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Operator
Good afternoon. My name is Celina and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the 1Q22 Western Midstream Partners earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press the pound key. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Daniel Jenkins, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Daniel Jenkins
Thank you. I'm glad you could join us today for Western Midstream's first quarter 2022 conference call. I'd like to remind you that today's call, the accompanying slide deck, and last night's earnings release contain important disclosures regarding forward-looking statements and non-gap reconciliations. please reference Western Midstream's most recent form, 10Q, and other public filings for a description of risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we discussed today. Relevant reference materials are posted on our website. With me today are Michael Ure, our Chief Executive Officer, Kristen Schultz, our Chief Financial Officer, and Craig Collins, our Chief Operating Officer. I'll now turn the call over to Michael.
Michael Ure
Thank you, Daniel, and good afternoon, everyone. Yesterday, we reported another quarter of strong financial performance. We generated net income available to limited partners of $302 million and record-breaking adjusted EBITDA of $539 million, representing a sequential quarter increase of 27% and 12%, respectively. Taking a closer look at our first quarter results, the sequential quarter EBITDA increase was driven by the following factors. First, Our contracts with minimum volume commitments and associated deficiency payments helped support our gross margin, despite volume declines across the portfolio relative to the fourth quarter. These declines were the result of well completion timing and weather impacts in the Delaware Basin, as well as expected declines in the DJ Basin and on our equity method investments. Craig will expand on throughput shortly. Second, we also entered into and converted certain natural gas processing agreements from actual recoveries to fixed recoveries for multiple customers during the first quarter. As a result of strong plant performance leading to actual recoveries exceeding the contractually specified recoveries, we retained excess natural gas liquid volumes in the Delaware Basin under these contracts. Therefore, these additional volumes, along with high commodity prices, led to an increase in gross margin despite a decrease in throughput. Third, we realized lower operational costs during the first quarter relative to fourth quarter and our first quarter expectations. Compared to fourth quarter, we realized a 12% reduction in operational and maintenance expense primarily due to lower utility costs, which is typical during the first quarter, lower equipment rental expense, and reduced land costs associated with our produced water business, and a 13% reduction in general and administrative expense primarily due to reduced corporate expense and lower contract labor costs, which fluctuates from quarter to quarter. Additionally, in the fourth quarter of 2021, we recorded $26 million of unfavorable revenue recognition cumulative adjustments associated with lower cost of service rates, predominantly at the DJ Basin oil system, which we did not see in the first quarter of 2022. Turning to cash flow, our first quarter cash flow from operations totaled $276 million, which declined compared to the prior quarter in large part due to normal working capital changes, specifically changes in accounts receivable. Free cash flow totaled $200 million, and free cash flow after the fourth quarter distribution payment in January totaled approximately $66 million. I'm incredibly pleased with our financial results this quarter. And I'm even more excited about our team's success in creating additional value for Wes. As Craig will discuss shortly, the team executed numerous contracts in both the Delaware and DJ basins that will generate incremental adjusted EBITDA in 2022 and beyond. I'd like to highlight a few of these recent successes in the Delaware basin. First, we executed long-term amendments to Occidental's gas processing agreement, increasing the firm capacity on our system. Second, we executed a new long-term gas gathering and processing agreement with ConocoPhillips, to provide firm capacity for dedicated volumes on our system. Lastly, we added a new publicly traded customer to our gas and water portfolio, highlighting our ability to service multiple product lines in the basin. These new long-term agreements, along with increased producer activity levels, support our need for additional gas processing capacity and solidify our decision to sanction a new 300 million cubic feet per day gas processing train at our existing Mentone plant, which is part of our West Texas complex. With this expansion, WES will be one of the top three gas processors in the Delaware Basin. The combination of our premier infrastructure, our ability to provide a three-stream, midstream solution to producers, and our continued success in expanding business with our existing customers and with new third-party customers solidifies us as a leading midstream provider in the Delaware Basin. Our exposure in the Delaware Basin is a competitive advantage relative to our peers, and we are excited to play an integral role in the growth of the basin and the country's energy production as a whole. I'll now turn it over to Kristen, who I would like to formally welcome as our newly appointed Chief Financial Officer to discuss our financial performance. Kristen?
