MPLX Lp (MPLX) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Welcome to the MPLX First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. My name is Julie, and I will be your operator for today's call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Kristina Kazarian. Kristina, you may begin.

Welcome to MPLX's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. The slides that accompany this call can be found on our website at mplx.com under the Investor tab. Joining me on the call today are Maryann Mannen, President and CEO; Chris Hagedorn, CFO; and other members of the executive team. We invite you to read the safe harbor statements on Slide 2. We will be making forward-looking statements today. Actual results may differ. Factors that could cause actual results to differ are included there as well as in our filings with the SEC. With that, I will turn the call over to Maryann.

Thanks, Kristina. Good morning, and thank you for joining our call. MPLX delivered over $1.7 billion of adjusted EBITDA, which enabled a return of over $1.1 billion to our unitholders. 2026 is a year of execution with multiple investments expected to transition from construction to operations and EBITDA generation. With Secretariat I coming online in April, Harmon Creek III in the third quarter and the Titan gas treating complex reaching over 400 million cubic feet per day of treating capacity in the fourth quarter. This gives us confidence that year-over-year growth in 2026 will exceed that of 2025. The underlying fundamentals in natural gas and NGLs remain strong. We see strategic opportunity to support increasing demand for these commodities. As an example, in the Delaware Basin of the Permian we treated over 150 million cubic feet per day of our committed producer sour gas at our recently acquired Titan facility. Our third acid gas injection well in the Delaware Basin is expected to be completed in the third quarter. The expansion of the Titan complex is on schedule. Downstream, the 200 million cubic feet per day Secretariat I processing plant has entered service. Last quarter, we announced our intention to further expand our gas processing footprint with Secretariat II, an additional 300 million cubic feet per day of capacity expected online in the second half of 2028. Once in service, our total processing capacity in the basin will reach approximately 1.7 billion cubic feet per day. These investments meaningfully strengthen our position in the Delaware Basin, supporting activity in the low-cost sour gas windows and extending the competitiveness of our broader value chain. The Blackcomb natural gas pipeline continues to progress as planned, and is expected to enter service in the fourth quarter. Demand for firm takeaway capacity is driving expansions on several long-haul natural gas pipelines. Volume commitments from top-tier shippers underscore the competitiveness of our footprint as well as the long-term durability of our natural gas system. Within NGL, the expansion of the BANGL pipeline to 300,000 barrels per day is expected online in the fourth quarter, providing critical takeaway capacity as in-basin NGL volumes grow. Construction across our Gulf Coast fractionation and export facilities continues to advance on time and on budget. Our fully integrated NGL value chain provides high confidence in the volumes, utilization and durability of cash flows these assets will generate for years to come. Against the backdrop of ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, the strategic importance of U.S. energy infrastructure has never been clearer. Global demand for secure, reliable energy continues to grow, and the international customers are increasingly more dependent on the United States as a preferred supplier. MPLX is exceptionally well positioned to capitalize on this opportunity. Our joint venture LPG Export Terminal is favorably located along the Gulf Coast, providing meaningful, competitive and logistical advantages. In the Marcellus, construction of Harmon Creek III remains on track for a third quarter in-service date increasing our total processing capacity to 8.1 billion cubic feet per day in the Northeast. This project, along with our associated gathering and compression expansions enhances our ability to meet producer needs in liquids-rich areas and supports long-term throughput growth. Beyond 2026, the opportunity set for natural gas and NGLs remains robust. We are deploying 90% of our $2.4 billion organic growth capital plan toward these opportunities which will drive continued mid-single-digit growth. Now let me turn the call over to Chris to discuss our operational and financial results for the quarter.

