EnLink Midstream, LLC (NYSE:ENLC) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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. 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.