The Haynesville upstream EBITDA was down about $18 million, where the benefits of our 175% increase in net production volumes were more than offset by dramatically lower net realized natural gas prices. The Wamsutter upstream EBITDA was down $74 million due to the combined effects of the historically difficult winter weather we saw in Wyoming this year on production volumes as well as lower net realized prices. So, again, a continuation to the strong start to 2023 with 9% growth in EBITDA driven by core infrastructure business performance with strength from our marketing business that dramatically overcame weaker than expected results from the upstream joint ventures. As I mentioned earlier, we are raising our adjusted EBITDA guidance to $6.6 billion to $6.8 billion with $100 million shift upward in the midpoint.
This increase comes thanks to the steady performance of our base business, even after a historic decline in natural gas prices that did lead to some recent shut-ins and also after that historically difficult winter that continued to have unfavorable impacts through April of this year. And this 2023 guidance raise comes after two consecutive years of record breaking adjusted EBITDA growth in 2021 and 2022. In the appendix, you’ll see other positive shifts in our financial guidance metrics that are generally aligned with the higher EBITDA guidance. And from a leverage perspective, we finished the year, not knowing the exact timing of when we’ll receive payment of the $602 million judgment awarded to us from energy transfer in the recent Delaware Supreme Court decision, as well as the exact timing of the close date of the DJ transactions that we announced yesterday.
Our expected payment in the energy transfer matter, net of legal fees will be in excess of $530 million and is still growing every day for interest charges as well. Considering all of these moving parts, we still believe we’ll end up close to our original 2023 leverage guidance of 3.65 times, even though that guidance was issued before consideration of the MountainWest pipeline and DJ transactions and about $130 million of share buybacks that we’ve done this year as well. So, in summary, we are finishing 2023 with a guidance raise that builds on a strong multiyear trend of outperformance and we’re setting our sights on continued growth in 2024 before another big growth step up in 2025. And with that, I’ll turn it back to Alan.
Alan Armstrong: Okay. Well, thanks, John. So just a few closing remarks before we turn it over to your questions. First, I’ll start by reiterating our belief that Williams remains a compelling investment opportunity. We are the most natural gas centric large scale midstream company around today and the tightly integrated nature of our business is unique. Second, our combination of proven resilience, a five-year EPS CAGR of 23%, steadily growing two times covered dividend, a strong balance sheet and high visibility to growth is unique amongst the S&P 500 and unique within our sector. Our natural gas focused strategy has allowed us to produce a ten-year track record of growing adjusted EBITDA through a record – through a large number of commodity and economic cycles.
And it is continuing to deliver significant growth in the current environment. And the signals coming from the market show that it is going to continue to deliver substantial growth well into the future. Shoring up our nations and the World’s Energy Foundation with natural gas is going to happen whether the opposition wants it to or not, because we are running out of time and real world options to meet the growing need for energy while reducing emissions. Natural gas is the most effective non-subsidized way of reducing emissions and it has become the practical alternative. Ramping up the production of natural gas has allowed the U.S. to meet our evolving domestic needs as well as provide energy security and support to our global allies. It stands unmatched as the most affordable and reliable source of energy and has been the most effective tool to date at reducing emissions.
At Williams, we are committed to a clean energy future that focuses on driving down emissions while protecting affordability and reliability. The drive for electrification is on and dispatchable power capable of keeping up with the large number of government incentive electrical loads like carbon capture, hydrogen production and data centers is going to be largely served by natural gas. This includes scaling up renewable sources to reduce carbon, while backing up those sources with the flexibility, scale and reliability of natural gas. So we are here for the long haul and are committed to leveraging our large scale natural gas infrastructure network for the benefit of generations and our shareholders for generations to come. And with that, I’ll open it up for your questions.
Operator: Thank you, Mr. Armstrong. [Operator Instructions] We’ll go first this morning to Spiro Dounis at Citi.
