Western Midstream Partners LP (WES) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning and welcome to Western Midstream's fourth-quarter 2025 fireside chat with our Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, Kristen Shultz.

早安，歡迎收聽 Western Midstream 2025 年第四季爐邊談話，由我們的財務長兼資深副總裁 Kristen Shultz 與各位交流。

Kristen, can you give us an overview of our fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 performance?

Kristen，妳能為我們概述一下 2025 年第四季以及全年表現嗎？

Yes, Daniel. So, if you take a look at fourth-quarter, our Q4 adjusted EBITDA came out to $636 million. However, that included the negative revenue recognition adjustments of close to $30 million. So without that adjustment, we would have been right around $665 million for Q4.

好的，Daniel。如果看第四季，我們第四季調整後 EBITDA 為 6.36 億美元。不過，其中包含了接近 3,000 萬美元的負向收入認列調整。若不計該項調整，第四季大約會落在 6.65 億美元左右。

From A throughput perspective, our gas decreased just a little bit, oil, slight decrease, and then water obviously went up as we integrated the Aris assets. On the gas side, we've talked a lot about negative prices at Waha and we saw some of that come through a little bit in Q4, as some of our private producers curtailed some of their volumes onto the system.

從輸送量角度來看，天然氣小幅下降、原油略為下降，而水務則因我們整合 Aris 資產而明顯上升。在天然氣方面，我們談了很多關於 Waha 的負價格，我們在第四季也看到部分影響，因為一些民營生產商將部分輸送到系統的量進行了限產。

For full-year 2025 though, we finished above the midpoint of guidance at $2.48 billion. Our CapEx was right in line with guidance at $722 million which included CapEx related to the Aris assets too, and our free cash flow was above the high end of guidance as well at $1.53 billion.

不過就 2025 全年而言，我們以 24.8 億美元高於指引中點作收。資本支出（CapEx）為 7.22 億美元，與指引一致，其中也包含與 Aris 資產相關的資本支出；自由現金流也高於指引上緣，達 15.3 億美元。

Distributions in line with the guidance that we gave, and we saw throughput increase across all three products in the portfolio. Very good performance out of the DJ, great performance out of the Delaware Basin in particular. So a really strong year in 2025 and seeing some of the cost cutting efforts that we implemented in the second quarter of 2025 come through when you're looking at adjusted EBITDA and then specifically OpEx.

配息符合我們先前給出的指引，同時我們投資組合中的三項產品輸送量皆呈現成長。DJ 的表現非常好，尤其是 Delaware Basin 的表現也很亮眼。因此 2025 年是非常強勁的一年；而且你在看調整後 EBITDA、特別是營運費用（OpEx）時，也能看到我們在 2025 年第二季推動的成本削減措施開始反映出成效。

We also were successful in deploying our organic and inorganic growth strategies that we have. We sanctioned Pathfinder in 2025. We sanctioned North Loving II in 2025. And then finally, we completed the acquisition of Aris, which is making us one of the largest water solution providers in the Delaware Basin.

我們也成功推進既有的有機與無機成長策略。我們在 2025 年核准（sanctioned）了 Pathfinder。我們在 2025 年核准了 North Loving II。最後，我們完成了對 Aris 的收購，使我們成為 Delaware Basin 最大的水務解決方案供應商之一。

WES has been talking a lot about efficiency initiatives and cost saving strategies over the past few quarters. Can you give us an update on the progress the company has made in 2025 and the partnerships plans for 2026?

過去幾季 WES 一直在談效率提升與節省成本策略。妳能更新一下公司在 2025 年取得的進展，以及 2026 年的合作夥伴計畫嗎？

Yeah, so for WES, really proud of the efforts of all of our employees over the past year. As I mentioned previously, during the second quarter of 2025, we implemented a program here focused on cost cutting and really just zero basing the activities that we do, making sure we make them as simple as possible and reducing cost overall in the portfolio, whether that was our operations and maintenance costs or general administrative costs.

可以。對 WES 而言，我對過去一年所有員工的努力感到非常自豪。如我先前提到的，我們在 2025 年第二季推行了一項聚焦於成本削減的計畫，核心是把我們做的各項活動「歸零基礎」重新檢視，確保流程盡可能簡化，並在整個投資組合中降低總成本，不論是營運與維護成本，或一般與行政費用。

We even did some work on the capital side, zero basing certain designs that we have and making them more efficient and more cost competitive. So if you look at our third quarter 2025 O&M relative to third quarter 2024 O&M, you'll see that decreased by 8% year over year. Then if we look at fourth quarter compared to 2024 relative to 2025, you'll see another decrease of 12% year over year if we exclude Aris.

