Shell Midstream Partners, L.P.

Good morning. My name is Peter, and I will be your conference operator for today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to today's webcast for Shell Midstream Partners. 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 on your telephone. If you require any further assistance, please press star 0. I would now like to welcome Jamie Parker, investor relations officer, who may begin.

Thank you. Welcome to today's webcast for Shell Midstream Partners. With me today are Steve Ledbetter, CEO, Sean Karsten, CFO, and Sean Guillory, VP of Commercial and Business Development. Slide two contains our safe harbor statement. We will be making forward-looking statements related to future events and expectations during the presentation and Q&A session. Actual results may differ materially from such statements, and factors that could cause actual results to be different are included here as well as in today's press release and under risk factors in our followings with the SEC. Today's call also contains certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the earnings press release and appendix one of this presentation for important disclosures regarding such measures, including reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP financial measures. We'll take questions at the end of the presentation. With that, I'll turn the call over to Steve Ledbetter.

Steve Ledbetter Thanks, Jamie. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter earnings webcast. This is my first call as CEO of Shell Midstream Partners, and I look forward to talking to you about our business and the discussion following the prepared remarks. Today, I will discuss our asset performance during the quarter, as well as a few medium-term opportunities we are focused on to ensure Shell Midstream Partners is set for continued sustainability in an evolving market. Starting offshore, across our footprint, we continue to see increased volumes as our throughput grew some 11 percent during the quarter. These increases were a continuation of activity returning to normal levels as the 2020 hurricane season ended and producers came back online from planned turnarounds that were completed in the fourth quarter. Also, during the quarter, we benefited from increased volumes on our auger system as we were able to leverage our connectivity and provide evacuation routes for producers as a competitor pipeline completed repairs from hurricane damage. And as we've said many times, we remain positive on the outlook for the Gulf of Mexico and are encouraged by the level of activity in and around our corridors as we work to grow our funnel of projects to meet customer needs. One project to highlight is the Mars expansion, which we expect will increase our capacity in the corridor by approximately 65,000 barrels per day to help our customers reach the markets that matter most. And currently, we're working to finalize the definitive agreements and have begun procuring the materials needed for the modifications on the system. This investment will be funded by SPLC, and the Mars JV will benefit from the expected throughput, all with no capital from the partnership. We expect the expansion to be fully operational in advance of incremental volumes from power nap and veto arriving into the system in 2022. Moving to the onshore, we continue to experience lower than normal throughput on our refined product systems, resulting from impacts of the ongoing pandemic. But we remain optimistic and expect that when demand improves across the U.S., our system throughput will recover as well. Looking a bit further out on our growth opportunities, we maintain our core belief that assets in the ground connecting the key supply areas to refineries, trading hubs, and export demand centers are extremely valuable. In addition, we believe that one of our competitive advantages is our diversified footprint that provides connectivity to key market centers in the Gulf Coast, the Northeast, and the Midwest. And it's from this position of strength that we see opportunities as crude flow patterns in North America change due to various factors, such as certain pipeline cancellations. With these changing dynamics, we continue to pursue development opportunities that provide efficient and competitive optionality for our customers. A few examples to highlight. I'm pleased to announce that our Zydeco team was able to contract 75,000 barrels per day of capacity starting May 1st for a 12-month term. With this new contract, we will have roughly two-thirds of capacity contracted through at least April 2022. As for the remaining space that is able to be contracted, we are optimistic that we will be able to contract those volumes in the near future, based on interest shown by potential shippers. Longer term, we're exploring the possible expansion of our Lockport facility, providing further staging and segregation and crude blending services for the local Midwest market, or to allow shippers to move south on the previously announced cap line reversal, providing access to the St. James market. Additionally, We're pursuing multiple opportunities to connect St. James to Covelli, which will provide access to the coveted VLCC export capabilities at Loop. And we continue to leverage our existing assets like Zydeco by pursuing joint tariffs to extend our reach further to supply centers to create connectivity to multiple destinations that customers desire. And these are just a few areas I'm excited about that our team continues to work. and we continue to create value for Shell Midstream, both now and into the future. And with that, I'll now hand the call over to Sean. Sean? Thanks, Steve, and good morning, everybody.

