Marathon Petroleum Q1 2025 Earnings Report

Marathon Petroleum EPS Results

• Actual EPS: -$0.24
• Consensus EPS: -$0.40
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.16
• One Year Ago EPS: $2.58

Marathon Petroleum Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $31.85 billion
• Expected Revenue: $28.91 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$2.94 billion
• YoY Revenue Growth: -4.10%

Marathon Petroleum Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2025
• Date: 5/6/2025
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, May 6, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 11:00AM ET

Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC) is a leading American petroleum refining, marketing and transportation company headquartered in Findlay, Ohio. The company’s core business involves refining crude oil into end products such as gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel and petrochemical feedstocks. Its integrated operations span from crude procurement through transportation and distribution, supporting reliable supply chains for both wholesale and retail customers.

Marathon Petroleum operates several high-capacity refineries located in key energy hubs across the United States, including facilities in Texas, Louisiana, California and North Dakota. These refineries process a variety of crude types and employ advanced technologies to produce fuels and specialty products that meet industry and environmental standards. The company’s logistics network comprises pipelines, marine terminals, railcars and tanker trucks, enabling efficient movement of feedstocks and refined products nationwide.

In the downstream segment, Marathon Petroleum markets fuel under the Marathon, Marathon Platinum and Sunoco brands, serving motorists through an extensive network of company-operated and branded dealer stations. The company also owns and operates the Speedway convenience store chain, offering fuel, food-service items and retail merchandise. Through its investment in MPLX LP, a midstream energy partnership, Marathon Petroleum holds interests in gathering pipelines, storage terminals and fractionation facilities, providing additional fee-based revenue and operational synergies.

Formed in 2011 as a spin-off from Marathon Oil, Marathon Petroleum has grown through strategic mergers and acquisitions, most notably the acquisition of Andeavor in 2018, which expanded its refining capacity and geographic footprint. The company is led by President and Chief Executive Officer Michael J. Hennigan and a senior management team focused on operational excellence, safety, environmental stewardship and disciplined capital allocation across its integrated energy operations.

Marathon Petroleum Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Refining utilization was 89% in Q1 after executing the second-highest number of planned turnarounds in company history, and a capture rate of 104% demonstrates strong commercial performance despite low margins.
• Midstream segment adjusted EBITDA grew 8% year-over-year, and MPLX secured over $1 billion of strategic acquisitions to advance natural gas and NGL growth, supporting long-term distribution increases.
• Renewable diesel facilities ran at only 70% utilization due to unplanned downtime and weaker regulatory credits, though actions to realize 45Z credits in Q2 and optimize operations are underway.
• MPC reported a Q1 net loss of $0.24 per share and experienced a $145 million sequential drop in adjusted EBITDA, driven by lower refining and renewable diesel results.
• Q2 guidance forecasts 94% refinery utilization (2.8 million bpd), $265 million of turnaround expense, and operating costs of $5.30 per barrel as MPC positions for stronger summer demand.

Presentation

[Operator]

Welcome to the MPC First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Call. My name is Amanda, 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. Please note that this conference is being recorded.

[Operator]

I will now turn the call over to Christina Kazzarian. Christina, you may begin.

[Kristina Kazarian, Vice President, Investor Relations at Marathon Petroleum]

Welcome to Marathon Petroleum Corporation's first quarter twenty twenty five earnings conference call. The slides that accompany this call can be found on our website at marathonpetroleum.com under the Investor tab. Joining me on the call today are Mary Anne Mannen, CEO John Quaid, CFO and other members of the executive team. We invite you to read the Safe Harbor statements on Slide two. We will be making forward looking statements today.

