Energy Transfer LP (ET) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Energy Transfer LP First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions). Should you need assistance, (Operator Instructions). After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. (Operator Instructions). We ask that you limit to asking one question and one follow-up question. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tom Long, CEO of Energy Transfer. Please go ahead.

美好的一天，歡迎參加 Energy Transfer LP 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）。如果您需要協助，請點選（操作員說明）。今天的演示結束後，將有機會提問。請注意此事件正在被記錄。現在我想將會議交給 Energy Transfer 執行長湯姆朗 (Tom Long)。請繼續。

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Energy Transfer First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. I'm also joined today by Mackie McCrea and other members of the senior management team who are here to help answer your questions after our prepared remarks. Hopefully, you saw the press release we issued earlier this afternoon as well as the slides posted to our website. As a reminder, we will be making forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are based upon our current beliefs as well as certain assumptions and information currently available to us and are discussed in more detail in our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, which we expect to file tomorrow, May 9. I'll also refer to adjusted EBITDA and distributable cash flow, or DCF, both of which are non-GAAP financial measures. You'll find a reconciliation for non-GAAP measures on our website. 

謝謝你，接線生。大家下午好，歡迎參加 Energy Transfer 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。今天，麥基·麥克雷 (Mackie McCrea) 和高級管理團隊的其他成員也加入了我的行列，他們在我們準備好的發言後在這裡幫助回答你們的問題。希望您看到我們今天下午早些時候發布的新聞稿以及發佈到我們網站上的幻燈片。謹此提醒，我們將做出1934 年《證券交易法》第21E 條含義內的前瞻性陳述。進行了討論詳細資訊請參閱我們截至2024 年3 月31 日的季度的10-Q 表格，我們預計將於明天5 月9 日提交。 ），這兩者都是非GAAP 財務資料措施。您可以在我們的網站上找到非 GAAP 衡量指標的調整表。

I'll start today by going over our financial results. For the first quarter of 2024, we generated adjusted EBITDA of $3.9 billion compared to $3.4 billion for the first quarter of 2023. We had record volumes through our crude pipelines and also saw strong performances across the rest of our operations. DCF attributable to the partners of Energy Transfer, as adjusted, was $2.4 billion compared to $2 billion for the first quarter of last year. This resulted in excess cash flow after distributions of approximately $1.3 billion. On April 24, we announced a quarterly cash distribution of $0.3175 per common unit or $1.27 on an annualized basis. This distribution represents an increase of 3.3% and from the $0.3075 paid in the first quarter of 2023. In February, Fitch upgraded Energy Transfer's senior unsecured credit rating to BBB with a stable outlook, which followed an upgrade by S&P to BBB in 2023. At the end of the first quarter, we had no outstanding borrowings under our revolving credit facility. Following the redemption of all of our outstanding Series C and Series D preferred units in February of 2024, in March, we issued a notice to redeem all of Energy Transfer's outstanding Series E preferred units on May 15, 2024. In April of 2024, we redeemed $1.7 billion of senior notes using cash on hand and proceeds from our revolving credit facility. And for the first quarter of 2024, we spent approximately $460 million on organic growth capital, primarily in the Midstream and NGL and refined products segments, excluding Sun and USA Compression CapEx. 

今天我將首先回顧我們的財務表現。 2024 年第一季度，我們的調整後 EBITDA 為 39 億美元，而 2023 年第一季為 34 億美元。調整後歸屬於 Energy Transfer 合作夥伴的 DCF 為 24 億美元，而去年第一季為 20 億美元。這導致分配後現金流量過剩約 13 億美元。 4 月 24 日，我們宣布季度現金分配為每普通單位 0.3175 美元，按年化計算為 1.27 美元。這項分配比2023 年第一季支付的0.3075 美元增加了3.3%。 。繼2024 年2 月贖回所有未償還的C 輪和D 輪優先股之後，3 月份，我們發布了一份通知，將於2024 年5 月15 日贖回Energy Transfer 的所有未償還E 系列優先股。 2024 年第一季度，我們在有機成長資本上花費了約 4.6 億美元，主要用於中游、液化天然氣和煉油產品領域，不包括 Sun 和 USA Compression 資本支出。

Now turning to our results by segment for the first quarter, and we'll start with NGL and refined products. Adjusted EBITDA was $989 million compared to $939 million for the first quarter of 2023. This was primarily due to growth across our transportation, fractionation and terminal operations, which was partially offset by lower gains from hedged NGL inventory. As a reminder, the first quarter of 2023 included gains that were carried over from the prior year. NGL transportation volumes increased 5% to 2.1 million barrels per day. This increase was primarily due to higher volumes from the Permian region on the Mariner East pipeline system and on the Gulf Coast export pipelines. NGL fractionation volumes increased 11% to 1.1 million barrels per day. Total NGL export volumes grew 6% over the first quarter of 2023. We continue to see strong international demand for natural gas liquids and saw record LPG exports out of our Nederland terminal for the month of March. During the first quarter of 2024, we loaded approximately 14 million barrels of ethane out of Nederland and nearly 7 million barrels of ethane out of Marcus Hook. During the first quarter, we continued to export approximately 20% of worldwide NGL exports. 

現在轉向我們第一季按細分市場劃分的業績，我們將從液化天然氣和精煉產品開始。調整後 EBITDA 為 9.89 億美元，而 2023 年第一季為 9.39 億美元。提醒一下，2023 年第一季包括上一年結轉的收益。 NGL 運輸量成長 5%，達到每天 210 萬桶。這一增長主要是由於來自二疊紀地區的 Mariner East 管道系統和墨西哥灣沿岸出口管道的流量增加。 NGL 分餾量增加了 11%，達到每天 110 萬桶。液化天然氣總出口量比 2023 年第一季成長了 6%。 2024 年第一季度，我們從荷蘭裝載了約 1,400 萬桶乙烷，從馬庫斯胡克裝載了近 700 萬桶乙烷。第一季度，我們的 NGL 出口量持續佔全球 NGL 出口量的約 20%。

For midstream, adjusted EBITDA was $696 million compared to $641 million for the first quarter of 2023. This was primarily due to the addition of the Crestwood assets as well as higher volumes in the Permian Basin. As a reminder, results in the first quarter of 2023 included a onetime positive adjustment of approximately $40 million. Gathered gas volumes increased to 19.9 million MMBtus per day compared to 19.8 million MMBtus per day for the same period last year. Now for our crude oil segment, adjusted EBITDA was $848 million compared to $526 million for the first quarter of 2023. This was primarily due to significantly stronger pipeline volumes, increased terminal throughput as well as favorable timing on gains associated with hedged inventory. We also benefited from the acquisition of the Lotus and Crestwood assets in May and November of 2023, respectively. Results for the first quarter of 2024 included a $40 million benefit related to favorable timing on gains associated with hedged inventory, a portion of which we expect to reverse in the second quarter. And as a reminder, the first quarter of 2023 did include onetime negative adjustments of approximately $35 million. Crude oil transportation volumes increased 44% to a record 6.1 million barrels per day compared to 4.2 million barrels per day for the same period last year. Excluding the additions of Crestwood and LOTUS, adjusted EBITDA and crude oil transportation volumes on our base business increased 47% and 14%, respectively, compared to the first quarter of 2023. 

就中游而言，調整後的 EBITDA 為 6.96 億美元，而 2023 年第一季為 6.41 億美元。需要提醒的是，2023 年第一季的業績包括約 4,000 萬美元的一次性正調整。收集的天然氣量增加至每天 1,990 萬 MMBtus，而去年同期為每天 1,980 萬 MMBtus。目前，我們的原油部門調整後 EBITDA 為 8.48 億美元，而 2023 年第一季為 5.26 億美元。我們也分別從 2023 年 5 月和 11 月收購 Lotus 和 Crestwood 資產中受益。 2024 年第一季的業績包括與對沖庫存相關收益的有利時機相關的 4,000 萬美元收益，我們預計其中一部分將在第二季扭轉。提醒一下，2023 年第一季確實包括約 3500 萬美元的一次性負調整。原油運輸量成長 44%，達到創紀錄的 610 萬桶/日，去年同期為 420 萬桶/日。不包括 Crestwood 和 LOTUS 的增加，我們基礎業務的調整後 EBITDA 和原油運輸量與 2023 年第一季相比分別成長了 47% 和 14%。

In our Interstate segment, adjusted EBITDA was $483 million compared to $536 million for the first quarter of 2023. During the quarter, we saw margin growth related to higher contracted volumes at increased rates on several of our pipelines. This growth was more than offset by lower operational sales resulting from lower prices and unplanned maintenance projects. In addition, the first quarter of 2023 included a onetime benefit from the realization of certain amounts related to a shipper bankruptcy. Total system volumes increased 5% over the same period last year due to increased demand and higher utilization on the Transwestern Tiger Trunkline and Gulf Run pipeline systems. We continue to fully utilize Zone 1 capacity on Gulf Run, and with the completion of the Trunkline backhaul project, we are fully utilizing deliveries into our trunk line pipeline from Zone 2. Our team continues to work on the next phase of a potential capacity expansion to facilitate the transportation of natural gas from Northern Louisiana to the Gulf Coast based upon customer demand. And for our intrastate segment, adjusted EBITDA was $438 million compared to $409 million for the first quarter of last year. During the first quarter of 2024, we recorded gains of approximately $250 million related to pipeline optimization opportunities that were not expected to repeat throughout the remainder of the year. In addition, we saw volume ramp-ups and new contracts on several of our Texas pipelines. All of this was partially offset by lower storage optimization opportunities. 

