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spk07: Welcome to the MPLX Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. My name is Sheila and I will be your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. Press star 1 on your touchtone phone to enter the queue. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Christina Kazarian. Christina, you may begin.
spk06: Thank you, Sheila. Good morning and welcome to the MPLX third quarter 2023 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'll 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.
spk12: Thanks, Christina. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our call. Earlier today, we reported third quarter adjusted EBITDA of $1.6 billion and distributable cash flow of $1.4 billion. Each set a new quarterly record for MPLX, with both increasing over 8% year-over-year. Our L&S business set a new record for crude pipeline throughput and saw strong terminal throughputs, demonstrating the value of our relationship with MPC. In our G&P business, we saw record throughput in our processing and fractionation operations, driven mainly by our assets in the Permian and Marcellus basins. Our long-term production outlook for our GMP producer customers in our key basins remains largely unchanged. In our largest basin, the Marcellus, the cost to develop remains at the low end of the cost curve and still below current commodity prices. We expect to see maintenance-level drilling activity continue. While in the Permian, crew prices remain strong and prices for associated gas do not significantly impact producer activity. Our integrated footprints in these basins position the partnership with a steady source of growth opportunities. For the second year in a row, based on the strength and continued growth of our cash flows, last week we announced a 10% increase in the partnership's distribution, which now stands at $3.40 per unit on an annualized basis. We're committed to returning capital to unit holders and expect our distribution to be the primary return of capital tool supplemented with opportunistic repurchases. We are well positioned to optimize return of capital, given the strength of the business and our balance sheet. Our position on MPLX and its structure is unchanged. MPLX is a strategic investment for MPC, which now expects to receive $2.2 billion in annual cash flows via the distribution. MPC believes that its current capital allocation priorities are optimal for its shareholders and MPC does not plan to roll up MPLX. We remain confident in our ability to grow the partnership and our focus on executing the strategic priorities of strict capital discipline, fostering a low-cost culture, and optimizing our asset portfolio, all of which are foundational to the continued growth of MPLX's cash flows. Now let me turn the call over to John to discuss our growth as well as our operational and financial results for the quarter.
spk10: Thanks, Mike. As you can see on slide five, MPLX has a strong history of growing its cash flows by executing the strategic priorities Mike just highlighted. Looking back over the last three years, you can see that our growth comes in stair steps as we develop and bring projects online. And through the first nine months of this year, distributable cash flow has grown over 6 percent versus the prior year. We are progressing our 2023 capital program, which remains forecasted at $950 million, including $800 million of growth capital and $150 million of maintenance capital. In the LNS segment, our joint venture, natural gas, crude, and NGL pipeline projects in the Permian are progressing. Whistler's expansion to 2.5 billion cubic feet per day was completed at the end of the third quarter. and we're seeing strong demand for the natural gas pipeline. Construction is progressing on the associated Agua Dulce de Corpus Christi pipeline lateral, which is expected to be in service in the third quarter of 2024. On the Wink to Webster crude pipeline, we expect volumes to ramp over the next two years as the pipeline continues to place segments into service. Turning to our participation in the NGL value chain, We are progressing the expansion of the Bangle pipeline to about 200,000 barrels per day, which is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025. The capital-efficient expansion of this long-haul pipeline is supported by existing and growing demand for NGL takeaway from the Permian's Delaware and Midland basins to the Fractionation Hub in Sweeney, Texas. All of these projects are largely financed at the JV level, and therefore, our portion of the JV Finance capital spending is not reflected in our capital outlook. In the GNP segment, we remain focused on growth investments in the Permian and Marcellus basins in response to producer demand. We are bringing online new gas processing plants in the Permian's Delaware basin to meet increasing demand while targeting strong returns with strict capital discipline. We're progressing construction of Preakness II, which we expect to be online in the first half of 2024. And announced last quarter, we would be building our seventh gas processing plant in the basin, Secretariat, which is expected to be online in the second half of 2025. Once operational, these plants will bring our total processing capacity in the Delaware Basin up to 1.4 BCF per day. In the Marcellus Basin, we are also advancing construction of the Harmon Creek II gas processing plant which we expect will be online in the first half of 2024. Slide six outlines the third quarter operational and financial performance highlights for our logistics and storage segment. The L&S segment reported its third consecutive quarter with $1 billion of adjusted EBITDA. L&S segment adjusted EBITDA increased $122 million when compared to third quarter 22 primarily driven by higher rates and throughputs, including growth from equity affiliates. Third quarter 2023 segment adjusted EBITDA excludes Garyville incident response costs of $63 million. Crude pipeline volumes were up 9% and represent a new quarterly record for the partnership as we grew crude oil throughputs through expansion and de-bottlenecking activities. Product pipeline volumes were down 9% driven by less favorable market dynamics and effects from Marathon's refinery downtime. Terminal volumes were up 7% due to higher customer demand, including effects from Marathon's refinery turnarounds in both quarters. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, we do expect some headwinds of approximately $30 to $40 million to sequential L&S segment results, from lower throughput volumes as a result of MPC's planned turnaround activity as well as higher operating expenses due to the timing of maintenance projects. Moving to our gathering and processing segment on slide seven, GMP segment adjusted EBITDA increased $3 million compared to third quarter 2022, as the benefits of higher volumes and throughput fees were offset by lower NGL prices. While our GMP segment is largely a fee-based business, we do have some direct sensitivity to natural gas liquids prices. For the quarter, NGL prices averaged 68 cents per gallon as compared to $1.01 in the third quarter of 2022, resulting in a $32 million unfavorable effect. Total gathered volumes were up 3 percent year-over-year due to increased production in the Permian and the Marcellus. Processing volumes were up 5 percent year-over-year, primarily from higher volumes in the Marcellus and Permian, driven by increased customer demand and our investment in Permian processing capacity. Focusing in on the Marcellus, by far our largest basin of operations, we saw year-over-year volume increases of 4% per gathering and 5% for processing, driven by increased customer demand, and fractionation volumes grew 10%, primarily due to increases to our fractionation capacity to meet in-basin demand for ethane. Moving to our third quarter financial highlights on slide eight, total adjusted EBITDA of 1.6 billion and distributable cash flow of 1.4 billion increased 8.5 and 8.6 percent respectively from the prior year. As Mike discussed, based on our confidence in the continued growth of our cash flows, we increased the base distribution 10 percent to 85 cents per common unit while maintaining strong coverage of 1.6 times. We are committed to returning capital to unit holders, and year to date, we have returned $2.4 billion through our distributions. Our capital allocation framework remains unchanged, and we continue to expect the distribution will be our primary tool to return capital. Opportunistic repurchases of units held by the public also remain a tool to supplement capital returns. The growth of our cash flows and our strong balance sheet including a quarter-end cash balance of $960 million and leverage of 3.4 times, provides us with financial flexibility to optimize capital allocation. Now, let me hand it back to Mike for some final thoughts.
spk12: Thanks, John. In closing, the growth of our cash flows continues to enable us to invest in and grow the business while supporting our commitment to return capital to unit holders. We continue to expect our distribution to be the primary return of capital tool, and with the recently announced 10% increase to the partnership's base distribution, MPC now receives $2.2 billion annually from MPLX's distributions, illustrating its strategic value as part of MPC's portfolio. As MPLX pursues its growth opportunities, we believe the value of this strategic relationship will continue to be enhanced. We are confident in our growth opportunities and ability to generate strong cash flows. By advancing our high return growth projects anchored in the Marcellus and Permian basins, along with our focus on cost and portfolio optimization, we intend to grow our cash flows, allowing us to reinvest in the business and return capital to unit holders. Now let me turn the call back over to Christina.
spk06: Thanks, Mike. As we open the call for questions, we ask that you limit yourself to one question plus a follow-up. We may reprompt for additional questions as time permits. And with that, Sheila, we're ready for the questions today.
spk07: Thank you. We will 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. Our first question comes from John McKay with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.
spk09: Good morning, everyone. Thanks for the time. I wanted to start on maybe the distribution increase last week. Maybe if you could just frame up for us how you were thinking about the 10% level, what that kind of means for Cadence going forward, and if you could kind of touch about the touch on that in the context of leverage now being down at 3.4 versus the 4.0 ceiling? Thanks.
spk10: Hey, good morning, John. Thanks for the question. Yeah, I think it all gets down to we've got a significant amount of financial flexibility here, I think, as you can see where we stand, as we've been very focused around our capital allocation to growth, but also making sure we're returning capital to unit holders As you know, we've talked in the past, we stay very focused on where our coverage is and digging into that. Very comfortable here with this increase staying at 1.6 times. You know, certainly some capacity there. Again, very happy where the balance sheet is, but I think as I think about it, I'm sure Mike will have some comments as well. I mean, that's not just return of, but also looking for opportunities to invest and drive return on capital as well. So, You know, I think we're in a very comfortable spot, happy to do 10% for the second year in a row and continue to be focused on both growing the partnership and also driving returns to unit holders.
