EnLink Midstream (NYSE:ENLC) has announced its first-quarter earnings for 2024, showcasing a robust financial performance with an adjusted EBITDA of $338 million and a strong free cash flow of approximately $74 million. The company is progressing well with its $200 million unit repurchase program, having bought back around $50 million of units in the first quarter. EnLink's leverage ratio stood at 3.3 times, and it has received an upgrade to BBB- from S&P, indicating a move into investment-grade territory. The company is on track to achieve its full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance of between $1.31 billion and $1.41 billion. EnLink continues to focus on providing reliable and cost-efficient CO2 transportation solutions and is actively discussing CCS opportunities with ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) and other parties. Additionally, the company is capitalizing on the growing natural gas demand, particularly from the data center industry, and is executing projects to expand its gas supply and storage in Louisiana.
Key Takeaways
- EnLink Midstream reported a solid Q1 with $338 million in adjusted EBITDA and approximately $74 million in free cash flow.
- The company is on track with its $200 million unit repurchase program, having repurchased $50 million of units.
- EnLink's leverage ratio is 3.3 times; S&P upgraded the company to BBB-.
- The company is executing projects to meet the growing natural gas demand and expand its storage capacity.
- EnLink is discussing CCS opportunities with ExxonMobil and others, though the CCS industry is developing slower than expected.
- There are plans to announce a storage expansion in the upcoming quarters.
Company Outlook
- EnLink is tracking toward the midpoint of its full-year 2024 adjusted EBITDA guidance range of $1.31 billion to $1.41 billion.
- The company maintains its common unit distribution at $0.1325 per unit, a 6% increase year-over-year.
- Momentum from Q1 is expected to continue throughout the year.
Bearish Highlights
- The CCS industry's slower-than-anticipated development has affected EnLink's focus on CO2 transportation solutions.
Bullish Highlights
- EnLink's diverse asset mix across Permian, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and North Texas segments drove solid performance.
- The company is capitalizing on increased natural gas demand, especially from the data center industry.
- The "Henry Hub to the River" project is set to increase throughput significantly and is fully contracted with creditworthy customers.
Misses
- There are no significant misses reported in the Q1 earnings call.
Q&A Highlights
- EnLink discussed the upgrade to BBB- from S&P and the company's commitment to maintaining this investment-grade rating.
- The company is exploring opportunities in storage expansion and better interconnectivity, with announcements expected in the coming quarters.
- EnLink is not currently planning larger actions regarding preferred stock but remains open to reducing preferreds opportunistically.
- The Matterhorn project is on track to come online in the second half of the year, with no observed signs of softening or slowdown among industrial customers.
EnLink Midstream's first-quarter earnings reflect a company that is successfully navigating the energy landscape with a clear strategy focused on growth and financial stability. The company's commitment to its unitholders and strategic projects, such as the "Henry Hub to the River" and the anticipated storage expansion, positions it well to handle the natural gas market's dynamics and the evolving CCS industry. With a solid financial standing and an optimistic outlook for the remainder of the year, EnLink Midstream continues to execute on its plans while maintaining a disciplined approach to capital allocation and debt management. Investors and market watchers can expect further updates on the company's performance in the second quarter earnings call scheduled for August.
InvestingPro Insights
EnLink Midstream (ENLC) has demonstrated a strong financial performance in the first quarter of 2024, and InvestingPro data provides additional context to this narrative. With a market capitalization of $6.19 billion and a Price/Earnings (P/E) ratio of 26.88 based on the last twelve months as of Q4 2023, the company shows a significant valuation in the market. The Price/Book ratio stands at 5.81, which is indicative of a premium that investors are willing to pay for ENLC's net assets, aligning with the company's positive earnings report and S&P's upgrade.
InvestingPro Tips highlight that EnLink Midstream has maintained dividend payments for 11 consecutive years, which underscores the company's commitment to returning value to shareholders. This is particularly noteworthy for income-focused investors considering the current dividend yield of 4.12%. Moreover, analysts predict that the company will be profitable this year, which is consistent with the positive outlook presented in the earnings report.
For investors looking for a deeper dive into EnLink Midstream's financial health and future prospects, there are additional InvestingPro Tips available at https://www.investing.com/pro/ENLC. With the use of coupon code PRONEWS24, users can receive an extra 10% off a yearly or biyearly Pro and Pro+ subscription, providing access to a comprehensive suite of analytical tools and data. Currently, there are 6 more InvestingPro Tips listed, offering further insights into EnLink Midstream's performance and potential investment opportunities.