在我們的州際公路部門，調整後的EBITDA 為4.83 億美元，而2023 年第一季為5.36 億美元。的成長率的提高。這一增長被較低價格和計劃外維護項目導致的營運銷售下降所抵消。此外，2023 年第一季還包括因托運人破產而實現的某些金額的一次性收益。由於 Transwestern Tiger Trunkline 和 Gulf Run 管道系統的需求增加和利用率提高，系統總容量比去年同期增加了 5%。我們繼續充分利用 Gulf Run 的 1 區產能，隨著幹線回程專案的完成，我們正在充分利用從 2 區到幹線管道的交付。從路易斯安那州北部到墨西哥灣沿岸的天然氣運輸。對於我們的州內部門，調整後的 EBITDA 為 4.38 億美元，而去年第一季為 4.09 億美元。在 2024 年第一季度，我們記錄了與管道優化機會相關的約 2.5 億美元的收益，預計該收益在今年剩餘時間內不會重複。此外，我們在德克薩斯州的幾條管道上看到了產量的增加和新合約。所有這些都被較低的儲存優化機會所部分抵消。

Turning to our growth projects, and we'll start with Nederland and Marcus Hook export terminals. Our NGL terminals continue to benefit from increased demand, both in the United States as well as from international customers. Construction of the expansion to our NGL export capacity at Nederland continues to progress. This expansion is expected to give us the flexibility to load various products based upon customer demand. We have completed the installation of all pilings for the facility and the construction remains on schedule for an anticipated in-service in mid-2025 for the initial phases of the project. And as mentioned on our last call, we are also building new refrigerated storage at Nederland, which is expected to increase our butane storage capacity by 33% and double our propane storage capacity. This will further increase our ability to keep customer ships loaded on time and give us the ability to more than fully optimize our export capabilities. We expect the total combined cost of these 2 projects to be approximately $1.5 billion. 

談到我們的成長項目，我們將從荷蘭和馬庫斯胡克出口碼頭開始。我們的液化天然氣接收站持續受益於美國和國際客戶需求的成長。荷蘭液化天然氣出口產能擴建工程仍在持續進行中。此次擴展預計將使我們能夠根據客戶需求靈活地加載各種產品。我們已經完成了該設施所有樁柱的安裝，施工仍在按計劃進行，預計工程初始階段將於 2025 年中期投入使用。正如我們在上次電話會議中提到的，我們還在 Nederland 建造新的冷藏庫，預計這將使我們的丁烷儲存容量增加 33%，並使丙烷儲存容量增加一倍。這將進一步提高我們讓客戶船舶按時裝載的能力，並使我們能夠充分優化我們的出口能力。我們預計這兩個項目的總成本約為 15 億美元。

At our Marcus Hook terminal, construction continues on the first phase of an optimization project that would add incremental ethane refrigeration and storage capacity. On our Lone Star NGL pipelines we recently [FID-ed] 2 projects that will debottleneck our West Texas Gateway and Lone Star Express pipelines. On the gateway pipeline, a debottlenecking project is underway that will allow us to fully utilize our interest on the Epic pipeline and optimize our deliveries from the Delaware Basin into the gateway pipeline for deliveries into Mont Belvieu. These upgrades are expected to be completed in 2025. As a reminder, this undivided interest was acquired as part of the Crestwood acquisition, and it's just one of the several synergy projects we are working on. And on the Lone Star Express, we are completing upgrades that are expected to provide more than 90,000 barrels per day of incremental Permian NGL takeaway capacity upon its anticipated in-service in 2026. The combined project costs are expected to be approximately $125 million. Upon completion of these 2 projects, our total deliverability in the Mont Belvieu is expected to increase to more than 1.3 million barrels per day. 

在我們的馬庫斯胡克碼頭，優化計畫第一階段的建設仍在繼續，該計畫將增加乙烷冷凍和儲存能力。在我們的 Lone Star NGL 管道上，我們最近 [FID] 兩個項目將消除我們的 West Texas Gateway 和 Lone Star Express 管道的瓶頸。在門戶管道方面，一項消除瓶頸的項目正在進行中，該項目將使我們能夠充分利用我們對 Epic 管道的興趣，並優化我們從特拉華盆地到門戶管道的交付，以便交付到 Mont Belvieu。這些升級預計將於 2025 年完成。在 Lone Star Express 上，我們正​​在完成升級，預計在 2026 年投入使用後，將增加每天 90,000 桶以上的二疊紀 NGL 外運能力。這兩個項目完成後，我們在 Mont Belvieu 的總產能預計將增加到每天 130 萬桶以上。

As we mentioned on our last call in early 2024, we closed on the acquisition of 2 pipelines. Sabina 1 Pipeline from Mont Belvieu to the Houston Ship Channel and the Sabina 2 Pipeline from Mont Belvieu to our Nederland terminal. We recently commenced the conversion of the Sabina 2 pipeline to provide additional natural gasoline service between our Mont Belvieu NGL complex and our Nederland storage and export terminal. This project, which we anticipate will be in service in 2025, is expected to increase the capacity from 25,000 barrels per day to approximately 70,000 barrels per day. In addition, discussions are ongoing to provide transportation for potentially multiple products on the Sabina 1 Pipeline that extends from Mont Belvieu to the Houston Ship Channel. As a reminder, in addition to the incremental processing capacity acquired through the Crestwood acquisition, we are expanding our processing capacity at several of our existing processing plants. In total, we are moving forward with upgrades to add approximately 200 million cubic feet per day of processing capacity in West Texas. In addition, we recently completed upgrades in South Texas that added approximately 60 million cubic feet per day. These upgrades can be completed at more favorable capital cost when compared to building a new processing plant. 

正如我們在 2024 年初的最後一次電話會議中提到的，我們完成了 2 條管道的收購。 Sabina 1 管道從 Mont Belvieu 到休斯頓航道，Sabina 2 管道從 Mont Belvieu 到我們的荷蘭碼頭。我們最近開始對 Sabina 2 管道進行改造，以便在 Mont Belvieu NGL 綜合設施與荷蘭儲存和出口碼頭之間提供額外的天然汽油服務。我們預計該專案將於 2025 年投入使用，預計產能將從每天 25,000 桶增加到每天約 70,000 桶。此外，正在討論為從 Mont Belvieu 延伸至休斯頓航道的 Sabina 1 管道上潛在的多種產品提供運輸。提醒一下，除了透過收購 Crestwood 獲得的增量加工能力外，我們還在擴大我們現有的幾個加工廠的加工能力。總的來說，我們正在推進升級工作，以便在西德克薩斯州每天增加約 2 億立方英尺的處理能力。此外，我們最近完成了德州南部的升級，每天增加約 6,000 萬立方英尺。與建造新的加工廠相比，這些升級可以以更優惠的資本成本完成。

Also, we continue to increase optionality and improve reliability along our pipeline systems. At the end of 2023, we completed a backhaul project on our trunk line pipeline. The project added an incremental 400,000 Mcf per day of Southern flow capacity on the pipeline system at very efficient capital cost. Looking at our crude oil assets, we are adding a direct connection from Midland to our pipeline that flows from the Permian Basin to Cushing. The construction of this approximately 30-mile pipeline continues. And upon its anticipated completion in the fourth quarter of this year, it is expected to be able to transport approximately 100,000 barrels per day of crude from our terminals in Midland, Texas to our terminal in Cushing, Oklahoma. 

此外，我們繼續增加管道系統的可選性並提高可靠性。 2023年底，完成乾管線管道回程工程。該項目以非常高效的資本成本增加了管道系統每天 400,000 Mcf 的南方流量。看看我們的原油資產，我們正在增加從米德蘭到從二疊紀盆地到庫欣的管道的直接連接。這條條約 30 英里長的管道的建設仍在繼續。預計今年第四季完工後，預計每天能夠將約 10 萬桶原油從我們位於德克薩斯州米德蘭的碼頭運輸到我們位於俄克拉荷馬州庫欣的碼頭。

We also continue to develop our proposed Blue Marlin offshore project, and we are hoping to receive the draft EIS this quarter. As a reminder, in November of 2023, we announced a heads of agreement or HOA with Total Energy's for crude offtake. And additional customers remain very engaged and interested in our project, recognizing the value of fully loading VLCCs and the reduced execution risk that comes with repurposing existing underutilized assets. Now for an update on Lake Charles LNG project. As we discussed on our last earnings call in January of this year, the Biden administration imposed a moratorium on the approval of LNG exports, while the Department of Energy conduct studies to determine whether LNG exports are in the public interest. The Biden administration stated that these studies would focus on the cumulative impact of LNG exports on climate change, U.S. natural gas prices and the impact of LNG facilities on local communities. We remain optimistic that the DOE studies will continue to support DOE export authorizations, particularly for LNG projects that have lower Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions profiles like Lake Charles. And so we continue to believe that Lake Charles LNG will receive a DOE export authorization in due course. As such, Lake Charles LNG continues to pursue the development of the project. In this regard, Lake Charles LNG is in discussions with LNG offtake customers for the remaining unsold offtake volumes necessary to take FID. Lake Charles LNG remains extremely thankful for the continued support of its existing LNG customers. 

