Plains GP Holdings, L.P. (NASDAQ:PAGP) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Unidentified Analyst: Just a couple of follow-ups on guidance. So maybe I’ll ask both at once. First, I’m just wondering if you could kind of help bridge the facts that the EBITDA guidance moved higher but then we saw cash from operations and free cash flow move a bit lower, I’m sure the acquisitions have an impact on that. Are there any other sort of moving pieces you can point to there? And then again, kind of on the implied 4Q guidance, the midpoint implies a step down versus this quarter. Just wondering if you can kind of help reconcile that step down versus some of the tailwinds in the year-end light these acquisitions and probably Permian growth rebounding a bit.

Al Swanson: This is Al. I’ll take a shot at the first one. Yes, between the free cash flow and the cash from operations, effectively, the acquisitions reduced cash flow from the free cash flow number by roughly the $135 million that we described. The other 2, higher EBITDA has been in our forecast is offset by higher taxes as well as our assumed working capital and merchant needs. Again which is all kind of timing related. Those were really the 3 things I would point to. As to kind of guidance — third quarter to fourth quarter, Again, we feel like the midpoint of our range, we do see quarterly flux between them. It would probably be better to take offline with the IR team kind of any more micro detailing type of discussion.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay. Understood. Appreciate it.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question, please. Question comes from the line of Jeremy June with JPMorgan Securities.

Unidentified Analyst: This is Brian Reddy [ph] on for Jeremy. I think it’s been hit on a couple of times in the call already but just to clarify, are you guys able to disclose what part of the guidance raise is attributable to the base business strength, given that you guys had already pointed the high in last quarter versus the incremental contribution for the bolt-on acquisitions?

Jeremy Goebel: Sure. This is Jeremy. It’s roughly $10 million to $15 million from the acquisitions.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay, perfect. And then for the second one, last quarter, you talked about Canadian optimization opportunities and maybe utilizing some of that underutilized capacity at Sarnia. So curious to hear updated thoughts here and what you guys are seeing in terms of low capital, smaller growth optimization opportunities.

Willie Chiang: Yes, I’ll take a stab at that. I mean, I think as we shared last call, our East West system together has been — it gives us an advantage because we’ve got spare capacity in the East and that was a key part of our ability to be able to move quickly on our debottleneck in the West. So we continue to work on a lot of need opportunities around optimization, both of our Empress compact sport SaaS and Sarnia. And I think the thing to take away from it is no big announcements on projects other than what we’ve already announced but there’s clearly capacity there that we can continue to optimize and utilize without having to put greenfield projects in.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Neal Dingmann with Truist Securities.

Neal Dingmann: Just one first quick one. Could you just give an update? I think you’ve talked about this in the past, just on the minimum volume commitments where you stand there and kind of as you enter ’24, how those sit?

Willie Chiang: I’m not sure I understand the question. Can you repeat it?

Neal Dingmann: Yes, just on the long haul, yes, sir.

Jeremy Goebel: Sure. What I would say is we continue to have constructive dialogues with the customers. Nothing to highlight at this point. Enterprise announcement is obviously additive to that equation and market dynamics are such that with the continued acquisitions, enhancing relationships with customers, we feel we’re in a good place and we’ll give you guys an update when it’s appropriate. We do believe in the basin long term in these acquisitions and improved recoveries should all support that ongoing growth through the decade and continued contracting in the pipelines.