Daniel
Thank you, Michael. We recently declared a first quarter cash distribution of 50 cents per unit payable on May 13th. This distribution represents a 53% increase over the prior quarter's distribution and is consistent with the previously announced annualized base distribution target of $2 per unit. We continue to reduce leverage, ending the quarter with a net debt to trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA leverage ratio of 3.3 times, and we expect to further reduce our net leverage as we continue to generate strong adjusted EBITDA and significant free cash flow. Additionally, on April 1st, we retired $502 million of senior notes. With this retirement, we've now retired $1.65 billion of senior notes, or 20% of the aggregate debt balance since our January 2020 bond issuance. The market environment resulted in limited opportunities to execute on our billion-dollar unit buyback program. Thus, we repurchased approximately 225,000 units for aggregate consideration of $5.1 million in the first quarter of 2022. Since January 2020, we've repurchased 41.7 million units for just over 9% of our unit count. On a per-unit basis, we've now returned $5.24 through debt retirement and unit repurchases. and $3.31 in distributions for a total of $8.55 returned to unit holders since the onset of the pandemic, which excludes any market-driven appreciation in our current unit price. We are committed to employing a balanced approach regarding capital allocation by retiring debt, increasing the distribution, and returning excess cash to unit holders through the unit buyback program or potentially through an enhanced distribution we continue to return value to stakeholders while adapting to the rapidly changing environment. Based on our performance this quarter and our updated expectations for the remainder of this year, we have re-evaluated our previously announced 2022 guidance. As such, we're revising our adjusted EBITDA, capital expenditure, and free cash flow guidance ranges. Specifically, we expect adjusted EBITDA to range between $2.125 to $2.225 billion an increase of $200 million to the midpoint from our previous guidance range of $1.925 to $2.025 billion. We expect a meaningful increase in rig activity and additional wells to come online during 2022 in the Delaware Basin as compared to prior expectations. We also expect volumes associated with the new ConocoPhillips agreement to come online during the first half of this year. We anticipate the strong plant performance we experienced during the first quarter to continue throughout this year. To the extent commodity prices remain elevated, we expect to generate incremental gross margin associated with the retained excess natural gas liquid volumes in the Delaware and DJ basins. Volumes associated with an amended processing agreement with DCP midstream in the DJ basin, which Craig will discuss later in more detail, are already flowing and generating incremental adjusted EBITDA. We expect total capital expenditures to range between $550 to $600 million, an increase of $150 million to the midpoint from our prior guidance range of $375 to $475 million, due to additional WellConnect and expansion capital, which includes a portion of the capital needed to build Minto and Terrain 3. We expect free cash flow to range between $1.250 to $1.350 billion, an increase of $50 million to the midpoint from our prior guidance range of $1.2 to $1.3 billion. The distribution guidance of at least $2 per unit remains unchanged. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Craig to discuss our operational performance. Craig?
Michael
Thank you, Kristen. On a sequential quarter basis, natural gas throughput decreased by 3%. This decrease was primarily due to reduced throughput in the Delaware Basin due to well completion timing and instances of inclement weather during the quarter. lower expected volumes at our DJ Basin complex and on our equity method investments, and production declines in our other operated assets. Our crude oil and natural gas liquids throughput decreased by 4% on a sequential quarter basis, primarily due to lower volumes at the DBM oil system resulting from well completion timing and weather impacts, as well as lower expected volumes in the DJ Basin and from our equity method investments. Produce water throughput decreased by 5% on a sequential quarter basis due to decreased volumes at the DBM water systems, primarily from lower production related to well completion timing and weather impacts. Our per MCF adjusted gross margin for our natural gas assets increased by 8 cents relative to fourth quarter 2021, primarily due to strong plant performance and contract mix at the West Texas and DJ Basin complexes. These factors led to increased product recoveries and coupled with higher commodity prices resulted in increased gross margin. Our per barrel adjusted gross margin for our crude oil and natural gas liquids assets increased by 66 cents on a sequential quarter basis. This was primarily due to the annual cost of service rate adjustment that decreased revenue during the fourth quarter of 2021 at the DJ Basin oil system and the treatment of lease revenue under the operating and maintenance agreement with Occidental at the BBM oil system that was terminated effective December 31st, 2021. We estimate the impact of the cost of service rate adjustment in the fourth quarter at the DJ Basin oil system was 47 cents per barrel. Additionally, deficiency fees recorded in the first quarter led to a higher per barrel adjusted gross margin than originally expected. Our per barrel adjusted gross margin for our produced water assets increased by 8 cents relative to last quarter, primarily due to deficiency fees recorded in the first quarter of 2022. As Michael mentioned earlier, we achieved significant commercial success in both the DJ and Delaware basins in the first quarter, particularly in our gas business.
