MPLX LP

Welcome to the MPLX first quarter earnings call. My name is Amanda 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. Please press star one on your touch tone 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.

Welcome to MPLX's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. The slides that accompany this call can be found on our website at MPLX.com under the Investor tab. Joining me on the call today are Marianne Manin, President and CEO, Chris Hagedorn, CFO, and other members of the executive team. We invite you to read the safe, hard-to-verse statements on slide two. We will be making forward-looking statements today. Actual results may differ. Factors that could cause actual results to differ are included there, as well as in our filings with the SEC. With that, I will turn the call over to Marianne.

Thanks, Christina. Good morning, and thank you for joining our call. In the first quarter, adjusted EBITDA was $1.8 billion, a 7% increase year over year. Distributable cash flow was $1.5 billion, which supported nearly $1 billion of distribution to our unit holders and $100 million in unit repurchases. Since the start of the year, MPLX has announced over $1 billion of strategic acquisitions. First, with our NGL value chain, MPLX will be acquiring the remaining 55% interest in the Bengal NGL pipeline system. Full ownership of Bengal and its expansion opportunities enhance our Permian platform as we connect growing NGL production from the wellhead to our recently announced Gulf Coast fractionation facilities. The Bengal transaction is anticipated to close in July, subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions. Second, MPLX expanded its crude oil value chain by acquiring gathering businesses from Whiptail Midstream in March. These San Juan Basin assets in the Four Corners region enhance our strategic relationship with MPC. And third, MPLX has entered into an agreement to double its stake in the Matterhorn Express Pipeline from 5% to 10%. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2025, subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions. These acquisitions are expected to be immediately accretive. We're all well aware of the volatility in the commodity markets. However, we continue to see robust production across our Marcellus Utica and Permian operating regions. These basins have some of the lowest break-even prices in the U.S., offering economically advantaged and development opportunities. Based on feedback from our producer customers, we continue to expect year-over-year volume growth. In the Marcellus and Utica basins, longer laterals are resulting in higher volumes with less incremental capital. In the Permian basin, production growth continues to create growth opportunities across our crude, natural gas, and NGL businesses. The U.S. is a low-cost producer of energy fuels needed across the globe. Notwithstanding current market volatility, the outlook for hydrocarbons remains robust. Grid electrification, on-shoring, near-shoring, and data center development are driving natural gas demand growth forecasts through the end of the decade. As demand increases for natural gas-powered electricity, we are well-positioned to support the development plans of our producer customers. MPLX is growing the base business by developing processing plants on a just-in-time basis, increasing the utilization of our existing assets, optimizing our asset footprint, and enhancing our strategic relationship with MPC. At the same time, global demand for transportation fuels is expected to grow. The U.S. refining industry is expected to remain structurally advantaged over the rest of the world. The accessibility of nearby crude, the availability of low-cost natural gas, and overall system flexibility provide U.S. refiners a competitive advantage over international sources of supply. Furthermore, we believe the MPC refining assets are the most competitive in each region where MPC operates. Our strategic relationship with MPC positions us well to facilitate crude and products logistics solutions which optimize the value chains supporting their operations. We have a very high degree of confidence in our investments as the macroeconomic environment for energy remains favorable. And we believe we have significant opportunities to grow the business, leveraging our existing value chain platforms. Within the Permian, MPLX advanced its strategic growth objectives as we are strengthening our NGL integrated value chain. MPLX, is completing construction of its seventh processing plant, Secretariat, a 200 million cubic feet per day processing plant expected online in the fourth quarter of 2025, bringing our processing capacity in the Permian Basin to 1.4 billion cubic feet per day. In the first quarter, the Bangal pipeline completed its expansion to a capacity of 250,000 barrels a day. The mainline expansion to 300,000 barrels per day is progressing and expected to be operational in the second half of 2026. We are progressing the 2025 portion of our $2.5 billion investment in our two Gulf Coast fractionators and joint venture export terminal. FRAC 1 and the export terminal are expected to be in service in 2028, while FRAC 2 is expected to be in service in late 2029. Our current customer commitments support this project. Volumes from our plants are currently fractionated at third-party facilities, and in the future, these volumes will move through our fractionation facilities. Upon completion of MPLX's fully integrated NGL value chain, the Bengal pipeline will connect the Permian to the Gulf Coast fractionators and supply LPGs to a growing global market. Additionally, we believe the expansion of our Gulf Coast NGL value chain will create a platform for optimization and incremental growth opportunities. Within natural gas, last month we announced another step in the advancement of our natural gas value chain. MPLX and its partners announced they will construct the Traverse natural gas pipeline following the receipt of sufficient volume commitments. Traverse? will be a 1.7 billion cubic feet per day pipeline and connect supply between Agua Dolce and Houston area. The project offers a compelling value proposition and compliments the previously announced Blackcomb and Rio Bravo pipelines. MPLX will be a 34% partner in the project. Traverse is expected to be in service in the second half of 2027. The continued build-out of this natural gas system enhances our ability to provide Permian Basin shippers with premium market access and superior flexibility while enhancing MPLX's natural gas value chain through additional growth opportunities. To execute our mid-single-digit growth strategy, our plans include spending $1.7 billion of capital on growth projects in 2025. Eighty-five percent of our growth capital will be allocated to opportunities within our natural gas and NGL services segment, driving third-party cash flows to MPLX. In the Marcellus, our largest operating region, construction of our Harmon Creek III processing plant and fractionation capacity align with producer drilling plans. With strong commitments to our system in the Northeast, this complex will include a 300 million cubic feet per day processing plant and 40,000 barrel per day de-ethanizer. MPLX anticipates that by the second half of 2026, gas processing capacity in the Northeast will reach 8.1 billion cubic feet per day and fractionation capacity will reach 800,000 barrels per day. Within the crude oil and products logistics segment, we are expanding crude gathering pipelines, supporting the Permian and Bakken basins, undertaking butane blending projects at our product terminals, and investing in other high-returns-targeted at the expansion or debottlenecking of assets. We expect mid-teens returns on our investments and believe our execution of these projects will extend the durability of our mid-single-digit growth profile, allowing us to invest in the business and support annual distribution increases in the future. We have the financial flexibility to execute strategic acquisitions that complement our organic capital deployment plans and will continue to evaluate opportunities as they arise. We have ample capacity to undertake additional strategic acquisitions while maintaining leverage below four times. We are committed to growing the partnership through our lens of capital discipline and are confident in our growth opportunities to generate durable cash flow for MPLX, supporting our commitment to return capital to unit holders. Now let me turn the call over to Chris to discuss our operational and financial results for the quarter.