Thanks, Maryann. Slide 8 outlines the first quarter operational and financial performance highlights for our Crude Oil and Products Logistics segment. Segment adjusted EBITDA increased $14 million when compared to the first quarter of 2025. The increase was primarily driven by higher rates across the business units, partially offset by lower crude pipeline throughputs. Pipeline volumes decreased 4% year-over-year, primarily due to Marathon's refining turnaround and maintenance activities in the Midwest and Gulf Coast regions. Terminal volumes also decreased 4% year-over-year, primarily due to less favorable market dynamics and refining industry turnaround activity in the first quarter. Moving on to Slide 9. Segment adjusted EBITDA decreased $42 million compared to the first quarter of 2025. 2025 included a onetime $37 million benefit associated with the customer agreement. The decrease was primarily driven by a $45 million impact from divestiture of our noncore gathering and processing assets in 2025, lower natural gas liquids prices and higher operating expenses. These factors offset growth from equity affiliates and increased volumes inclusive of acquisitions. Excluding the impacts of our noncore Rockies divestiture, gathering volumes were up 10% year-over-year due to production growth in the Utica and Permian, including acquisitions. Processing volumes increased 2% year-over-year, primarily due to increased production in the Marcellus and the Permian. Marcellus processing utilization was 94% for the quarter, demonstrating the need for incremental capacity as Harmon Creek III is positioned to come online on a just-in-time basis in the third quarter. Total fractionation volumes decreased 3% year-over-year, primarily due to lower ethane recovery in the Marcellus as a result of elevated regional gas prices in the first quarter. Winter Storm Fern in January impacted crude oil and natural gas production volumes resulting in a roughly $13 million headwind to our first quarter results. We would like to extend our gratitude to our teams in the field whose round-the-clock efforts for continuous safe and reliable operations at our MPLX assets during the storm. Thank you to our team. Across our business for every $0.05 change in weighted average NGL price, MPLX expects approximately a $20 million annual impact to segment adjusted EBITDA. During the first quarter, to manage this exposure, MPLX executed an economic hedge on 80% of this risk and recognized the negative mark-to-market of $56 million during the quarter. This impact will offset -- be offset by physical gains over the course of 2026. As a reminder, the first quarter is typically our lowest quarter for project-related expenses. While we expect these expenses in 2026 will be flat versus the prior year, we anticipate a sequential increase of $50 million in the second quarter, reflecting the seasonality of this project-related work. Now let me hand it back to Maryann for some concluding thoughts.

Thanks, Chris. MPLX has a proven history of executing on our commitments and delivering consistent financial performance. Through disciplined capital deployment and optimization of our integrated value chains, we have sustained strong EBITDA growth and maintained a robust return profile. This track record supports our confidence in our ability to continue creating value for unitholders through both organic project execution and reliable capital returns. Our long-term strategy is straightforward, and we are executing with discipline, operate safely and reliably, grow through high-return investments, optimize our integrated value chains and to maintain a strong financial foundation. The actions we have taken to position MPLX over the last several years are delivering strong results. The strength of our base business continues to deliver steady durable growth. As we progress through 2026, we expect the investments we are making to provide a clear path to continued mid-single-digit growth, and we continue to evaluate both organic and inorganic opportunities to drive income generation. With this momentum, we remain confident in our outlook and committed to creating exceptional value for our unitholders. Now let me turn the call over to Kristina.

Thanks, Maryann. As we open the call for your questions, as a courtesy to all participants, we ask that you limit yourself to one question and a follow-up. If time permits, we will reprompt for additional questions. With that, operator, we are ready for questions today.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from John Mackay with Goldman Sachs.

Look, in the back half of last year, you were talking about considerably higher EBITDA growth for '26 over '25. First quarter was flattish. I understand some of the moving pieces you guys gave on the cost side. And then you've walked us through the project ramp timelines. But could you spend a little bit more time walking us through how we should think about the EBITDA ramp through the year and kind of getting to that maybe above mid-single-digit target you laid out last call?

