Hess Midstream LP ($HESM)

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the First Quarter 2026 Hess Midstream Conference Call. My name is Kevin. I'll be your operator for today. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised today's conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jennifer Gordon, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please proceed.

Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating in our first quarter earnings conference call. Our earnings release was issued this morning and appears on our website www.hessmidstream.com. Today's conference call contains projections and other forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied in such statements. These risks include those set forth in the Risk Factors section of Hess Midstream's filings with the SEC. Also on today's conference call, we may discuss certain GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of the differences between these non-GAAP financial measures and the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the earnings release. With me today are Jonathan Stein, Chief Executive Officer; and Mike Chadwick, Chief Financial Officer. I'll now turn the call over to Jonathan Stein.

Thanks, Jennifer. Welcome, everyone, to our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Today, I will discuss our first quarter performance and outlook for the remainder of the year and then I'll hand the call over to Mike to review our financials. In the first quarter, we continued to execute our operational priorities and deliver our financial strategy. We delivered solid operational performance and achieved our guidance, which included the impact of severe winter weather in January and February. In March, we completed an accretive $60 million share in unit repurchase on the public and our sponsor. And lastly, we increased our distribution 2% or approximately 8% on an annualized basis for Class A shares. This increase included our targeted 5% annual increase for Class A shares and a distribution level increase following our repurchase that maintains our total distributed cash on a lower share and unit count. Turning to our results. During the quarter, throughput volumes averaged 430 million cubic feet per day for gas processing, 119,000 barrels of oil per day for crude terminaling and 115,000 barrels of water per day for water gathering. In line with our guidance, throughput volumes were down compared to the fourth quarter, primarily due to severe winter weather in January and February, partially offset by recovery in March as well as capture of additional third-party gas volumes. Consistent with our annual guidance, we continue to expect volumes to grow through the rest of the year, excluding the impact of planned maintenance at TGP in the second quarter that is expected to reduce volumes by 5 million to 10 million cubic feet per day for the quarter. Turning to Hess Midstream's capital program. In the first quarter, we safely brought online the second of 2 new compressor stations after completing it in the fourth quarter of 2025. In the first quarter, capital expenditures were $10 million, seasonally lower than the fourth quarter of 2025 and severe winter weather restricted activity levels. We expect our capital spend to be seasonally higher in the second and third quarters, as we continue to execute our program including completion of greenfield, high-pressure gathering pipeline infrastructure that we started in 2025. However, with the second compressor station online and reflecting Chevron's move to long laterals, which reduces well connect CapEx for Hess Midstream, we have now reduced our 2026 estimated capital expenditure by 1/3 to approximately $100 million. As a result of this reduction and together with the deferral of cash taxes, we are increasing our 2026 adjusted free cash flow guidance to $910 million to $960 million, reflecting a 20% increase year-over-year at the midpoint. Hess Midstream remains a leader in shareholder cash returns with one of the highest free cash flow yields across our peer set. In summary, we remain focused on executing safe and reliable operations, while leveraging our historical investment in existing infrastructure to continue generating significant adjusted free cash flow, allowing us to easily provide returns to our shareholders through growing distribution and incremental share repurchases, while simultaneously continuing to reduce our debt leverage. With that, I'll hand the call over to Mike to review our financial performance for the first quarter and guidance.