Full transcript - Enlk Mdstrm (ENLC) Q1 2024:
Operator: Greetings, and welcome to the EnLink Midstream Q1 2024 earnings call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Brian Brungardt, Senior Director of Investors. Please proceed with your quest. Thank you, Brian. You may begin.
Brian Brungardt: Thank you and good morning everyone. Welcome to EnLink's first quarter of 2024 earnings call. Participating on the call today are, Jesse Arenivas, Chief Executive Officer; Dilanka Seimon, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer; and Ben Lamb, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Walter Pinto, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer is also in the room to answer any questions during the Q&A session. We issued our earnings release and presentation after the markets closed yesterday and those materials are on our website. A replay of today's call will also be made available on our website at investors.enlink.com. Today's discussion will include forward-looking statements including expectations and predictions within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this call and we undertake no obligation to update or revise. Actual results may differ materially from our projections and a discussion of factors that could cause actual events to differ can be found in our press release, presentation and SEC filings. This call also includes discussion pertaining to certain non-GAAP financial measures. Definitions of these measures, as well as reconciliation to comparable GAAP measures are available in our press release and the appendix of our presentation. We encourage you to review the cautionary statements and other disclosures made in our press release and our SEC filings, including those under the heading Risk Factors. We'll start today's call with a set of brief prepared remarks by Jesse, Dilanka and Ben and then leave the remainder of the call open for questions and answers. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Jesse Arenivas.
Jesse Arenivas: Thanks, Brian and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our first quarter 2024 results. All our operations were not immune to the impact of the winter weather during the quarter, our results showcase the resiliency of our business. We continue to be encouraged with the longer term setup for EnLink given our diverse systems and incremental demand potential for natural gas to help power our nation's growing industrial and power needs including the developing industries around data centers and artificial intelligence. For the quarter, we generated $338 million of adjusted EBITDA, driven by the strength of our Louisiana system and offset by temporary volume impacts from the winter weather impacts of our G&P systems. These results were in line with our expectations and drove solid free cash flow after distributions of approximately $74 million. Consistent with our approach to return capital to investors, we repurchased approximately 50 million of units outstanding taking our total buyback execution to nearly 10% of the units outstanding over a little more than two years, all while continuing to invest and grow our business. Last quarter, we discussed our commitment to provide safe, reliable and cost-efficient CO2 transportation solutions linking emitters with sequestration providers. Despite recent progress on the regulatory front, and while we continue to develop our CO2 transportation expertise by operating both newbuild and converted CO2 pipelines, the CCS industry as a whole has been slower to develop than we initially anticipated. However, we are continuing our discussions regarding CCS opportunities of ExxonMobil, as well as other parties and look forward to providing an update when we reach definitive terms. Overall, we continue to see positive momentum for our business. We have spoken at length in prior quarters about the next wave of LNG demand coming starting in earnest in 2025 and how that is reshaping the landscape and driving our three phases of growth in Louisiana. Dilanka will provide more color around our Louisiana natural gas strategy and I'm impressed with the quick execution. We are seeing customers respond to the shifting market dynamics as they look to secure the natural gas critical to their operations. To that extent, we've executed our first project to help resupply the eastern part Louisiana through a capital-efficient quick-to-market de-bottlenecking project that is fully subscribed the high-quality customers. Beyond just Louisiana though, the need for natural gas to help power our modern society becomes more apparent as industries look to secure reliable and affordable energy. Like you, we've been amazed at the rapid emergence of the data center demand for power, particularly driven by the AI revolution. This is occurring across the country, even right here in North Texas. We understand and appreciate that these are early days and that consultants, policymakers, utilities and the investment community are still trying to get their collective arms around the ultimate impact of this growth in demand. But the initial forecasts are staggering. While data center electricity consumption was approximately 2.5% of the US total in 2022. Their forecast for this demand tripled more by 2030. To help put that in perspective, according to the Boston Consulting Group this growth in consumption is equivalent to adding 40 million homes. What is key for our industry is that these AI data centers are not only voracious users of energy, but they run 24/7 that do not turn on at all. Renewables will surely play a key part, that because of this dynamic we expect natural gas to be a large contributor to meet the increased baseload demand for power generation. We consider this to be a potential incremental growth driver creating a rising tide that will lift all boats in the natural gas industry, and one that is likely to drive rapid and exciting change to our business. Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) analysts predict forecast that additional natural gas demand could be 7 Bcf to more or more by 2030, assuming that natural gas accounts for 40% of the fuel mix. To wrap up my comments EnLink is executing today to meet customer needs and excited about the growing need for natural gas to provide reliable, and affordable energy to power our modern society. So with that, I'll turn it over to Dilanka to provide an update on our commercial opportunities.
