NGL Energy Partners LP Price & Performance (NGL)

Our comments today will include plans, forecasts and estimates that are forward looking statements under The U. S. Securities law. These comments are subject to assumptions risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from forward looking statements. Please take note of the cautionary language and risk factors provided in our presentation materials and our other public disclosure materials. Before we start discussing our third quarter results, I would like to update everyone on some of the operational and corporate strategic initiatives that we completed during the third quarter and subsequent to quarter end. First, a few quarters ago, we mentioned on an earnings call that we had line of sight to a few new customers that would put additional barrels on Grand Mesa. And these new volumes could build our volume up to 100,000 barrels per day of crude oil on the pipeline. In November, we entered into a deal with Prairie operating for a long term acreage dedication, where we will provide water disposal services as well as gather and ship crude oil on Grand Mesa. This transaction was press released by Prairie on November 18. After the quarter ended, we entered into an additional contract with a producer.

Addition to these two deals, the recent news regarding Prairie we believe provides some additional upside to our volume projections for Grande Mesa. Second, on February 5, we signed a purchase and sale agreement to sell 17 of our natural gas liquids terminals.

We late January, signed an additional agreement to sell one terminal in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Total proceeds for both transactions inclusive of working capital is approximately $95,000,000 We anticipate closing both transactions by March 31. During the third quarter, we also wound down the majority of biodiesel marketing business. I will get into the impacts this decision had on our financials for the quarter. The elimination of this business permanently reduces our work working capital needs by $30,000,000 to $40,000,000 on average per year. With the additional sale of substantially all of the wholesale propane business, we have eliminated a total of $60,000,000 to $70,000,000 of working capital on average per year. During the peak inventory builds throughout the year, the working capital requirement These strategic actions are the next step in our strategy to simplify the asset base, reduce working capital, smooth out the seasonality of our EBITDA and free cash flow and ultimately reduce debt by selling non core assets Third, the Lexus two project commenced operations in October and is performing as expected. Fourth, as previously mentioned on November 22, we purchased 23,375,000 of the 25,500,000 outstanding warrants for $6,900,000 This transaction represented approximately 92% of the outstanding warrants and eliminates the potential future dilution to our LOP unitholders.

Fifth, due to the structural changes in the biodiesel market, and our desire to exit the business, we started the process of winding down our biodiesel marketing business by allowing our storage lease, and certain railcar leases to expire. And closing out the open purchase and sale contracts. Other than the railcar and storage lease leases, this business did not have any other long lived assets. Expect to have all our inventory liquidated by the February and to sublease the remaining railcars by 03/31/2025. Year to date, biodiesel has generated negative adjusted EBITDA of of $10,300,000 with negative $12,100,000 in adjusted EBITDA in the [indiscernible] And lastly, in January and February, we sold 143 railcars for proceeds of $12,500,000 and expect to close on additional railcars before March 31. Total proceeds are expected to be approximately $20,000,000 All of the sales proceeds I have mentioned will be deployed to the balance sheet. And we currently project an undrawn ABL balance at March 31. Let's get into the quarterly results. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA for the quarter came in at 147,700,000.0 in the third quarter, $151,700,000 in the prior year third quarter. As I just mentioned, we are winding down our biodiesel business which negatively impacted adjusted EBITDA in the quarter by $12,100,000 if you exclude the impact of biodiesel, adjusted EBITDA was $160,000,000 for the quarter or approximately 5% higher than the prior third Water Solutions adjusted EBITDA was $132,700,000 in the third quarter, versus $121,300,000 in the prior third quarter.