我們也繼續開發擬議的 Blue Marlin 海上項目，我們希望在本季收到 EIS 草案。謹此提醒，2023 年 11 月，我們宣布了與 Total Energy 的原油採購協議或 HOA。其他客戶仍然對我們的專案非常投入和感興趣，他們認識到滿載 VLCC 的價值以及重新利用現有未充分利用資產所帶來的降低執行風險。現在了解查爾斯湖液化天然氣計畫的最新情況。正如我們在今年 1 月的上次財報電話會議上討論的那樣，拜登政府暫停批准液化天然氣出口，而能源部則進行研究以確定液化天然氣出口是否符合公共利益。拜登政府表示，這些研究將重點放在液化天然氣出口對氣候變遷、美國天然氣價格的累積影響以及液化天然氣設施對當地社區的影響。我們仍然樂觀地認為，能源部的研究將繼續支持能源部的出口授權，特別是對於查爾斯湖等範圍 1 和範圍 2 排放情況較低的液化天然氣項目。因此，我們仍然相信查爾斯湖液化天然氣將在適當的時候獲得美國能源部的出口授權。因此，查爾斯湖液化天然氣公司將繼續推進該項目的開發。在這方面，查爾斯湖液化天然氣公司正在與液化天然氣承購客戶討論進行最終投資決定所需的剩餘未售出承購量。查爾斯湖液化天然氣公司仍然非常感謝其現有液化天然氣客戶的持續支持。

And for a brief update on other projects. Energy Transfer has approved 8-10 megawatt natural gas-fired electric generation facilities to support the partnership's operations in Texas. We expect these facilities to go into service throughout 2025 and 2026. On the blue ammonia front, we continue to develop an ammonia hub concept at Lake Charles, Louisiana and Nederland, Texas, where we have deep water access at our existing facilities. This hub concept would allow us to provide critical infrastructure services to several blue ammonia facilities, including natural gas supply, CO2 transportation to third-party sequestration sites, ammonia storage and deep water marine loading facilities. This hub concept is expected to promote economies of scale and efficiencies as compared to individual stand-alone blue ammonia projects and the market response to this approach has been favorable. Yesterday, we entered into an agreement with Capture Point that commits CO2 from our treating facilities in Northern Louisiana to the capture and sequestration project being jointly developed by Capture Point and Energy Transfer. 

以及其他項目的簡要更新。 Energy Transfer 已批准建造 8-10 兆瓦天然氣發電設施，以支援該合作夥伴在德克薩斯州的營運。我們預計這些設施將於2025 年和2026 年投入使用。有深水通道。這個樞紐概念將使我們能夠為多個藍氨設施提供關鍵的基礎設施服務，包括天然氣供應、向第三方封存地點的二氧化碳運輸、氨儲存和深水海洋裝載設施。與各個獨立的藍氨項目相比，這個樞紐概念預計將促進規模經濟和效率，並且市場對此方法的反應良好。昨天，我們與 Capture Point 簽訂了一項協議，將我們位於路易斯安那州北部的處理設施中的二氧化碳投入到由 Capture Point 和 Energy Transfer 聯合開發的捕獲和封存項目中。

Now looking ahead at our 2024 organic growth capital guidance. With the addition of several new growth projects, we now expect 2024 growth capital expenditures to be approximately $2.9 billion, which will be spent primarily in the NGL and refined products and midstream segments. This has been revised from our previous guidance for approximately $2.5 billion to include newly approved debottlenecking projects on our Lone Star Express and Gateway NGL pipelines, the Sabina 2 pipe conversion, optimization work at Mont Belvieu, backhaul, looping and compression projects on FGT, new power generation facilities as well as additional processing plant optimization in the Permian and gathering system build-outs and compression projects in the midstream segment. We continue to expect our long-term annual growth capital run rate to be approximately $2 billion to $3 billion. 

現在展望我們的 2024 年有機成長資本指引。隨著幾個新增長項目的增加，我們現在預計 2024 年將成長資本支出約為 29 億美元，這將主要用於 NGL 和煉油產品以及中游領域。這已在我們先前的指導基礎上修訂為約25 億美元，其中包括新批准的Lone Star Express 和Gateway NGL 管道的去瓶頸項目、Sabina 2 管道轉換、Mont Belvieu 的優化工作、FGT 的回程、循環和壓縮項目、新的發電設施以及二疊紀的額外加工廠優化以及中游部分的收集系統擴建和壓縮項目。我們仍然預計我們的長期資本運行年增長率約為 20 億至 30 億美元。

Now turning to our adjusted EBITDA guidance. We are raising our 2024 adjusted EBITDA guidance to be between $15 billion to $15.3 billion compared to our prior guidance range of $14.5 billion to $14.8 billion. Our 2024 guidance has been updated to include earnings related to Sunoco's acquisition of the NuStar assets, which closed May 3. As we look at our first quarter performance and bring the NuStar assets into the family, we continue to be excited about 2024 and are comfortable that we can deliver on our plan despite various market headwinds like lower gas prices and production curtailments that have impacted midstream volumes. Overall, worldwide demand for crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids and refined products remained strong. as does demand for our products and services. We will continue to position ourselves to meet this demand by strategically targeting optimization and expansion projects that enhance our existing asset base and generate attractive returns. We also continue to pursue synergy opportunities around recently acquired assets with several projects underway, including the optimization of processing capacity in West Texas and NGL pipeline takeaway capacity from the Delaware Basin. Our financial position continues to be stronger than any time in Energy Transfer's history, which we believe will provide us with the continued flexibility to balance pursuing new growth opportunities, further leverage reduction, maintaining our targeted distribution growth rate and increasing equity returns to our unitholders. That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open the line up for the first question.

現在轉向我們調整後的 EBITDA 指導。我們將 2024 年調整後 EBITDA 指引提高至 150 億美元至 153 億美元，而先前的指引範圍為 145 億美元至 148 億美元。我們的2024 年指引已更新，包括與Sunoco 收購NuStar 資產相關的收益，該收購於5 月3 日完成。感到放心儘管存在各種市場阻力，例如天然氣價格下跌和減產影響了中游產量，但我們仍然可以實現我們的計劃。整體而言，全球對原油、天然氣、液化天然氣和成品油的需求仍然強勁。對我們產品和服務的需求也是如此。我們將繼續透過策略性優化和擴張專案來滿足這一需求，以增強我們現有的資產基礎並產生有吸引力的回報。我們也繼續圍繞最近收購的資產和正在進行的多個項目尋求協同機會，包括優化西德克薩斯州的加工能力和特拉華盆地的液化天然氣管道外運能力。我們的財務狀況繼續比Energy Transfer 歷史上的任何時候都要強大，我們相信這將為我們提供持續的靈活性，以平衡追求新的成長機會、進一步降低槓桿率、維持我們的目標分銷成長率和增加我們的股本報酬率。我們準備好的演講到此結束。接線員，請開啟第一個問題的隊列。

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). As a reminder, please limit to asking only one question and one follow-up question. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Jeremy Tonet with JP Morgan.

我們現在開始問答環節。 （操作員說明）。提醒一下，請限制只提出一個問題和一個後續問題。此時，我們將暫停片刻以集合我們的名單。第一個問題來自摩根大通的 Jeremy Tonet。

Good afternoon. Jeremy. Just wanted to start off with regards to Crestwood, now that the acquisition has been under your belt full a little bit here. I wonder if you could update us a little bit more. You talked about the synergy capture a bit before, but just what you see now as far as the impact and what you see, I guess, for potential synergies across commercial cost savings, what have you. Just curious for latest thoughts there.

午安.傑里米.我只想從 Crestwood 開始，現在收購已經在你的掌控之中了。我想知道您是否可以為我們提供更多更新資訊。您之前談到了協同效應捕獲，但就您現在所看到的影響和您所看到的，我想，對於商業成本節省方面的潛在協同效應，您有什麼。只是好奇那裡的最新想法。

Yes. I mean, I'll go ahead and start. We still feel very good about the $80 million on the cost synergy side that we said we would be able to achieve, and that's going well. And then I'm looking over at Mackie will comment on the commercial side of it.

是的。我的意思是，我會繼續開始。我們仍然對我們所說能夠實現的 8000 萬美元成本協同效應感到非常滿意，而且進展順利。然後我正在看麥基將對其商業方面發表評論。

Yes. Jeremy, as every time that we go and acquire somebody, we always have anticipated synergies and then we just dig stuff up and find things, and once again, we're doing that with Crestwood. Some that we can talk about, for example, in the Permian Basin, they've got some idle capacity that we'll be able to utilize sooner than later will delay any kind of expansions we may need out there. There's also some things going on up in the Bakken that we can't really elaborate on, but very significant opportunities up there to help not only fill up some of their available higher now available processing capacity, but also bringing fairly significant more barrels in Dakota Access. And there's others we can go out of every other areas. But we're very excited about what we've seen early and look forward to really benefiting from some of these synergies we've already recognized.