And you're correct. And as we were talking about in 2025, we continue to see growth '25, '26, if you let me to look at it first on an annual basis, '25 to '26 growth rate to be stronger than we saw '24 to '25. And as you well said, that growth for us is more back half weighted for 2026 than front half weighted. If you look at it over a 3-year period, our mid-single-digit growth has trended right around that 7.5% range. So I mentioned in a couple of my opening remarks there, Secretariat I now in service. And so obviously, we'll see that EBITDA strength coming online throughout the back half of this year. We typically see a 9- to 12-month ramp. We could see that in a little more narrower window as we look at Secretariat I. I also talked about Harmon Creek III. That project remains on track to enter service in the third quarter. I think you know this. It's a 300 million cubic feet per day gas processing plant. It also includes construction of a second 40,000 barrel a day de-eth, and it gives total Northeast gas processing and fractionation capacity to a total of 8.1 Bcf a day and 800,000 barrels a day, respectively, when that project comes online. A few other projects, as you know, will lean in. So the back half of the year, we expect to be stronger clearly than the first half of the year. And we see good line of sight to that, which also continues to give us confidence, frankly, in our 12.5% distribution increase. As you know, we've been talking about that for 2026 as well and 2027. And again, we remain confident in these projects delivering a little bit longer term. As you know, we've got our fractionation '28, '29 coming online and the export dock. That project remains well on track, on budget, as you've heard me say as well. So back half weighted, remain confident, we still expect '26 to be a stronger growth than 2025. Let me pause there, John.

That's clear. Second question for me is just given the disruptions we've seen in the Middle East. We've seen a kind of higher call for U.S. hydrocarbon exports. Could you just kind of remind us your asset position there, kind of what you've been seeing on the commercial side? Maybe if you can walk through LOOP, Mount Airy and then, I guess, any incremental comments on the NGL dock under construction would be great.

Yes. I'll pass that to Shawn. He can give you some insights on the export dock as well.

John, this is Shawn. Thanks for the question. As we look at what's going on in the market dynamics right now and we look at our asset base, Mount Airy is a great example. We're located strategically right next to Garyville, and based on some of the market things going on, I think MPC and others will continue to lean into that. So we anticipate that asset utilization will be increasing some. And then also, as you look -- you talked about LOOP. MPLX has a share of LOOP there. We've seen Venezuelan crude come in. And obviously, some imports and exports are increasing across that asset base there. And as Maryann mentioned on the, I'll say, the export dock and fractionator complex on the Gulf Coast. We're excited as we continue to stay on track for in-service date of '28 and '29. Again, we're excited that those -- our facilities, our assets are going to be full as we go in service date there.

Our next question comes from Burke Sansiviero with Wolfe Research.

So distribution coverage has been 1.3x over the past 2 quarters. Can you just provide a little bit more color on your confidence in growing the distribution by 12.5% for another 2 years and staying above the -- at or above the 1.3x threshold, seems to imply that cash flows also need to grow 12.5% from here?

Yes, certainly. So when we think about our 12.5% distribution growth both for this year 2026 and 2027, we've set financial metrics for that and one of which is, as you stated, that our coverage doesn't fall below 1.3x. So that is our commitment. We look at that, obviously, on an annual basis, of course. But you're absolutely correct. Cash flows would be supportive of that, and we continue to see our ability to do that for '26 and '27.

And buybacks have been somewhat programmatic over the past year at $100 million a quarter cadence. Can you just talk to why buybacks went down in Q1 to $50 million? And are you looking to retain more cash from here?

Certainly. So -- what I would say is there really no change in our overall capital allocation strategy. We continue to see opportunities to put capital to work and, therefore, have modified our share buyback program. I want to pass it to Chris because I know he's got a few things that he wants to share as well.

Yes. Thanks, [ Keith ]. And I'll say, as Maryann stated, again, no change to our capital allocation methodology or strategy. Distributions will continue to be that primary tool to return capital to unitholders with the unit repurchases really being that more flexible method of returning capital. But what I would also say is we continue to believe that MPLX units trade at a discount. We think this type of a program at this level reflects that belief.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Manav Gupta with UBS.

I have two questions. I'm going to ask them right upfront. So first, can we get an update on the Titan sour complex, what you're seeing in that area? Is the producer activity increasing with higher crude prices in that particular area? And second, I wanted to talk to you about -- a little bit about the local gas markets in Texas. There are more pipelines coming to Agua Dulce, including yours, but then you also have some pipelines like Traverse and Bay Runner, which can move gas out of Agua Dulce and help with these opportunities where local prices are depressed. So could you talk about the local gas Texas markets and how MPLX can benefit from the dislocation in prices in various hubs?