[Kristina Kazarian, Vice President, Investor Relations at Marathon Petroleum]

Actual results may differ. 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 Mary Anne.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Thanks, Christina, and good morning, everyone. Let me highlight a few elements of our performance that were most relevant to our results in the first quarter. Refining utilization of 89%, reflecting the safe and successful completion of the second highest amount of planned turnarounds in history focused heavily on our Gulf Coast region. We planned this turnaround activity to occur in the first quarter, a period of seasonally weaker demand. Capture was 104 as we delivered strong commercial performance in a period of low refining margins and volatility from regulatory uncertainty.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Our Midstream segment adjusted EBITDA grew 8% year over year and MPLX announced over $1,000,000,000 of strategic acquisitions advancing our Midstream natural gas and NGL growth strategies. Our longer term fundamental view supports an enhanced mid cycle environment for refining. Despite reductions to the 2025 demand outlook forecasts still point to a global oil demand growth mainly driven by demand for the refined products we produce. U. S.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Refined product inventories have drawn for the ninth straight week and are below the five year average. This plus lower retail prices should be supportive as we move into the summer driving season, a period of strong seasonal demand. Within our own domestic and export businesses, we are seeing steady year over year demand for gasoline and growth for diesel and jet fuel. And while light heavy differentials could remain narrow as Canadian producers increase maintenance in the second quarter, we believe that higher OPEC plus production could offset that near term tightness. We believe underlying fundamentals support stronger margins especially as announced refinery closures offset recent capacity additions.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

We anticipate around 800,000 barrels per day coming offline across several refineries in The U. S. And Europe this year. In The U. S, the Gulf Coast refinery completed its closure in the first quarter and in California two announced closures are expected over the next twelve months.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

We have been investing in our fully integrated West Coast value chain. California demand for our products is driven by the 28,000,000 conventional fuel vehicles in the state among other factors. And with nearly 8,000,000 in Los Angeles, the LA region is one of the three largest refined product demand centers in The U. S. At our Los Angeles refinery, we are nearing completion of approximately $700,000,000 in infrastructure improvements to integrate and modernize utility systems to improve reliability and increase energy efficiency while also complying with tighter emission reduction regulations.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Following completion expected at the end of this year, these improvements are intended to strengthen the competitiveness of our Los Angeles refinery and position us to be one of the most cost competitive players in the region for years to come. Our long term positive fundamental view for the refining industry is unchanged and we expect demand growth to exceed the net impact of capacity additions and rationalization through the end of the decade. We believe The U. S. Refining industry will remain structurally advantaged over the rest of the world.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

The U. S. Has a locational advantage given the accessibility of nearby crude, which we believe will grow as the cost of transportation increases. The availability of low cost natural gas, low cost butane and The U. S.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Refining systems flexibility all increase its competitive advantage over international sources of supply. The flexibility of our refining assets and our domestic and international logistical and commercial capabilities further increase our global competitive advantage. Our commitment to commercial excellence regardless of market conditions remains core to our execution. We believe that the capabilities we are building provide a sustainable advantage versus our peers. We look to demonstrate that through our financial performance.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

We are progressing our $1,250,000,000 standalone capital plan for 2025 with 70% targeted on high return projects designed to create optionality and improve our ability to capitalize on market volatility. Underpinning our commitment to safe and reliable operations, maintenance capital is approximately 30% of that capital spend. In addition to the project at our LAR refinery in our Mid Con region, we are increasing our flexibility to optimize jet production at our Robinson refinery to meet growing demand with completion expected by year end 2026. On The Gulf Coast, we are constructing a distillate hydrotreater at our Galveston Bay refinery to produce higher value ultra low sulfur diesel with completion expected by year end 2027. In addition to these multi year projects, we are executing smaller high return quick hit projects targeted at enhancing refinery yields, improving energy efficiency and lowering our cost.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Leveraging our fully integrated refining system and geographic diversification across the Gulf Coast Mid Con and West Coast regions, we are well positioned to deliver peer leading through cycle cash generation. In our midstream business, we've announced over $1,000,000,000 of strategic acquisitions since the start of the year. First, within its NGL value chain MPLX will be acquiring the remaining 55% interest in the BANGL NGL pipeline. Full ownership of BANGL and its expansion opportunities enhance MPLX's Permian platform as we connect growing NGL production from the wellhead to our recently announced Gulf Coast fractionation facilities. The BANGL transaction is anticipated to close in July subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions. Second, MPLX expanded its crude oil value chain by acquiring gathering businesses from Whiptail Midstream in March.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

