Western Midstream Partners, LP (WES) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to the Western Midstream Partners Second Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kristen Shults, Vice President of Investor Relations and Communications. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Thank you. I'm glad you could join us today for Western Midstream's Second Quarter 2020 Conference Call. I'd like to remind you that today's call, the accompanying slide deck and last night's earnings release contain important disclosures regarding forward-looking statements and non-GAAP reconciliations. Please reference Western Midstream's Form 10-Q and other public filings for a description of risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we discuss today. Relevant reference materials are posted on our website. With me today are Michael Ure, our Chief Executive Officer; Craig Collins, our Chief Operating Officer; and Mike Pearl, our Chief Financial Officer. I now would like to turn the call over to Michael Ure.

Thank you, Kristen, and good afternoon, everyone. Our outstanding second quarter results evidence our ability to deliver high-quality service that is consistent with our customers' expectations and supportive of long-term enterprise value creation. Our expansive asset portfolio located in premier U.S. onshore basins, our strong fee-based contracts that are insulated from direct commodity price exposure and our ability to realize operational efficiencies and cost savings position us to generate meaningful returns, even during challenging economic conditions. This profile, combined with the successful execution of creative commercial solutions, improved commodity prices that supported higher-than-expected producer activity and Occidental's outperformance on its Delaware Basin, legacy Anadarko acreage, contributed to our strong second quarter results. Over the last year, our commercial team focused on securing new business by leveraging our expansive infrastructure and optimizing our existing contracts. In response to the recent economic downturn and pronounced energy demand shock, our commercial team worked diligently with producers and other midstream service providers to secure mutually beneficial commercial solutions. For example, in the Delaware Basin, we avoided the curtailment of approximately 130 million cubic feet per day through creative commercial solutions that provided near-term incentives to producers and resulted in additional long-term value for WES. Similar successes continue to generate incremental capital advantaged EBITDA for WES, while providing near-term relief to customers that have been affected adversely by lower energy demand. With the release of our first quarter 2020 results, we announced revised guidance, capital savings initiatives and a reduced quarterly distribution. As a result of the second quarter commodity price increases, driving less-than-expected producer curtailments and current commodity prices supporting continued producer activity, we have increased our 2020 guidance to reflect anticipated adjusted EBITDA between $1.85 billion and $1.9 billion, which represents a $100 million increase to the midpoint of our previously issued guidance. Additionally, we have continued to refine our capital discipline and investment plans and now anticipate full year 2020 capital expenditures between $400 million and $450 million, reflective of a $75 million reduction to the prior guidance midpoint. Modification and standardization of facilities, improved internal collaboration by our midstream-centric workforce and a focus on capital efficiency and investment lead time to cash flow has enabled CapEx savings and improved project time lines and costs. For example, facility redesign and procedure reviews allowed for 2 to 3-week construction time reductions for West Texas saltwater-disposal wells and compressor stations, which yielded a 20% cost savings. Our revised 2020 guidance reflects the inclusion of an additional $40 million of incremental cost reductions, resulting in full year 2020 O&M and G&A cost reductions of $115 million, 59% of which have been realized year-to-date, with the majority of these savings being replicable for 2021 and beyond, assuming steady-state activity and production levels. O&M and G&A reductions originated from our newly minted Midstream focused employees who continue identifying operational efficiencies and cost savings. Our employees are best-in-class and demonstrate an entrepreneurial mentality and a willingness to broaden their skill sets and areas of responsibility, which positions us to deliver improved results with fewer resources. Throughout the pandemic, our employees have remained focused and dedicated to driving improved operational and financial results, and I would like to recognize, congratulate and encourage them to continue their efforts. We expect incremental drilling and completion activity to be closely tied to commodity prices as we move into 2021, continued if market uncertainty exists. However, we remain committed to pursuing capital efficiency and additional cost savings irrespective of the prevailing economic backdrop. And we maintain our resolve to increase free cash flow after distributions and prioritize leverage reduction for opportunistic and strategic positioning once current market conditions abate. With that, I'll turn the call over to Craig, who will discuss our second quarter operations and forecasted 2020 in-basin activity and capital plans.