是的。我們可以談論的一些，例如，在二疊紀盆地，他們有一些閒置產能，我們遲早可以利用這些產能，這將延遲我們可能需要的任何類型的擴張。巴肯也發生了一些事情，我們無法詳細說明，但那裡有非常重要的機會，不僅可以幫助填補一些現有的更高的處理能力，而且還可以為達科他州帶來相當多的桶使用權。還有其他我們可以走出其他領域的領域。但我們對早期看到的情況感到非常興奮，並期待著從我們已經認識到的一些協同效應中真正受益。

Great. And I appreciate the guidance update reflects the Sun acquisition of NuStar there. But if I just want to kind of parse through that a little bit more and see how the base business for ET is proceeding versus guidance provided before, how would you describe, I guess, the outlook at this point versus before, if it's similar or if anything has changed?

偉大的。我很欣賞反映 Sun 收購 NuStar 的指導更新。但是，如果我只是想進一步分析一下，看看 ET 的基本業務與之前提供的指導相比是如何進行的，我猜你會如何描述此時與之前的前景，如果它是相似的或如果有什麼改變？

Similar is going to be the short answer. We had the $14.5, $14.8 billion. We're including an incremental $500 million just for that portion of the year for Sunoco. So that's what you're seeing at this time with where we are in the process. Sunoco team has done a great job, and we'll -- they'll be probably updating that number a little bit more as we go forward. But right now, $500 million is the number that we're using.

類似的將是簡短的答案。我們有 14.5 美元、148 億美元。我們僅在今年的這段時間為 Sunoco 增加了 5 億美元。這就是您現在所看到的以及我們目前所處的情況。 Sunoco 團隊做得非常出色，隨著我們的進展，他們可能會進一步更新該數字。但現在，我們使用的數字是 5 億美元。

Got it. That's helpful. Just the last one, if I could. I think you talked about the potential for increasing equity returns. And just wondering if you could comment a bit more on what you meant there.

知道了。這很有幫助。如果可以的話，就最後一張。我認為您談到了增加股權回報的潛力。只是想知道您是否可以對您的意思進行更多評論。

There's obviously 2 -- as far as just the overall equity Jeremy, if I understand you correctly, equity returns, meaning that we continue to bump the distributions, but I don't ever want to say that we're not focused on unit buybacks when we get to the right place from a leverage standpoint. And what I mean is when we're kind of looking out at the forecast, we'll be opportunistic there.

顯然有兩個 - 就整體股權而言，傑里米，如果我理解正確的話，股權回報，這意味著我們繼續增加分配，但我不想說我們不專注於單位回購當我們從槓桿的角度到達正確的位置時。我的意思是，當我們專注於預測時，我們就會抓住機會。

Our next question comes from Spiro Dounis with Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Spiro Dounis。

Thanks, operator. Maybe start with some of the new projects and the CapEx update. Mackie, your team has clearly been busy over the last quarter with all those additions. Curious now just given you're sort of higher end of the range of $3 billion at this point in the year, anything that could sort of tip us over that, that's in the hopper? Are you contemplating that in that new range, thinking about projects like Blue Marlin or your goal front expansion? Anything to kind of point you that you can get us over that?

謝謝，接線生。也許從一些新項目和資本支出更新開始。 Mackie，您的團隊在上個季度顯然一直忙於所有這些新增內容。現在很好奇，考慮到今年這個時候你的收入已經達到了 30 億美元的上限，有什麼可以讓我們對此有所提示的嗎？您是否正在考慮在這個新的範圍內，考慮像 Blue Marlin 這樣的專案或您的目標前沿擴展？有什麼可以告訴你可以讓我們克服這個問題嗎？

Yes. Spiro, this is Mackie. Everything that we have in right now is what we're going to do. Next 30, 60, 90 days, we may make significant progress and some of the things we're working for. But the things that we announced recently, the additional $400 million or things that we have approved recently that we've kicked off, several of those will actually come online later this year. All of them come online kind of within 2 years or earlier. So yes, we're adding more capital, but we're also going to see revenues much quicker than, of course, a lot of our projects.

是的。斯皮羅，這是麥基。我們現在所擁有的一切都是我們要做的。接下來的 30、60、90 天，我們可能會取得重大進展以及我們正在努力的一些事情。但我們最近宣布的事情，額外的 4 億美元或我們最近批准的事情，其中​​一些實際上將在今年晚些時候上線。所有這些都在兩年或更早的時間內上線。所以，是的，我們正在增加更多的資本，但我們也將比我們的許多項目更快地看到收入。

Got it. It's helpful. And just want to go to the slides, one sort of point to new opportunities you're evaluating on the power plant side to connect into new and existing power plants. Curious if you could expand on that and what that could mean in terms of scope. Is that sort of interstate pipeline expansions? And then are we also talking about brownfield or even greenfield storage expansions?

知道了。這很有幫助。只是想看幻燈片，這是您正在評估的發電廠方面連接到新發電廠和現有發電廠的新機會的一種指向。很好奇您是否可以擴展這一點以及這在範圍方面意味著什麼。這是州際管線擴建嗎？那麼我們是否也在談論棕地甚至綠地儲存擴張？

Yes. I'll tell you this is kind of the first small step for us. But as everybody is aware, certainly in Texas and throughout many states, the grids are in jeopardy, very cold or hot weather. So we're doing what we can to help support that. But really, the driver behind what we're doing on adding these 10 megawatts at a time facilities is, -- number one, reliability is to make sure that when we have glitches of the grid, especially out West Texas were those not uncommon that we can keep our facilities running. In addition to that, it also will help grid security, for example, we'll be able to -- in the kind of urea-type or cold weather-type circumstances when ERCOT asks us to get off the grid, we'll be able to get off the grid, keep our plants running reliably and allow that excess energy that we're not going off to go to benefit producers, for example, upstream that might have issues with loose electricity. So we think what we're doing are kind of small steps that we'll grow into to help make our system, our assets much more liable, the grid more stable, in addition to that, I won't go into this in great detail, but there's also a lot of revenue benefits from LAR and ancillary services that we'll be able to provide with this added generation. So we're pretty excited about it. It's kind of small stuff right now, but it makes a lot of sense for our partnership.

是的。我會告訴你，這對我們來說是第一步。但眾所周知，尤其是在德克薩斯州和許多州，電網正處於危險之中，天氣非常寒冷或炎熱。因此，我們正在盡我們所能來幫助支持這一點。但實際上，我們一次增加這些 10 兆瓦設施背後的驅動因素是，第一，可靠性是確保當我們出現電網故障時，特別是在德克薩斯州西部，那些故障並不罕見。保持我們的設施運作。除此之外，它還將有助於電網安全，例如，在尿素類型或寒冷天氣類型的情況下，當 ERCOT 要求我們脫離電網時，我們將能夠脫離電網，保持我們的工廠可靠運行，並允許我們不會消耗的多餘能源讓生產商受益，例如，可能有電力鬆動問題的上游生產商。因此，我們認為我們正在做的只是一些小步驟，我們將逐步發展，以幫助我們的系統、我們的資產更加可靠、電網更加穩定，除此之外，我不會詳細討論這個問題。但LAR 和輔助服務也能帶來許多收入收益，我們將能夠透過這一代產品提供這些服務。所以我們對此感到非常興奮。現在這只是一件小事，但對我們的合作關係來說意義重大。

Our next question comes from Keith Stanley with Wolfe Research.

我們的下一個問題來自沃爾夫研究公司的基斯‧史丹利。

Wanted to go back to the interstate gas sales and the strong results there. Is there any more detail you can give on the optimization opportunities you saw that drove the $250 million gain? And then relatedly, just any updates on how much capacity you have available for -- to benefit from Permian differentials this year? And anything on the Warrior project as well.

想回到州際天然氣銷售和那裡的強勁業績。您是否可以提供更多關於您看到的推動 2.5 億美元收益的優化機會的詳細資訊？然後，與此相關的是，您有多少可用容量的最新資訊——今年可以從二疊紀差異中受益？還有關於戰士計畫的任何事情。

Okay. Let me start with the end of that. So on Warrior, we continue -- our team continues to work. One thing we are doing, we're going to be very disciplined and prudent. We're not going to run out and announce the project unless we feel good about all of our capacity, [sold] long term. So we're not going to run out in an FID Warrior when we have some capacity on our existing system that we're still terming up. So we're working hard, the pause in LNG has impacted a little bit with some of the bigger customers that we're working with. However, there remains, as everybody (inaudible) probably knows a strong interest in another pipeline, probably by mid to late 2026. We are very optimistic that we will build the next pipeline to come out of West Texas, and we'll continue to work hard to get that finish line when it makes sense. 

