MPLX LP (MPLX) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending June 30, 2023

August 1, 2023 9:30 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Welcome to the MPLX Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. My name is Sheila, 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.

Kristina Kazarian

Good morning, and welcome to the MPLX Second Quarter 2023 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 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’ll 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.

With that, I’ll turn the call over to Mike.

Michael Hennigan

Thanks, Kristina. Good morning and thank you for joining our call. Earlier today, we reported second quarter results. Our business delivered adjusted EBITDA of $1.5 billion, an increase of 5% year-over-year and a new quarterly record.

Distributable cash flow of nearly $1.3 billion was up 6% versus the second quarter of last year and was also a new record. We continue to see strength in our base business and contributions from our growth capital investments driving DCF for the first half of the year up 6% as compared to last year. We also remain focussed on return of capital. We continue to expect our distribution to be the primary return of capital tool supplemented with opportunistic repurchases. Based on the strength of the business and our balance sheet we are well positioned to continue to optimize return of capital.

While natural gas and NGL prices are lower than last year, our long-term production outlook for our G&P producer customers in our key basins remains largely unchanged. In our largest base in the Marcellus the cost of develop remains at the low end of the cost curve and still below current commodity prices and we expect to see maintenance level drilling activity continue.