As I reflect on the quarter, our assets have continued to perform well, even in this difficult economic environment. So first, let me cover a few of our key financial metrics for the quarter. Our total revenue was $139 million, an increase of $9 million from the fourth quarter. Now, this increase was primarily related to improved offshore throughput that had been impacted by storms and turnaround activity in the prior quarter, as well as shippers' utilization of deficiency credits. Now, this increase was partially offset by the expiration of certain Zydeco contracts and the closure of the convent refinery at the end of 2020. Our operating expenses were $75 million, down about $7 million from the prior quarter. primarily related to lower project spending at Zydeco and Norco, along with an improved cost profile resulting from our cost initiatives. Our income from equity investments was 102 million, up about 15 million from the prior quarter, mostly due to increased offshore throughput as volumes returned to normal levels following storms and turnaround activity. And with all this, adjusted EBITDA attributable to the partnership was 201 million, And after interest expense, maintenance capital, and other adjustments, total cash available for distribution was 173 million. Our partnership declared a distribution of 46 cents per LP unit. Now this resulted in a coverage ratio for the quarter of 1.1 times. So now let me turn to the partnership's balance sheet and liquidity. As of March 31st, the partnership had total debt outstanding of $2.7 billion. Now, this equates to a debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 3.3 times based on an annualized Q1 adjusted EBITDA. We believe in the strength of our balance sheet as it provides us flexibility to continue to effectively navigate these turbulent times. So now turning to a few updates. Starting with our portfolio, we've entered into an asset swap with our sponsor to exchange our Anacortes truck rack for the remaining 7.5% interest in the Zydeco pipeline. Now all this was an opportunity for the partnership to acquire the remaining interest in Zydeco where we have scale and opportunities for future growth as we continue to look for ways to create additional value by creating efficient pathways from Houston to the Southeast Louisiana corridor all the way to the Loop facility. Additionally, on the balance sheet, by working with our sponsor, we were able to take advantage of the low-interest rate environment and proactively entered into a new 10-year facility. This was a $600 million fixed-rate debt facility. This facility was issued at competitive rates and carries few covenants. It was used to retire the existing five-year facility, which was due to expire next year. And as indicated last quarter, we expect to have several producer turnarounds during the year. Now, based on the current schedule, we can reaffirm an expected impact to both net income and cash available for distribution of roughly $10 million, primarily in the second quarter. And we continue to actively work to reduce our operating cost run rate across all of our consolidated assets and our operated equity method investments. Currently, we continue to be on pace to exit 2021 with roughly $30 to $40 million of savings to net income. Finally, as I close, we're pleased with the performance of our overall diversified asset base as we continue to navigate the current macro environment. So with all that, we'll now take your questions. Operator?

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. To withdraw your question, press the pound key. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. And your first question comes from the line of Senor Gershuni with UBS. Your line is open. Hi. Good morning, everyone.

I was just wondering if we can start off by focusing kind of on your last comments there, specifically about the asset swap for Zydeco and the credit facility renewal and so forth. Can you give us a sense of what the annualized run rate is? positive impact would be for Shell X? Did I hear correctly it was $10 million? I just want to make sure I understood everything correctly.

Yeah, Shannara, this is Sean. Thanks for the question. So, look, in general, the transaction does not alter our expected earnings or cash flow profile, so they're roughly equivalent. But due to the structure of the transaction, we expect the partnership to have a one-time increase to CAFD of roughly $10 million for the second quarter.