The San Juan Basin assets in the 4 Corners region enhances supply to our refining system. Third, within its natural gas value chain, MPLX has entered into an agreement to double its stake in the Matterhorn Express natural gas pipeline from 5% to 10%. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of twenty twenty five subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions. These acquisitions are expected to be immediately accretive. We're all well aware of the volatility in the commodity markets.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

However, based on feedback from our producer customers, we continue to expect year over year growth across our Marcellus, Utica and Permian operating regions. These basins have some of the lowest breakeven prices in The U. S, offering economically advantaged development opportunities. We believe MPLX is well positioned and has significant opportunities to support the development plans of its producer customers, especially as demand increases for natural gas powered electricity. MPLX's financial flexibility places it in an excellent position to continue to significantly grow its distributions, further enhancing the value of its strategic relationship with MPC.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Given our highly advantaged refining business and the $2,500,000,000 annualized distribution from MPLX, we believe we can lead peers in capital returns through all parts of the cycle. Now I'll hand it over to John to discuss our financial performance.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

Thanks Mary Anne. Moving to first quarter highlights, slide four provides a summary of our financial results. This morning we reported a first quarter net loss of $0.24 per share. During the quarter, we returned over $1,300,000,000 to shareholders through dividends and repurchases. Slide five shows the sequential change in adjusted EBITDA from fourth quarter twenty twenty four to first quarter twenty twenty five and the reconciliation between adjusted EBITDA and our net results for the quarter.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was approximately $2,000,000,000 lower sequentially by $145,000,000 due to decreased results in our refining and marketing and renewable diesel segments. In addition to effects from the mix of pre tax earnings between our R and M and midstream businesses, our tax rate was further lowered by discrete tax benefits recognized in the quarter. Moving to our refining and marketing first quarter segment results on slide six, our refineries ran at 89% utilization processing 2,600,000 barrels of crude per day. We completed significant planned turnaround activity in the quarter particularly in our Gulf Coast region where utilization decreased from 97% in the fourth quarter of last year to 82% in the first quarter. As compared to fourth quarter of last year, the effects of lower Gulf Coast volumes were partially offset by higher margins in the Mid Con and the West Coast.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

R And M segment adjusted EBITDA was $1.91 per barrel for the quarter. Turning to slide seven, first quarter capture of 104% was driven by solid commercial execution as well as seasonally strong clean product tailwinds. We leveraged the scale of our fully integrated system across all three regions to capture margin opportunities across our entire value chain from feedstocks to products. Slide eight shows our Midstream segment performance for the quarter. Our Midstream segment continues to deliver cash flow growth with an 8% year over year increase in quarterly segment adjusted EBITDA.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

And in the first quarter MPC received $619,000,000 of distributions from MPLX, a 12.5% increase compared to the $550,000,000 received in the first quarter of twenty twenty four. MPLX remains a source of durable growth as it progresses its mid single digit adjusted EBITDA growth strategy. Slide nine shows our renewable diesel segment performance for the quarter and what was a challenging environment. Our renewable diesel facilities ran at 70% utilization mainly as a result of unplanned downtime at both facilities. As compared to last year's fourth quarter, the segment's largest headwind was changes in regulatory credits, which reduced margins across the industry.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

As we look forward, based on the latest guidance, we have already taken actions we expect will allow us to realize incremental 45Z credits starting at the beginning of the second quarter and we will continue to pursue value for the 45Z credits we were unable to recognize in the first quarter. That said, we're focused on what we can control. At our Martinez joint venture facility, one of the most competitive renewable diesel operations in The U. S, we are optimizing the renewable refinery to its nameplate capacity, leveraging flexible logistics and pretreatment capabilities to enable a diverse slate and margin. We have addressed the operational items that limited production in the first quarter and following some planned downtime at our Dickinson Refinery in April, both our renewable refineries are positioned to run-in the second quarter.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