spk12: Hey, John, it's Mike. I'll just add that, you know, the way we think about it from an investor perspective is, you know, at the end of the day, we're trading around a 9% yield roughly, and we've been saying to the market, and I think we've demonstrated in our results, we're going to continue to grow earnings more somewhere around that mid-single digit, it'll be a little stair-steppy. But if you look at our CAGR since 2019, it's been a little north of 6%. So as I think about the investment opportunity for people, our yield plus growth should give a pretty strong opportunity for people to invest in the equity. And the way we think about it, as John just said, is we're thinking about this over the longer term. We have a lot of financial flexibility right now. We have cash on the balance sheet, which is both blue bar and red bar. So we have more distribution growth capable. We have opportunistic capabilities. If we see more volatility come back into the equity, which we haven't seen for a little bit of time, but we'll see how that changes. But overall, we're trying to position ourselves as a good investment for people that are interested in, you know, the type of cash flows that we're generating. So, Hopefully that gives you some perspective as a way to think about it from an investor angle.
spk09: I appreciate that. Thanks. And maybe picking up on the themes of continuing to invest in the business, obviously reiterated growth CapEx guidance for the year. We've also seen, you know, I think if we look at third quarter, growth CapEx came in a little lighter than we would have been, than we expected. Maybe you just talk about the cadence of growth spending from here, where opportunities might sit beyond the project backlog you've announced so far. Thanks.
spk10: Great. Yeah, thanks, John. I'll jump in on that one. I think as we've said before, too, you know, our capital doesn't, right, it tends to move quarter to quarter, so you're not going to see kind of rateable amounts. Again, here this morning we stated, again, we're still looking around that $800 million of growth capital for this year. And, again, in my remarks and on slide five, we've tried to summarize kind of the major projects we're working towards this We've got two processing plants, one in the Marcellus, one in the Permian, coming online in the first half of next year. We announced last quarter another processing plant in the Permian, which will be out in 2025, so you'll probably start to see us spend some money on that. And then we've got a number of the different JV pipeline projects that we're progressing as well. You know, again, I think you've asked before and we've said, hey, that, you know, plus or minus a billion of kind of run rate capex is probably a comfortable zone for us. And I think the opportunities kind of remain in those main basins. And then also, too, we also continue to look for opportunities around our large LNS footprint in support of MPC. Where are there opportunities for us to find opportunities? smaller bolt-on acquisitions where we can operate a midstream asset and MPC can commercially create value around that. Thank you.
spk09: Appreciate the time. Thank you.
spk13: Thanks, John. You're welcome.
spk07: Our next question will come from Teresa Chen with Barclays. You may proceed.
spk00: Morning. Thank you for taking my questions. John, maybe if I can touch on your last point about potential bolt-on acquisitions, especially at the asset level. We've received multiple announcements from some of your competitors and peers about wanting to disperse assets into the market. Are there particular areas along your infrastructure value chain that you find more attractive to invest in given what's out in the market from companies today as well as potentially a piece of TMX later on?
spk10: Yeah, Teresa, I'll maybe ask Dave to chime in on that one.
spk14: Hey, Teresa, this is Dave. So, yeah, that's a great question. So as we look at opportunities to pursue, number one, we always look into high-quality assets that are aligned with our long-term strategies and also provide the ability to integrate and capture synergies along our value chains, mainly around crude, nat gas, and NGOs. And also, finally, of course, is return of capital, return on capital, I'm sorry. They always have to, you know, give us the appropriate acceptable risk-adjusted return. So I think as you think through that, it's really, there's a lot of M&A out there, as you stated. We're continuing to look at them, but we're looking through the lens of strict capital discipline. and those, and those key tenants, high quality assets and synergies and integration values.
spk10: So that's kind of how we're thinking through it. And three sits, John, again, maybe just to add onto that with some examples. And again, these are what we like to call kind of singles. Maybe they're even bunts, but you know, earlier this year, we were able to acquire some boats and barges to expand our Marine fleet, to provide increased flexibility to MPC on, on moving product. Last year, we had a, rail facility near our Dickinson, MPC's Dickinson refinery that MPLX was able to acquire to move product there too. So that's the piece where there's like that value of interacting with our sponsor where, again, we can kind of find those. So I'd say it's across, as Dave said, that whole value chain. Where do we, you know, those are assets we know how to run and operate, and we've got a customer that needs them too. So I'd say it's around those kind of examples as well. Mike, did you want to?