我們甚至也在資本端做了一些工作，將部分設計採取歸零基礎重新檢視，使其更有效率、成本更具競爭力。因此若比較 2025 年第三季的營運與維護（O&M）相對於 2024 年第三季，你會看到年減 8%。接著若看第四季、以 2025 年相對於 2024 年比較，若排除 Aris，你會再看到年減 12%。

So, you're really seeing those cost cutting efforts actually come to fruition. And that's with increasing utility costs on top of it. So, really proud of the team there. You're going to see that continue into 2026 as well. In fact, when we look at O&M year over year, we're obviously including a full year of Airs in that compared to 2024, and we still expect O&M to only be up about 10% to 15%, which is significantly below what the two stand-alone companies would have been on a pro forma basis.

所以你確實看到這些成本削減措施開始開花結果。而且這還是在公用事業成本上升的情況下達成的。因此我對團隊的表現非常自豪。你也會看到這樣的趨勢延續到 2026 年。事實上，當我們看 O&M 的年對年變化時，因為相較 2024 年會納入 Aris 的完整年度影響，我們仍預期 O&M 只會增加約 10% 到 15%，這顯著低於兩家獨立公司在擬制（pro forma）基礎下的增幅。

From a G&A perspective, once you exclude the Aris costs that we had -- transaction costs in the fourth quarter. G&A is relatively flat in '25 compared to 2024, and we expect the exact same thing in 2026. In fact, we kept really the growth functions within Aris, so the commercial function and the beneficial reuse function, we're putting more money towards beneficial reuse in 2026 and we're still keeping G&A flat, which is just showing how the legacy business is continuing to cut cost out of that overhead as well.

從一般與行政（G&A）角度來看，若排除第四季我們與 Aris 相關的成本——也就是交易成本——2025 年的 G&A 相較 2024 年大致持平，而我們預期 2026 年也會完全一樣。事實上，我們保留了 Aris 內部真正的成長職能，也就是商務職能與有益再利用（beneficial reuse）職能；我們在 2026 年會把更多資金投入有益再利用，同時仍維持 G&A 持平，這也顯示既有業務持續從管理費用中削減成本。

Turning to 2026, can you give us an overview of the 2026 guidance West published?

談到 2026 年，妳能為我們概述一下 West 公布的 2026 年指引嗎？

So adjusted EBITDA guidance range is $2.5 billion to $2.7 billion. That represents a growth of approximately 5% at the midpoint. We use our producers' forecast to come up with our throughput expectations for the year. And so what we saw really in the last few months of the year and into the beginning of this year has been a pullback in some of those forecasts. We're expecting declines in activity in the Powder River and the DJ. We talked about that last year some, but I think that's a little bit more pronounced than originally thought.

調整後 EBITDA 指引區間為 25 億至 27 億美元。以中點計算，約代表 5% 的成長。我們會使用生產商的預測來推估全年輸送量。而我們在去年最後幾個月以及今年年初看到的是，部分預測出現回調。我們預期 Powder River 與 DJ 的活動量將下滑。我們去年也談過一些，但我認為這次的下滑幅度比原先想像得更為明顯。

And then also have some changes in activity within the Delaware Basin too, and so it's impacting that throughput that we were expecting for 2026. However, it's still in line with all the messaging that we had around wanting to grow adjusted EBITDA by that mid-single-digits rate. Additionally, the offset there is capital. So previously said we thought we would be at at least $1.1 billion, our midpoint is now $925 million and so you can really see that as a GMP we're able to push and pull on the capital side of things in order to help manage free cash flow when we are getting a little bit more of a volatile environment.

此外，德拉瓦盆地（Delaware Basin）的活動也出現一些變化，因此影響了我們原先預期在 2026 年的處理量（throughput）。不過，這仍與我們先前所傳達、希望調整後 EBITDA 以中等個位數成長的目標一致。另外，這裡的抵銷因素是資本支出。先前我們表示資本支出至少會達到 11 億美元，目前我們的中位數下修至 9.25 億美元；因此你可以清楚看到，作為 GMP，我們能在資本端進行彈性調整，以在環境較為波動時協助管理自由現金流。

From a distribution perspective, we're expecting at least $3.70 per unit. That includes an increase of $0.91 per unit to $0.93 per unit that we expect to recommend to the Board starting with the first quarter distribution. So, it's a little bit over 2% on distribution increase, which is also in line with our messaging around mid to low single-digit increase in the distribution. We've talked a lot about coverage and wanting to increase coverage naturally over time and so as we're growing adjusted EBITDA by 5% and we're trailing that distribution right around 2%, it'll help with that natural growth of distribution coverage.

