MPLX LP (MPLX) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending December 31, 2022

January 31, 2023 10:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Welcome to the MPLX Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. My name is Sheila, and I will be your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. Please note that this conference is being recorded.

I will now turn the call over to Kristina Kazarian. Kristina, you may begin.

Kristina Kazarian

Good morning, and welcome to the MPLX fourth quarter 2022 earnings conference call. The slides that accompany this call can be found on our Web site at mplx.com, under the Investor tab.

Joining me on the call today are Mike Hennigan, Chairman and CEO; John Quaid, CFO; and other members of the executive team. We invite you to read the Safe Harbor statements and non-GAAP disclaimer on Slide 2. It's a reminder that we will be making forward-looking statements during the call and during the question-and-answer session that follows. Actual results may differ materially from what we expect today. Factors that could cause actual results to differ are included there as well as in our filings with the SEC.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Mike.

Mike Hennigan

Thanks, Kristina. Good morning. Thank you for joining our call. First off, I want to recognize a new Director on the MPLX Board. In November, Christy Breves, who recently served as CFO for U.S. Steel, was appointed as a new Independent Director. 2022 was a strong year as we successfully executed on all of our strategic priorities. Full year adjusted EBITDA was $5.8 billion and DCF was $5 billion.

Strong operational performance and customer demand drove record annual pipeline throughputs and increasing Gathering and Processing and fractionation throughputs with each quarter of the year. We also realized EBITDA growth from recent capital investments and remain focused on cost management. Overall, our efforts resulted in a 4% year-over-year adjusted EBITDA and DCF growth.

In line with our commitment to return capital, for the full year, MPLX returned over $3.5 billion of capital back to unitholders through our distribution and unit repurchases. We also made progress towards our goal of leading in sustainable energy through our methane reduction program and with the receipt of EPA's ENERGY STAR award for energy efficiency improvements at several terminals.

Today, we announced our capital expenditure outlook for 2023 of $950 million. Our plan includes approximately $800 million of growth capital and $150 million of maintenance capital. Our growth capital plan is anchored in the Marcellus, Permian and Bakken basins. In addition to new gas processing plants in the Marcellus and Permian, the remainder of our capital plan is mostly focused on other investments targeted at expansion or debottlenecking of existing assets to meet customer demand.