little bit of, I'll call it all of the above approach on capital as well as capital allocation. On the capital side, you heard that on the gas business, we're investing up in the Northeast. We're investing down in the Permian. In the L&S business, we're investing in some long-haul pipes and some other activities to support the refining business as we have today. So, you know, it's not as sexy not to have a really big project, but personally, I like these smaller organic projects that have typically better returns, you know, than major, you know, large projects. So, you know, we're pretty happy with the capital program we have. It continues to chug along and generate earnings and And that's why I think at the end of the day, and you mentioned it earlier, thanks for noticing that we continue to grow the earnings and the cash flows, and that's what puts us in a position to have that debate about what's the best way to return capital. But it all starts with growing earnings and growing cash flows within the partnership, and that's where our main focus is, and then we can optimize after that. Thank you. You're welcome.
spk06: Thank you. Our last question will come from Neil Dingman with Truist Securities. Your line is open.
spk12: Hi, Moira. Thanks for getting me in. Just one question for you. You've done a great job. Obviously, the cash flow sort of speaks for itself. I'm just wondering, given that strong cash flow, you've talked around cap allocation a bit, but I'm just wondering a little bit more on how comfortable you all are allocating when it comes to cash flow more towards growth versus shareholder returns, how you're thinking about that on a go forward.
spk11: Hey, Neil, it's John. I'll start, and then I'm sure Mike will chime in as well. Again, part of it, and maybe this is one of the things we've been doing that maybe folks have noticed this quarter, we are still focused on growing the partnership and its earnings and cash flows, right? We've got a capital outlook this year of about, in total, across growth and maintenance and some other items, about $900 million, and we remain on track for that total spend. So we want to make sure we're growing the business But we're also in a position where we've got the financial flexibility to do that and look at return of capital as well across a number of different tools, right, whether it's the permanent, whether it's repurchases. Again, we still have as an option, you know, a supplemental distribution, if and when that might make sense. And we just continue to try and optimize about that. But we're certainly not losing sight of our focus on growing the earnings and cash flows of the partnerships.
spk15: And I'll just add to what John said. It's clearly the higher priority in our capital allocation. But at the same time, as Dave mentioned a couple times, we're trying to have strict capital discipline, make sure that we're getting good returns, investing that capital wisely. And when we have those opportunities, we're advancing the ball. We certainly want to grow the earnings and cash flows over time. Um, but we also like the position that we have such that if we maintain good discipline, have a good robust program, you know, John mentioned, you know, we're spending a little under a billion dollars in capital, you know, that that's, that's a good base to add on to some of the, uh, current assets that we have. And then if there's excess cash beyond that, we still tested against additional capital to your point, where we say, you know, we'll return it to unit holders. Um, so in our mind, it's still a win-win. If we think there's a good investment opportunity, we'll go that way, and hopefully investors have confidence that we're delivering good returns. And if not, we'll return capital, and we'll debate whether it's, you know, via the distribution or buybacks.
spk04: Sheila, was that it?
spk06: Thank you. Yes. We are showing no further questions.
spk05: Sounds great. Well, thank you for joining us today, and thank you for your interest in MPLX. Should you have additional questions or would you like clarification on any of the topics discussed this morning, members of our team will be available to take your calls. Thank you, everybody.
spk06: Thank you. That does conclude today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may disconnect at this time.
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