spk12: Yeah, Therese, I'm going to add on to John's comment there. So, you know, obviously on the calls, people like to hear big, sexy projects, and that's not been our forte. But we have been investing in smaller, you know, where we get a really good return for little to no capital. You know, as an example, you know, we have record crude throughputs. You know, it's not sexy to come out and say we added a pump here or something along those lines. But where you can deploy small amounts of capital and get large returns, you know, we think those are really great opportunities for us. And the magnitude of the size of our asset base enables Sean's team and Greg's team to look throughout all of our assets and come back. And even though the total capital number seems to some people to say, how are you getting this growth? Well, part of it is because we're getting some really good returns out of that deployment. And to me, that's part of the game that we're trying to do is get the highest possible returns out of the lowest capital deployment. And at the end of the day, to me, it still comes down to, are you generating cash flows? And we feel very confident that at the end of the day, our cash flow generation is showing a consistent pattern that we think investors should find appealing. Hopefully, that's answering your question in a little bit more detail.
spk00: It does. Thank you. And within the context of capital allocation, you have a healthy balance sheet, ample coverage, JV Finance projects and the cash on your balance sheet is building to nearly a billion dollars. Can you just remind us how much cash you want to keep on the balance sheet on a rateable basis? Should we just assume that the cash continues to build? What's the best uses of that cash over the near medium term?
spk10: Hey, Theresa, great question. You know, I don't think we've really talked about kind of a targeted cash level for, you know, MPLX, right, as a kind of stable midstream entity. It's not something we've been focused on. I think for us, we've been focused on how do we optimize that capital allocation? How do we maintain that flexibility for both opportunities to invest in and grow the cash flows of the partnership and other opportunities to continue to grow our return of capital as well? I think it's just been a spot of where we are, but we like that flexibility that it gives us for those two levers. Mike?
spk12: Therese, I'll add that, you know, it wasn't our desire. We didn't set out to say let's end up with a billion dollars of cash on the balance sheet. What has disappeared a little bit from the market is the volatility in the unit price. You know, we have a decent amount of that cash that I call red bar that's targeted to repurchase units. Now, we haven't done that for a little bit of time. It's not that we've given up on that. We just have been surprised at how much tighter, you know, the equity price is traded. But is there ready to deploy? You know, is it suboptimal? You could argue that sometimes, but, you know, we're getting a decent interest rate on it right at the moment as we sit here, so it's not hurting us real bad. And we're just looking for that opportunity. So it's ready to be deployed if we see what we call that opportunistic. At the same time, you know, there's a portion of that cash that's what I call blue bar, which is there for the long term. And back to the question that was asked earlier, you know, could we have pushed the distribution more? Yeah, we could. We have the financial flexibility to do that. But in our opinion, what we're trying to do is convince investors that it's a good longer-term play. We're not just going to come out and, you know, bang it really high and then kind of disappear. You know, we want to show people that, you know, we're going to generate cash flows very consistently. That's why you've heard me say over the last couple quarters, you know, we're going to do midstream, I mean, mid-single-digit growth. And it's not aspirational. You know, we've been doing that since 2019. So that's part of what we're trying to convince the market is that we understand, you know, if you invest in us, that you want to get a good return. You want to see a growing distribution. You know, we think 10%, you know, a couple years in a row is a good number. You know, by your question, you know that we have more financial capability to do more, and we can just decide to try and manage that over the long term. And if we get a little volatility in the equity, you know, we'll deploy some repurchasing power as well.
spk00: Thank you.
spk13: You're welcome.
spk07: Our next question will come from Brian Reynolds with CBS. Your line is open.
spk11: Hi. Good morning, everyone. Maybe to follow up on some of the growth expectations for MPLX of which Permian is the large driver, you know, while we've seen some of the activity in the Permian weaken as of late, you know, the medium-term outlook for the Permian kind of remains intact with some forecasts pointing to greater than a million barrels per day of growth, you know, from today through year-end 25. So kind of curious if maybe you can talk a little bit more macro, but it'd be great if you could just talk Permian fundamentals from an MPLX perspective and whether you're seeing some similar growth trends over a multi-year outlook at the MPLX level. Thanks.
