Earnings Labs

NGL Energy Partners LP (NGL)

Q3 2025 Earnings Call· Mon, Feb 10, 2025

$15.64

+8.01%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings. Welcome to the NGL Energy Partners 3Q ‘25 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Brad Cooper, CFO. You may begin.

Brad Cooper

Analyst

Thank you. Good afternoon, and thank you to everyone for joining us on the call today. Our comments today will include plans, forecasts, and estimates that are forward-looking statements under the US securities law. These comments are subject to assumptions, risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the 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 18th. After the quarter ended, we entered into an additional contract with the producer. In addition to these two deals, the recent news regarding Prairie Operating's acquisition of Bayswater, we believe, provides some additional upside to our volume projections for Grand Mesa. Second, on February 5th, we signed a purchase and sale agreement to sell 17 of our natural gas liquids terminals. In late January, we signed an additional agreement to sell one terminal in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Total proceeds for both transactions inclusive of working capital is approximately $95 million. We anticipate closing both transactions by March 31.…

Mike Krimbill

Analyst

Thanks, Brad. Good afternoon, everyone. For several years now, we have 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. In addition, our liquids businesses contained a seasonality that made it difficult to predict 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 partnership with a Crude Oil Logistics segment. Exiting the biodiesel business and selling substantially all of our wholesale propane business 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 of Grand Mesa going forward. We continue to work on other non-core asset sales, which will further reduce indebtedness and if successful we will -- 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&A.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Derrick Whitfield with Texas Capital. Please proceed.

Derrick Whitfield

Analyst

Good afternoon, all, and congrats on your divestiture announcements.

Mike Krimbill

Analyst

Thanks, Derrick.

Derrick Whitfield

Analyst

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 and Liquids Logistics following these transactions?

Brad Cooper

Analyst

So, historically Derrick, that segment's got four, really four legs of the stool, wholesale propane, biodiesel, our rack marketing, our Centennial business. Between bio, the wind down of bio, and the wholesale transaction, it's probably 15% to 20% of our EBITDA in that business unit historically.

Mike Krimbill

Analyst

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.

Derrick Whitfield

Analyst

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?

Brad Cooper

Analyst

I'd say again probably wait for our fiscal ‘26 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 add it to our number.

Derrick Whitfield

Analyst

That's great. Thanks for taking my questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from James Spicer with TD Securities. Please proceed.

James Spicer

Analyst · TD Securities. Please proceed.

Yeah, 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 and free cash flow are 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?

Brad Cooper

Analyst · TD Securities. Please proceed.

Yeah, that's correct. Assuming that all the assets go straight to the ABL, 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 our growth capital projects typically occur, we want everything lined up for next year. If you take this year as an example, the LEX II spin was in the first half of the year. So, assuming there's a repeatable transaction like that, James, I would assume kind of a back half of fiscal ‘26 in terms of Class D redemption. That's not signaling that we've got another deal lined up, truly just trying to illustrate if we have a repeat of this year, how our free cash flow really flows through the partnership.

James Spicer

Analyst · TD Securities. Please proceed.

Okay, got it. And then on the Liquids Logistics business, just a point of clarification. What assets are left in the Liquids Logistics business now post these divestitures and which are the primary sources of cash flow at this point?

Brad Cooper

Analyst · TD Securities. Please proceed.

Yeah, recall that wholesale propane is really the only business unit within the four legs of the school that had hard assets. What's remaining is Ambassador, so that's the propane pipeline there in Michigan, Chesapeake, which 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.

James Spicer

Analyst · TD Securities. Please proceed.

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 $540 million to $550 million or something in that range. Just wondering with your updated total guidance, what that implies in terms of Water?

Brad Cooper

Analyst · TD Securities. Please proceed.

Yeah, 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.

James Spicer

Analyst · TD Securities. Please proceed.

Okay, that's it for me. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

Okay the next question comes from Tarek Hamid with JPMorgan. Please proceed.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please proceed.

Hi, good afternoon. This is [Nevin] (ph) on for Tarek. I was just wondering if you could comment on the relative profitability on the volumes related to LEX II compared to the previously existing assets?

Brad Cooper

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please proceed.

No, I mean, in my prepared comments, it's performing as expected. That's really all we've got at this point.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please proceed.

Got it. But in terms of additional volumes coming online compared to the original LEX I, is there any difference in terms of the contracts that were struck?

Brad Cooper

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please proceed.

Could you repeat the question? It's a little fuzzy here on this side, breaking up.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please proceed.

Sorry, I was just looking for whether or not you could provide any commentary on the contracts that were struck for LEX II in terms of pricing and profitability.

Brad Cooper

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please proceed.

At this time, there's no additional contracts. We've signed up as a result of LEX II [indiscernible], if that's what you're asking.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · JPMorgan. Please proceed.

Got it, thank you.

Operator

Operator

Okay, we have a follow-up coming from Derrick Whitfield with Texas Capital. Please proceed.

Derrick Whitfield

Analyst

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 surprising to see seasonal CapEx down across 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 just a seasonal factor. Is that the right way to think about it?

Brad Cooper

Analyst

Talking about my comments on the growth capital, Derrick, around LEX II?

Derrick Whitfield

Analyst

No, more around the volume. So you had a slight decline in logistics, so [water logistics] (ph) volumes in Delaware in Q3 versus Q2? And I thought the previous question -- yeah, go ahead, sorry.

Brad Cooper

Analyst

I think in 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. Doug, are you there? Maybe you've got some thoughts on the seasonality of recycling versus the rest of the year and how it lays out in the calendar year.

Doug White

Analyst

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 can we call it seasonal, maybe it's more operational. Things are going -- certainly in the Delaware staying very steady but there was a ramp of recycling this year in 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.

Derrick Whitfield

Analyst

Terrific. That's what I was expecting.

Operator

Operator

We've reached the end of the question-and-answer session, and I will now turn the call over to Brad Cooper for closing remarks.

Brad Cooper

Analyst

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

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's conference and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.