好的。讓我從結尾開始。因此，在 Warrior 上，我們的團隊將繼續努力。我們正在做的一件事是，我們將非常自律和謹慎。除非我們對我們的所有產能（長期[出售]）感到滿意，否則我們不會用完並宣布該項目。因此，當我們現有系統有一些容量且仍在使用時，我們不會用完 FID Warrior。因此，我們正在努力工作，液化天然氣的暫停對我們正在合作的一些大客戶產生了一些影響。然而，仍然存在，因為每個人（聽不清楚）可能都知道對另一條管道有濃厚的興趣，可能到2026 年中後期。一條管道，我們將繼續當有意義的時候，努力工作以達到終點線。

As far as the spread across Texas, it kind of varies month-to-month, but it's certainly north of $300,000 a day of (inaudible) a day that we have available that are benefiting from these widespread -- we sure hate to see prices do what they're doing at Waha, but that's what happens when you have capacity constraints, which we have right now out of the Permian. And so there is a pipeline coming on later in the year than alleviate a lot of that but certainly, the way we're positioned is very well to take advantage of that type of spread for our customers' benefit as well as for our own benefits. As far as the intrastate revenue, it's just -- it's what we've built. We feel extremely fortunate with the assets we have throughout the U.S., but especially in Texas and the team we have that's operating those assets where really cold weather times are really volatile times, even really hot weather, we have the ability to create a lot of revenue by peak hourly sales or putting some storage positions on moving gas from west to east, even backhaul. There's just a lot of things we can do with our massive intrastate pipeline network in Texas. And so -- we see this every year, we see it in most winters, many times in summer where we're able to capture kind of some unexpected revenue that will always be there at very volatile times at some level.

就整個德州的傳播情況而言，每個月都有所不同，但我們可以從這些廣泛傳播中受益的每天（聽不清楚）肯定會超過30 萬美元——我們確實不願意看到價格做他們在瓦哈正在做的事情，但這就是當你的能力受到限制時會發生的事情，我們現在在二疊紀地區就遇到了這種情況。因此，今年稍後將會有一條管道出現，可以緩解很多這種情況，但當然，我們的定位方式非常好，可以充分利用這種利差，為我們的客戶以及我們自己的利益帶來好處。就州內收入而言，這就是我們所建立的。我們對我們在美國各地擁有的資產感到非常幸運，特別是在德克薩斯州，以及我們運營這些資產的團隊，那裡的天氣非常寒冷，天氣非常不穩定，即使天氣非常炎熱，我們也有能力創造很多透過每小時高峰銷售或在從西向東輸送天然氣甚至回程時放置一些儲存位置來獲得收入。我們可以利用德州龐大的州內管道網路做很多事情。因此，我們每年都會看到這種情況，在大多數冬天，在夏天多次看到這種情況，我們能夠獲得一些意想不到的收入，這些收入在某種程度上在非常不穩定的時期總是存在。

I appreciate the detailed answer. Second question on -- just on M&A and how you're thinking about things. And so -- and thinking about it from the lens of Energy Transfer and then obviously, you have Sun as well, which I know is an independent company, but there's a fair amount of overlap now in some of the assets and business mix between ET and Sun. So how do you think about M&A going forward? And kind of what types of acquisitions or assets make more sense at the ET level versus the Sun level and any differentiation there?

我很欣賞詳細的答案。第二個問題是關於併購以及您如何看待事情。因此，從「能源傳輸」的角度思考，顯然，Sun 也是如此，我知道它是一家獨立公司，但現在在某些資產和業務方面存在相當多的重疊。那麼您如何看待未來的併購？與 Sun 等級相比，哪種類型的收購或資產在 ET 層級更有意義？

Yes. That's -- listen, that's obviously a very, very good question. We spent a lot of time within Energy Transfer strategizing here. I will -- I think I will start off saying that we still feel like consolidation makes sense in the midstream space. So just at the 50,000-foot answer to your question, we still fully intend on evaluating various opportunities as we look out. So we're not going to slow down on that front. Now as far as what we look at is going to be always trying to look at those things that feed all the way downstream. We always like to talk about how we go from wellhead to the water, and we do it across all the commodities. So you can see our strategy as we look at this stuff and what assets we look at as to how it feeds all the way through the value chain when we make these acquisitions. And it gives us great opportunities for commercial synergies when we do that as well as the cost synergies. 

是的。那是——聽著，這顯然是一個非常非常好的問題。我們在能源轉移領域花費了大量時間制定策略。我會——我想我會先說，我們仍然認為在中游領域進行整合是有意義的。因此，就在 50,000 英尺高度回答您的問題時，我們仍然完全打算在觀察時評估各種機會。所以我們不會在這方面放慢腳步。現在就我們所關注的而言，我們將始終嘗試著關注那些一直向下游供給的東西。我們總是喜歡談論我們如何從井口到水，我們在所有商品上都這樣做。因此，當我們研究這些東西時，您可以看到我們的策略，以及我們在進行這些收購時所關注的資產以及它如何貫穿整個價值鏈。當我們這樣做時，它為我們提供了巨大的商業協同效應以及成本協同效應的機會。

Now as to the -- I guess, as to the last part of your question about the Energy Transfer versus Sunoco, clearly, the Sunoco team has done a fantastic job on this new star. I couldn't be more excited about that asset base coming into the family here. So what you'll see is, you'll see that they're in kind of the wholesale fuel distribution terminal business, et cetera. And you're right, there's going to be some overlap and in those instances, we'll look at ways on a combined basis of what we can do. But Sunoco's can continue to make those kind of acquisitions. This is really their first big public company transaction. They've made a lot of other asset acquisitions, but it's clearly something that's very, very accretive to them, and it's very good for the family from that standpoint. And I'm going to look across the table to Mackie and give him a chance to add in a little bit more even on the latest NuStar acquisition and some of the optimizations we might be looking at here.

現在，我想，關於你關於「能量轉移」與 Sunoco 的問題的最後一部分，顯然，Sunoco 團隊在這顆新星上做得非常出色。對於這個資產基礎進入這裡的家庭，我感到非常興奮。所以你會看到，你會看到他們從事批發燃料分銷終端業務，等等。你是對的，將會有一些重疊，在這種情況下，我們將在我們能做的事情的基礎上綜合考慮各種方法。但太陽石油公司可以繼續進行此類收購。這確實是他們的第一筆大型上市公司交易。他們也進行了很多其他資產收購，但這顯然對他們來說是非常非常增值的事情，從這個角度來看，這對家族來說非常有好處。我將向會議桌對面的 Mackie 尋求機會，讓他有機會在最新的 NuStar 收購以及我們在這裡可能關注的一些優化方面添加更多內容。

You bet. Yes. And I want to elaborate much more on what Sun said or anybody that follows them, they kind of explained it. We're excited for them. They are kind of stepping up and kind of growing up a little bit in one regard as far as different type of assets. And there are some assets that overlap, we think there's a real benefit and potentially partnering up with them. So we are in discussions of possibly doing that. And if opportunities arise that are very beneficial and accretive to both of our partnerships as we do with other JVs, we look forward to capturing those opportunities as time moves forward.

你打賭。是的。我想詳細闡述孫先生或任何關注他們的人所說的話，他們對此進行了解釋。我們為他們感到興奮。就不同類型的資產而言，它們在某一方面有所進步和成長。有些資產是重疊的，我們認為這是真正的好處，並且有可能與它們合作。所以我們正在討論這樣做的可能性。如果出現像我們與其他合資企業一樣對我們雙方的合作夥伴關係都非常有利和增值的機會，我們期待著隨著時間的推移抓住這些機會。

Did that answer all your question there?

這回答了你所有的問題嗎？

Sure did.

當然有。

Our next question comes from Manav Gupta with UBS.

我們的下一個問題來自瑞銀集團的馬納夫·古普塔。

A quick question as it relates to your Slide 6. When we look at 2024, CapEx, 80% of that is between NGL, refined products and midstream. And I know it's still early, but with your crystal ball, if you look at 2025, do you believe this mix could change significantly in the next year where other segments could get more CapEx? Like any view over there would be very helpful.

這是一個與幻燈片 6 相關的簡單問題。我知道現在還為時過早，但憑你的水晶球，如果你展望 2025 年，你是否認為這種組合會在明年發生重大變化，而其他細分市場可能會獲得更多資本支出？就像那裡的任何景色都會非常有幫助。

Yes, I can start with that. I guess, looking at it right now, nothing jumps out that would change it significantly. However, you walk through some hypothetical, let's just think say, everything the pause gets lifted, for example, on LNG, we intend to own maybe 20%, 25% of that. That could start earlier. That's probably not likely. But it just kind of depends on Warrior, does it pick up later in the years, sooner or later? So there's a lot of different variables and negotiations going on and even permitting issues with the government. So I think the high-level answer to that kind of the spin rate run right now, at least through '25. That's pretty consistent, but we've got a number of projects that I just alluded to in different segments that might begin quicker than others, and that would, of course, queue it one way or the other.

是的，我可以從這個開始。我想，現在看，沒有什麼會顯著改變它。然而，你會經歷一些假設，讓我們想想，一切暫停都被解除，例如，在液化天然氣方面，我們打算擁有其中的 20%、25%。這可以更早開始。這可能不太可能。但這只是取決於戰士，它會在幾年後恢復，遲早嗎？因此，存在著許多不同的變數和正在進行的談判，甚至與政府的許可問題。所以我認為這種旋轉速度的高級答案現在正在運行，至少到 25 年為止。這是相當一致的，但是我們有許多我剛剛提到的不同領域的項目，這些項目可能比其他項目開始得更快，當然，這會以一種或另一種方式對其進行排隊。

A quick follow-up. At Marcus Hook, I think on the last quarter call, you spoke about construction of the first sale of optimization project that could add ethane refrigeration and storage capacity. Is there any update on that one?