Okay, got it. And then secondly, I was wondering if we can talk about the waiver or lack of extension, I guess, at this point right now. I was wondering if you can give us a little color here. Are there any discussions internally about a waiver extension? Or do you kind of see a recovery at this point right now materializing and therefore there may not need one? You know, is it more benefits to come on the cost optimization side? I was wondering if you can give us a holistic viewer discussion on how we should think about will there be a waiver extension or are there other factors that you're thinking about, you know, as I said, you know, cost reductions, the growth, recovery, or even a drop down. Usually this is the time of year you tend to do drop downs. Just wondering if you can give us some color on that.

Hey, Schnur, this is Steve Ledbetter. Thanks for the question. A lot packed in there, so let me try to unpack that a little bit, bit by bit. We all know that the waiver does roll off in Q1. As far as how we look at the business, I wanted to kind of start just quickly by reflecting on how proud I am of our business and the resiliency of our assets and our team as we've We've performed well over the past many quarters facing unprecedented situation with the pandemic, as well as the record number of hurricanes in 2020. Now, what we're focused on, you heard in the prepared remarks, the kind of run rate associated with our cost competitiveness measures. And we feel good about us being able to deliver that. And we're still focused on those things. And we expect kind of a $30 million to $40 million run rate exiting 2021. And then we're also looking to take advantage of our footprint and some selective growth options, both in the offshore and the onshore. Offshore, we have our expansion coming along well in Mars, and producers continue to deploy capital in the Gulf of Mexico, so we feel good. In addition, we feel good about our position and assets in the ground are always going to win the day, and we are taking advantage of those use case scenarios. What that looks like, we'll have to wait and see as the market unfolds, but we're pursuing many of those many of those options. And then our just general position in the market from a diversified level of assets and our position in the offshore and onshore, we feel really good about that. And as Sean mentioned, our balance sheet is in good shape, and we have plenty of room on there to help us through whatever may come in turbulent times. And so I'm pretty confident in the underlying aspects of the business, and that's what we're focused on.

Okay, so to sum up, basically wait and see on the waiver for next quarter.

Yes, we're not providing any guidance on any waivers moving forward.

Okay, perfect. That's all for me. Thank you very much. Appreciate it, and have a great weekend.

Thanks, John.

And your next question comes from the line of Teresa Chan with Barclays. Your line is open.

Morning. Thank you for taking my questions. First, on Vitaco, related to the recontracting that was done as of or soon to be May 1st, two-thirds of the pipe recontracted through April 2022. Can you give a sense of what kind of rate you were able to get in that?

Hey, Teresa, I'm going to, and I haven't done this, let me formally introduce the new vice president of commercial, who's Sean Guillory, who replaced me as I took this role. So he's going to answer any questions you may have on some of the commercial aspects. Sean?

Yeah, thanks, Steve, and thanks, Teresa, for the question. What I will say about Zydeco is It continues to be a core strategic system to our portfolio. It meets the demands of shippers to move crude to refinery demand centers and to the desired export locations. It's more specific around, and you heard what Steve talked about earlier, around the new T&D of 75,000 barrels a day. That will begin on the 1st of May. The rates that you asked specifically about, they're about in the same range as the rates that came out in November. But as we continue with the asset itself, we'll continue to optimize the asset and continue to work through additional T&Ds and combine those with joint tariffs that we feel will be competitive and bring value to the partnership.

Great. That is very helpful. And turning to your refined products assets, I'm curious to hear how you're seeing demand trend across your footprint there, whether it be the EIA data or anecdotal commentary from other industry participants. It seems that things are moving in the right direction. So I'd love to hear a little bit more color on the quarter-per-quarter decline in Colonial and Bengal specifically. Was this really just a result of demand not being there to have other volatility perhaps related to refiners in the Gulf Coast being down due to the storms and thus a lack of supply? Or was it on Colonial, was it due to the ARB not being economic as there was a local bid for products within Pad 3 and we did see a lot of cargoes? arrive in Pad 1 from Europe and more medium term for that, you know, are you concerned that there will be a higher than normal amount of shipments of products from Europe this summer and beyond, given that many areas there are, you know, currently facing lockdowns and longer term just lack of profitability locally and the, you know, European refiners will be looking for outlets for their products?