Dilanka Seimon: Thanks, Jesse and good morning, everyone. Last quarter, we discussed the shifting Louisiana gas supply and demand market, and how we are focused on creating shareholder value. Today, I would like to provide a quick update. As I mentioned during the last call, we are approaching the Louisiana gas opportunity in three phases, on our first phase of opportunities which is realizing the full value of our existing assets through renewing capacity at higher rates, our commercial team has worked with our customers and we have successfully renewed the vast majority of the contracts up for renewal in 2024. This renewal represents an incremental annual margin opportunity, which is included in our 2024 financial guidance. The second phase of opportunities, is leveraging our assets to drive attractive quick-to-market projects. Last night, we announced the first execution of such a project, through some additional compression, we are increasing gas supply to the Mississippi River Corridor by approximately 210 million cubic feet per day. The project is expected to cost approximately $70 million, with an in-service date in the fourth quarter of 2025. This debottlenecking project results in a mid single digit EBITDA investment multiple. We are pleased to have fully contracted the capacity, with a diverse mix of highly creditworthy customers. The third phase of opportunities, is to add new projects to increase supply to our gas pipelines, to meet the increasing demand in the Mississippi River Corridor market, and to expand our gas storage position. In this regard, we are in the process of marketing our expansion of Jefferson Island Storage & Hub and are very pleased with the response from our existing and new customers. We are excited about this longer-term opportunity, as we can nearly double our working gas storage capacity through brownfield expansions. With that, I'll turn it over to Ben to provide an overview of our operations and our financial results.
Ben Lamb: Thanks, Dilanka and good morning, everyone. Let's start with the Permian. For the segment, profit for the first quarter of 2024 came in at $89 million. Segment profit in the quarter included approximately $9.3 million of gross operating expenses tied to plant relocations and $2.4 million of unrealized derivative losses. Excluding plant relocation OpEx and unrealized derivative activity, segment profit in the first quarter of 2024 decreased 10% sequentially but grew 12% from the prior year quarter. In addition to plant relo costs impacting operating expenses, the first quarter results included a one-time utility true-up expense increasing Permian OpEx by approximately $5 million. Our diverse mix of producers remained active during the quarter. However, results were impacted by the winter weather and producer timing. Average natural gas gathering volumes were approximately 2% lower sequentially but were 13% higher than the prior year quarter. The Tiger 2 facilities in the process of coming online and will enable the next phase of Permian growth. Turning now to Louisiana. We experienced another quarter of solid performance in the gas segment, benefiting from price volatility, along with strong results in the NGL segment driven by normal seasonal effects. Segment profit for the first quarter of 2024 came in at $110.4 million, including 19.5 million of unrealized derivative losses. Excluding the impact of unrealized derivative activity, segment profit in the first quarter of 2024 grew approximately 26% sequentially and grew approximately 23% compared to the prior year quarter. Moving up to Oklahoma. We delivered segment profit of $85.7 million for the first quarter of 2024, including $4.1 million of unrealized derivative losses. Excluding the impact of unrealized derivative activity, segment profit in the first quarter of 2024 decreased 19% sequentially and decreased approximately 7% from the prior year quarter driven by lower volumes and the one-time contract reset that we discussed in last quarter's call. During the first quarter, we saw operators remain active with Regeneron (NASDAQ:REGN) acreage. However, average natural gas gathering volumes were 7% lower sequentially and 3% lower compared to the prior year quarter and as a result of the winter weather and a few cases of price-related shut-ins. Wrapping up with North Texas, segment profit for the quarter was $59.8 million, including $0.1 million of unrealized derivative losses. Excluding unrealized derivative activity, segment profit in the first quarter of 2024 decreased 12% sequentially and decreased 18% from the prior year quarter, driven by lower volumes and the one-time contract reset. Natural gas gathering volumes were 6% lower sequentially and 10% lower compared to the prior year. Like Oklahoma, volumes were impacted by winter weather and a small number of price-related shut-ins. These solid results reflect the benefits of our diverse asset