Slide 10 presents the elements of change in our consolidated cash position for the first quarter. Operating cash flow excluding changes in working capital was $1,000,000,000 for the quarter driven by the strength and growth of our midstream business. Working capital was a $1,100,000,000 use of cash for the quarter primarily driven by inventory builds mostly in our Gulf Coast region. Crude and product inventory builds related to planned turnarounds here in the first and second quarters as well as product builds related to in transit export shipments. In the second quarter, we expect some but maybe not all of this inventory build will reverse as turnarounds are completed and inventory is drawn to normal operating levels.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

First quarter capital expenditures and investments were $795,000,000 and MPLX completed the acquisition of a gathering business from Whiptail Midstream for $237,000,000 In the quarter, MPC issued $2,000,000,000 in senior notes and this issuance was intended to replace the $750,000,000 of senior notes that matured in September of last year as well as refinance the $1,250,000,000 of senior notes that matured on May 1. MPLX repaid $500,000,000 of maturing debt in February and also issued $2,000,000,000 of senior notes. MPLX used a portion of the proceeds to retire 1,200,000,000 of senior notes scheduled to mature in June. At the end of the quarter, MPC had approximately $3,800,000,000 in consolidated cash including MPC cash of $1,300,000,000 and MPLX cash of $2,500,000,000 We continue to manage our balance sheet to an investment grade credit profile. We remain comfortable with our minimum target of about $1,000,000,000 of cash on the balance sheet being sufficient to run the business and this is supported by the $2,500,000,000 and growing annual distribution from MPLX as well as our undrawn credit facilities of $5,000,000,000 all positioning us to have ample liquidity to endure market fluctuations.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

Turning to guidance on Slide 11, we provide our second quarter outlook. With major plant turnaround activity behind us, we are ready to run to meet increasing seasonal demand. We're projecting throughput volumes of 2,800,000 barrels per day representing utilization of 94%. Turnaround expense is projected to be approximately $265,000,000 in the second quarter with activity mainly focused in the Mid Con and West Coast regions. For the full year, turnaround expenses are expected to be similar to last year at around $1,400,000,000 Operating costs are projected to be $5.3 per barrel in the second quarter.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

Distribution costs are expected to be approximately $1,500,000,000 Corporate costs are expected to be $220,000,000 With that, let me pass it back to Mary Anne.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Thanks John. We are unwavering in our commitment to safe and reliable operations, Operational excellence, commercial execution and our cost competitiveness yield sustainable structural benefits and position us to deliver peer leading financial performance in each of the regions in which we operate. To deliver this, we will optimize our portfolio to deliver outperformance now and in the future. We'll leverage our value chain advantages and ensure the competitiveness of our assets, while we continue to invest in our people. Our execution of these commitments positions us to deliver the strongest through cycle cash generation.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Durable Midstream growth is expected to deliver cash flow uplift and to deliver distribution increase going forward, a differentiator from our peers. Investing capital where we believe there are attractive returns will enhance our competitiveness now and for the future. We are committed to leading in capital allocation and will return excess capital through share repurchases. MPC is positioned to create exceptional value through peer leading performance, execution of our strategic commitments and its compelling value proposition. Let me turn the call back to Christina.

[Kristina Kazarian, Vice President, Investor Relations at Marathon Petroleum]

Thanks, Mary Anne. As we open the call for your questions as a courtesy to all participants, we ask that you limit yourself to one question and we'll follow-up. If time permits, we will re prompt for additional questions. Operator, please open the call for questions. Operator, we're ready for questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now begin our question and answer session. Our first question comes from Neil Mehta with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

[Neil Mehta, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Yes. Good morning, Mary Anne and team. Lot to talk about here, but maybe we start on what you're seeing real time from a demand perspective as we get into deeper here in the second quarter. Are you seeing any physical evidence of an economic slowdown? And just maybe give you some real time color of what you're seeing in your system here.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Yes. Good morning, Neil, and thanks for the question. Look, I think we've seen Refined Cracks improve. You look we're about $4 better the second quarter than we were in the first. It's showing the typical seasonal improvement into the second quarter.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

You've seen our guidance when we look at overall utilization 94% particularly when you look at The Gulf Coast 90 6 Percent for us as we get out of our second largest turnaround and if you will ready to run-in the second quarter. We think we are well positioned to meet this seasonal uptick in demand. And certainly when you look at the fundamentals the inventories that I referred to the five year average etcetera and certainly sort of the overall outlook. But I'm going to ask Rick to give you some specifics as he's looking at our system and demand to address your question.

[Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer at Marathon Petroleum]

Yes, Neil to bolt on to Mary Anne's comments. So real time we're very optimistic on what we're seeing. Within the domestic business we're seeing steady year over year demand for gas and we're seeing growth in diesel and jet fuel. And then additionally when we look at our exports Neil when you go year on year, quarter on quarter, we're seeing increases in export demand as well. So all the way across system, we are seeing positive signs and aren't really seeing a slowdown whatsoever.

[Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer at Marathon Petroleum]

Closer to home to what Mary Anne mentioned, on the inventories, I want to double tap on that for a moment because those signals are really important to us and, a great indication of how the market is setting up as we head into our summer driving season. So as you know, we did a lot of turnaround work in Q1. We are ready to run-in Q2. And with the lower street prices year on year, we see this as another strong demand signal that the consumers will have to continue this demand strength that we're seeing. And lastly, Mary Anne mentioned the $4 a barrel increase versus Q1.

[Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer at Marathon Petroleum]

Just a few specifics on that to break down for you by region. In the Mid Con, we're seeing a $6 a barrel increase of where we stand today versus the Q1 results. In the Gulf Coast, the $3 a barrel increase and in the West Coast, 5 Dollars a barrel increase. So strength across the system, Neil.

[Neil Mehta, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Yes. Okay. You see in the margins for now and so it's definitely notable in some of the hard data here. So okay, then the follow-up is just on the West Coast specifically. We've seen a lot of developments here, most notably, Benicia.

[Neil Mehta, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

But how are you guys thinking about the multiyear outlook for the West Coast? How do you position yourself? And do you think that the political environment is such that if you go into a period of strong margins, you'll be able to capitalize that?

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Yes. Thanks, Neil. Maybe a few things the West Coast and our views sort of longer term. First, as you know, we've been investing I mentioned it on some of my prepared remarks there. We've been investing in our LA asset.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

We believe its flexibility, the integrated nature of that asset, its ability to process different types of crudes etcetera, gives us a long term competitive advantage. In the case of this capital that we're putting to work gives us efficiency improved performance EBITDA while at the same time we are complying with regulatory requirements around NOx emissions. So overall we think that's been a good investment. Just when we think about demand in the West Coast right 28,000,000 conventional fuel vehicles as I like to say in the state, a lot of that demand is centered in the Los Angeles region. So speaks well for our asset also.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

And then you speak about the regulatory environment. We've spent a lot of time as you know go back really to twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen frankly as we began our assessment of our profitability and the competitive nature of our assets in that region when we made the decision frankly to close Martinez as a fossil fuel refinery albeit right continued as a renewable diesel. We're watching the regulatory environment very closely right. We've got minimum inventory law went into place in the beginning of the year. But frankly the rule making isn't done.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

I think right now the state and the officials there are focused on resupply as maintenance and turnaround activity happens to ensure that we can provide they can provide requirements for consumers there. There's also been conversation around whether or not the state would own or operate refineries. We certainly don't think that that's plausible, but we'll watch it closely. And last what I would say is we are spending time with the regulatory agencies through our Washington office etcetera to ensure that there is an understanding of sort of the longer term view and the decisions that they are trying to make there. So we're comfortable as we sit here today recognizing that a challenging environment.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

We think we've got one of the most competitive assets in the region. And hopefully I've done a reasonably good job of telling you why that's the case. I'm going to ask Rick to give you a little bit of color on what we're seeing maybe long term with demand there.

[Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer at Marathon Petroleum]

Yes. So Neil, we continue to see pretty positive signals also on the West Coast. But I want to maybe take a step back and give some color to our positioning as well to add on to Mary Anne's comments. So we have the largest refinery in California. It is complex.

[Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer at Marathon Petroleum]

It is fully integrated. And we will beat the what we call high cost alternative of imports into the region all day long. With that being said, the closures, that we have seen certainly are a tailwind to our not only our LAR facility, but also to our Pacific Northwest facilities. So if you look, they will also be the beneficiary of product placement. And as you know, the West Coast is structurally short gasoline and jet.

[Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer at Marathon Petroleum]

So we will be leaning into these markets as others close. And lastly, I want to leave you with a nugget that not a lot of people talk about. It's on the feedstock side, if these closures happen that have been announced Neil, we will be the beneficiary as well. We have a large TMX position, taking advantage barrels from Canada. But above and beyond that, we're a big ANS and a big SJV buyer and we will be the beneficiary of those closures that if they happen that will put incremental pressure on those differentials and we have a larger appetite for those grades. So I'll leave it there, Neil.

[Neil Mehta, Analyst at Goldman Sachs]

Great color. Thanks, team.

[Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer at Marathon Petroleum]

Thank you.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Thank you, Neil.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Doug Leggate with Wolfe Research. Your line is open.

[Doug Leggate, Managing Director - Senior Research Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Good morning everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. Mary Anne, I want to come back to a topic that I feel like we used to bring it up relatively frequently and then it kind of fell into the background a little bit and it's the issue of capture rates. You had one of the heaviest turnaround seasons in I guess in your history this quarter, yet your capture rate kind of knocked it out of the park. And I know this is related to the commercial organization that you've built up over the last several years.

[Doug Leggate, Managing Director - Senior Research Analyst at Wolfe Research]

And I'm just wondering, as you get back into normal utilization rates into the when you don't have a lot of downtime, should we be thinking that your capture rate has shifted up as a matter of course or I'm just curious how you would respond to that comment?

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Good morning Doug and thanks for your question. So as you know one of the things that we've been really leaning in for some time is our ability to improve our commercial performance. We think it is one of the most important elements when we think about our value proposition and our peer leading performance. And over the last few years as you said, we've been building what we think are sustainable benefits across the system organization wise, other capabilities. We've talked about, our London office, our Singapore office, our Houston office in addition to our Findlay office as well.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

So some of these capabilities will transcend. We've also said that approaching 100% is clearly an objective of ours. And we think some of the sustainable advantages that we've really put in place are being demonstrated through our financial performance. And as you know some of these things regardless of whether it's a high crack environment or a low crack environment may not be in our control. But the ones that are, are that what we are trying to focus on quarter after quarter.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

We think right looking at our fully integrated system and trying to leverage those capabilities you hear us talk about value chain integration, the strategic importance of the relationship between MPC and MPLX. We believe all of these will continue to deliver, capture rates approaching 100. And I'll look at Rick and see if there was anything else that Rick wanted to add particularly as we think about what happened in the quarter.

[Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer at Marathon Petroleum]

Yes. Thank you, Mary Anne. Doug, I have to chuckle for a moment. I'm guessing Mary Anne thinks I paid you to ask that question because we are quite proud of our results. Not only has it been this quarter, but I think you've seen it the last several quarters.

[Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer at Marathon Petroleum]

And I do want to reiterate that it is structurally sustainable. We believe we built the system and have the value chain to continue to garner more value than our competition. And three areas of particularly strong performance that I want to highlight and our specific teams Specialty Products, Asphalt and product margins. And sometimes we mention product margins and they're specific to a region. This past quarter I would tell you it's all three regions.

[Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer at Marathon Petroleum]

It's Gulf Coast, Mid Con and West Coast. So very proud of the team's performance and wringing value out of the entire value chain as Mary Anne referenced.

[Doug Leggate, Managing Director - Senior Research Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Okay. Well, I was thinking the 100% might now be a little conservative, but We'll see where we go.

[Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer at Marathon Petroleum]

Please don't do that to me. But we're confident in our ability to outperform in this area, Doug.

[Doug Leggate, Managing Director - Senior Research Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Good stuff. Thanks for the answer. Mary Anne, a completely unrelated question. Again, it's something that's come up periodically. You've talked about you want to hold $1,000,000,000 of cash on the balance sheet, but you did admittedly have some working capital moves and you lend it into the balance sheet this quarter, it seems for share buybacks.

