Summit Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE:SMLP) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Based on the midpoint of our guidance range, we expect to generate approximately $90 million to $95 million of free cash flow available to pay down debt. And with that, I’ll turn the call back over to Heath for closing remarks.

Heath Deneke: Great. All right. Thanks, Bill. Look, as discussed on the call today, we are certainly pleased with the progress that we made in 2023 and really are excited about the outlook and opportunity set for Summit in 2024 and beyond. We are extremely focused on closing out our strategic alternatives review while we continue to execute and optimize our base business. We look forward to providing further updates on our strategic review here soon and we believe that we will obviously continue to provide updates on the – base business throughout the year. With that operator, I’d like to open up the call for questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And it comes from the line of Gregg Brody with Bank of America. Please proceed.

Gregg Brody : Good morning and as always, thanks for the comprehensive guidance and update. Just couple comments that you – the strategic review you said expect something near-term. Is there should be more specific in terms of the timeline?

Heath Deneke: Yeah, hey, morning, Greg. This is Heath. Now, look, I think we’ve said what we can say at this point I think it’s been a very robust process. I think we are entering into advanced stages and starting to narrow in on the alternatives that we think are going to maximize value. So I think that’s really about all we can say now. There are no definitive timeline, but it does realized that that we’ll have something here some further direction in guidance here fairly soon.

Gregg Brody : And those, and the – as you said, focusing on what you can do the – your commentary implies a sale is no longer part of the strategic review.

Heath Deneke: No. I didn’t mention to say that or imply that.

Gregg Brody : No, I was just looking at the press release. Maybe I was – focus too much on – focus on asset sales and joint venture type activity. Sorry.

Heath Deneke: Yeah, and partnership level transactions, what we said in the release, as well.

Gregg Brody : Yeah, but the sale is – is still a possibility?

Heath Deneke: Sure.

Gregg Brody : Sure. Okay. And just on the Permian, obviously, you published about the contract and what that means for this year. Could you talk a little bit more about the expansion opportunities there? You mentioned that in your press release and comments try to quantify how that plays out.

Heath Deneke: Yeah, you bet. So, look, I mean, we’ve been kind of calling this probably the past year, year or two that we see this ramp up in production activity particularly in New Mexico, but more broadly the Delaware Basin. We watched all the other existing infrastructure kind of fill up. We started to see volumes increase on the Double E pipeline. And this is evidenced by this recent one that we announced. It’s not a huge contract, 40 million a day. But it’s ten year take-or-pay and reported we connect this to a 300 million a day complex with an investment-grade shipper. So, I think there will be more to come on that front. But in addition to that, in and around the New Mexico area, we are seeing increase in not just activity levels around the Double E pipeline but the realization that the current residue gas takeaway situation is getting constrained.

So I think, from our view, we see a lot of near-term opportunities here in and around our existing footprint that we can connect new plants in Delaware the residue gas to us. So pretty right environment we think in 2024 for us to continue to gain additional contracts.

Bill Mault: Yeah, and Heath, not just Greg, that there is about 3 Bcf of processing plant expansions that are within a reasonable capture area of the pipeline. So we kind of view all this infrastructure build – playing the infrastructure build as well as some of the recent discussions with potential customers that the markets coming to us here as we expected and we are excited about the prospects.

Gregg Brody : Great. Well, thank you for your time guys. Appreciate it.

Operator: Thank you. And with that ladies and gentlemen, we close our Q&A and conclude our conference call today. Thank you for participating and you may now disconnect.

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