Delek Logistics Partners LP

NYSE:DKL

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q3

[Operator]

Good morning, and welcome to the Delek Logistics Partners 2022 Third Quarter Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode today. [Operator Instructions] After todays’ presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this event is being recorded today.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Blake Fernandez. Please go ahead.

[Blake Fernandez, IR]

Good morning. I would like to thank everyone for joining us on this webcast to discuss Delek Logistics Partners’ third quarter ‘22 financial results. Joining me on today’s call will be Avigal Soreq, President; Reuven Spiegel, CFO; and Todd O'Malley, EVP and Chief Operating Officer; and other members of our management team.

As a reminder, this conference call will contain forward-looking statements as that term is defined under federal securities laws, including, without limitation, statements regarding to guidance and future business outlook. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results or trends to differ materially from our forecast.

For more information, please refer to the risk factors discussed in the company’s most recently filed, annual report and Form 10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC, along with the press release associated with this call. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak of their respective dates.

On today’s call, we will begin with comments from Avigal, Reuven will then provide financial overview, Todd will review results and then we will have a Q&A session.

With that, I will turn the call to Avigal.

[Avigal Soreq, President]

Thanks, Blake. DKL had record EBITDA this quarter. We continue to build momentum on several fronts. Our legacy Permian Gathering business met our previously stated targets, which was to double volume between Q4 of 2021 to September of 2022. This remains a growth engine for our company.

I want to give you an update on our 3 Bear acquisition. We are pleased with the progress of the integration. The assets are performing in line with our initial expectations and we're excited about additional growth opportunities. The geographic and product line diversity provided from the acquisition should serve us well into the future tactically and strategically.

Additionally, our business is benefiting from a strong refinery utilization rates at the Delek U.S. level. From a macro perspective, the energy industry has recovered from the pandemic and we are optimistic on the outlook for the Midstream business. I look forward to updating you next quarter.

With that, I will turn the call over to Reuven.

[Reuven Spiegel, CFO]

Thank you, Avigal. Our distributable cash flow is adjusted for 3 Bear transaction cost was approximately $70 million in the third quarter, compared to $56 million in the third quarter of ‘21. Our DCF coverage ratio as adjusted for transaction cost improved to 1.62 times for the third quarter.

EBITDA was $89 million which includes $4.2 million of transaction costs associated with the 3 Bear acquisition. Our Board approved an increase in the quarterly distribution to $0.99 per limited partner unit for the quarter ended September 30. This distribution will be paid on November 10 to unitholders of record on November 4, and this represents 39 consecutive quarters of distribution increases and we remain on track to deliver on our 5% increase year-over-year.

At September 30, DKL had $193 million of available capacity under $1 billion credit facility. Our total debt was $1.45 billion. In October, DKL extended its credit facility to $1.2 billion including senior secured revolving commitment of $900 million with a maturity date in October 27 and a new secured term loan of $300 million with a maturity date in October 24.

Now, I will turn the call over to Todd to discuss the results.

[Todd O'Malley, EVP & Chief Operating Officer]

Thanks, Reuven. The 3 Bear operating segment had a contribution margin of $18.1 million in the third quarter. Moving forward, we plan to combine results from our legacy Delek Permian Gathering system with the 3 Bear assets to better reflect overall gathering and processing performance for the company.

In our Pipelines and Transportation segment, the third quarter of ‘22 contribution margin was $54 million compared to $47.4 million in the third quarter of ‘21. The increase was attributable to strong refinery utilization rates at the Delek U.S. refineries and annual tariff escalations on our pipelines.

In our Wholesale Marketing and Terminalling segment, the contribution margin was $18.3 million in the third quarter compared to $19.6 million in the third quarter of '21. The decrease was primarily driven by higher operating costs resulting in lower margins.

During the third quarter of 2022, equity income from our crude oil pipeline JVs was approximately $8.6 million compared to $7.3 million in the prior year period. This increase was mainly driven by strong volumes at both Caddo and Red River joint ventures.

Moving to capital expenditures, we spent approximately $32.2 million in the third quarter of '22, which consisted of $31.3 million of growth spending and $900,000 for sustaining maintenance. The outlook for 2022 includes total gross capital expenditures of $116.9 million including $110.5 million of growth and $6.4 million of maintenance capital. This includes spending associated with the 3 Bear assets.

I would point out that the company's growth capital is predominantly focused on expanding the Gathering and Processing businesses.

With that, operator, can you please open the call for questions?

[Operator]

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] And our first question here will come from Michael Cusimano with Pickering Energy Partners. Please go ahead.

[Michael Cusimano, Pickering Energy Partners]

Hey. Good morning, everyone, and congrats on achieving the Permian growth target.

[Avigal Soreq, President]

Thanks, Mike.

[Michael Cusimano, Pickering Energy Partners]

On that front, can you update us on the trajectory from here going forward?

[Todd O'Malley, EVP & Chief Operating Officer]

Yeah, Michael. This is Todd. At this point, we are not ready to disclose any incremental hard numbers, but suffice it to say that we continue to see active and robust growth in both the pre-existing Delek Permian Gathering footprint as well as in the 3 Bear footprint. And in particular, inside the 3 Bear footprint, we see a strong growth profile across all three business lines, the natural gas, the water and the oil. So I think that's kind of where we leave it today.

[Avigal Soreq, President]

Yes. Just to build on those comment, it's Avigal. I think that in our area, on the DPG, we've seen a very nice increase of rigs, kind of alluded to what we're going to see during 2023. So we are very optimistic about our acreage and producers.

[Michael Cusimano, Pickering Energy Partners]

Got it. Okay. That's very helpful. And then, if I can follow-up on the 3 Bear side. We saw pretty strong quarter-to-quarter sequential volume growth. I'm wondering if -- are we ahead of schedule on the ramp up there or is that like a decent growth trajectory until you get to your -- I guess like what you underwrote the acquisition on?

[Blake Fernandez, IR]

Hey, Michael. It's Blake. Yeah. We are very encouraged so far. The integration has gone really well. As you know, when we kind of put the original acquisition targets out there, they were fairly robust. And at this point, we feel very comfortable that we're on target and in line with our expectations. So we're not changing anything, but the communication is that we're very pleased with the progress so far.

[Michael Cusimano, Pickering Energy Partners]

Great. That's all for me. Appreciate the help guys.

[Blake Fernandez, IR]

Thanks, Michael.

[Avigal Soreq, President]

Thanks, Michael.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] With no further questions, we will conclude our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Avigal Soreq for any closing remarks.

[Avigal Soreq, President]

I want to thank the management team around the table. I'm very proud of the detailed performance. This is a record quarter. We want to thank the investor that are with us for the long term and most -- and foremost to our employees that are doing days and nights to make this company as good as it is. Thank you so much and we'll talk again next quarter.

[Operator]

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