Thanks, Jonathan, and good morning, everyone. Today, I'll discuss our financial results for the first quarter of 2026 and provide an update on our second quarter financial guidance and outlook for 2026. Turning to our results. For the first quarter of 2026, net income was $158 million compared to approximately $168 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2026 was $300 million, compared with $309 million in the fourth quarter. The decrease was primarily due to lower revenues, primarily caused by severe winter weather in January and February. Total revenues including pass-through revenues decreased by approximately $15 million, resulting in segment revenue changes as follows: Gathering revenues decreased by approximately $14 million. Processing revenues decreased by approximately $6 million, while terminaling revenues increased by approximately $5 million. Total cost and expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization, pass-through costs and net of our proportional share of LM4 earnings decreased by approximately $6 million, primarily from lower seasonal maintenance and lower third-party offloads, resulting in adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2026 of $300 million. Our gross adjusted EBITDA margin for the first quarter of 2026 was maintained at approximately 83%, above our 75% target, highlighting our continued strong operating leverage. First quarter of 2026 capital expenditures were approximately $10 million, significantly lower than in the fourth quarter of 2025, a severe winter weather limited activity. Net interest, excluding amortization of deferred finance costs, was approximately $53 million, resulting in adjusted free cash flow of approximately $237 million, an increase of 14% from the fourth quarter of 2025. We had a drawn balance of $343 million on our revolving credit facility at the end of the first quarter of 2026. For the second quarter 2026, we expect net income to be approximately $150 million to $160 million and adjusted EBITDA to be approximately flat with the first quarter at $295 million to $305 million, which includes the impact of planned second quarter maintenance at the Tioga Gas Plant. We expect adjusted free cash flow in the second quarter of 2026 to decrease relative to the first quarter of 2026, as capital expenditures in the second quarter are projected to be seasonally higher than the first quarter. As we said in our fourth quarter call, we expect second half volumes to be higher than the first half helping to drive higher EBITDA in the second half of the year. For the full year 2026, we continue to expect net income of between $650 million and $700 million and adjusted EBITDA of between $1.225 billion and $1.275 billion in 2026, approximately flat at the midpoint compared with 2025. As Jonathan mentioned, our cash position is strong and notable among our peers set. We now expect full year 2026 capital expenditures of approximately $105 million and expect to generate adjusted free cash flow of between $910 million and $960 million and excess adjusted free cash flow of approximately $280 million after fully funding our targeted 5% annual distribution growth, which we expect to use for incremental shareholder returns and debt repayment. As mentioned, we no longer expect to pay $15 million of cash taxes in 2026 and do not expect to pay material cash taxes until after 2028, following the recent interim guidance from the IRS on the application of the corporate alternative minimum tax. In March, we executed an accretive $60 million share repurchase transaction from both the sponsor and the public. And as the year progresses, we will continue to evaluate additional opportunities for incremental returns of capital. So this concludes my remarks. We will be happy to answer any questions. I will now turn the call over to the operator.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Jeremy Tonet with JP Morgan Securities.

This is Francine on for Jeremy. Just wanted to zoom in a bit more on the change to CapEx here and what this means for well connect/turn-in-line activity for the year and whether there are any read-throughs or changes to growth expectations year-end or into 2027 that we can derive from this.

Look, if you look at what's been happening with CapEx for us, really since the end of last year, we've really been reducing CapEx as we are approaching the end of our infrastructure build-out, which has been really years in the making, as we continue to build out our strategic footprint in the Bakken. CapEx was low in the first quarter. That was really, as I mentioned, due to really restricted activity due to the weather as well as seasonal dynamics that's normal for the first quarter. And we do expect that to be the low point of the year and then pick up as we continue to build out over the next few quarters, including, as I mentioned, completing our greenfield high-pressure gathering pipeline infrastructure, we started last year and expect to complete this year. So really nothing in terms of changing strategically, the kind of downsizing, if you will, of our guidance this year from $150 million to approximately $100 million is really rightsizing our CapEx to account for things like upstream efficiencies like longer laterals, which as I discussed, can have the effect of reducing well connect CapEx for us. So that's very positive. And really, if you reflect on that, it's really just an extraordinary business model. That with the lower CapEx that we are spending, we're really going to make significant free cash flow that supports, of course, our 5% targeted distribution growth as well as incremental returns of capital to our shareholders, like the shareholder the share repurchase we did this quarter as well as simultaneously being able to do debt repayment?

That's helpful. And I would just like to touch a bit on kind of the third-party outlook here and whether you've had any changes to that since the Middle East conflict has been ensuing.

Sure. In terms of third parties, I mean nothing, I would say, in terms of major macro changes. We did have some additional third-party volume in the first quarter, as I mentioned, that was really some additional throughput from other midstream providers. And that really highlights, as we said in the past, optionality that we have in our system that allows flexibility for others to be able to utilize it during operational challenges that they have. We're still targeting 10% third-party volumes, and that's incorporated into our guidance and any additional third-party volumes would be upside, not seeing anything dramatic, just a normal, like I said, third parties coming to you utilize optionality in our system, but nothing -- no major changes due to macro environment at this point.

One more before our next question. Our next question comes from John Mackay with Goldman Sachs.