Thanks, Michael. First, I would like to highlight our continued focus on operating safely in this challenging environment. Year-to-date, we have not had a single recordable incident for employees and our combined total recordable incident rate is 0.29. This is a remarkable achievement, and we continue to champion and enhance our safety-first culture to further reduce work-related injuries. Additionally, I would like to recognize the outstanding performance that our commercial, engineering and operations organization has delivered, not just in the second quarter, but through the first half of an incredibly unique and challenging year. Our performance reinforces our thesis that a dedicated workforce supporting this business positions us to maximize the value of our best-in-class assets by capturing commercial opportunities and delivering operational efficiencies. Operationally, gas throughput decreased by approximately 53 million cubic feet per day on a sequential quarter basis, representing a 1% decrease. This decrease was driven primarily by producer curtailments in the DJ and Delaware basins. Our water throughput increased by approximately 56,000 barrels per day, representing an 8% sequential quarter increase, resulting from additional producer activity, increased connectivity with producers and additional disposal capacity brought online in the first quarter. Since the beginning of the year, we have reduced trucked water volumes for producers in excess of 50% by successfully executing creative commercial solutions and expanding capacity that allow us to gather and dispose of produced water in a safe and more efficient manner. Our operated crude oil and natural gas liquids assets experienced a sequential quarter throughput decline of approximately 49,000 barrels per day, primarily the result of decreased throughput at our DJ Basin facilities and lower equity investment volumes transported on Whitethorne and Cactus II. Timing of cash distributions from equity investments and increased efficiency payments supported the second quarter crude oil and natural gas liquids margin of $2.56 per barrel, which represents a $0.13 increase from the prior quarter. Although the majority of curtailments that affected our second quarter throughput volumes have subsided, we believe drilling and completion activities will return slowly and commensurate with increasing commodity prices. Based on our current conversations with our customers, we expect volumes attributable to base production to decline in the Delaware and DJ basins through the remainder of the year, with modest activity increases during the latter part of this year, leading to steady volumes during 2021. Our forecasted capital spend will be ratable throughout the remainder of the year with a significant portion allocated to Delaware Basin projects. We expect the fourth North Loving road of train to be completed during the fourth quarter of this year, approximately 4 to 6 weeks ahead of schedule and 15% under budget. As commodity prices continue to recover, several of our producers have indicated that they will begin completing DUC inventories throughout the remainder of 2020 and into 2021. Furthermore, Occidental's capital-efficient drilling program on legacy Anadarko's Delaware acreage and enhanced collaboration with WES generates much improved cash flow lead times for both parties. Our prior period investments into scalable backbone infrastructure assets and the recent commercial successes allow us to respond to market fluctuations and quickly accommodate increasing activity levels. I now will turn the call over to Mike to discuss our first quarter financial results and our financial focus for 2020 and beyond.

Thanks, Craig. Yesterday, we reported an outperforming quarter with adjusted EBITDA of $514 million and free cash flow of $209 million. Our second quarter EBITDA remained relatively unchanged compared to first quarter 2020, and we generated meaningful free cash flow after distributions, notwithstanding the significant challenges facing WES, our customers and the broader energy sector. Our second quarter free cash flow after distributions was $68 million, which we have prioritized toward leverage reduction. Year-to-date, we have repurchased $165 million of debt that otherwise would mature prior to year-end 2023 for $153 million or just under a $12 million discount to par. Deploying free cash flow after distributions to retire maturities at a discount to par value allows us to accelerate improved leverage metrics in an accretive manner. We also reduced outstanding borrowings under our revolving credit facility from $125 million to $75 million during second quarter 2020, and repaid the remaining $75 million revolver balance shortly after quarter's end. These actions yield a current debt-to-EBITDA ratio under 4.2x, which compares favorably to our targeted year-end 2020 leverage of 4.5x. Our forecasted free cash flow after distributions currently indicates that we will be positioned to repay all debt maturities through 2024 without having to access the debt capital markets. We will continue to maintain an aggressive debt reduction disposition and remain committed to meeting or exceeding our leverage targets of below 4.5x by year-end 2020 and at or below 4x by year-end 2021. Restoring WES' balance sheet and securing investment-grade credit ratings remain priorities for us, and our current and planned debt reduction actions are intended to achieve these goals. We believe that midstream companies with peer-leading leverage metrics will attract premium valuations, thereby aligning the interest of all of our stakeholders. I now will turn the call back over to Michael for concluding remarks.