Kristen
I want to thank all of our employees who are involved for their hard work in creating this substantial value for WES.
Michael
In the DJ basin, we executed a multi-year amendment to DCP's gas processing agreement providing an additional 60 million cubic feet per day of firm processing capacity, fully backed by a minimum volume commitment, with DCP retaining the right to increase their firm space by another 40 million cubic feet per day. This amendment highlights the creativity of our commercial team to cost-effectively maximize throughput at our product gas throughput decline in the DJ basin. We still expect both oil and gas volumes to decrease for the year, primarily in the heating environment. We continue to maintain open dialogue with our producers, and provide the necessary support as they navigate the permitting process. I'd like to point out that despite our declining volume outlook within the DJ Basin, our expected financial performance for the year underscores the strength and stability of the minimum volume commitment and cost of service contract structures we have in place. Turning to the Delaware Basin, we executed a long-term gas gathering and processing agreement with ConocoPhillips to provide up to 150 million cubic feet per day of firm capacity on our system to service dedicated volumes. By leveraging our expansive infrastructure, we secured the significant additional dedication that generates a high return and supports ConocoPhillips' ongoing development and are included in our 2022 capital guidance. We're excited to grow our existing relationship with ConocoPhillips and to support their long-term success.
Kristen
in the Delaware Basin.
Michael
Throughout the quarter, many of our producers revisited and adjusted their drilling programs in light of the sustained high commodity price environment. Both private and public customers are increasing activity on the acreage we serve.
Kristen
Growth and processing needs as capacity in the basin tightens.
Michael
Our commercial teams have worked diligently to put the appropriate agreements in place.
Kristen
One such agreement signed this quarter was with Occidental.
Michael
We executed long-term amendments to their existing gas processing agreement to provide an additional 250 million cubic feet per day of firm processing capacity supported by up to 200 million cubic feet per day of minimum volume commitments. This amendment reflects new firm commitments for volumes that were previously forecasted as well as newly anticipated volumes, demonstrating Occidental's long-term commitment to allocating capital to the areas in which we operate and exemplifies the strength and foundation of our relationship. We're excited to be mental throughput in 2022 has led us to update our outlook for our expected year-end exit rate percentage increases across the portfolio. We now expect water to grow by low 20s, gas by mid-single digits, and oil by low single digits. Our recent commercial success and increased producer activity levels in 2022 and beyond underpin the need for additional processing capacity at our West Texas complex. Therefore, to secure additional capacity, our teams evaluated multiple options and thoroughly reviewed each to ensure we utilize capital in the most efficient manner possible. As a result, we are adding incremental capacity through the sanctioning of a new cryogenic gas processing train, at our Mentone plant and the execution of offload agreements with third-party processors. The initial design and construction of the Mentone plant had already incorporated plans for a third processing train, making this expansion cost-effective relative to a new greenfield construction project. Mentone Train 3 will operate with a nameplate capacity of 300 million cubic feet per day, and we anticipate it to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2023. We believe increasing operated capacity in the Delaware Basin reflects our long long-term commitment to our producers and further cements our position as a leading midstream service provider in the basin. While Mentone Train 3 is under construction, we have secured additional capacity through offload arrangements with third-party processors with excess capacity in the basin. These offload agreements are both economic to WES and further demonstrate our track record of taking actions to benefit our unit holders. A combination of our strong long-term commercial agreements, backed by producer commitments and dedications, and the overall tightening of processing capacity in the Delaware Basin all contributed to us sanctioning Mentone Train 3. Turning to our capital budget for the year, our needs for 2022 relative to when we issued guidance have changed due to our commercial success and the expected increase of volumes onto our systems in the Delaware Basin. Therefore, as Kristen outlined earlier, we have provided revised 2022 capital guidance of $550 million to $600 million, which is an increase of $150 million to the midpoint of the prior guidance range. We continue to expect that the Delaware Basin will receive the majority of our capital spend for 2022, or about 80% of our total forecasted budget. Our expected spend on expansion capital has increased to 66% to account for this year's portion of spending for Mentone Train 3, as well as the additional infrastructure necessary to service anticipated increased volumes. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Michael. Michael?