Hey, this is Steve. There was a lot in that question. I appreciate it. And I think you've thought through a lot of that very well. Yeah, we continue to see this being a demand picture issue, right? And as demand, the picture changes both locally and abroad. As you mentioned, the ARB piece does impact movement into colonial with the New York Harbor movement. and import possibilities as different parts of the globe shut down for the pandemic and there's no place for that product. So those are natural competitive elements. I think more on a macro level in our geography in the United States is still balancing out the remaining refineries and the production associated with that. So it's both of an impact, largely demand-oriented, and also there's probably a bit of latent effect as some of the storm elements impacted early on. So, yeah, I think you're reading it right. We believe that as demand settles out, these are still very strategic lines, that our volume will come back as demand picks up and they will have a place longer term from a strategic asset standpoint. in the United States.

Got it. And lastly, just as it relates to the winter storms, I imagine this does not significantly impact your offshore footprint, if at all. But on the onshore side, was there any impact one way or another? And specifically, were you able to sell back any power to the grid from any of your systems?

No. So, yeah, you're correct. There wasn't a significant impact offshore. There was some impact onshore where we had to take down Due to loss of power, obviously, the grid issue in Texas and ERCOT is very well known. Well, that obviously impacted some of our assets onshore. We didn't have any material damage, but there was a few days where we had to slow down, given bottlenecks in either receipt or actual energy to run the assets, but not a material impact to our business.

Thank you.

And your next question comes from the line of Derek Walker with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Good morning, everyone, and congrats, Steve, on your first conference call here. I wanted to touch base on the opportunities around Lockport. You mentioned there's potential for expansions there. What size opportunities are you referring to, and when do you expect those to firm up and Can you also talk about some of the connectivity, I think, from St. James to some of the VLCC? Just wanted to see how you expect that to unfold and when you expect those opportunities to firm up. Thanks.

Hey, Derek. This is Sean Guillory. I'll go ahead and take that one. Thanks for the question. It's a good one. As we see career flows continue to be dynamic and you see some of the recent news with canceled projects and the reversal of cap line, We feel that we have a competitive advantage with our diversified footprint of assets. And as Steve mentioned earlier, having assets and ground has its own competitive advantage also. And as they provide connectivity to the key market centers, especially in the Midwest, with that in mind, we're exploring the possibility of an expansion of our lockport system that will provide shippers tanking and storage, not just for the Midwest market, but also for the potential staging of movement to the St. James and export markets themselves. What I would tell you about, since you asked about timing, it's still early days, but when we have something a bit more definitive, we'll come back to the market at that time.

Got it. Thanks, Sean. And maybe I could just have a follow-up on just Augur. I think volumes were down through a queue, but the revenue per barrel was up pretty meaningfully. Just can you talk to some of the dynamics there and how you expect that to to play out over the course of the year?

Thanks. Yeah, Derek, thanks for the follow-up question. Augur continues to be a very strategic asset for us in the Gulf of Mexico. As we continue to see developments and investment in the Gulf of Mexico, we still expect volumes to make its way and flow through there. Augur presents great connectivity from the offshore into the onshore markets. to then move into the refining centers or even make its way to onshore pipelines that connect into export facilities. So I would expect that going forward, we'll continue to see similar type of volumes that we've seen in the past for the Aldrich system.

So just to be clear, is the $1.69, is that a fair run rate on the revenue per barrel? Because it was like $1.14 last quarter, so I'm just trying to... get a feel for what's the appropriate run rate.

Sean, I'll suggest maybe just call Jamie and he'll help you work through the model on that one.

Okay, perfect. Thank you.

Thanks.

That's it from me.

And your next question comes from the line of Joe Martaviglio with JP Morgan. Your line is open.

