TC Energy Corporation

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the TC Energy Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, You may signal an operator by pressing star, then zero. I will now turn the conference over to Gavin Wiley, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thanks very much and good morning. I'd like to welcome you to TC Energy's 2023 Third Quarter Conference Call. Joining me, Francois Poirier, President and Chief Executive Officer, Joel Hunter, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, along with other members of our senior leadership team. Francois will begin with comments on our overall operational performance. Bevin will highlight progress made to date on our announced intention to spin off our liquids business. And finally, Joel will discuss our financial results and outlook. A copy of the slide presentation that will accompany the remarks is available on our website under the investor section. Following remarks, we'll take questions from the investment community. We ask that you limit yourself to two questions. And if you're a member of the media, please contact our media team. I'd like to remind you that remarks today will include forward-looking statements that are subject to important risks and uncertainties. For more information, Please see the reports filed by TC Energy, with Canadian securities regulators, and with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission. Finally, during the presentation, we'll refer to certain non-GAAP measures that may not be comparable to similar measures provided by other entities. These measures are used to provide additional information on TC Energy's operating performance, liquidity, and its ability to generate funds to finance its operations. A reconciliation of various GAAP and non-GAAP measures is contained in the impediments of this presentation. With that, I'll turn it over to Francois.

Thanks, Gavin, and good morning, everyone. I'll start by saying our team is making exceptional progress towards our 2023 priorities. Our focus on execution is paying off. Demonstrated by our strong year-over-year increase in comparable EBITDA and with our major projects remaining on track or ahead of 2023 targets, this is setting us up extremely well for 2024. So far this year, we've placed approximately $5 billion of assets into service, including the majority of our Westpath project that went into service on November 1st. Importantly, the projects placed into service so far this year have largely been on budget. On the deleveraging front, we received $5.3 billion in cash proceeds after closing the sale of a non-controlling minority equity interest in Columbia Gas and Columbia Gulf. This puts us firmly on the path to restoring our balance sheet strength and flexibility. We also continue to evaluate an additional $3 billion of asset sales. As a result, post-2024, we're committed to limiting our annual net capital expenditures to $6 to $7 billion, which will also support further organic deleveraging. We continue to see strong, sustained demand for our services, and that's maximizing the value of our assets through safety and operational efficiency. And as a result, we now expect our 2023 comparable EBITDA to be at the upper end of our 5% to 7% growth outlook compared to 2022. While our natural gas pipelines businesses do not carry any material volumetric or price risk, strong utilization rates do demonstrate the demand for our services and the criticality of our assets. On the NGTL system, for example, we continue to see strong receipts. In fact, the system achieved its highest single-day record of 14.6 BCF on August 6th. Same theme in the U.S. LNG deliveries averaged 3.1 BCF a year to date in 2023, about a 1.5% increase compared to last year's third quarter. And in July, we achieved a new all-time record for deliveries to power generators of 5.2 BCF. Additionally, on our GTN system, we achieved an all-time delivery record of 2.96 BCF. and we're pleased to see that the GTN Express project recently received FERC approval. This project will expand the GTN system to transport incremental contracted export facilitated by the Foothills West Path Delivery Program. We continue to make meaningful progress in Mexico. The lateral section of VDR has been placed into commercial service And for the last remaining portion, the south section, we expect that to be in service by the second half of 2024. In our power and energy solutions business, we achieved a significant execution milestone with Bruce Power's Unit 6, returning a service ahead of schedule and within budget. This highlights our shared commitment with the Bruce Power team on project execution excellence. In addition, Bruce Power also achieved 94% availability in the quarter, and we continue to anticipate annual availability in the low 90% range for the units that are not down for the MCR program. For reference, in 2019, before we started the MCR program, the average availability at Bruce was 84%. So what we've been able to deliver over the last several years is a 10% increase in average availability, largely due to the steady decrease in the forced loss rate and the reduction in planned outages. Following the completion of the MCR program, we expect to continue to see increases in availability. Furthermore, on our Alberta co-gen fleet, we achieved approximately a 98% peak price availability during the third quarter, and that with Alberta power prices averaging $152 per megawatt hour. And on Keystone, operational reliability was close to 94% year-to-date, and Bevan will come back to that in just a few minutes. To sum up, our operational excellence, our unparalleled asset base has been delivering strong operational results and strong availability which has translated to solid, sustainable financial results through every phase of the economic cycle. As I mentioned earlier, we've sharpened our focus on project execution. After five years of construction and 55 million hours worked, we've now achieved the monumental milestone of mechanical completion on Coastal GasLink, and we achieved this ahead of our year-end target. This means that 100% of the pipe has been welded, coated, lowered into the trenches. We've completed all 800 classified water crossings. We've hydro-tested the entirety of the pipeline. And incremental to our announcement on the project last week, we've now finished the documentation and additional engineering analysis associated with the mechanical completion milestone. Coastal Gas Link is Canada's first pipeline to the West Coast in 70 years. And once operational, it will be the first direct path for Canadian natural gas to reach global markets. The next steps on this project are introduction of natural gas, project commissioning, and the land reclamation work that has already begun across the route. As mentioned in our press release this morning, the project also remains on track with our approximately $14.5 billion cost estimate. Now turning to Southeast Gateway. Looking at progress on the onshore portion of 25 kilometres, all land has been acquired and construction at all three landfall sites is progressing on plan. In preparation for offshore work, our engineering is complete and concrete pipe coating is well underway. We are expecting the 690 kilometer offshore pipe installation to begin by the end of this year. Now we continue to see benefits from our enhanced capital allocation governance process. And on Southeast Gateway, that means that that project remains on track to be placed into service as expected in mid 2025. I want to take a moment to recognize our board chair, Seem Vanazelia, for his excellent leadership role during a time of significant change at TC Energy. By the 2024 Annual General Meeting, Seem will have served on our board for 10 years, and he's been chair for the last seven. I'm very grateful that Seem will continue to offer his knowledge and expertise as he steps down as chair but continues to serve as a member of the board in a director capacity. As part of our board's ongoing succession program, John Lowe has been designated as TC Energy's next board chair. His significant midstream and energy experience and his role as a board director of TC Energy since 2015 make him ideally suited to take on this critical role. And now I'll pass the call over to Bevan.