Matt Meloy
Analyst · Tudor Pickering Holt
Thanks, Joe Bob. Targa’s reported adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was $258 million, which is comparable to the same period in 2016. Continued strong volume growth in Permian G&P, higher commodity prices and higher fractionation volumes were offset by lower volumes in our other G&P regions and lower margins in our Downstream Business. Reported net maintenance CapEx were $23 million in the second quarter of 2017, compared to $19 million in the second quarter of 2016. We continue to estimate approximately $110 million of net maintenance CapEx for 2017. Distributable cash flow for the second quarter was approximately $196 million, resulting in dividend coverage of approximately 0.9x. Given some seasonality in our Downstream businesses, we expect the second quarter to be the weakest quarter of the year and expect our operating margin to ramp up in the second half of the year. For full year 2017, as Joe Bob mentioned, we continue to expect adjusted EBITDA to be approximately $1.13 billion and full year 2017 dividend coverage to be between 0.95 and 1.0x. Also, I would like to point out that during the second quarter we benefited from a cash tax addback to distributable cash flow of approximately $31 million that includes an adjustment reflecting the benefit from a net operating loss carryback to 2014 and ‘15. Previously, we expected to collect the remaining refund on or before the fourth quarter of this year, but received the entirety of the remaining refund during the second quarter and recognized it in DCF. Turning to our segment-level results for our Gathering and Processing segment, reported operating margin for the second quarter of 2017 increased by 25% compared to last year, primarily due to higher commodity prices and higher inlet volumes in the Permian Basin despite lower Field G&P inlet volumes in other areas. Natural gas prices were 65% higher; NGL prices, 28% higher; condensate prices were 13% higher when compared to the second quarter of 2016. Second quarter reported 2017 field natural gas plant inlet volumes were approximately 2% higher when compared to the second quarter of 2016. Permian inlet volumes reported in the second quarter of 2017 were 18% higher when compared to the prior year, with increases in both Permian Midland and Permian Delaware. As a reminder, volumes from our recently acquired Delaware assets are reported as part of Sand Hills and volumes from our recently acquired Midland assets are reported in SAOU. Year-over-year second quarter inlet volume decreases in South Texas, North Texas and WestOK partially offset the overall increase in Field G&P natural gas inlet volumes. You may recall that in the second quarter of 2016 our South Texas volumes increased significantly as we benefited from some interruptible low margin volumes. Now moving to our sequential second quarter 2017 as compared to the first quarter of 2017 results, Permian inlet volumes grew 9.5%, partially driven by a full quarter of volumes from our newly acquired Permian assets and growth in our Permian Midland systems. Inlet volumes in South Texas were sequentially higher as a result of volumes from the acquisition of Boardwalk’s Flag City assets and fee-based contracts and higher volumes from Sanchez on the system as wells that were shut in during the first quarter for nearby well fracking returned to production. Volumes also increased sequentially in SouthOK as we continued to benefit from incremental SCOOP volumes on our system that were more than sufficient to offset legacy production declines. Now let’s discuss our results compared to our previously disclosed volume guidance. First half 2017 Permian inlet volumes, as reported, were 14% higher than 2016 as compared to our expectations of 15% growth. Overall, Field G&P system inlet volumes were flat versus 2016, consistent with our expectations. Looking forward, we expect inlet volume growth in the Permian, South Texas, SouthOK and the Badlands to continue in the second half of 2017, providing us with momentum in 2018. While we are only one month into the quarter, our July inlet volumes for overall Field G&P, driven by the Permian, South Texas, SouthOK and Badlands are all meaningfully higher than our second quarter average Field G&P volumes. For example, our recent volumes were up significantly through July. On an as-reported basis, WestTX volumes were over 600 million cubic feet per day at the end of July versus the second quarter average of 542 million cubic feet per day. Badlands July volumes were approximately 30% higher than the second quarter average, and South Texas volumes at the end of July were approximately -- or were higher by approximately 40%. And SouthOK volumes were also showing a solid uptick. While it is early in the third quarter, the positive volume trends are in line with our second half volume ramp expectations and we remain on track to meet our full year 