Thanks, Mike. Second quarter results were impacted significantly and positively by the establishment of WES as a stand-alone midstream company. Enhanced accountability and employee focus has led to implementable ideas for providing improved customer service and meaningful and replicable cost savings. Our second quarter results and cost savings realizations exceeded our own expectations and accelerated our progress towards strengthening our balance sheet. To summarize, our revised 2020 guidance reflects an incremental $40 million reduction in current year G&A and O&M costs, resulting in full year 2020 cost savings of $115 million. An additional $75 million reduction to forecasted 2020 capital expenditures, resulting in full year 2020 CapEx reductions relative to initial guidance of more than $475 million, and a $100 million increase in forecasted 2020 adjusted EBITDA. Year-to-date, we have repurchased approximately $165 million of debt and reduced our leverage ratio to under 4.2x, which compares favorably to our targeted year-end 2020 leverage of 4.5x. Furthermore, the realization of $1.1 billion of annualized cash flow enhancements comprised of OpEx and G&A savings, CapEx reductions and lower distributions has accelerated leverage reduction and eliminated any near-term need to access the capital markets. This trajectory is entirely consistent with restoring WES' investment-grade credit rating and positioning WES to achieve peer-leading financial strength. Finally, I would like to thank our workforce for its flexibility during the ongoing pandemic and its continued commitment to the long-term success of Western Midstream. WES will emerge from this downturn with a renewed focus on driving repeatable cost savings, exercising capital and balance sheet discipline and realizing readily available economies of scale by attracting additional volumes onto our systems. With that, I would like to open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Today's first question comes from Spiro Dounis with Crédit Suisse.

First question for Mike Pearl. Mike, just curious what your latest thinking is around asset sales. It felt like there was a sense of urgency last time around just -- and as if given the improved outlook, maybe it feels like you'd be a little more patient now. I ask because you did mention remaining aggressive on the deleveraging front. So just curious where all that stands.

Yes. I wouldn't characterize a change in attitude with respect to divestitures. I think it's always going to be about price discovery related there, too. Hopefully, what with the uptick we've seen in the commodity and activity increasing, we'd see some better price discovery. But again, I think we said in the past that anything outside of the DJ and Delaware, depending on valuation, is something that we look at to divest and then apply those proceeds to reduce our debt.

Spiro, this is Michael. And I would just add on top of that. Yes. We're -- with the first half of the year and the results we've been able to achieve, it definitely allows us to be more patient and definitely very value-driven as it relates to any divestitures that we might consider.

Great. Got it. That's helpful. Second question just on CapEx. It looks like you guys have spent about 3/4 of what's in guidance now. And it implies the back half run rate of about $200 million if we annualize it. So is that a good representation? When we think about 2021, I realize you're not ready with guidance there yet, but in the lower, no-activity scenario, does that kind of represent some sort of baseline level of CapEx as we think about next year?

Yes. Spiro, it's Michael again. I think we think of the first half as being a little disconnected from a normalized environment. And so as you look at the last half of the year, I think we would consider the third and fourth quarter as a little bit more normalized from what we might think of going forward. Again, a lot of that -- significant amount of that is very activity based and driven but we would look at the last half of the year as a more normalized level from a capital perspective.

And our next question today comes from Kyle May with Capital One Securities.

Michael, last quarter, you -- when you talked about the cadence of the year, I believe, you mentioned a step down in 2Q and 3Q before somewhat flattening out in the fourth quarter. Can you give us an update on how you're thinking about the balance of 2020 now?

And Kyle, are you referring, if you don't mind, on EBITDA and capital, what specifically?

Sure, more closely tied to volumes and EBITDA.

Okay. Yes. So as you can -- thank you. As you can see from the revised guidance that we provided and the results that we've been able to achieve thus far this year, it does point to a decline in EBITDA going into the back half of this year. A couple of things I would note, however, is we have seen, I'll call them, green shoots as it relates to activity on our system, in particular. And we've got -- we have an inventory of about 250 DUCs that back into our system, about 100 of those, we expect to be completed in 2020, that will happen in the back half of 2020. So more likely impacting 2021 volumes and EBITDA than it will in 2020. About half of those are coming from third-parties. I would note, by the way, on those DUC inventories that we expect to be completed, the majority of those, the capital has already been spent. They're already connected to the system. So it's incremental overall. So when you look at, again, going into the back half of the year, we are projecting a decline relative to the first half if you read through the full year guidance that's provided. Offset, again, by the activity level that I mentioned before.

Okay. Got it. That's helpful. And although you haven't provided guidance for next year, you're alluding to some green shoots and some pickup in activity. Can you give us any preliminary thoughts on how you think 2021 could compare to 2020?

Yes. We're still -- we don't have guidance that we put out yet on 2021. All of our customers are still in the process of looking at their capital budgets and activity levels as we go into that year. And so I couldn't provide any specific detail related to that other than, again, the details that I provided around the DUC inventory that we have, what we expect to be completed through the end of 2020. And then what would remain after those DUCs are completed as it relates to increased drilling activity into 2021, we're still in the process of constant communication with our customers to come up with what their expectations are and therefore, the impact on our forecast for that year.