mix, which are weather was a modest headwind for our G&P businesses. While our Louisiana gas segment benefited from the short-term volatility. In total, our segments drove another robust quarter with $338 million in adjusted EBITDA. We are tracking toward the midpoint of our adjusted EBITDA guidance of $1.31 billion to $1.41 billion for full year 2024. While we don't give quarterly guidance, let me remind you that our Louisiana NGL segment experienced some seasonality with the second and third quarters being seasonally weaker. Capital expenditures, plant relocation expenses net to EnLink and investment contributions were $111 million in the first quarter of 2024. Free cash flow after distributions for the first quarter came in at approximately $74 million. On the balance sheet side, we continue to be in a very strong position with a leverage ratio of 3.3 times at the end of the first quarter and we retain ample liquidity. During the quarter, S&P recognized our strong credit profile and upgraded us to BBB minus, moving us into investment grade following the prior upgrade from Fitch. Consistent with our capital allocation plan, we maintained the common unit distribution of $0.1325 per unit in the first quarter, which represents a 6% increase over the first quarter of 2023. Additionally, we remain active with our common unit repurchase program with approximately $50 million spent in the first quarter. This puts us on pace to complete our $200 million unit repurchase program for 2024. Since the end of 2021, we've now repurchased approximately $46 million common units or nearly 10% of units outstanding. In summary, the EnLink team delivered solid results in the first quarter of 2024 and we expect the momentum to continue for the rest of the year. With that, I'll turn it back over to Jesse.
Jesse Arenivas: Thank you, Ben. The EnLink team delivered another quarter with solid execution in the first quarter of 2024 that showcase the resiliency of our diverse assets. We're excited for the future and remain committed to meeting the needs of our customers in 2024 and beyond. With that, you may now open call for questions.
Operator: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. Our first question comes from a line of Spiro Dounis with Citi. Please proceed with your question.
Spiro Dounis: Thanks, operator. Good morning, guys. First question on carbon capture if we could. I was hoping for a little more detail on the status of Pecan Island specifically. As you all noted last call, it sounded like all the parties were incentivized to really come to a resolution quickly just given some of the capture obligations coming in 2025. So I'm just sort of curious, should we read anything into anything on the lack of the update here? And are you in a better position now than where you were a few months ago to maybe narrow the bands on any potential outcomes?
Jesse Arenivas: Yeah. Hi, Spiro. Thanks for the question. Yeah, I think last quarter we talked about the pause and Pecan Island and the broader opportunity to address additional or alternatives to the Pecan Island project. Those can those discussions continue. We don't have an update today, but we have made a lot of progress on defining the scope of additional projects. However, remember this is a new industry and it's been more challenging to find a mutually beneficial transportation option. We're still working that and we'll have an update as soon as we have one for you. As I noted earlier, this has taken longer for the industry as a whole, has taken longer than we had predicted. But remember, we have to proceed at the pace of the emitters and sequesters, until they define the definitive agreements then our role can't be consummated. So at the same time, we're gaining experience in the CCS space. Our Bridgeport facility is now operating and giving us valuable, practical experience, both transporting CO2, capturing, new build and repurposing of pipe. So we think this is key. We've said we are very well positioned along Mississippi River Corridor with pipe in the ground, decades-long experience with regulators, customers and so we believe we have not lost conviction at all. We think CCS will play a major role in decarbonizing the industrial sector. We think we're very well positioned to take advantage of that. And ultimately, timing hasn't been as planned, but longer term, we believe we will win.
Spiro Dounis: Got it. Thanks for that, Jesse. The second one maybe for you, Ben, just thinking about some of the items that impacted the first quarter and how to think about moving forward with 2Q. You mentioned some shut-ins in Oklahoma. I'm curious if that you see a bigger impact there as we head into 2Q, if you think maybe well connections are enough to offset some of that. And then in the Permian, obviously, you mentioned weather impact early in the quarter. Just maybe give us a sense of how you exited 1Q and what that looks like for 2Q.