Michael Ure
Before we open it up for Q&A, I would like to emphasize how Wes and its unit holders are extremely well- Since becoming a standalone enterprise, we have focused on lowering our overall cost structure and increasing operational efficiencies, leading to increased opportunities to enhance existing relationships as well as attract new business. We've attracted additional volumes from legacy customers, including Occidental and ConocoPhillips. These meaningful agreements will be drivers of throughput growth and profitability for years to come. We've added new third-party customers, bringing approximately 15 customers into our water and gas portfolios. Our strong asset base, specifically in the Delaware Basin, allows us to capitalize on increasing producer activity levels. We were the first in the industry to focus on free cash flow generation, and we used that free cash flow to meaningfully de-risk our enterprise through leverage reduction. We have been a leader in creating shareholder value through a balanced approach of capital return without putting our balance sheet at risk. As of quarter end, relative to various publicly traded mentioned companies, West leads in proportional debt reduction since January 2020. This has resulted in the lowest debt to EBITDA leverage ratio when taking into account the $502 million senior note maturity we retired in April of 2022. Additionally, West leads in total units repurchased since January 2020, taking advantage of opportunistically repurchasing a significant amount of equity over the past couple of years. The distribution has also remained a core component of our capital return program. This has resulted in one of the highest aggregate payouts since January 2020 as a percentage of enterprise value. West still remains one of the highest yields, even without taking into consideration the opportunity for a potential enhanced distribution, which is also the first of its kind in the industry. I truly believe that West is firing on all cylinders and is now able to better capitalize on the improved operating environment to generate strong returns for our unit holders and to return incremental capital to stakeholders. I'd like to close by extending my appreciation to the entire West workforce. All of our teams have worked tirelessly to enable recent commercial successes. ensure our system reliability remains high, and maintain excellent customer service while staying focused on safely reducing costs. Our first quarter performance provides a strong start to the year and sets us up for great success for the remainder of 2022 and beyond. With that, we'll open the line for questions.
Operator
At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We'll pause here for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. The first question comes from Spiro Dunas with Credit Suisse. Please proceed.
Spiro Dunas
Thanks, Operator. Afternoon, team. First question, Michael, maybe starting with commercial. You highlighted those two deals with Oxy and Conoco. And one of your Delaware peers last night also highlighted about 400 million cubic feet a day of new MVCs and also made the decision to increase processing capacity. So I don't want to say it's a trend or anything, but it seems like sort of a sudden acceleration of commercial activity. And a lot of us were sort of under the impression that a lot of this acreage had kind of already been dedicated. surprising to sort of see this all at once. So, curious, I was hoping to get your view, maybe give us a spare feels coming, or is this kind of it for now?
Michael Ure
Well, I'm definitely, and thanks for the question, Spiro. I'm definitely not going to say that there aren't new opportunities coming. We definitely continue to look for additional opportunities as it arises. But, you know, I think you are highlighting the incredible opportunity that exists within the Delaware Basin as it relates to potential volume growth. coming out of it. I mean, just to highlight, you know, how significant that is for us, 400 million a day of new additions, a 30% increase on, you know, the volumes that we saw through our processing stack during the first quarter. That's just in one, you know, quarter, the additions that we were able to achieve. And that in and of itself, if all we did was process those increased commitments, it would have us approaching a top ten position in total processing in the Delaware Basin. So, you know, what you're referring to there is an enormous amount of potential that exists for growth coming out of the basin and the opportunity that Wes is very well poised to be able to capitalize on.
