MPLX LP (NYSE:MPLX) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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They’ll just have to develop as technology advances, et cetera. So in the meantime, our concentration — we use the term strict capital discipline. It’s a nice way of saying we want to make sure we get good high returns that are really going to hit the bottom line every year consistently, because we’ve continued to grow this partnership year-after-year and obviously a big outcome of that is returning a lot of capital to our investors.

Shawn Lyon: Hi, John. It’s Shawn. Just a couple of things to add to Mike’s comments. So maybe one is an example of kind of an expansion in debottleneck. The other item we’re looking at in the Marcellus is we’ve got some space on our existing processing plants. So we’ve got an opportunity to look at those gathering systems and invest the monies and fill up some space on plants we have sitting there and ready to go. And then also remember there’s a number of those projects that are listed on the slide there, mainly around our Permian opportunities, where those projects given shipper support, et cetera, we’ve been financing those at the JV level. So there’s a good amount of capital that’s going to drive EBITDA growth that’s not in our capital outlook just because of that’s getting financed down at the joint venture. So just wanted to highlight that as well.

John Mackay: That’s helpful. I appreciate all the stuff. Maybe turning to the quarter, two things. John, I think you mentioned some higher expenses maybe on the L&S side in the quarter. And then you also mentioned the $23 million special comp award. Is there any kind of total number there that you might be able to give us for the quarter that maybe won’t be there in a run rate if we’re trying to look at 2023 going forward? Is it as simple as kind of adding back $23 million or maybe $25 million? And that’s kind of a more representative run rate of the base business.

John Quaid: Yes. John. Thanks for the question. So a couple of pieces there. The special compensation award by it’s kind of term we’re using there, that’s a one-time item we decided to do here in the quarter and that was the expense for the entire items. So I don’t know that we anticipate having another award in the first quarter, right? That was really our effort to look at our employees, kind of non-executive level employees’ efforts in achieving our 2022 results and wanting to recognize that. So that’s a little unique. The other piece gets around our frequent discussion around kind of project maintenance expenses. Certainly, we tend to be a little more back half loaded, sometimes that can move with MPC’s turnaround schedules, et cetera.

So that number year-over-year I think we see being roughly the same amount of expenses as we continue to focus on cost management. But it will move quarter-to-quarter, John, but I don’t know that today we’re going to provide that number. Just a flag for you, as in the past, first quarter does tend to be our lowest spend quarter around that activity just due to weather and other items. So hopefully, that’s helpful.

John Mackay: Great. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

John Quaid: You’re welcome.

Operator: Our next question comes from Keith Stanley with Wolfe Research. Your line is open.

Keith Stanley: Hi. Good morning. I wanted to start just — I know this is a very recent data point, but just any updated commentary you’re hearing from producers unplanned Marcellus and Utica activity, given the very rapid decline in gas prices that we’ve seen and how that might be impacting your expectations as well?

Mike Hennigan: Keith, that’s a good question. I’m going to let Greg take that one.

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