Ben Lamb: Yeah, Spiro, starting in Oklahoma, I think most of the shut-in activity is either in the rearview mirror or will be here very shortly. It was very isolated, but between a little bit of that and the winter weather, volumes were a bit soft for 1Q. Actually, have a pretty robust schedule of well connects for Oklahoma in the coming days here, so we feel good about Oklahoma for the rest of the year. In terms of the Permian, but for the winter weather, volume would have been about flat in 1Q versus 4Q, and that's not surprising when you think about the way we've talked about the growth in the basin this year. After we had this furious pace of growth in the Midland Basin last year, this year Midland is flatter, and the growth is in the Delaware. The Delaware has been full for us. In fact we've been offloading some volumes waiting on the plant to come online. Good news is the plant is coming online literally as we speak and that's what will enable that next leg of Permian growth.
Spiro Dounis: Got it. I'll leave it there. Thank you, gentlemen.
Jesse Arenivas: Thanks.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question come from the line of Praneeth Satish with Wells Fargo. Please proceed with your question.
Praneeth Satish: Hi, guys. Good morning. I guess, unless I missed it. Can you can you give us an update for where you see CapEx trending in 20z4 and 2025 in light of the Henry Hub to River project at anything change there as it relates to CapEx guidance? And then I think you've got 50 million if I remember correctly for the Exxon for a kind of a placeholder for Exxon CCS projects in the budget this year. Could that be reduced given some of the delays that you mentioned?
Jesse Arenivas: A good morning, Praneeth. Big picture CapEx. You know the midpoint of the 2024 guidance is for 65 and that has not changed with the Henry Hub to River project. We reserve some dollars in the capital budget for these Phase 2 Louisiana gas expansions. So there's no addition for this year. It too early of course to talk about a 2025 CapEx. But I would just say that sitting here today we don't have any reason to believe it is materially different than the run rate we've been on in 204 and even back in 2023. On the CCS side, you're right. We did allow for 50 million of CCS spending in arriving at our FCFAD guidance for 2024. And you're also right that as the year goes on and things have been slower to develop than we would have hoped. It becomes less likely that we spend all 50 million of that. We don't have an update for you today, but it potentially could result in an increase in 2024 FCFAD.
Praneeth Satish: Got it. Thanks. And then I guess as I look at your Phase 1 of your Louisiana growth strategy. I think you're getting a $20 million uplift this year. How much of your remaining Louisiana transport contract portfolio is still under legacy rates where you could kind of reprice it to current market rates? And I guess do you think you could see another $20 million bump in 2025?
Dilanka Seimon: Hi. It's Dilanka here. Good morning. We are indeed very happy with the recontracting we've been doing now. Louisiana gas system speaks very well to the value of assets. As you indicated correctly, most of the recontracting rates already baked into the 2012 budget. We don't see a similar uplift in 2025. We at this point substantially recontracted for the rest of 2024? And we are working on renewables of 2025. There might be a marginal uplift but majority comes in the number that was baked in this year.
Praneeth Satish: Got it. Thank you, guys.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question come from the line of Naomi Marfatia with UBS. Please proceed with your question.
Naomi Marfatia: Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Maybe as a follow-up to an earlier question. As we look ahead seems like I think has some good Permian growth expectations particularly around the Delaware. Can you give us an update on potential need for adding processing capacity beyond the TIGER-II plant location?
Jesse Arenivas: Yes, it's of course you've been focused on getting TIGER-II in service to enable the next leg of growth. As far as looking beyond that the good news is we've now three times successfully relocated an existing processing plant to the Permian. And so that gives us the luxury of being able to time the decision to add capacity closer to the need. So we'll be watching carefully as the year develops and as our producers share their plans with us when the right time to add that capacity and we don't think that the decision we have to make today because with the benefit of a portfolio of assets eligible for relocation we can bide our time a bit and learn more from our producers to get the timing just right.
Naomi Marfatia: Great. Thanks for the color. Maybe to switch on to capital allocation, given endings high FCF. Curious on the thought process around balancing the value proposition between buybacks or and or deleveraging?
Jesse Arenivas: Yes. We remain focused on returning capital to the common unit holder. As we said in the prepared remarks, over the past few years now we've eliminated about 10% of the shares outstanding through the share repurchase program. And we'll continue to execute the 200 million common unit repurchase program that the Board authorized for this year. And on the balance sheet side we're in very good shape having just gotten the upgrade to BBB- from -- from S&P and we are at or slightly below in fact our leverage target. So we are largely going to remain focused on the on the common unitholders.
Spiro Dounis: Thanks for the call. And have a great rest of your day.