Last call, you guys spent some time talking about a little bit of evolution on the balance sheet side, thinking about lower leverage over time. I'm just wondering, were a quarter later now, if you've had some time to kind of refine that and be able to kind of longer-term leverage target you want to put out there relative to the kind of distribution growth and maybe some buyback cadence you've talked about?

Yes. No, I can talk to that. And there's -- and thanks, John, for the question. There's no change read to our return of capital approach that we outlined in our December guidance now or as we talked about and our Q4 call in February. So we do plan to use a portion of our free cash flow, as we said then, after distributions to pay down debt. And it's a conservative financial strategy that's consistent with the volume profile and -- target for about 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day plateau production in the Bakken. So we'll still have a balanced strategy though. That includes an incremental return of capital beyond our 5% annual distribution growth and we plan to have a stronger balance sheet as a result. So all of that is underpinned, obviously, by the MVCs that we have out to 2028, and they continue to provide some significant downside protection. And we're still aiming for about $1 billion of free cash flow after distributions through 2028. And as I said, we'll use that. Obviously, every distribution or every share buyback is approved by our Board, and that will be set by our Board, but we plan to use that for incremental return of capital and paying down our debt. So no change there really.

All right. I appreciate that. Second one, I apologize, it's a little bit in the weeds, but terminals revenue was really strong in the quarter. Just wondering if there's any kind of one-off in there or this new kind of implied rate is the go forward we should think of?

Yes. I think you're reading that right. There is an element of implied rates in there in the terminals. And that's -- as you recall, it's a cost of service rate that gets adjusted every year for our expectation of OpEx, CapEx and any volumes that drives a targeted return on that. So that's part of the reason why you're seeing better stronger performance there is just a tariff adjustment.

Do you mind just reminding us kind of the structure of that contract going forward?

So that goes through to 2033, and it's rebalanced every year as part of a calculation that aims to return a specific like mid-teen return, and it will be based on what we anticipate as the actual volumes, CapEx, OpEx in order to serve that and to generate that return. So the tariffs reflect up and down accordingly. So if we have lower volumes anticipated, then the tariff will go up. And if we have lower CapEx, for example, then the tariff will go down and that's through to 2023.

One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Doug Irwin with Citi.

I just wanted to pick up on the second quarter guidance you gave here. I think my math, just looking at the full year midpoint implies something around 8% growth in the second half of the year. Can you maybe just talk about some of the drivers you see contributing to that growth in the second half and where there might be some risk to the upside or downside from here?

Sure. Let me just -- let me start. I mean, on the volume side, really, as we said, Q1 is, I'd say, really the low point in terms of volume, would you have planned maintenance in TGP in the second quarter. So that takes out 5 million to 10 million cubic feet per day. Absent that, we would have seen some additional growth into Q2. And then as the year really progresses, obviously, better weather. Chevron continues to do longer laterals, so you'll start to see that pick up as those completions get completed later in the year and more wells come online. So that will also drive some additional volumes as well as we continue to grow through the year. So no change to our overall guidance. And yes, that's about 8% on the EBITDA basis increase in the second half and really it's going to be driven by just really the flow of cadence, if you will, of volumes as we kind of come off this low point related to weather, get through this maintenance in second quarter and then continued volume growth from there?

Understood. And then my second, just maybe on the broader growth outlook beyond '26. I mean we have Chevron gene to plateau in volumes in the Bakken around that 200,000 barrels of equivalent level. But you seem to kind of keep squeezing out more free cash flow from the business. I'm just curious if there's any appetite to pursue inorganic opportunities or maybe any other ways to kind of put some of that free cash flow to work from here? Or should we really just kind of expect the buybacks and debt repayment to be the primary focus from here?