Hi, thanks for taking my question. I wanted to ask kind of a clarification question on the asset swap. And you mentioned it was kind of, I think, accretive to CAFTI by $10 million in the second quarter. Is that just, I guess, a payment from the sponsor, or what does that? And since it's, I guess, I think you also mentioned kind of the long-term cash flow and earnings profile, it doesn't change. And then also with asset swap, can you kind of just walk through the reasoning there and why it was now the right time to kind of do that swap?

Great. Thanks, Joe. This is Sean. Look, so a couple of things. One, for your question, again, it's kind of on a long-term basis. You know, it's kind of like for like, you know, about roughly the same cash flow, so it doesn't really change the model. The transaction itself was a swap at plus $10 million was what the MLP gained. And so, again, it's a one-time cash flow increase just for that balancing payment between the two assets when we swapped the rack for Zydeco. To your bigger question, yeah, look, this is just an opportunity for us to take a non-core asset, which is this truck rack, which is, you know, not near any of our assets in the Northwest, and swap it for the remaining 7.5% of Zydeco. And this is a core asset to our heartland, and the NLP already owns most of it, so now we own 100% of it. You know, look, Zydeco is one of our core corridors. We think that by increasing this ownership, it's going to provide us upside opportunities. as our teams continue to develop that Houston corridor all the way to the water via loop. So that's kind of the big picture on why we did it. And we just took the opportunity because the sponsor made the offer.

Okay. That makes sense. And then also I wanted to ask on the Mars expansion, is it kind of fair to assume the incremental barrels that will – come with that are at a similar rate to what the barrels being moved are now or kind of what are negotiations for that like?

Hey, this is Sean Guillory. Thanks for the question on the Mars expansion. What I would say with the Mars expansion is maybe I'll give you a little bit of color on the progression of the project itself is we just continue to progress as planned. We procured a long lead items. And as Steve had mentioned earlier, we expect those definitive agreements to be completed by the end of the second quarter. In terms of the rate, the rate will be similar to what has been on Mars before. But what I would also say is just a reminder, this has no capital outlay to the partnership itself. And it also provides further evidence for us around the continued investment and strategic nature of the Gulf of Mexico for offshore producers, and offshore producers continually wanting shell ministering partners to provide an export solution for flow assurance.

Okay. Thank you. That's all for me.

Again, if you would like to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. That is par 1 on your telephone keypad. And your next question comes from the line of Michael Bloom with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I just wanted to go back and just make sure I understand on Zydeco, just all the puts and takes here. So I guess the first, if you could just explain the decrease quarter over quarter in revenue per barrel. Is that really just a function of the higher throughputs you saw? And then as it relates to when the new contract kicks in, just wanted to clarify that. You're saying that will effectively not impact this revenue per barrel rate? I mean, holding everything else equal, I think.

Hey, Michael. This is Sean Guillory. Yeah, what I would say about Zydeco is reiterate what I said before is with the new T&D, we'll fill up about two-thirds of the volume on the asset itself. And with the rates, the rates will be similar to the rates that you saw come off at the end of November. and with the volume situation with Zydeco, we'll continue to progress and optimize the asset and fill the asset with volume through future T&D contracts, and we anticipate continuing with joint tariffs to fill the volume on the asset also.

Okay, great. And then just in terms of the change in the revenue per barrel quarter over quarter, can you just talk to that?

Michael, this is Sean. Just maybe have a chat with Jamie, and he can help you walk through your models on that.

Great. Thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you. We have no further questions. I will now turn the call back over to Jamie Parker.

Thanks, Peter. We apologize for the technical delay today, and thank you for your patience as we work through this and for your continued interest in Shell Midstream Partners. If you have any additional follow-up questions following today's presentation, please feel free to call me directly. My information can be found in the presentation materials and on our website, shellmidstreampartners.com. Thank you. And this concludes today's conference call.

Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.