And our next question today comes from Jeremy Tonet with JPMorgan.

This is James on for Jeremy. Maybe just starting here with Occidental's kind of volume forecast for this year and messaging for maintenance in 2021. Where do you expect kind of the margins to be trending for your DJ and Delaware, especially in '21, considering a flattish volume growth?

Yes. So a couple of things I would mention on that. And again, we don't have guidance out yet for 2021, still in the process of being developed. And I shouldn't certainly comment as it relates to any specifics on details regarding activity levels. However, that guidance as I heard it was very much at a corporate level, right, as opposed to just asset-specific level, which is more relevant for WES. And so what I would point you to is, again, the DUC inventory that we have, those are the details that we're aware of today. And any other specifics regarding activity on our asset base, we would wait until those plans are more formally developed, and we're able to put out 2021 guidance.

Okay. Fair enough. And then I guess, just moving away from Occidental, but just broader third-party activity across your footprint, and how that is trending? And maybe just tying into M&A, but do you see opportunities to gain market share as the environment improves into the back half of this year in 2021 in regards to third-party activity?

James, this is Craig, and I'll take a stab at answering your question there. Frankly, we've seen a lot of recent successes on the commercial side. Our existing infrastructure has provided us a great advantage in capturing bolt-on opportunities. And the team has done a fantastic job over the last couple of months in a very difficult environment to capture those additional volumes that we've been able to bring under contract, many of which may have been flowing somewhere else but we've been able to bring on to the system. The other thing I would add is, working with our existing customers, we've seen a lot of success and really pleased with the work the team's done to be able to keep those volumes flowing. As we're all aware, there have been some significant headwinds over the last few months. And those producers have options as to where they're going to curtail volumes or where they would curtail volumes. And so by getting creative and coming up with some really good solutions, we were able to keep more volumes flowing than what we anticipated. And really what that does is it just strengthens the relationship between us and our customers and really gives us a lot of optimism going forward. I think from a competitive standpoint, I think, the environment that we're looking at going forward is the existing set of participants providing services to customers. I don't see that changing a whole lot. I think what really gives us an advantage is our existing infrastructure. It's so extensive. We touch a number of producers, many of which we do business with today and several of which we're engaging to conduct new business with. And because of our proximity to their acreage, we're very well positioned, and we're looking forward to continuing to add to the successes that we've had of late.

I'll just add on top of that. I think the team has done a great job. It's in environments like we've experienced over the past several months where you're able to demonstrate to your customers how important they are and the value associated with the breadth of Western Midstream and our asset base as well as the financial strength that we have as a company. And so, I definitely would view that as a competitive advantage that we'll have going forward in the areas that we operate.

Our next question today comes from Colton Bean with Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Company.

Mike, you mentioned price discovery for asset sales. How does WES' trading range factor into a potential sale or are all assets considered independently, primarily thinking about the potential for equity investment valuations above the WES corporate level?

Yes. The G&P -- we sort of look at the non-DJ non-Delaware assets in terms of G&P stand-alone versus long-haul pipe type assets. And obviously, there's a meaningful differential in terms of a multiple that can be achieved from selling long-haul pipes versus G&P. And based on some of the whisper prices, if you want to call it anything, they sound attractive on the long-haul pipes. I think for the G&P assets, they're still a little bit depressed. That price discovery relative to the value of those assets and the cash flow that those assets provide to us doesn't make a lot of sense here in the near-term until we see the prices improve. But the long-haul pipes, those are still going for attractive valuations to see infrastructure funds and the like that are flushed with cash and looking to put that cash to work. So there are some opportunities. But again, I would differentiate between the pure G&P type assets and the long-haul pipe equity investments.

Got it. And on the long-haul assets, would you be focused on making sure you realize full value there? Or if it was accretive to the WES corporate profile, would that be enough to get talks going?

We would trend definitely towards the market price irrespective of our specific situation and financial condition, which, by the way, used to be quite strong.

Got it. And then just on the Oxy side, so they've deconsolidated West and have discussed selling down below that 50% mark now. Would you all consider buying in those units? Or is the balance sheet still a near-term priority?

Yes, balance sheet is first and foremost, that is job one for us. It doesn't mean that we wouldn't take a look at any type of situation that has arisen. The fact of the matter is it hasn't. And we maintain focused on our balance sheet and getting WES' credit ratings back to investment grade.