Spiro Dunas
Great. Thanks for that, Michael. Second one, maybe for you, Kristen, just on capital return, a bit of a two-part question, but you've got this improved outlook now, and so one, we're just curious to get your latest thoughts on how to think about the enhanced distribution and what that could look like later this year in early 2023. And then also on the buybacks, you did about $5 million this quarter. Prepayment or repayment behind you now in April, does that sort of intensify? internally free you up to do more on opportunistic buybacks for the rest of the year.
Michael Ure
Yes, Farrell, why don't I go ahead and take that, and then Kristen, please feel free to add on as you see fit. You did highlight the key factors that we took into consideration in addition to just general overall market dynamics. But we had, you know, a $500 million debt reduction pay down that we did on April 1st. You know, we were also in the midst of looking at our capital program for the year in light of the commercial successes that we were having. And so you're talking about a $150 million increase in capital and a $500 million increase debt reduction. And so it was prudent for us to take that into consideration in addition to normal market conditions as it relates to the buyback. But obviously, as my prepared remarks referenced, the buyback has been something that we have been utilizing very, very effectively over the past little while, industry leading in being able to utilize the buyback program. So it's obviously a core component of and how we think about, you know, potential return of capital. As it relates to the enhanced distribution, you know, these updated guidance figures very much put, you know, as a potential opportunity an enhanced distribution to be paid in 2023. We think it's a really exciting development and a lot of the successes that we've had, you know, this quarter and expect for the remainder of the year. And, you know, very much was core as we thought about the financial policy for our unit holders to be able to get rewarded for the successes that we're able to achieve during each annual year.
Spiro Dunas
Great. That's all I had, guys. Very helpful. Thanks for the time.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Colton Bean with Tudor Pickering. Please proceed.
Tudor Pickering
Good afternoon. Just on Oxy's call earlier, I think they mentioned some permitting delays in the DJ and the potential to reallocate activity to the Delaware as a result. So maybe a two-part question for you. First, wanted to confirm that was contemplated in the guidance update. And second, is that activity reallocation actually margin accretive, just given the broader scope of operations you have in the Delaware?
Oxy
Go ahead, Kristen.
Daniel
Yeah, so that was concentrated in the guidance that we just came out with and the revised guidance. Not only the increase, you know, from the public side, like you're seeing from Oxy on that acreage, but also on the private side, too. We've seen just increased activity from many of our providers on the acreage that we service. In general, it's just, you know, along with that increase, you know, we expect additional gross margin to come from the Delaware 50% of our EBITDA for this year to come from the Delaware. And the capital spend that we're spending, you know, the majority of that is coming from the Delaware as well and really setting us up for, you know, what we see to be a really great 2023 as well.
Tudor Pickering
And maybe just to follow up on that, on a like-to-like basis, if you had the option to put a rig in the Delaware versus the DGA, do you all have a preference, I guess, in terms of impact to your overall margins?
Daniel
I think overall they're both great returning basins for us. The DJ, just from a capacity standpoint, we've got additional capacity in the DJ, and so that's always great to be able to fill up those plants and keep them full up, what any midstream provider would like. But the Delaware is a very competitive basin, and where we're seeing a lot of the growth coming from, too.
Tudor Pickering
Okay, great. And then maybe on mid-term threes, It seems like with the new processing agreements announced and then the offload capacity available to you in the interim, would you expect to bring Mentone 3 on at a fairly high utilization rate?
Michael
Yeah, we anticipate Mentone 3 coming online late 2023. And when it does come online, we do expect it to be pretty full, you know, from the outset. We're continuing to monitor what our processing needs are going to look like going forward, and based on the recent success that we've had and the continued improvement or increased activity levels from our producers, as well as new opportunities that I expect that we'll be able to source and add to the portfolio, we're already starting to look at at what else we may need beyond Mentone 3.
Tudor Pickering
Perfect. Appreciate the detail.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Chase Moldhill with Bank of America. Your line is open.
Michael
Hey, good afternoon, everyone. I guess the first question, you know, do you have a view on natural gas egress bottlenecks in the Permian next year and maybe if If you see some tightness evolving in the first half of next year, what steps do you think you can take to be able to best manage any potential constraints in the Permian?