spk12: Yeah, Brian, it's a good question. I'm going to let Sean talk a little bit about what we're going on in the pipes, whether it's Wink2Webs or Bangles, et cetera, and then let Greg talk a little bit about what we got going in the processing area. As you know, it is an area of focus for us. It's no secret that there's a lot of growth in the Permian, and we're just trying to enable our own ability to get in there and invest prudently and generate cash flows along with all the other competitors who are trying to do the same. So, Sean, why don't you give a little more color on what we got going there? Sure.
spk15: Hey, Brian, this is Sean. Hey, really, I'll first touch on our NGL pipeline bangle. You know, last quarter we talked about the expansion on that pipeline, and really that's been a capital-efficient pipeline for us, and as volume has come available, we've said we would announce the expansion, and we did that last quarter. So we're really pleased with that, and that will take us to the Sweeney pipeline, Sweeney Hub there in Sweeney, Texas. The other, you know, link to Webster. If you look at that pipeline there, it continues to ramp up as per plan. And really, we're seeing those cash flows increase over the next couple years as the commitments continue to ramp up. So, again, really pleased with both those long-haul strategic pipelines. And, again, they're measured, but they're steady, and it's meeting the expectations we thought to return cash to the partnerships.
spk11: Great. Thanks. And maybe to touch on Permian natural gas takeaway, you know, we continue to work through all available brownfield capacity here over the next, you know, called six months to a year. But beyond that, you know, more greenfield is needed. MPLX has some unique relationships there, but MPLX is in a much different position, you know, today than it was a few years ago, just given a much larger processing capacity position and its existing balance sheets. So kind of curious, you know, how MPLAX's participation in future, you know, Permian natural gas takeaway or LNG supply made different, you know, a year or two from now versus how it participated in prior cycles. Thanks.
spk10: Hey, Brian, it's John. I'll start and let some of the team jump in as well. As you know, you know, really excited with our relationship there with the resulted in the Whistler project, right, building that line, expanding it. adding lines to the end to get from Agua Dulce to markets. We're a small player in the Matterhorn pipeline, right, coming online in third quarter 24. Again, would have loved to have been a bigger player, but I think, as you know, the way those work, your participation is driven by the producer volume you bring to the project. So, you know, we'll continue to look for those opportunities, you know, where it makes sense. But I'd also say, look, we've got a platform there right now that we can continue to optimize as well off of that base, whether, again, it's more straws on the front end or more pipe on the tail end to get to other end customer markets and other opportunities to expand there. So, again, we may really bullish the Permian.
spk11: Great. Thanks. I'll leave it there.
spk07: Our next question will come from Jeremy Tonette with JP Morgan. Your line is open.
spk03: Hey, guys. This is Rothen Reddy. I'm for Jeremy. I think in the past you guys have discussed the potential for renewed Utica activity to improve processing plant utilization and flows on regional pipes such as Cornerstone. So just wondering if you could provide any updated thoughts here. Thanks.
spk12: Yeah, Utica is an area that I'll let Greg comment in a second. Like we were talking about earlier, we do have already deployed capital there and we have excess capacity. So going back to the question Teresa asked earlier, We love when that opportunity starts to present itself. Greg, why don't you give a little update there?
spk01: Yeah, this is Greg. You know, the Utica is an area that had strong growth early on, along with the Marcellus, and then some of the rigs moved from there more to the Marcellus. Now with sustainable crude prices and good levels, that's driven better prices for condensate and for the light oil in the western portion of the Utica window. So we are seeing more activity there. And even new producers moving into the area and leasing acreage and starting to make plans. So we're excited to start to see some growth again in the Utica and volumes pick up there. And as Mike said, we've got capacity now that we can grow into by connecting pads. And we essentially already have the gathering system and the processing capacity there to handle that.
spk03: Got it. That's helpful. And I think previously discussed CapLine as a potential midstream asset within the MPC portfolio that could kind of be dropped down. So I was curious on updated thoughts on, you know, how MPC could drop down interest in remaining logistics assets.
spk10: Yeah, it's John. I'll take that. We've kind of said, look, we've got some assets, whether it's CapLine, Gray Oak, some other midstream type assets that are up on the sponsor's balance sheet. I think right now we can save those for a rainy day, not something that's really on the front burner for us, but certainly gives us some optionality looking out into the future.
spk03: Great.
spk13: Thanks. You're welcome.