[Doug Leggate, Managing Director - Senior Research Analyst at Wolfe Research]

What is the net debt level at the MPC level? Try that again, the net debt at MPC level that you're comfortable with as opposed to the cash level at the MPC level?

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Yes. Thanks for the question, Doug. Maybe just a couple of other comments as well before I get to your specific answer. But one of the things that we think is important as we try to lean in with respect to our capital allocation priorities and they haven't changed. You talk about the $1,000,000,000 As you know from quarter to quarter, some of those things just depending on commodity prices etcetera

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

But the billion dollars continues to be something that we have stress tested and remain comfortable in part because we had a realized situation many years ago called COVID that helped us understand that. The second part of that, as you know, and I think you've been asking me this question for a couple of quarters now, right, if not longer than that. The distribution that MPC receives from MPLX at $2,500,000,000 today covers the MPC dividend to its shareholders as well as the 2025 capital plan that MPC has announced. And hopefully, you can see that we are supporting that mid single digit growth in MPLX and the distribution increase of 12.5%, which means the cash coming back to MPC should continue to increase as that growth in MPLX happens. These are all factors that give us confidence when we talk about $1,000,000,000 on the balance sheet that that continues to be if you will a durable basis.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

I'm going to pass it to John and he can talk a bit about the debt to specifically answer that question. Doug?

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

Yes. Hey, morning Doug. Thanks for the question. So maybe again to take it back, as you know, we'd like to kind of think about the two balance sheets a little bit separately. So if I think about MPC standalone, I'll come back to MPLX in the Midstream business.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

Look, we've said absolute gross debt, we're comfortable in and around plus or minus 7,000,000,000 right. So $7,000,000,000 absolute debt, the $1,000,000,000 of minimum cash target again I commented and Mary Anne did why we continue to be really, really comfortable with that and comfortable with our investment grade profile. MPLX is a little interesting, right? There, debt has stayed relatively flat, but we've really grown the EBITDA, four year CAGRs of 7%. So leverage has really come down.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

And there, we look at kind of a gross debt to EBITDA and we're sitting at end of this quarter at about 3.3 times. And we've said, look, given that business, the durability and stable cash flows it generates, we're comfortable up to four. So we see a lot of capacity there as MPLX looks at its growth opportunities to leverage that balance sheet. Again on the MPC side, absolute debt about $7,000,000,000 As I think you know there we talk again about a gross debt to cap ratio And I think we've got some of that in our materials as well, what you would typically see more with an investment grade approach. It's a little bit interesting there because if we did something like we did this quarter where we're leaning into buybacks and maybe a lower profitability market, you're going to impact that ratio.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

But over time, we're really comfortable with that $7,000,000,000 So hopefully that helps Doug.

[Doug Leggate, Managing Director - Senior Research Analyst at Wolfe Research]

It does. Thanks very much indeed guys.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

You're welcome Doug. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Manav Gupta with UBS. Your line is open.

[Manav Gupta, Executive Director at UBS Group]

Good morning. Congrats on a strong quarter. I wanted to ask you about the crude quality discounts. Looks like OPEC would be raising volumes faster than most of us expected. So help us understand your near to medium term outlook for crude quality discounts and how MPC can benefit from it?

[Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer at Marathon Petroleum]

Yes. Hi, Manav. This is Rick. Good to hear from you. I will say this is very positive for us given the amount of heavy crude we run-in all three regions West Coast, Gulf Coast and Mid Con.

[Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer at Marathon Petroleum]

So we are arguably the largest heavy refiner in the country And so we will benefit significantly. And as we see the acceleration of OpEx volume with the recent announcement this weekend certainly as a tailwind for the light heavy spreads. Additionally though, I'd like to give you some color on Canadian because Canadian has recently been depressed but we see upside there Manav as well when you look at not only the OPEC announcement of accelerating their barrels into the market, but as you look forward on their forward curve and I don't even think the OPEC piece is baked in yet. In the fourth quarter Manav, we're seeing $3 to $4 a barrel discounts greater than what we see today. So certainly that's a benefit to us as we run a lot of heavy Canadian as you know. I hope that helps Manav.