Physical water disposal volumes were 2,620,000 barrels per day in the third quarter versus 2,380,000 barrels per day in the prior third quarter. Total volumes we were paid to dispose that includes deficiency volume were 2,910,000 barrels per day in the third quarter versus 2,600,000 barrels per day in the prior third quarter, So total volumes we were paid to dispose of were up twelve percent third quarter of fiscal twenty twenty five over the third quarter of fiscal twenty twenty four We team continues to maximize the expense side of the ledger. Operating expenses in the Water Solutions segment decreased for the quarter ended December 31, 2024 compared to the quarter ended 12/31/2023, due to primary primarily due to lower utility expenses [indiscernible] chemical expense and lower repairs and maintenance expense. Operating expense per produced barrel processed was $0.21 for the quarter ended 12/31/2024, compared to $0.25 in the comparative quarter last year. Crude Oil Logistics adjusted EBITDA was $17,400,000 in the third quarter at fiscal 'twenty five versus $17,000,000 in the prior year's third quarter. Physical volumes on Grand Mesa averaged approximately one, twenty eighteen. 01/2023. As I discussed earlier, Prairie Operating Sign and Press released a long term dedication in the TJX Basin with the partnership and we entered into another acreage dedication agreement with a second producer These are the potential contracts on Grand Mesa we alluded to in prior earnings calls that would get us to 100,000 barrels per day.

Very little maintenance capital needed for this business segment, the growth in the EBITDA will create a dollar for dollar increase in our free cash flow. Liquid's Logistics adjusted EBITDA was $8,200,000 in the third quarter versus $26,300,000 in the prior third quarter. The winding down of biodiesel significantly impacted the quarter with negative adjusted EBITDA $12,100,000 for the quarter. So excluding the impact of biodiesel, the remaining businesses within Liquids Logistics generated $20,300,000 for the quarter. We are optimistic with the cold weather most of the country has experienced in January, and that looks to continue through February that we will have strong results from the Wholesale Propane division to report for the fiscal fourth quarter. As for our full year results, we are up updating the guide to reflect additional weakness in our Liquids segment. For the full year, we are guiding to $620,000,000 of EBITDA. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to our CEO, Mike Crimble. Thanks, Brad. Good afternoon, everyone. For several years now, we've experienced performance below expectations in certain of our liquids logistics businesses. As well as declining volumes on Grand Mesa crude oil pipeline. Our results have reflected this volatility And in addition, our liquids businesses contained a seasonality that made it difficult to project quarterly earnings and was further complicated by warm weather.

That is changing going forward. As we are now on our way to becoming a water solutions partner crude oil logistics segment. Exiting the biodiesel business and selling some will improve the repeatability of our cash flows and reduce the seasonality and volatility of our adjusted EBITDA. With respect to crude oil logistics, we are bouncing off the bottom of our DJ Basin performance. Adding new customers which we expect to significantly enhance the volumes and profitability at Grand Mesa going forward. We continue to work on other non core asset sales, which will further reduce indebtedness and leverage. If successful, we expect to announce these in the next few months. Once we have reduced our leverage further, we can begin redemption of our Class D preferred shares. So with that, operator, please open up the line for Q and A. Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. First question comes from Derek Woodfield with Texas Capital. Please proceed.

Good afternoon all and congrats on your divestiture announcements. [indiscernible] Perhaps starting there with your announced NGL terminal and railcar transactions, how should we think about the annual run rate EBITDA of your remaining assets in Liquid Logistics following these transactions? So historically, Derek, I mean, that's segment has got four really four legs of the stool, wholesale propane, biodiesel, Iraq Marketing, our Centennial, business [indiscernible] bio, the wind down of bio, and the wholesale transaction, it's probably 15% to 20% of our EBITDA in that business NGL. Historically, I'll answer that, Brad. I think it's too early for us to give any numbers We are still looking at some additional opportunities. So we don't want to mislead you by giving you a number that turns out to be Not accurate. Understood. Maybe shifting over to the crude oil logistics segment. How should we think about the growth trajectory associated with the announcements from this quarter to really achieve that 100,000 barrel mark you referenced in your prepared remarks.

I'd say again, we'll probably wait for guidance to really quantify that I think you can see that the volume increase will be 50% So if nothing else, you could take 50% of EBITDA this year and and add it to our [indiscernible] That's great. Thanks for taking my The next question comes from James Spicer with TD Securities. Please proceed. Yes. Hi. Thanks for taking the question.

Sounds like if you're projecting an undrawn revolver balance at the end of next quarter, that would imply that the majority of your asset sale proceeds free cash flow were all going to pay down the ABL balance Just wondering if that's the case? And if so, what metrics are you looking for to hit before you start addressing the principle on the Series D preferreds?

