Pembina Pipeline Corporation (NYSE:PBA) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Rob Hope: All right. Appreciate that. And then actually maybe sticking with marketing, a nice tailwind for the quarter. How are the spreads looking moving forward? And then can you add a little bit of color on the new marketing arrangement that was highlighted in the MD&A as a driver of the our performance?

Chris Scherman: Hey, Rob, Chris Scherman. I think we definitely saw in Q1 as others referenced, really positive frac spreads. Gas in particular, ended up being a tailwind there as well as obviously some positive momentum on the crude side, which pulled out the NGLs. We’re still seeing some of that same tailwind, although a little bit muted here over the last couple of weeks as I think U.S. gas prices have come up a little bit, but in particular, NGL prices are seeing a little bit of pressure with some bigger inventory numbers. That said, we remain fairly positive on frac spreads for the remainder of the year and optimistic on that.

Cameron Goldade: And Rob, just on your second question. So, the reference to the new marketing agreement is the same reference that we made at the time that we announced the acquisition of Alliance and Aux Sable. This would obviously be the first quarter where it’s been in place. We won’t go into specific details on it as it’s sort of customary for us with commercial agreements. But what I would say is that this agreement is simpler than the former one and obviously, does create some opportunities for us in certain environments and down the line. So, a simplification and obviously, some different participation at different pricing thresholds.

Rob Hope: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from Linda Ezergailis of TD Cowen. Your line is already open.

Linda Ezergailis: Thank you. I’ll try to high-grade my high-level questions knowing that you’re going to be sharing a lot with us at Investor Day. So, maybe more in the near-term. We’re hearing of low water levels in Western Canada. We are hearing at Stride, there’s concerns about wildfire risk. How are you preparing for that maybe in your marketing business and your operations, what is embedded into your guidance already versus maybe an emerging headwind for that? And can you talk us through kind of what you’re seeing on the ground and what your expectations are in terms of bookends of what the impact might be even on volumes on your systems as facilities might even be preemptively shut down in advance of certain wildfires in the areas you operate, et cetera?

Jaret Sprott: Good morning Linda, Jaret here. With respect to the first question, water levels and it’s being dry, that is 100% accurate. The conversations we have with our customers to-date is the majority of our customers have retained the water that’s required in their pits and/or their storage facilities. A lot of our customers have recycling operations, et cetera. So, that’s what we’re hearing from them to-date is that their ability to stimulate the wells go forward. They don’t have a lot of concerns with that. Now, your second portion of the question was around wildfires. So we’re actively — I would say we’re in a significantly better place as an industry, but definitely as an organization here at Pembina, we monitor wildfire activity on a 24/7 basis.

And then there’s nothing active to date near our assets that would give us any concern. There was no anticipation right now to be preemptively shutting in assets. And just to note, last year, any assets that we did shut in, they were primarily due to our ability to get our employees safely out of farm’s way. So, the actual assets themselves were never in physical danger. It was the egress component is why we would have had to shut down last year. But I would say we’re well prepared monitoring it. And hopefully, we proceed through the summer. We just did get some pretty good rain here in the last few days, but definitely hoping for wetter weather.

Linda Ezergailis: Good. Thank you for that update. And maybe just a follow-on question. Again, in discussions with your customers, how are they evolving commercially in terms of full path solutions versus discrete services? And what is the tilt in terms of where the offerings that you are leading with in those discussions?

Scott Burrows: Linda, I would say no real change. Most of the discussions that we’re continuing to have our integrated services, mainly pipe frac or gas plant, pipe frac. I think the nice thing about having sanctioned RFS for when we did was that we have that capacity coming online in 2026 in what is a relatively tight frac market. So, we think we’re well positioned to continue our integrated value chain service offering.

Linda Ezergailis: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from Robert Catellier of CIBC Capital Markets. Your line is already open.

Robert Catellier: Hey good morning. As you’re aware, there were some media reports over the last couple of weeks about a potential offtake agreement and alluding to a potential sale of an equity stake in Cedar LNG. I don’t expect you to comment on any specific transaction, but can you maybe describe in more detail your appetite selling equity stake in Cedar LNG at all. It sounded like from Cam’s comments on the funding plan that Pembina doesn’t need any external equity or an equity partner for that project?

Stuart Taylor: Hey Rob, it’s Stu Taylor. We’re continuing to progress our commercial conversations with a number of parties just on the — our intention to find our capacity, the Pembina capacity to an offtaker. With respect to the equity, there’s no plans at this point in time for any equity structure change on the Cedar pipeline — on the set project, sorry. And at this point in time, all of those conversations would require approval from our partner as well. So, there is no equity change at this point in time.