Sure. Let me start, I'll then turn it over to Mike. You can talk a little bit about capital allocation. But I think it's a good opportunity to really reflect that if you kind of look around -- there's been a lot of changes around us for the past year or 2. And here we are 9 to 10 months after the acquisition of Hess by Chevron. And really, I think so much at Hess Midstream remains the same. In terms of where we are now, as you mentioned, Chevron targeting approximately 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day while continuing to optimize the development plan -- that really -- that development plan underpins our volume guidance and EBITDA growth. And remember with that EBITDA growth, really driven by inflation escalates and reduction in CapEx. While also Chevron continues to bring lessons from other basins to the Bakken, like longer laterals, workover optimization and increased chemicals to improve productivity, we're also benefiting from that along the lateral, for example, obviously, make the wells economics by decreasing the breakeven. But also, as I talked about, impact has been given a positive way by reducing our well connect capital requirements as less wells are needed and that's really the driver of that free cash flow. So our financial strategy continues to be the same, 5% distribution growth can be achieved even at MVC levels and significant obviously, free cash flow. So with all the things that have changed around us, we continue to have all the elements of visibility, consistency, shareholder returns and balance sheet strength. They've always been our hallmark. And so with so much changing around this, we're continuing to execute our strategy, focused on operating our assets safely and reliably and executing our financial strategy. So all that says a lot remains the same in terms of looking at bolt-on opportunities, we've always said that we'll look at those, but the bar remains high relative to our existing business model, which continues to be really differentiated relative to others in the sector. Maybe I'll turn it over to Mike, you can talk a little bit about with this higher free cash flow, really a lot of the same in terms of our capital allocation strategy as well.

Yes. No, thanks, Jonathan. I think you summarized it pretty well. I think what I'd add to that is, obviously, as we think about our that EBITDA leverage target. We don't have a specific target in mind, but we will naturally see our 3x current debt leverage drop as we continue to grow EBITDA without increasing the absolute level of debt. And as we -- that will naturally delever us, but with some portion of our free cash flow after distributions that we'll use for debt payment, we'll see that delever even further. But what I would say is that with our current guidance out 2028 and with the ambition to continue to do some shareholder return of capital, then the math would not support us getting really done far below 2.5x leverage by 2028. So that gives you a bit of a range as to where we're expecting our leverage to sit in the longer term through 2028. But as Jonathan said, it's steady as she goes. We are pretty good from a cash position. And we look forward to rolling out the next 3 years with some good coverage with our MVCs and with transparency to our volume throughput driven by Chevron's targeted 200,000 barrels of oil per day planned production.

One for our next question. Our next question comes from Praneeth Satish with Wells Fargo.

So beyond the drilling and completion efficiencies that Chevron has highlighted in the Bakken, are there any other longer-term costs or structural opportunities or changes that you and Chevron are working towards that could show up in your business. Maybe put differently, as your capital intensity comes down, are there scenarios where some of those savings kind of flow back to Chevron through alternative commercial structures or anything like that?

Well, what I would say is, look, in terms of efficiencies and optimization, those are all really win-wins. I gave an example of a lot of the laterals, which reduced the breakeven, obviously, increased number of wells available economic to drill and then also, as I said, reduces our capital and makes it just all efficient, all around. In terms of the contract structure, if that's what you're kind of alluding to there, look, just a reminder, 85% of revenues are fixed fee. That continues together with the cost of services, Mike mentioned on the terminaling and water gathering that continues through the end of 2033. So really including this year, another 8 years, that contract structure provides Hess Midstream with visibility and consistency. As I mentioned, 2 of our hallmarks of what we've always been part of. So look, before the 2033, there's no contractual mechanism to change the task to renegotiate the contract. There's also governance guardrails including the need for special approval, including at least one of the independent directors to prevent any notable action by Chevron. Initially, of course, they're just normal conflicts committee process for any proposed contract changes. So look, right now, we're focused on working with Chevron in terms of optimizing operationally to really continue to help develop the Bakken in just the most optimized way possible.

Got you. Now that makes sense. It seems like a win-win here. Maybe just a clarifying question on terminals. So you mentioned it's a cost of service contract. It stepped up this quarter. It was quite a large step-up, I guess, when we kind of translate that to EBITDA. And so just to be clear, is this kind of the Q1 run rate? Is that something that we can assume for the balance of the year kind of going forward?

Yes. I think it will be -- it is based on both the tariffs and also what throughputs we had now Q1 I'd say, was a little bit of an impacted quarter because of the weather. And so we'll see how that plays out when we get into more stable territory in Q2, Q3 and the rest of the year. But yes, I think a part of that is obviously the step-up in the tariffs because of the cost of service formula. And so I wouldn't say that I would extrapolate completely on the Q1, but definitely, that's going to be a factor.

Yes. Look, the only thing I would just say on terminaling also, as Mike explained the rates not you to repeat that. But you do see more third parties terminaling one-off, can have some variation quarter-to-quarter because that's a place where people can just come up and do short-term terminaling kind of lockup, so to speak, or short-term arrangements.

At this time, there are no further questions. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.