spk07: Our next question will come from Keith Stanley with Wolf Research. You may proceed.
spk08: Hi. Good morning. Two follow-up questions. First in the Permian. Are you considering larger opportunities at all to expand the value chain further downstream, or do you think your strategy will stay focused on processing plants and pipelines?
spk10: Great question, Keith. I appreciate it. We've said, look, we'll continue to look at where we might be able to participate up and down that whole value chain. Certainly to date, it's been on the processing side and then the takeaway capacity, but You know, we like participating in that, and if there's more opportunities to touch the molecule along that chain, that's something we can certainly consider and take a look at.
spk08: Great. Second one, just on the distribution, just to clarify, is there an ultimate level of kind of long-term cash flow coverage you would look at or any other metric that you think could help investors think about multi-year distribution growth relative to the growth you expect in the underlying business?
spk10: No, that's a great question, Keith. I appreciate it. I mean, it's one, we haven't given a framework. We've talked more conceptually about it. You know, you heard Mike talk a little bit about red bar and blue bar cash flows. So we really dig into our results to understand what's that year in and year out stable cash flow that we call blue bar. When we think about where the distribution is and where we might want to head, I'd, I would just say I think we've got ample capacity there as we look forward to manage that. And again, we want to continue to keep growing the cash flows at kind of that plus or minus mid-single digits as well, which should drive an opportunity around distribution growth.
spk12: Keith, it's Mike. I'll repeat what I said earlier a little bit, is I think about it from an investor standpoint. You know, what type of return is the investor getting if they invest in us? So I look at our, you know, where we're going to trade from a yield standpoint. Again, we personally think we should trade a little lower in yield, but, you know, the market has kept us around that, around 9% or so, somewhere in that range. And then we look at the growth and try and put ourselves in a position that we offer the market a good total return opportunity. So that's the way I think about it long term. You know, we kind of evaluate where the market's going to trade us. We think out in time as to where that distribution needs to be to be one part of the equation. We think of how much cash flows need to grow to be part of that equation. And then we kind of manage it across time, if that makes sense to you. And kind of like people have asked earlier, we didn't set out to have a billion dollars of cash on the balance sheet. That wasn't a stated goal. It's kind of the way the market has played out for us. We're not opposed to it. Financial flexibility is not a bad thing. It's just the way it's played out that we haven't gotten to deploy some of the repurchasing that we would have liked up until this point. And like I said, we have more capacity on the blue side, but we want to make sure investors see it as a better long-term investment.
spk08: Got it.
spk13: Thank you. You're welcome.
spk07: 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 Michael Bloom with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.
spk04: Thanks. Good morning, everyone. I just had two quick questions, really. One, I'm sure you're aware there's been many NGL pipeline expansion announcements out of the Permian. So just can you remind us if the Bengal expansion is contracted? And second question is in the LNS segment. You had a big increase in the average pipeline tariff year-over-year, 13%. How much of that is just driven by the inflation escalators? Are there other factors contributing to that really big increase? Thanks.
spk10: Hey, Michael. Good morning. Thanks for the questions. I'll maybe take the first one and then pass it over to Sean. So when you think about Bengal, we certainly have dedications to that line, but you're not going to have commitments on a natural gas liquids line. But we do look and see, you can kind of imply, those same producers do have commitments, for example, on natural gas takeaway lines. So we know they're committed there. It gives us some comfort on how the volume might flow through Bengal. But typical with NGL lines, right, it's dedications, not commitments. And I'll turn it to Sean for the first question.
spk15: Hey, Michael, this is Sean. Thanks for the question. You know, really, if you look at our average tariff pipeline, average pipeline tariff, It's, you know, around the 13%. It just so happens that that's exactly the FERC rate that we announced, that FERC announced July 1. But that just happens to be the same right there. It's really due to the tariff mix that it just happens on the pipelines that were used the most on our increased throughput that helped drive that. The other piece I would say that is something that we try to make sure Uh, that people are aware of, of FERC directed directly FERC tied to our assets. It's only about 20% of our overall NPL X EBITDA, uh, is tied to the FERC, um, index there. So hopefully that gives you a little more color on your question there, uh, as far as the, the FERC rate there.
spk12: And Michael it's Mike. I'll just add that. Obviously what FERC is trying to do is to look at all those impacts that are raising costs and, you know, they're hitting us as well. And what we do as a team is say that we've got to be better than that average. We've got to look for opportunities for us where we can run it at a lower cost compared to where the average of the industry is, and then that way we'll create a little bit of value. But our costs definitely move up with those impacts, and we try and optimize around that.