就配息（distribution）而言，我們預期每單位至少 3.70 美元。其中包含我們預計自第一季配息起，向董事會建議將每單位配息由 0.91 美元提高至 0.93 美元。因此，配息增幅略高於 2%，也與我們先前所傳達的「中至低個位數」配息成長一致。我們已多次談到覆蓋率（coverage），並希望隨時間自然提升覆蓋率；因此當我們的調整後 EBITDA 成長 5%，而配息增幅約 2% 時，將有助於配息覆蓋率的自然成長。

With lower activity levels tied to updated producer forecasts, do you see a change in strategy at West?

隨著與更新後的生產商預測相關的活動水準降低，您是否看到 West 的策略會有所改變？

No, we're not expecting to change our strategy. If you look at what we did in 2025 from a growth perspective, both organic and inorganic, we expect to use the same playbook in 2026 and beyond in order to continue to grow the business. We've kept leverage low for a reason. It allows us to go out and go after these growth opportunities, and it allows us to make sure that our distribution is safe and in check as well.

不，我們不預期會改變策略。如果你看我們在 2025 年的成長作法（包含內生成長與外延成長），我們預期在 2026 年及之後仍會沿用同樣的作戰手冊，以持續推動業務成長。我們維持低槓桿是有原因的。這讓我們能夠把握並追求這些成長機會，同時也確保我們的配息安全且維持在可控範圍內。

So, no change to the strategy, no change to any of the prior messaging around adjust EBITDA growth or distribution growth. That's all still intact. In fact, I think if you take a look at our guidance for 2026. What it shows is that we've put the business into a great place over the years. And as we do see a little bit of a downturn or from producers forecast, what is expected to be a downturn in 2026, we're able to ride through that with no issues at all.

因此，策略不變，先前關於調整後 EBITDA 成長或配息成長的所有訊息也都不變。這些都仍然有效。事實上，我認為如果你看看我們對 2026 年的財測指引。它顯示多年來我們已把業務打造到一個很好的位置。當我們確實看到一些下行，或依生產商預測在 2026 年預期會出現下行時，我們也能毫無問題地度過。

So we saw that you're guiding to distributable cash flow. Is free cash flow still an important metric for WES?

我們看到你們提供可分配現金流（distributable cash flow）的指引。自由現金流（free cash flow）對 WES 來說仍然是重要指標嗎？

Yes, free cash flow is still a very important metric for us. It is very much in our discussions and our strategy decision making here. We've talked about free cash flow in the prepared remarks during the earnings call, so that would be roughly between $900 million and $1.1 billion inclusive of what is a deliberately heavy capital year with the sizable growth projects embedded in it.

是的，自由現金流對我們仍然是非常重要的指標。它在我們的討論以及策略決策中占有很大比重。我們在財報電話會議的事先準備講稿中也談到自由現金流；因此大約會落在 9 億至 11 億美元之間，且包含我們刻意安排的資本支出較重的一年，因為其中納入了規模可觀的成長專案。

We agree that free cash flow is a critical metric. We look at it when we're thinking about capital allocation decisions just like leverage. In fact, our leverage is one of the lowest in all of the peer group. And so, if you look at our DCF calculation that we do, it gives you a clean view of what it would cost us to really keep the business just running in a true downturn type of situation.

我們同意自由現金流是關鍵指標。在思考資本配置決策時，我們會像看槓桿一樣看待它。事實上，我們的槓桿在同業群中屬於最低之一。因此，如果你看我們所做的 DCF 計算，它能讓你清楚看到：在真正的下行景氣情境下，僅僅維持業務運轉實際上需要多少成本。

This is exactly what DCF is supposed to be doing, and we're going to provide both metrics just to provide more transparency to people. But they're both important metrics, both of which we look at, both of which we think through when we're talking about capital allocation.

這正是 DCF 應該發揮的作用；我們也會同時提供這兩個指標，以提高透明度。但它們都是重要指標：我們都會看、也都會在討論資本配置時納入考量。

Also, as previously mentioned, we're focused on increasing the distribution coverage. And so when we look at 2026, the same actions that we took in '25 around organic and organic growth, continued cost discipline and cost cutting, those are all going to be the same type of actions you're going to be seeing from us in 2026.

另外，如先前所提，我們聚焦於提高配息覆蓋率。因此當我們看 2026 年時，我們在 2025 年針對內生成長與外延成長、持續的成本紀律與成本削減所採取的同樣行動，將會是你在 2026 年看到我們持續採取的行動。

Kristen, thank you for joining us today. For our listeners, if you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to us. Our contact information is located in the Investor Relations section of our corporate website at westernmidstream.com.

Kristen，感謝你今天加入我們。各位聽眾，如有任何其他問題，歡迎隨時與我們聯繫。我們的聯絡資訊位於 westernmidstream.com 公司網站的投資人關係（Investor Relations）專區。