快速跟進。在馬庫斯·胡克，我想在上個季度的電話會議上，您談到了第一個銷售優化項目的建設，該項目可以增加乙烷製冷和存儲能力。那個有更新嗎？

No update. We're excited that phase, and we're diligently moving through that phase. We will be adding ethane storage and we are excited about the future of our export facilities and capabilities and revenues out of the markets for many years to come.

沒有更新。我們對這個階段感到興奮，我們正在努力度過這個階段。我們將增加乙烷儲存，我們對未來許多年我們的出口設施和能力以及市場收入的未來感到興奮。

Our next question comes from Michael Blum with Wells Fargo.

我們的下一個問題來自富國銀行的麥可布魯姆。

I wanted to ask -- go back to the 8, 10 megawatt gas-fired power plants you announced for Texas. Just to clarify, are these basically [peaker] plants? Are you going to supply them with your own gas? And how do we think about return on invested capital for an investment like this?

我想問一下——回到您為德克薩斯州宣布的 8、10 兆瓦燃氣發電廠。澄清一下，這些基本上是[peaker]植物嗎？您要為他們提供自己的天然氣嗎？我們如何看待這樣的投資的投資報酬率？

Michael, this is Mackie. Yes, we will provide the natural gas for these with our own facilities. As I mentioned, the 2 main drivers here are reliability, number one, for our assets, keep our plants running, keep the gas flowing and number two, to benefit the grid. In our economics, we don't expect necessarily run these a lot. There's almost 9,000 hours in a year, we have run the economics we run about 1,300, which we think will be significantly lower than what they will run, and that meets our rate of return [hurdles]. That has no anomalies in it in regards to like a urea-type situation or any kind of cold weather, or any kind of huge run-up in power prices or any benefits from ancillary services or LAR and things like that. So like I said, it's not -- we're not putting these in to try to create significant returns, but it very likely could create a lot better returns than what we're projecting, but we're really building these for reliability of our assets in the grid.

邁克爾，這是麥基。是的，我們將用我們自己的設施為這些提供天然氣。正如我所提到的，這裡的兩個主要驅動因素是可靠性，第一是我們的資產，保持我們的工廠運行，保持天然氣流動，第二是使電網受益。在我們的經濟學中，我們並不認為一定要經常運行這些。一年有近 9,000 小時，我們已經運行了大約 1,300 小時的經濟運行時間，我們認為這將大大低於他們將運行的時間，並且符合我們的回報率 [障礙]。在尿素型情況或任何寒冷天氣、電價大幅上漲或輔助服務或 LAR 等帶來的任何好處方面，這並沒有異常。所以就像我說的，我們並不是為了創造顯著的回報而投入這些，但它很可能會創造比我們預計的更好的回報，但我們真正構建這些是為了可靠性我們在電網中的資產。

Okay. Got it. And then just a follow-up on the Warrior potential project. Just to clarify, if you want to have this in service by 2026, when do you need to get FID on that?

好的。知道了。然後是勇士潛力項目的後續行動。只是澄清一下，如果您想在 2026 年之前投入使用，您需要什麼時候獲得 FID？

Pretty quick. No, probably about -- we typically -- I'll say, typically, a lot of changes over the last 3 or 4 years. But if we're able to get FID hypothetically, for example, by late third quarter, early fourth quarter, we believe we'll have it in by the end '26 at the latest.

相當快。不，可能是——我們通常——我會說，通常，過去三、四年發生了很多變化。但如果我們能夠假設在第三季末、第四季初之前獲得最終投資決定，我們相信最遲將在 26 年底前完成。

Our next question comes from Theresa Chen with Barclays.

我們的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的Theresa Chen。

A follow-up question related to the M&A topic. Related to your comment about wanting that wellhead-to-water strategy, so pro forma the NuStar assets in the family, you now have an expansive crude oil system, Permian to Cushing, Permian to Nederland and a sizable Corpus Christi export facility. So the long-haul movement between Permian and Corpus Christi, is that a natural area where you might want to fill your portfolio?

與併購主題相關的後續問題。與您關於想要井口到水策略的評論相關，因此從NuStar 系列資產的形式來看，您現在擁有一個廣闊的原油系統，從二疊紀到庫欣，從二疊紀到荷蘭，以及一個相當大的科珀斯克里斯蒂出口設施。那麼二疊紀和科珀斯克里斯蒂之間的長途運動是您可能想要填補作品集的自然領域嗎？

Sure. I mean anywhere we can connect the dots from where producers want to go to the best markets, we want to be in that market. We certainly, over the years, have been focused on bringing as many barrels as possible from Bakken, from Midland, from Cushing to our new and used assets to benefit those as well as our downstream pipes with Bayou Bridge, our VLCC project. But certainly, if the 30 assets are for sale, that can move more crude, for example, from Midland down to Corpus, we'll always look at those. But remember, those are NuStar assets and so they're the ones that will be chasing those opportunities wherever we might fit in, where it might make sense and they want to talk to us about, we're certainly open to that. But that's probably a better NuStar question related to Corpus.

當然。我的意思是，任何我們可以將生產商想要進入最佳市場的點連接起來的地方，我們都希望進入那個市場。當然，多年來，我們一直致力於將盡可能多的桶子從巴肯、米德蘭、庫欣帶到我們的新資產和二手資產中，以使這些資產以及我們的河口大橋和我們的VLCC 項目的下游管道受益。但當然，如果這 30 項資產可供出售，那麼可以運輸更多原油，例如從米德蘭到 Corpus，我們將始終關注這些資產。但請記住，這些是 NuStar 的資產，因此他們將在我們可能適合的任何地方追逐這些機會，只要它可能有意義，並且他們想與我們討論，我們當然對此持開放態度。但這可能是與 Corpus 相關的更好的 NuStar 問題。

Got it. And looking at the Dakota Access recontracting outlook and all the way through Bayou Bridge, just taking into account TMX now being online shipping not just WCS, West but also Syncrude, which seemingly has indirectly compressed Bakken dips given the connection to mainline. What is your outlook for (inaudible) would be contracting coming up in a couple of years and balanced with the incremental barrels that you're getting from Crestwood?

知道了。看看 Dakota Access 的再承包前景以及一直通過河口大橋的情況，只要考慮到 TMX 現在不僅在線運輸 WCS、West，還包括 Syncrude，考慮到與主線的連接，這似乎間接壓縮了巴肯的跌幅。您對幾年後的合約前景（聽不清楚）有何看法，並與您從克雷斯特伍德獲得的增量桶保持平衡？

Yes. We love Bakken. We love what we've done out of there, proud of the role we play to get barrels out of such a great basin, the refineries in the Midwest and the Gulf Coast. So it's been a great asset for us. It's funny through the years, there's times when we have recontracting concerns on different assets, and that's just not one off. We think long term, there's blips from time to time. We think long term, it is the premier optimum outlet for producers. The best way to get your production to, as I mentioned, Patoka and into many of the Mid-Continent refineries as well as refineries around Port Arthur and Houston and then, of course, into Bayou Bridge all the way over into Lake Charles and the St. James refineries and then you add on our VLCC project. So it's just -- it's an asset that we're not really concerned if there's companies that aren't willing to roll over for a long period of time or a period of time it makes sense to us. We make no yearly at the time. We just -- we don't have a lot of concern. We think that basin is going to be very stable for the next 5 to 10 years. We don't see massive growth. But as long as oil prices remain fairly strong, we do see, like I mentioned, stable kind of consistent flows out there. We do believe we're the best option for producers and so we'll engage with anybody that wants to roll over, of course, already talking to some of them, but it's certainly not something we will sleep on.

是的。我們愛巴肯。我們熱愛我們在那裡所做的一切，為我們在中西部和墨西哥灣沿岸如此大的盆地煉油廠中發揮的作用感到自豪。所以這對我們來說是一筆巨大的資產。有趣的是，這些年來，有時我們會對不同的資產進行重新承包，這並不是一次性的。我們認為，從長遠來看，時不時會出現一些波動。我們認為從長遠來看，它是生產商的首要最佳出口。正如我所提到的，將您的產品運送到帕託卡和許多中大陸煉油廠以及亞瑟港和休斯頓周圍的煉油廠，然後當然是進入河口大橋，一直進入查爾斯湖和聖詹姆斯煉油廠，然後加入我們的VLCC 項目。所以，如果有公司不願意在很長一段時間內或在一段對我們有意義的時間內展期，我們並不真正擔心它是一項資產。當時我們每年都不生產。我們只是——我們沒有太多擔憂。我們認為該盆地在未來 5 到 10 年內將非常穩定。我們沒有看到大規模成長。但只要油價保持相當強勁，就像我提到的那樣，我們確實會看到穩定的持續資金流。我們確實相信我們是製片人的最佳選擇，因此我們將與任何想要延期的人接觸，當然，我們已經與其中一些人進行了交談，但這肯定不是我們會繼續睡覺的事情。

Our next question comes from John Mackay with Goldman Sachs.