spk13: Perfect. Thank you. You're welcome.
spk07: Our next question comes from Doug Irwin with Citi. Your line is open.
spk05: Hey, thanks for the question. Just another on the balance sheet. Looking at slide 10 in the earnings presentation, it looks like you have almost $3 billion of debt maturing over the next couple of years. I'm just curious if you could talk about how you're thinking about these maturities here in a high rate environment, particularly in the context of all the cash you have on the balance sheet and already being below your leverage target.
spk10: Yeah, hey, Doug, it's John. Thanks for the question. Yeah, we've got, what, about $1.1 billion due December of next year, and then the next several years, plus or minus $1 billion, $1.4 billion. So I think as you've seen us in the recent past, you know, we'll look to be thoughtful about how we do that. Certainly, you're spot on given where rates are today versus the last refinancing we did. Again, we've got some financial flexibility there, and I'd say it's not only the cash on our balance sheet, but we've got Revolver with our parent as well, which gives us some flexibility to be thoughtful about the right time to look to refinance.
spk05: Got it. Thanks. And then you talked about potential growth opportunities with MPC. And I think one that came up last quarter was hydrogen. And I think MPC is involved in at least one of the hydrogen hubs that was just selected for funding negotiations. Wondering if you could kind of talk about what you see MPLX's potential role being here and maybe just help frame that opportunity a bit.
spk14: Yeah, Doug, this is Dave. So, yes, you are correct. Actually, of the seven hydrogen hubs that received DOE funding at $7 billion, MPC slash MPLX received is involved in two of those, one in Appalachia and one in the Heartland. And so specifically around MPLX involvement, it's going to be more around the storage and transportation of hydrogen and CO2 rather than constructing hydrogen production facilities. That would be more on the MPC side of the equation. The last piece I'll leave you with, while these projects have, you know, received DOE funding, that's just the first step. It's a big milestone, first of all. It's good to get narrowed down and secure the funds from the DOE, but it's the first step in a long journey to, you know, secure the agreements with DOE, design, and construct the project. So we'll talk more about these, you know, in the next year, but... I appreciate you bringing that up, and like I say, we're excited on the first step of receiving funding in those two projects.
spk05: Great. Thanks for the questions.
spk13: You're welcome.
spk07: And our final question will come from Neil Dingman with Truist Securities. Your line is open.
spk02: Good morning, guys. Thanks for getting me in. You've talked around this. My first question may be just around general activity thoughts, and I'm just wondering You know, is the long-term production outlook for your GMP producer customers, would you all consider that as good today as you thought it would be at the beginning of the year, or maybe even sounds like it would be slightly better than you initially expected? Just wondering sort of general thoughts.
spk01: Neil, this is Greg. I would say that if you look at, you know, a year ago where prices were, they were about double on gas and NGLs, and a lot of the forecast was built around some expectation of that. As the prices came down, we did see some slowing of growth in terms of rig activity and bringing new pads on. So, yeah, I think that that was expected based on the pricing changes. But we have been seeing growth maybe beyond, you know, even what you would expect. And I think that shows that people are still very-producers are still bullish on rigs. on where pricing is going with the LNG plants that are going to come online over the next couple of years. NGL prices have been supportive, and really the, you know, production, drilling and production costs have come down as the producers are drilling longer laterals. That brings more volume in faster, and it keeps the cost level below even where some of the lower prices are. So, yeah, we have seen growth, you know, you know, single digit loaded to medium single digit across most of the basins. And that's been, you know, really good to see.
spk02: That's great details. And then just my second, maybe just around your capital program specifically, given the sounds like just continuous efficiencies you all see, would you expect maybe going forward that that maintenance capital declines slightly from the current 150 level?
spk10: Hey, Neil, it's John. I don't know that I'd expect a change in maintenance capital, right? When we think about our capital allocation framework, that first kind of step is making sure we're investing to maintain the safety and reliability of our assets. So I don't know that I'd expect a change there.
spk02: Okay. Okay. Thank you all.
spk10: Appreciate it.
spk13: You're welcome.
spk06: All right, Sheila. Well, if there's nobody else in the queue, 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 today, members of the investor relations team will be available to take your call. Thank you.
spk07: Thank you. That does conclude today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may disconnect at this time.
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