Michael
Yeah, I think, you know, we expect to see more of those constraints in 2024 and beyond, but I think in the interim, should there be some episodic tightness in the downstream takeaway markets, you know, I think what we'll naturally pivot towards is, you know, making sure that, you know, we're recovering all the ethane that we can in order to, you know, lean out the residue and, gas streams and and uh you know i i think i think that the physical volumes are going to be be able to move out of the basin i think it's more of a pricing issue particularly uh near term uh you know there's pipes going out to the west coast not really where molecules uh prefer you know prefer to go from an economic standpoint but but uh but physically i think they'll be able to move that way and and uh You know, we have many of our larger producers take their residue gas in kind and make their own downstream marketing commitments, and we work with the balance of our customers to, you know, market their production or their residue on their behalf. And we've got a third-party marketer that we work very closely with, and, you know, we're watching those downstream markets and really what – how that situation may evolve. But I think we've seen here of late that there's been a couple expansions announced. I think an additional one is probably pending shortly. And those should be shorter turnaround expansions of the takeaway capacity, so that should help.
Michael
Okay. All right. Kind of a related follow-up. You know, I guess we're now all the way through earnings season or midstream earnings season, and So we've seen a lot of midstream companies add processing capacity in the Permian. And it's hard for us to see exactly how much, you know, has associated NBC contracts with the capacity additions. You know, but it does seem like that the midstream companies are setting themselves up for, you know, significant production growth in the Permian. But this, you know, significant growth actually is a bit contrast to what we're hearing from at least public EMPs. So I guess, you know, given... Do you feel like that the midstream is getting a different message from the EMP industry than what the market expects? In other words, do you think that the market should be set up for significant growth in the Permian? Or do you think that there's going to be, you know, more discipline? And we're seeing all this capacity being added, but we keep hearing from EMPs that, you know, they're going to be more disciplined.
Michael Ure
Yeah, a couple of comments I would make there, and it's a great question. First is, you know, you obviously have to take into consideration a lot of the private companies, and frankly a lot of them are of meaningful scale at this point, and the acceleration of their development programs have been continued and strong and definitely don't show any sign of reduction according to the conversations that we're having. The second thing I would just make mention of is that, When the upstream companies talk about discipline, they're very much talking about that really on a portfolio basis, right? And so what you have to take into consideration is are they reallocating capital to some of the highest return areas, right? And so, you know, for us, where, you know, we take a look at the Delaware Basin as being, you know, and our footprint as being in the heart of the core of the core, you know, if you have a limited amount of capital, you're trying to utilize that capital to some of the shortest cycle development programs and some of the best areas where you have an acreage position. And so, you know, while definitely there has been a great increase capital is being allocated to. And so as, you know, we have conversations with our customers, you know, where that capital seems to be finding its home, you know, is in the areas where we have core assets within the Delaware Basin.
Michael
Really helpful. If I could squeeze one more in real quick and just thinking about, you know, commodity exposure. And I know you disclosed that you got 92% fixed-based gas contracts and 100% fee-based liquids contracts, but not sure on some of these contracts if you have fee floors that provide you some commodity price upside. So I guess maybe if you could answer that or just maybe if you don't want to answer that, then, you know, you think about the RAISE-22 EBITDA guidance in $200 million, how much of that was volume-based versus commodity-based?
Michael Ure
Yeah, so I guess there was a factor for both, obviously, that went into it. The vast majority of it, however, was an increase in activity as we talked about. You know, in addition to the – just to add on top of the prepared remarks that we referenced, you know, in some of our gas processing contracts where you have a fixed recovery rate, in as much as we operate those plants – more efficiently than what that fixed recovery rate would indicate, you know, than the excess volumes are, you know, to our account. And so, you know, in as much as we continue to operate those plants more effectively, still a fixed fee as it relates to that processing contract However, the excess, if there is some, as we continue to operate our plants more efficiently, that does come in the form of increased volumes for us and for our account. And so there is incremental commodity exposure from that standpoint, despite the fact that it is still a fixed fee contract. Craig, is there anything else you'd add there?