Yes, that's correct. Assuming all we ask [indiscernible] I think it's probably just continued deleveraging I don't know if we have a hard fast line in the sand in terms of where we want to be, but the way that [indiscernible] growth capital projects typically occur and we don't have anything lined up for next year. But if you take this year as an example, the next two spend was in the first half of the year. So assuming there is a repeatable transaction like that, James, I would assume kind of a back half of fiscal twenty twenty six in terms of Class D redemption. Not signaling that we've got another deal lined up. It's really just trying to illustrate if we have a repeat of this year how our free cash flow really flows through the through the partnership.

Okay, got it. And then on the Liquide Logistics business, just a point of clarification. What assets [indiscernible] left in the liquids logistics business now post these divestitures At this point, Yes. Recall that wholesale propane is really the only business unit within the four legs of the stool that had hard assets. What's remaining is Ambassador. So that's the propane pipeline there in Michigan Chesapeake, is a butane export facility and then Port Hudson and West Point. We have a terminal in West Point, Virginia So those four residual assets Okay.

Thanks. And then just one more. I think you have been guiding to Water Solutions EBITDA of no, I can't remember the number now, like $5.05 $40,000,000 to $550,000,000 or something in that range. Just wondering what your updated total guidance, what that implies in terms of water?

Yes, it implies water will be below that range. But it's not clear to us where we're going to end up. So we decided not to provide another any more guidance on water Okay.

That's it for me. Thanks guys. Okay. The next question comes from Tarek Hamed with JPMorgan. Please proceed. Hi, good afternoon. This is Nevan on for Tariq. I was just wondering if you could comment on the LEX2 compared to the previously existing assets? No, I mean, in my prepared comments, it's performing as expected. That's really all we've got at this point. Got it. But in terms of additional volumes coming online, compared to original or less one, is there any difference in terms of the contracts that we're Could you repeat the question? It's a little fuzzy here on this side. Breaking up. Sorry, I was just looking for whether or not you could provide any commentary on the contracts that were struck for Lex two in terms of pricing and profitability? At this time, there's no additional contracts we've signed up as a result of Lexus Pipe on its if that's what you're asking. Got it. Thank you.

Okay. We have a follow-up coming from Derek Whitfield with Texas Capital. Please proceed.

Good afternoon, guys. Just to clarify, the comment on modern logistics volumes, Should we be thinking about that more from a seasonal perspective? I mean it's certainly not so surprising to see seasonal CapEx down across the upstream industry. I mean, I would think that you would start to see that front loaded in the first half of the year. So that's I mean, it's just a seasonal factor. Is that the right way to think about it? So my comments on the growth capital Derek around let's do No, more around those, the volumes. So you had a slight decline in logistics so wider logistics volumes in Delaware in Q3 versus Q2.

And I thought the previous question go ahead, sorry.

I think the third quarter we've seen we saw quite a bit of recycling from some of our larger customers. I don't know if that's seasonal stuff. Are you there? I don't maybe you've got some thoughts on the seasonality of of recycling versus the rest of the year and how it lays out in the calendar year. This is Doug. Typically, we see the slowdown over the holidays That began to change in 2023 where we saw the producers stay very busy through the holiday season. But once again, it's flipped back in 2024. We saw the and I don't know if it's the calendar situation where there was a Thanksgiving and Christmas certainly had a lot more leaned a lot more towards time off just in general. But we did see a slowdown compared to prior year. Because of that. And we call it seasonal Maybe it's more [indiscernible] Things are going certainly in the Delaware NGL, staying very steady. But there was a ramp of recycling this year in that that last quarter of the calendar year and we're already seeing those numbers quickly turn back around in this first calendar quarter of the year. With a lot of wells being brought online.

Terrific. That's what I was expecting.

We have reached the end of the question and answer session. And I will now turn the call over to Brad Cooper for closing remarks.

Thanks everyone for your interest in NGL and we look to catching up with everyone in a couple of months on the year end earnings call Thanks and have a nice week.

This concludes today's conference and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you. For your participation. [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [indiscernible]