So in general, first, let me share with you sort of overall progress on Titan. First and foremost, as I mentioned, we were successful in the first quarter treating over 150 million cubic feet per day in the first quarter. As a matter of fact, March was actually -- we saw our absolute strongest performance in the month of March. And no change in our expectations for the completion of Titan II by the end of this year, 2026. So that we will have full run rate EBITDA as we outlined when we talked about the opportunity for Northwind. So we expect that expansion from 150 million to over 400 million cubic feet per day of sour gas treating capacity to be available and consistent. We're seeing a lot of interest from our producers, producer customers in that space, particularly as they are moving their production into that region. I'm going to first pass it to Greg to give you some incremental color on the customers. And then to respond to your question around all of the Texas opportunities as we see all that pipeline, I'm going to ask then Dave to answer your question on that. Thanks, Manav.

Manav, this is Greg. Just a little bit more color on the Titan system. We have been focused daily and weekly on integrated -- integrating that system, increasing reliability, bringing on more volume. We really continue to be excited about the number of rigs that are operating up in the -- this portion of Lea County in the Delaware Basin and the associated gas that comes with it. CO2, H2S, sour gas that needs treating. So the demand is definitely there, as Maryann said. In terms of the projects, the scaling this is our other big focus, and that includes Titan II. We recently brought on a new sour gas treater on the north end of the system that we call Pelham. It's a compressor station as well. That is operating well. And Titan and the multiple pipeline projects that are associated with increasing -- doubling our capacity at Titan. And our fourth AGI well are all in construction and on schedule for fourth quarter completion.

So Manav, this is Dave. And maybe I'll touch on -- I'll build on a little bit what Greg talked about and touch on the gas markets and dig a little deeper in our overall Permian wellhead-to-water nat gas strategy because I think I'll try to bring all the pieces of the puzzle together for you. So first of all, let me reaffirm a little bit that generally, MPLX is a fee-based business, and we're not taking on the commodity risks within the nat gas markets in the U.S. Gulf Coast. With that said, when we think about our strategy, maybe think it in about 5 major components. So Greg touched on the first one. In-basin gathering, processing and treating. From there long-haul egress pipelines, and I'll talk about those in a minute. And then connectivity between markets. And then the next is connectivity into demand centers, specifically LNG, but also potentially data centers and power. And then finally is giving our shipper customers optionality and flexibility to all those markets. So -- when you think about the long-haul pipelines, you mentioned Agua Dulce. So from the basin in Agua Dulce, of course, we have Whistler already moving 2.5 Bcf a day, and we have Blackcomb coming in service in the third quarter of this year. And then when you think about the long hauls into the Katy market, of course, we have Matterhorn currently flowing 2.5 Bcf a day, similar to Whistler. And we have Eiger coming online in 2028 in the second half of 2028. So those are those 4 main headers, both into Agua Dulce and Katy, which gives our customers that flexibility to those markets. But I think the other piece of the puzzle is Traverse, which is the bidirectional pipe between those two markets, which allows that flexibility. So that's that connectivity between markets. And then you think about you getting it to the end demand centers, specifically LNG and the high growth -- rapid growth in the LNG market. So of course, we got ADCC going into Corpus Christi, and we have the Bay Runner I and II go into NextDecade, specifically down in Brownsville, those last ones. So when we think about all that, that's really how we're trying to build out -- have been building out and continue to build out our nat gas strategy. With all that said, we also believe that there is the need for incremental egress pipelines out of the basin. So as we look forward, we think and believe that MPLX can continue to play a very active role in supporting those value chain solutions that -- and our strategies necessary to address all that incremental demand in those market opportunities. So hopefully, that gives you a little bit of color on how we're thinking about it.

All right. Thank you. Operator?

I am showing no additional questions. I will turn the call back to Kristina.

Thank you. Thank you for your interest in MPLX. Should you have more questions or would you like clarifications on topics discussed this morning, please contact us. Our team will be available to take your calls. Thank you for joining us today.

Thank you for your participation. Participants, you may disconnect at this time.