我們的下一個問題來自高盛的約翰·麥凱。

Maybe just to take one more at the power plant side. I guess, curious, are you guys operating any small plants now or have you in the past? And then if I think about this potential capacity you're adding, it's, I guess, relatively small versus what ET probably consumes overall. So do you think there's room for you guys to expand this number over time? And should we think of this as maybe kind of a first look on a kind of set of projects from here?

也許只是為了在發電廠一側再拿一個。我想，好奇，你們現在或過去經營過小工廠嗎？然後，如果我考慮您添加的潛在容量，我想，與 ET 可能消耗的整體容量相比，它相對較小。那麼你認為隨著時間的推移，你們還有擴大這個數字的空間嗎？我們是否應該認為這可能是對這裡一系列項目的初步了解？

Yes, John, in fact, I thought I said it earlier, I probably didn't make it clear enough. Yes. These are first steps. There's grid problems all over the country in Texas is no exception. A lot of people are moving in Texas, a lot of data centers, a lot of AI data centers or crypto miners are still coming in industrial growth. I mean it's just we're so optimistic on -- for natural gas-fired generation. So it's something that we will continue to look at, and we will -- it will be highly unlikely that we don't announce more of these as each quarter goes on. But we are -- we will be the operator of these as I mentioned earlier, these aren't peaking units. They are units that are very good heat rates. So they're very efficient and very -- provide very well-priced megawatt of cost when we run them. And so this is just kind of the first step, and we're excited about where this may take us, especially in some areas, for example, maybe at Mont Belvieu, where we think there's a real opportunity there and then some other of our bigger cryo-complexes around the state. So it's an area that we will continue to growing.

是的，約翰，事實上，我以為我早就說過了，我可能說得不夠清楚。是的。這些都是第一步。全國各地都存在電網問題，德州也不例外。很多人正在搬到德州，許多資料中心、許多人工智慧資料中心或加密礦機仍在工業成長中出現。我的意思是，我們對天然氣發電非常樂觀。因此，我們將繼續關注這一問題，隨著每個季度的進行，我們不太可能不宣布更多這些內容。但正如我之前提到的，我們將成為這些設備的運營商，這些設備不是峰值設備。它們是熱效率非常好的單位。因此，當我們運行它們時，它們非常高效，並且能夠提供價格非常合理的兆瓦級成本。因此，這只是第一步，我們對這可能會帶我們走向何方感到興奮，特別是在某些地區，例如，也許在 Mont Belvieu，我們認為那裡有真正的機會，然後是我們的其他一些地區該州周圍更大的低溫綜合體。因此，這是我們將繼續發展的領域。

I appreciate that detail. Maybe just zooming out or moving over a little bit. Can you spend a minute, maybe just talking about the blue ammonia hub, maybe kind of what your role in that could look like, what kind of pieces of that value chain you'd want to own versus maybe having a partner come in and kind of run it with you?

我很欣賞這個細節。也許只是縮小或移動一點。您能花一點時間，也許只是談談藍色氨中心，也許您在其中的角色可能會是什麼樣子，您想擁有該價值鏈的哪些部分，或者可能有一個合作夥伴參與其中和你一起跑嗎？

Yes. We keep talking about how excited we are -- all of our fossil fuel business, especially natural gas, incremental in so many things and certainly with ammonia production. So right now, probably a little bit higher priority, a little bit more focus is in the Lake Charles area. We've got a lot of momentum with some very significant players that really know what they're doing. We're approaching this very similar to our LNG project and our potential [Pet Chem] and that we don't want to be big owners of ammonia. Do we want to operate? Yes, we'll retain ownership of some level, very likely or possible. But what really drives us is to give you an example, one of these among your plants will deliver approximately 120,000 to 130,000 Mcf a day. In Lake Charles, we're looking at anywhere from maybe 5 to 7 over a certain period of time. So it's not insignificant natural gas transportation revenue. In addition to that, we'll have storage revenue, we'll have term loan revenue, we'll be able to load it there. 

是的。我們一直在談論我們是多麼興奮——我們所有的化石燃料業務，尤其是天然氣，在許多方面都在增加，當然還有氨生產。所以現在，查爾斯湖地區可能有更高的優先事項、更多的關注點。我們有很多動力，有一些非常重要的參與者，他們真正知道自己在做什麼。我們的做法與我們的液化天然氣項目和潛在的[Pet Chem]非常相似，我們不想成為氨的大所有者。我們要經營嗎？是的，我們將保留一定程度的所有權，很有可能或可能。但真正推動我們前進的是給您一個例子，您的工廠中的其中一個每天將提供大約 120,000 至 130,000 Mcf。在查爾斯湖，我們在一段時間內觀察到可能有 5 到 7 個。因此，天然氣運輸收入並不是微不足道的。除此之外，我們還將獲得存儲收入，我們將獲得定期貸款收入，我們將能夠將其加載到那裡。

At Lake Charles, we see enormous growth for ammonia. Everybody probably knows that the fertilizers to feed the people in the world is going to do nothing but grow depending on the experts 2% to 4% over the next 10 or 15 years. And now you've got this power side of it and fuel side of it, where ships are being built to burn ammonia as their fuel. You've got a bunkering for ammonia and then you've got South Korea and Japan and other places where ammonia is going to be blended with coal for fuel. So there's a big -- it's another big plus for NuStar in the ammonia offline they bought. We see a big future of ammonia, and it's interesting standpoint, what I just said, it really helps facilitate our natural gas transportation business as well. So we're very excited about where that's headed, and we'll do the same thing we hope as well at [Natera].

在查爾斯湖，我們看到氨的巨大增長。每個人可能都知道，世界上養活人類的肥料除了增長 2% 到 4% 之外什麼也沒有，專家預測在未來 10 到 15 年裡會成長 2% 到 4%。現在你已經有了它的動力側和燃料側，正在建造船舶以燃燒氨作為燃料。你有氨的燃料庫，然後你有韓國和日本以及其他地方，氨將與煤炭混合作為燃料。因此，對於 NuStar 在線下購買的氨來說，這是另一個主要優勢。我們看到了氨的廣闊未來，這是一個有趣的觀點，我剛才所說的，它也確實有助於促進我們的天然氣運輸業務。因此，我們對未來的發展感到非常興奮，我們也將在 [Natera] 做我們希望做的事情。

Our next question comes from Elvira Scotto with RBC Capital Markets.

我們的下一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行資本市場的埃爾維拉·斯科托。

Can you talk a little bit about what you're seeing, producer activity in the Haynesville? Looks like there was some decline on your system. Also, what you're seeing relative to what's embedded in your original expectations or your guidance? And then how you see that activity trending the rest of the year?

您能談談您在海恩斯維爾看到的生產者活動嗎？您的系統似乎出現了一些下降。另外，您所看到的內容與您最初的期望或指導中包含的內容相關嗎？那麼您如何看待今年剩餘時間該活動的趨勢？

Yes. This is Mackie again. Certainly, lean plays throughout the U.S., Marcellus, Utica in the Northeast, parts of Oklahoma, Panhandle Texas and East Texas and certainly Haynesville. We've seen a slowdown. There's no (inaudible) when prices fall to about $50 above $60 at Henry Hub, it puts a lot of pressure on producers. So yes, we've seen it fall off fairly significantly in the Northern Haynesville for our interstate group, though, I got to get a shout out in that -- our volumes grow. And so yes, we've got to be more aggressive, our margins tightened, but we did a good job on our intrastate in North Louisiana. But yes, as far as our G&P business, we have seen it fall off. However, if you look at kind of what's happening, we saw a peak about 6 months ago with LNG exports of almost 15 Bcf. That's now down around 12 Bcf. There's another LNG facility coming on I believe in June or July. So we see growth, we start seeing demand like we believe we will overseas in Europe and elsewhere and the heat picks up this summer, we can see -- (inaudible) we can see demand jump up on 5 or 6 Bcf overnight. And so you see these declines in Haynesville or other areas, you're not going to be able to ramp up those that quickly. So we see pricing out the rest of this year, I think, getting as high as $350 or $360 by the end of the year, we think that possibly could be moved up that we could see higher prices mid or latter part of the summer with a hot summer, and if the LNG demand really picks up like we think it will. But yes, no doubt about it. It has been a tougher quarter on some of the main areas and Haynesville is one of those.