Our next question today comes from Derek Walker with Bank of America.

Just had a couple of clarification questions. You guys talked a little bit about the kind of creative commercial solutions. And I think you talked about some avoidance of curtailments. Can you just give a little more color sort of how that came about? What was the type of contract there? Any sort of color around sort of margin or rate that was -- that really drove that tenant?

Yes. I'll give you an example, Derek. And one particular producer that we have a nice contract with supported by minimum volume commitments, they had the opportunity to curtail volumes on the system. And because of their over-delivery of volumes, historically speaking, there are some bank credits, if you will, relative to the minimum volume commitment. And so arguably, they could have curtailed volumes without paying immediately minimum volume commitment obligations. And so what we are able to work out with them is some near-term -- very short-term rate adjustments. And we got incremental business committed to us from that customer and all those volumes stayed online. And that's the type of winning outcome that we're looking for. It helped the producer. It also created additional value for us long term by getting additional acreage dedicated to as proximal to our existing infrastructure.

Appreciate that. And maybe just on a -- quick one on the curtailment activity. Are you seeing any of that today? Or is most of that returned behind systems?

Almost all has returned on to the system.

Okay. I appreciate. And then one last one for me is just, you mentioned the 250 of DUCs behind our system. Is that -- can you give a little flavor of sort of where that is by basin? I think you expect 100 to be completed in the second half. So I just want to get a sense of how those fall between either DJ or Delaware?

Yes. So within the DJ, it's probably -- it's a little over 40% of the 100. A little over 40% will actually be in the DJ and the remainder in the Delaware. Looking around for confirmation on that.

Actually, it's a little bit higher. It's highly skewed towards the DJ for the latter half of 2020.

Our next question today comes from Sunil Sibal with Seaport Global Securities.

Congrats on a good quarter. Many of my questions have been hit. I just had a few kind of clarifications. First, on the leverage, I think you said goal is to get to 4x by end of next year. And then subsequently, how should we think about that? Is IG kind of rating or getting to the IG rating first is the more important goal before you think about returning cash to shareholders? And then why would IG be so critical for the G&P operations?

Yes. I'll take that. Appreciate the question. We view investment-grade as being vitally important for us. We think it aligns the interest of all of our stakeholders, whether it's unitholders or our debt holders. Conversations with rating agencies are ongoing and productive. To be perfectly honest, we do have a tie to Occidental given the customer concentration that Occidental represents and so we want to move away from that. And step 1 in being able to achieving disparate credit ratings is to get our own balance sheet in order. I think the argument to disassociate or be decoupled from Occidental's rating is a lot stronger when your own balance sheet metrics warrant an investment-grade rating. And it's important to us. The bond issuance that we did in January, $3.5 billion contained coupon steps, 25 basis points per agency for downgrade. There's been 4 such events, which is increasing our annual borrowing costs by $35 million. We view that as low-hanging fruit to recapture, and it's a meaningful amount of annual cash flow by getting our credit rating back to investment grade. Does that answer your question?

Yes, it does. And then on -- I think you clarified that most of the shut-in volumes are back now. Could you give us a sense of where volumes are tracking as of now versus what you averaged in Q2 in, say, DJ and Delaware?

We don't have any update that we can provide right now as it relates to current status.

Okay. And then my last question was with regard to your MVCs in the 2 basins. I realize that you were pretty remaining -- pretty large remaining live. Is there any kind of MVCs or contract expiries that we should be aware of for the next, say, couple of years?

Not a meaningful amount, no.

And our next question today comes from Gabe Moreen with Mizuho.

Just a quick question on the water opportunity. I think you mentioned some pretty good decent success in terms of getting truck volumes off the road around your system. Just wondering how large that opportunity is relative to getting the truck volumes off and top on to your system? How much runway there is left there?

Yes. We -- Gabe, we see a number of opportunities, and we continue to pursue those. In fact, we've been capturing several of those here over the last couple of months. These are -- as you could imagine, producers are looking to reduce operating costs any way they can. And so to the extent that they're still trucking water volumes and there's proximity to our system through a capital-efficient deployment of capital, we can get connected to them and provide services at a much lower cost than what they would otherwise be paying. There's a lot of mutual motivation to get that kind of incremental business done. And so we've been seeing a lot of success in that area and continue to remain optimistic there. I think -- and as you point out, we've made significant progress over the last several months at getting more and more of the Occidental water volumes onto our system from trucks. And so that's been a huge success for us and a big part of our second quarter success, really.