Michael
Yeah, I think the contrast that you may be really asking about is I know some of our competitors, for example, may have a have a percent of proceeds type contract structure with a minimum floor that's fee-based. And that's really not how our contracts are structured. They are predominantly overwhelmingly fee-based in terms of the economics they deliver. And then there's just some additional economics on top, as Michael pointed out, to the extent we recover contracts. a higher percentage of the NGLs than what we owe the producer through the fixed recovery components in the contract. But the overwhelming majority is from the fee component versus having a highly variable component.
Michael
Okay. All right. Makes sense. Appreciate the call. Thanks, everybody.
Michael
Thanks.
Operator
Again, if you'd like to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Michael Cusimano with Pickering Energy Partners. Please proceed.
Oxy
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I wanted to follow on Colton's question earlier on the DJ permitting. Just curious if you're seeing similar issues in the DJ with any of your other operators or if this is oxy-specific to the way they went about their planning process?
Michael
Yeah, I wouldn't say it's oxy-specific. I think it really comes down to the specifics around the areas in which each of the producers is operating up there. Obviously, there's a lot of urban development in the greater Denver area. And I think the proximity of that urban development relative to the undeveloped acreage is really the key criteria for how those permitting processes go. And so I think some producers have had a lot more permits approved for I think through the last few months, but, but I think they're also probably much further removed from, from the urban development. And so there just aren't nearly as many concerns. And so I think it really is, is less operator specific and more acreage specific. And, and so, you know, I think, uh, you know, as they outlined, they, they, uh, they've learned, uh, through the permitting process and they're, they're optimistic about what that looks like going forward. Um, and, um, I think their comments speak for themselves.
Oxy
Okay. Got it. That's helpful. That's all from me. Thank you all. Thank you. Thanks.
Operator
Your next question comes from the line of Ned Baramoff with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.
Ned Baramoff
Hi, thanks for taking the questions. So spending on Mentone 3 will likely continue throughout most of next year, and you also noted increased producer activity in the Delaware. So could you give us a rough indication of what is a good CapEx range for 2023, or as differently, do you still expect 2023 spending to be lower than 2022 as some of the system investments you're making this year will not be part of the budget next year?
Michael
Yeah, I mean, we increased our 2022 capital program, as you saw, and that increase is really attributable to capital that we brought forward into 2022 to support the increase in activity levels that we see coming at us both this year as well as next year. And then, of course, the other large contributor to that capital increase for 2022 was based in the 2022 spend for Midtown 3. And as you point out, that capital spend on the plan expansion will continue through the first three quarters or so of 2023. And as far as what 2023 looks like, I think we've outlined our program for this year and and we continue to date our outlook based on producer engagement. And I think it's too early to tell what 2023 is going to look like, but we're very encouraged by the overall levels of activity that we're seeing, the producer commitment to developing acreage in and around our system. So, frankly, it's a pretty good time to – the operating assets where we are.
Ned Baramoff
That makes sense. And I guess staying on Mentone 3, could you maybe talk about the terms of the contract that underpin this facility and just broadly whether the economics are comparable to the economics of processing investments that you have made in the past?
Michael Ure
Yeah, great question, Ned. The way that we take a look at this, first of all, it becomes a part of our broader complex, and so it surfaces volumes that we have throughout the area, not necessarily just tied to a specific or a small group of contracts. You know, the way that we look at it is that, you know, we set ourselves a threshold of a, you know, mid-teens, you know, hurdle rate. And this project, as we look at it, exceeds that hurdle rate. And so we're really excited about the opportunity not only to grow, you know, into the future, as this obviously points towards and our comments have highlighted there, but, you know, while growing at a really great rate of return.
Ned Baramoff
Got it. That's all I had. Thank you. Thank you.
Operator
There are no further questions at this time. Mr. Yeager, I turn the call back over to you.
Michael Ure
Thank you, everyone, for joining the call. I would like to reiterate my thanks to the employees for an excellent quarter and for the opportunity set that we have in front of us, as I mentioned in our prepared remarks. We're really excited about the opportunity and prospects that we have and feel really great about the position call in a couple of months' time.
Operator
This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.
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