Jesse Arenivas: Yeah.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jeremy Tonet with JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM). Please proceed with your question.
Jeremy Tonet: Hi, good morning.
Jesse Arenivas: Good morning.
Jeremy Tonet: I just wanted to touch base on the Louisiana side a little bit more as far as either phases of the project and just wanted to get a sense it a better feel for I guess what the scope of the potential opportunity is in the timeframe that these -- these phases could come to fruition?
Jesse Arenivas: Good morning to all of you again, on the 'Henry Hub to the River' project is indeed a great example of a quick to execute, good return on capital project that needs immediate customer demand and leveraging our assets in the ground. So just a bit color on the project this one adds compression along our 26 inch connecting the 'Henry Hub to the River' project market to increase throughput by about 210 million cubic feet per day. The best thing is that we are fully contracted for this project with a diverse set of creditworthy customers. So that project is well underway and on execution. I'll also add that we executed a similar project like this last year by adding compression to increase deliveries to the Venture Global Calcasieu Pass project again by about 200 million cubic feet per day. And the good news today, that we believe have more demand for this. And we are working on even other opportunities to bring additional supply to our systems through better interconnectivity, new-build pipe natural gas storage expansions et cetera. So the funnel of opportunities is quite encouraging, beyond these debottlenecking type projects that I just mentioned the storage expansion, the renewable part et cetera. We will take a little bit longer, but the teams are, very focused and bringing these projects to market because clearly there is a market demand for it.
Jeremy Tonet: Got it. So does that kind of like? No, we shouldn't really expect any incremental announcements in the near-term. Kind of things are accomplished in the near-term for the Louisiana strategy or just trying to get time timeframe of when these items could come together, as you outlined?
Dilanka Seimon: Sure. Sure, I think the near-term you potentially can expect something on the storage side, as we've talked about the 9 Bcf our storage expansion, we are working on. We've completed the engineering studies. And we are busily marketing of that expansion. So in the next couple of quarters you can potentially expect us to have FID our storage expansion as well.
Jesse Arenivas: And Jeremy, this is Jesse. Let me just add kind of on a macro scale. We've said before you have the optionality of our Louisiana assets is MBS. We operate two of the four market systems. There's redundancy. So there's a lot of these low -- a lot of low hanging fruit that we continue to trade at a deal doesn't meet the customer demand. So I think you know it just proves that owning this diverse set of assets continues to provide future opportunity for our business.
Jeremy Tonet: Got it. Thank you for that. And then just quickly wanted to go to the Oklahoma and North Texas segments and just wondering given the current strip, and given your producer-customer conversations how do you feel about executing against that segment guidance at this point?
Jesse Arenivas: We feel good about the segment guidance at this point. Clearly there was a headwind from the weather and a little bit of extra activity in the first quarter. But like I say I think most of that is in the rearview mirror or will be here shortly. And I think things look bright particularly in Oklahoma as we get closer to the end of the year, as the strip for 2025 gets closer becomes closer to it realization.
Jeremy Tonet: Got it. Thank you for that. I'll leave it there.
Jesse Arenivas: Thanks.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Elvira Scotto with RBC (TSX:RY) Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
Elvira Scotto: Hey, good morning, everyone. I guess just one question from me any impact that you guys see from kind of where the Waha prices are, the negative Waha prices. I know you have some takeaway capacity I believe on Whistler. So it really impacts when Matterhorn on zone. I think you did some capacity but just any color there would be helpful.
Jesse Arenivas: Yes. Hi, Elvira, we really haven't seen much impact from the challenges in Waha for the gas that we market. We've already hedged Waha basis last year at prices significantly better than of course what you see on the screen today. So it's not a direct price risk to us. And in terms of producer behavior obviously, it's in oil-directed basins. Nobody's shutting in over negative Waha prices but also just given who our customers are they do a good job of planning their transportation needs. And so everyone has – has egress out of the basin we're really not seeing much of an impact from what's going on at Waha right now. We are excited though to bring Matterhorn on in the second half because clearly the market is demonstrating but there's a need for that capacity.
Elvira Scotto: Well thank you very much.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Wade Suki with Capital One. Please proceed with your question.
Wade Suki: Good morning, everyone and thank you all for taking my question. Just wondering if you might be able to comment on what you're seeing in the in the M&A market maybe a maybe contrast how the sort of inorganic opportunities might rank compared to organic if you don't mind?