是的。這又是麥基。當然，精益運動遍布美國各地，東北部的馬塞勒斯、尤蒂卡、俄克拉荷馬州的部分地區、德克薩斯州潘漢德爾和東德克薩斯州，當然還有海恩斯維爾。我們看到了經濟放緩。當亨利中心的價格跌至高於 60 美元至 50 美元左右時（聽不清楚），這會給生產商帶來很大的壓力。所以，是的，我們已經看到我們的州際集團在北海恩斯維爾的銷量大幅下降，但我必須大聲疾呼——我們的銷量正在增長。所以，是的，我們必須更加積極進取，我們的利潤收緊，但我們在北路易斯安那州內做得很好。但是，是的，就我們的 G&P 業務而言，我們已經看到它的下滑。然而，如果你看看正在發生的事情，我們會在大約 6 個月前看到峰值，液化天然氣出口量接近 15 Bcf。現在下降了約 12 Bcf。我相信六月或七月還會有另一個液化天然氣設施投入使用。因此，我們看到了成長，我們開始看到需求，就像我們相信歐洲和其他地方的海外需求一樣，今年夏天氣溫回升，我們可以看到——（聽不清楚）我們可以看到需求在一夜之間猛增5 或6 Bcf。所以你會看到海恩斯維爾或其他地區的這些下降，你將無法那麼快地增加這些下降。因此，我認為今年剩餘時間的價格將達到 350 美元或 360 美元，我們認為價格可能會上漲，因為我們可能會在夏季中期或後期看到更高的價格炎熱的夏季，如果液化天然氣需求真的像我們想像的那樣回升。但是，是的，毫無疑問。對於一些主要地區來說，這是一個更艱難的季度，海恩斯維爾就是其中之一。

Okay. Great. That's super helpful. And then just going back to your Slide 8 and the comments that you made about the 8, 10 megawatt gas-fired electric generation facilities. You also then talked about kind of data centers. So I'm curious, are you having any conversations with some of these data centers or maybe some of the utilities regarding incremental capacity or potential expansion opportunities? Or how do you think about that part of the equation longer term?

好的。偉大的。這非常有幫助。然後回到您的幻燈片 8 以及您對 8、10 兆瓦燃氣發電設施的評論。然後您也談到了資料中心的類型。所以我很好奇，您是否與其中一些資料中心或一些公用事業公司就增量容量或潛在的擴展機會進行了對話？或者從長遠來看，您如何看待方程式的這一部分？

Yes, we are. We are all the above. We're in conversations with anybody that wants to gas up our systems, a quick little story here. So 2 or 3 years ago, we started a strategy and agenda to anything within 10 miles of any of our intra-interstate pipelines, we need to go connect. And a lot of that was focused on power plants. So we've been doing that for a while, our team -- we got (inaudible) and her team have done an excellent job of connecting 2 plants, of extending agreements we have to power plants, but that also rolls over into a lot of other opportunities. And so we're looking at playing a pipeline to a large chip manufacturer in Texas and as well as that we will -- we're believers like everybody else, there is the data centers and especially around AI, it's going to happen. Whether that means over the next 5 or 8 years, it's going to go drive by 3 Bcf demand of gas-generated electricity or 8 Bcf. We don't know. We just know it's going up. So in combination with population growth, as I mentioned earlier, industry growth, ammonia growth, all the AI data centers, et cetera, power plant growth. We're talking to probably separate different power plants at least on fairly significant natural gas-fired generation expansions in Texas, a handful of Oklahoma as well. So it's just that common theme that Tom and I keep talking about in this call is that the demand for natural gas is going to do nothing but go up for many years to come, and we're excited that we have the assets that we believe will benefit the most from those opportunities.

是的我們是。我們都是以上的人。我們正在與任何想要為我們的系統加油的人進行對話，這裡有一個簡短的小故事。因此，兩三年前，我們啟動了一項策略和議程，我們的任何州際管道 10 英里範圍內的任何事物都需要連接起來。其中許多都集中在發電廠。所以我們已經這樣做了一段時間了，我們的團隊- 我們（聽不清楚）和她的團隊在連接兩個工廠方面做得非常出色，將我們必須向發電廠擴展的協議做得很好，但這也涉及到很多其他機會。因此，我們正在考慮為德克薩斯州的一家大型晶片製造商提供管道，而且我們和其他人一樣相信，有資料中心，特別是在人工智慧方面，這將會發生。無論這意味著在未來 5 年還是 8 年，天然氣發電的需求都將增加 3 Bcf 或 8 Bcf。我們不知道。我們只知道它正在上漲。因此，結合人口成長，正如我之前提到的，工業成長、氨成長、所有人工智慧資料中心等等、發電廠的成長。我們正在討論可能將不同的發電廠分開，至少在德克薩斯州以及俄克拉荷馬州的一些相當大的天然氣發電擴建項目上是如此。因此，湯姆和我在這次電話會議中不斷討論的共同主題是，對天然氣的需求在未來許多年裡只會不斷上升，我們很高興我們擁有我們相信的資產將從這些機會中受益最多。

Our next question comes from Zack Van Everen with Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.

我們的下一個問題來自 Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. 的 Zack Van’ Everen。

Maybe just circling back on that last one on the data center side. I know you guys have probably one of the larger interest footprints between the Permian and call it, Dallas. We've seen a lot of development and talks of development for the data centers in that area. Just curious on what is your ability to expand some of those intrastate pipes to maybe see more of that power demand, whether it's in Dallas or Houston or other states?

也許只是回到資料中心方面的最後一個。我知道你們可能在二疊紀之間有更大的興趣足跡之一，稱之為達拉斯。我們已經看到了該領域資料中心的大量發展和發展討論。只是好奇您是否有能力擴展一些州內管道，以可能滿足更多的電力需求，無論是在達拉斯、休士頓還是其他州？

Well, that kind of coincides a little bit what I just said. We really have made it our job to go to connect to every possible gas generating power plant in every state that we operate in. And we certainly have done that and have tremendous capability of doing more of that in Texas. We're already connected to approximately 55% to 60% of the power plants in Texas, either directly or indirectly, we have very strategically located storage facilities, both in North Texas and near Dallas and also in the (inaudible) because a lot of these AI unlike the crypto miners through a lot of times, you're making a lot of money off selling the electricity and not running their computers, "Hey, I can't do that". I think everybody knows it's got to have reliable, so it can't rely on renewables. So yes, if we need to add additional power plants to provide that electricity to help meet all the demand in the Dallas forward area, including AI expansion, we will certainly be a part of that. Look at our assets. I mean there's nobody as you just mentioned that's even close to be able to provide the services we can, especially for those type of markets.

嗯，這和我剛才說的有點吻合。我們確實將連接到我們運營所在的每個州的每個可能的天然氣發電廠作為我們的工作。我們已經直接或間接連接到德克薩斯州大約 55% 到 60% 的發電廠，我們在德克薩斯州北部和達拉斯附近以及（聽不清楚）都擁有地理位置優越的儲存設施，因為很多這些人工智慧與加密貨幣礦工不同，很多時候，你透過出售電力而不是運行他們的電腦賺了很多錢，「嘿，我不能這樣做」。我想每個人都知道它必須可靠，所以它不能依賴再生能源。所以，是的，如果我們需要增加額外的發電廠來提供電力，以幫助滿足達拉斯前沿地區的所有需求，包括人工智慧的擴展，我們肯定會參與其中。看看我們的資產。我的意思是，正如您剛才提到的，沒有人能夠提供我們所能提供的服務，特別是對於這些類型的市場。

Perfect. That makes sense. And then maybe switching to Blue Marlin. If you guys were able to get the favorable EIS study as well as the permit, do you have a time frame for when that would be commercially in operation?

完美的。這就說得通了。然後也許會換成藍馬林魚。如果你們能夠獲得有利的 EIS 研究以及許可證，你們是否有商業運營的時間表？

I guess I would say it like this, is that we believe that once we receive the draft EIS that we are hopefully confident that within a year, we'll get our permit and our license. We're making certain assumptions of things that might happen in November. But certainly, we are -- the great thing about our project is unlike our competitors, it's a brownfield project. I mean we have a pipe party, a lot of it already in the ground or in the sea. And so we have a huge advantage there. We have a pretty good deal for costs of some of our competitors. We think we're significantly less than that. We have the kind of unique ability to move barrels from different basins that some of our competitors can't to feed that project. So we're very optimistic. But any way to finish the answer your question, just -- just say hypothetically by second, third quarter of next year, we're ready to go. I believe we're looking at it 2.5, 3 years? Yes, about 2.5 to 3 years before it would actually own such.

我想我會這樣說，我們相信，一旦收到 EIS 草案，我們就有信心在一年內獲得許可證和執照。我們正在對 11 月可能發生的事情做出某些假設。但當然，我們的專案的偉大之處在於與我們的競爭對手不同，它是一個棕地專案。我的意思是我們有一個煙鬥派對，其中許多已經在地下或海裡了。所以我們在那裡有巨大的優勢。與我們的一些競爭對手相比，我們的成本相當優惠。我們認為我們的水平遠低於這個數字。我們擁有從不同盆地運輸桶的獨特能力，而我們的一些競爭對手則無法滿足該專案的需求。所以我們非常樂觀。但無論如何，要回答你的問題，假設到明年第二、第三季度，我們就準備好了。我相信我們會考慮 2.5 年、3 年？是的，大約 2.5 到 3 年之後它才會真正擁有這樣的東西。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Tom Long for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回湯姆·朗（Tom Long）發表閉幕詞。

Once again, we appreciate all of you joining us today. Thank you for your support, and we really look forward to any follow-up questions that you all have in addressing those. Thank you all.

我們再次感謝大家今天加入我們。感謝您的支持，我們真誠地期待您提出任何後續問題來解決這些問題。謝謝你們。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。