2017 field and Permian volume expectations provided earlier this year. The trajectory also provides a positive outlook for the beginning of 2018. Now shifting to the Bakken, Badlands crude oil gathered volumes were approximately 113,000 barrels per day for the second quarter, up approximately 7% versus same time period last year. Second quarter natural gas volumes increased 2% when compared to the prior year and, more notably, increased 14% over the first quarter as weather conditions normalized and producer activity around our system continued. As I mentioned earlier, we are already seeing a nice increase in July volumes in the Badlands and we continue to expect that average 2017 natural gas and crude volumes will exceed average 2016. Permian crude gathered in the second quarter were approximately 29,000 barrels per day as we benefited from a full quarter of our recent Permian acquisition. In our Downstream segment, second quarter reported operating margin declined 21% over the comparable period in the prior year, primarily due to lower LPG export margin and lower margin from our domestic marketing and commercial transportation businesses, partially offset by higher fractionation margin. Sequentially, fractionation volumes increased 11% over the first quarter due to increased supply, largely driven by higher volumes from our Permian systems. In our LPG export business, we exported approximately 4.7 million barrels per month of propane and butane and received fees from 2 cancellations at our facility during the quarter. Moving to capital spending, we expect 2017 net growth capital expenditures of approximately $1.4 billion based on announced projects. The $165 million increase in our 2017 estimated capital spend compared to our previous estimate is attributable to a shift in timing of spending for Grand Prix from 2018 to 2017, additional Permian spending in both the Midland and Delaware Basins, and a shift in timing of spend of the Johnson plant some from ‘18 to 2017. Our total expected cost for Grand Prix continues to be approximately $1.3 billion and we currently estimate $330 million of that in 2017 and the majority of the balance of the spending in 2018. Grand Prix is expected to be fully operational in the second quarter of 2019. Our growth capital related to the Permian increased for the year due to additional infrastructure, primarily in the Delaware, as we build out the system for future growth. The additional capital is primarily related to shifting additional infrastructure buildout spending into 2017 from future periods without increasing total expected costs of the projects. Now let’s discuss our capital structure and liquidity. As of June 30 we had no borrowings outstanding under TRP’s $1.6 billion senior secured revolving credit facility, due October 2020. On a debt compliance basis, TRP’s leverage ratio at the end of the second quarter was 3.4x versus a compliance covenant of 5.5x. We also had borrowings of $250 million under our accounts receivable securitization facility. As of June 30, TRC had $435 million in borrowings outstanding under our $670 million senior secured credit facility and availability at quarter-end was approximately $235 million. Including about $99 million in cash, our total available liquidity at the end of the second quarter was approximately $1.9 billion. During the second quarter, we raised approximately $880 million of public equity from a 17 million common share secondary offering and our ATM program. Proceeds from our 17 million share secondary offering in June are expected to fund the equity component of our Grand Prix project in addition to satisfying our remaining equity requirements for our current 2017 net growth CapEx program. We also have expected spending in April 2018 and April 2019 related to the earnout payments associated with our March 1 Permian acquisition. Given the volume ramp on our acquired Permian asset has been slower than expected over the first five months that we have owned the asset, our current expectation is for a modest earnout payment in April 2018. For 2018 and beyond, with longer-term expectations positive relative to our preannouncement forecast, we continue to forecast significant growth on those acquired assets and expect to pay a more sizeable final earnout payment in April 2019. In our corporate hedging program we executed additional hedges during the second quarter. We added some balance of the year 2017 through 2019 natural gas and NGL swaps. Pro forma, as of June 30, 2017, for non-fee-based operating margin, relative to the partnership’s current estimate of equity volumes from our Field G&P segment, for 2017 we estimate we’ve hedged approximately 85% of natural gas, 70% of condensate and 60% of NGL volume. For 2018, we estimate we’ve hedged approximately 60% of natural gas, 50% of condensate and 30% of NGL volumes. I will now turn the call over to Pat, who leads our Southern Field G&P business. Pat?