I would like just to comment on that because that was an effort that resulted from a lot of collaboration actually back between us and Occidental to be able to achieve something that -- it was mutually beneficial overall. So kudos, frankly, to the ability of both organizations to work really well together and to the commercial organization and operations team to get those volumes online in a much faster period than we had projected.

And our next question comes from Shneur Gershuni with UBS.

Maybe I'll just start off on the cost side of the equation. Mike, when you guys sort of took over, you basically talked about the whole separation from Oxy, and that you chose the employees very carefully, and you try to rightsize everything to make sure that you did everything correctly. Given the quarter that we just went through, given Oxy's forecast about exit rates and very few well completions and so forth over the second half of this year, are there any more opportunities to take costs down further despite the fact that you had attempted to rightsize going into all of this?

Yes. So thanks for the question, Shneur, and yes, I did mention that at the very beginning, we were very thoughtful about the way that we could set up the company in such a way that it was rightsized going forward. Frankly, I think, we've done a really great job in being able to increase the overall cost reduction effort thus far. So $115 million, significant amount of that in the G&A side. We expect of the 40% that still remains for this year, a good 30% to 40% will be in the G&A arena. And a good part of that is, frankly, instead of rebuilding some of the existing infrastructure that we felt like was needed at the very beginning, we're finding that the employee base is eager and open to taking on additional responsibility and therefore, reducing the need to fill a lot of those spots. And so right now, as we look at it, we feel like with the $115 million worth of overall cost savings, that puts us in a very good position and a very optimal place relative to peers and relative to what we thought at the beginning of the year.

Maybe as a follow-up question here. I was wondering if you can clarify on the water side. Is the opportunity, basically, wells come back online and we'll see the dewatering benefit essentially? Or is there an additional upside when drilling returns, not just from a dewatering, but from a water supply perspective?

Shneur, it's both. And as we've noted, most of the volumes are back online. And -- but as we continue to move forward and operators get into a more normal cadence in terms of their activity levels. Again, because of the relationships that we're building right now with these new customers and introducing our system to them and deploying marginal incremental capital to get connected to these new producers, we're well situated for when that upstream capital does return and the development begins. Even if it's on a slower pace than what it may have been historically, for us, that's incredibly capital efficient by getting connected to these producers with the opportunity to move their water barrels going forward.

It's also a pretty unique offering that WES is able to provide to customers to be able to gather oil, gas and water in the area. So we look at it as able to be a one-stop-shop for those producers in the Delaware which -- with the scale that we have and that is very unique.

Have you been able to take any market share or take volumes from competitors during this period of uncertainty?

Yes, would be the short answer. Not as much as I would like because I have very high expectations for our team, and they've done incredibly well. But we're continuing to make inroads there, and we're seeing a lot of direct success as we compete with those existing participants in the basin.

Okay. And maybe just one final question. Just with respect to Oxy's expectations, obviously, you have cost of service agreements. And how they're talking about volumes doesn't impact you the same way. But do we get to a point where it creates some friction, given what will effectively be a rising tariff. If I did my math correctly, last year or going into this year, you had a step-up, if their exit rates are accurate, volumes are going to be down year-over-year, which would then imply that your rate would go up next year. Does that get to a friction point? Do you sit there and say, maybe we take a pause on that increase until volumes come back? How do we manage this situation so that it doesn't become a friction situation with you and your largest customer?

Yes. I would say, Shneur, a couple of comments there: number one, we have great alignment overall with Oxy. Great alignment in terms of the objectives of bringing as many volumes onto the system as possible. We've talked about a lot of the cost-cutting metrics that we've been able to do, and frankly, getting some of those volumes on the water side and the collaboration associated with that. So first thing I would say is that we see great alignment overall with Oxy. As it relates to any impact on the cost of service contracts, that's something that we do on an annual basis. There are a lot of factors that go into that. Not just near-term volumes, not just 2021 volumes, it's volumes far into the future and then it's also capital and what we've been able to -- and costs overall and what we've been able to show is that we've made great inroads on the capital and cost side that also plays into that. So it would be very premature at this stage to give any comments as to what the potential impact might be on a cost of service adjustment.

And, ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the question-and-answer session. So I'd like to turn the conference back over to the management team for any final remarks.

Thank you, everyone, for joining the call. I really appreciate the time. I wanted to again thank the employee base for the great efforts during what has been a very unprecedented period for our industry and for our world. Thank you all for joining. Please stay safe.

Thank you, sir. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.