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

Brian Reynolds: Great. Appreciate that. And maybe to touch on the distribution, it seems to come up a little bit above expectations from last year’s capital allocation update. So kind of curious if you can refresh us. Are there any structural changes that we’d be thinking about? Or is kind of targeting that 1/6 [ph] coverage over a multiyear framework, still the right way to think about it? And how ultimately some of these acquisitions impact that distribution outlook going forward.

Al Swanson: Yes, this is Al. We still are committed in the future for the $0.15 annual increase in the 160% coverage at the common level. Part of the reason for moving it up and the extra nickel list is related to the acquisitions that we’ve completed. They’re accretive. Again, we’ve targeted hurdle rates that will bring good accretion for these bolt-on transactions and we also have seen strong performance out of our business. But once we complete this, we’re back to the $0.15 and 160% coverage. We think the 106% coverage allows us to basically fund investment capital going forward and number of small bolt-ons in the future without actually needing to raise external money. So kind of live in our own cash flow means.

Brian Reynolds: Great. I’ll make sense. I’ll leave it there.

Operator: One moment for our next question, please. Our next question comes from the line of Gabriel Moreen with Mizuho.

Gabriel Moreen: Maybe, Willie, if I can just ask a follow-up on Michael’s question about recurring bolt-on M&A you mentioned looking at things outside the Permian. Can you maybe elaborate on which basins you might think about as far as doing those bolt-ons and is doing something like the Oryx JV structure appealing to you in other basins outside the Permian as well?

Jeremy Goebel: Gabriel, this is Jeremy Goebel. I would say we’re structure agnostic. We’re just trying to basically garner the most synergies in a way that works for us and the counterparty. Where we would focus, it’s where we have strength. I’d say, from our vantage point, we have gathering assets in all the core where we have a strength in our marketing business, our pipeline business and our terminals, we can add value to assets. We’ll continue to look there if you look across our footprint, where we have strength is an area where we think we can add value and extract synergies into accretive deals and the manner that Al just mentioned, that’s where we’re going to target.

Gabriel Moreen: And then maybe if I can ask about sort of the hedging of the frac spread exposure heading into ’24. Just you mentioned you had put a lot of the spread exposure to that at this point? Are you close to that 80% level that you’re targeting? Do you see yourself getting there near term? Or are you kind of leaving some stuff open in anticipation of some strength?

Willie Chiang: Yes, Gabe, we’re not going to disclose the exact number but Al’s comments on well over 60% hedged was really indicative of — that we’ve got a good portion of this hedged at good values and we’ll give a further update when we get into February.

Operator: One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Keith Stanley with Wolfe Research.

Keith Stanley: Follow-up on the — sorry, again, on the frac spread. I just want to make sure I understand this right. So the 60% is hedged above $0.60 a gallon, can you say directionally, I think 2023 was a little higher than that when you did your plan? Just trying to think directionally where that sits on the $0.60.

Willie Chiang: Yes, Keith, this is Willie again. For 2023, we were very well hedged. We actually put these hedges on proactively in late 2022. So if you think about the weighted average value of that hedge is a little bit over $0.70. So if you compare it to what we actually hedged in 2023, it’s circa dime lower than that. If you think about the impact of that, that’s roughly plus or minus $70 million. And as Al pointed out, we also have a turnaround — we had a turnaround this year that next year that we won’t be having. So that may give a little better indication of where the NGL business is.