Jesse Arenivas: Yes. Well you know, there's quite a few assets in private hands that need to find permanent homes. And I do think that the seller expectations it has somewhat moderated over the last couple of years but we're going to remain very disciplined in doing anything in the M&A market to make sure that it does exactly what you're talking about but it competes favorably with the other uses of capital that we have including all of the things that the law has talked about in Louisiana. So while we are always in the flow of those discussions, you're going to see us remain very disciplined.
Wade Suki: Got it. Thank you. And just thinking about kind of commercial activity in Louisiana. Could you maybe contrast sort of what you're seeing today in terms of pipeline prospects versus what you might have been seeing six months ago, a year ago?
Dilanka Seimon: So I'll take that one. I think we are seeing the demand driver to continue. A lot of the industrial facilities in that region are facing the dynamic of the LNG full of gas, particularly as a venture local documents facility comes online. So I would say that the different is that people are seeing that demand materialize, a lot of people kind of tangentially knew this was going to happen but it's becoming more real as we've seen in the recontracting of our capacity and the ability for us to bring relatively quickly these projects to market. And as I mentioned earlier, we have several other projects that we are pursuing and that together with the participants in that area kind of coming to terms with the changing dynamic that I think bodes really well for future projects for us
Wade Suki: Fantastic. Thank you. One more if I may squeeze it in here kind of dovetailing off that last bit more of a macro question. You are seeing any signs of a softening or a slowdown among your industrial customers. To the extent you could speak to?
Dilanka Seimon: No, we are not seeing that impact. There are some expansions being announced, particularly on the on the ammonia side with all the incentives that are at play currently, the blue ammonia sector is kind of really taking off. Recall that one of these ammonia plants kind of the world-class kind of train which is about 1.3 million tonnes of ammonia is about 110 to 130000 MMBTU of gas per day per train. So many are being discussed around the river corridor, around the asset, so that's creating incremental demand, there in addition to the kind of robust demand there already exists in that area. One thing I'll add is the storage component with natural gas price volatility together with the demand from the LNG plants that are coming along to meet their operational flexibility. You really need storage, gas storage to balance that out. The increasing power demand is another reason for that to grow. So I think again I just noted storage or surrender storage on Nickelodeon build storage are very crucially located to absorb that market demand as well. So, we are very excited about that opportunity in storage in addition to the transport bit.
Wade Suki: Fantastic. Thank you so much for taking my questions.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Harry Mateer with Barclays (LON:BARC). Please proceed with your question.
Harry Mateer: Good morning. I have a follow-up on the balance sheet and acknowledging you're a bit below your leverage target. But now you do have IG ratings with two to three agencies, does change anything for you in terms of ways you could optimize the balance sheet, whether that's you know some different tranches of the debt coupons or tenor. And I guess related, when you look at the preferreds, just the shifting narrative recently about the trajectory of rates this year caused you to maybe reconsider paying those down further or maybe replacing with senior debt since you do have some balance sheet capacity? Thanks.
Ben Lamb: Hey Harry. There has been a lot to unpack there. I mean I think the good news on most of the debt structure is that, it was put in place at a time when the base rates were significantly lower than they are today. And so, while the upgrade to investment grade is recent, we already had a very low cost debt structure in place. And so I don't think that there are that many opportunities to optimize within the existing debt structure. Now, on the preferred side, in general, we still think that it's better value to focus our excess free cash flow on returning capital to the common unit holder, but we have opportunistically reduced the preferreds, particularly when we can get them below par, which frankly lately hasn't been very easy to do. Don't be surprised to continue to see us do a little bit of that opportunistically, but we don't have anything, no current plans to do anything bigger on the preferreds including by using the -- as you say a little bit of leverage capacity that we have because, having just gotten the upgrade from triple-B minus, we want to be clear we're committed to it retaining that triple-B minus rating. And I think that increasing leverage to do that to deal with the preferreds with at this point would maybe not be in keeping with that goal.
Harry Mateer: Got it. Very clear. Thank you.
Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to pass the floor back over to Jesse for closing comments.
Jesse Arenivas: Thank you Alicia for facilitating our call this morning and thank everyone for being on the call. As always, we appreciate your continued interest and investment in EnLink. We look forward to updating you with our second quarter results in August. In the meantime, we wish you well and have a great day.
Operator: This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
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