[Manav Gupta, Executive Director at UBS Group]

Perfect. I actually also wanted to follow-up a little bit on the midstream side. 7% year on year growth on the MPLX side. But when we look at year to date, almost $1,000,000,000 of acquisitions, some of which have not even closed, right? And so if you think about it, how should we look at the distributions from MPLX growing over a period of time, given you already had an attractive lineup of project growth with Frac one, Frac two and now you're adding $1,000,000,000 of additional assets.

[Manav Gupta, Executive Director at UBS Group]

So can we think about that 1212.5% growth from distribution could be sustainable for the next like three to four years? And then you're already covering your CapEx and dividend through that distribution. So does buybacks can also be supported through that distribution, if you could talk about that? Thank you.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Manav, thank you and good morning. Appreciate your question. So, first of all, when you look at the MPLX, the midstream business, we talk about a compound annual growth rate both on EBITDA and DCF in and about 7% for four years. We think as you have heard us talk about as well that we have projects and opportunities to be able to continue that mid single digit growth. I'll bet I'd say it might not be perfectly linear as we move out.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

The point of that 12.5% distribution increase last year was to say, when you look at the growth opportunities, when you look at these mid teen returns projects using that strict capital discipline lens, we felt very good about suggesting that that 12.5% was clearly doable for the next few years to your point because of the durability of those earnings and the opportunities that we see. This quarter we put about $1,000,000,000 to work. You are absolutely correct. Some of that has not closed yet. BANGL gives us will give us 100% ownership, very critical when we think about the ability to support our producer customers, important to the integration of our wellhead to water strategy.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Second, we talked about Whiptail. It's a gathering it's natural gas, crude oil and water gathering system. We talk a lot about the value chain importance and the strategic relationship between MPC and MPLX. It's in the four corners, critically important on the opportunity for our El Paso refinery. So two examples as you say plus, as you know we talked about $1,700,000,000 of capital in MPLX that is growth oriented of which 85% was natural gas and NGL focused.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Secretariat seventh largest sorry seventh processing plant in the Permian bringing our processing capability when it comes online at the end of the year to about 1.4 Bcf. So really making the connections in the integrated value chains. So we believe that 12.5% is durable for multi years as we bring it back to MPC. To your point, we are already covering the MPC dividend. And as you know, we are continuing to lean in delivering right excess cash via buyback on the MPC side.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

And then we are still covering the cost or excuse me, the capital cost with that distribution. So certainly as it grows, it will continue to give us even greater flexibility on the MPC side of the house. I hope that addressed your question Manav.

[Manav Gupta, Executive Director at UBS Group]

Thank you so much.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

You are welcome.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Paul Cheng with Scotiabank. Your line is open.

[Paul Cheng, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Hey guys. How are you doing?

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Good morning, Paul. We're well. How are you?

[Paul Cheng, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Very good. Good morning. The Marion, just want to ask that. It seems like you and a lot of your peers, everyone is looking at the NGL value chain and have a lot of opportunity. And so that seems a very consensus view and everyone is pursuing a wellhead to water strategy.

[Paul Cheng, Analyst at Scotiabank]

So can you try to help us understand that how your strategy may be different than your peers? And there's also in the commodity business, there's always some fear. If everyone is pursuing the same strategy and everyone see that is such a great thing, it turn out that we sell may not be as good as everyone hope. So maybe that you can help us that to better say understand that what is the risk in terms of everyone is doing this?

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Certainly, Paul. Thanks for the question. So we think and we've talked about our wellhead to water strategy, our completion two fracs in the Export Terminal 20 20 8 and 2029. We are very confident in our ability to fill these two fracs. As I mentioned just earlier, we've got the seventh processing plant in the Permian that's going to be complete.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

That will give us 1.4. And frankly, our current customer commitments really support this project. Also keep in mind today we meaning, as we're thinking about this fractionation we are using third party fracs which we will not need to use in the future. We think it has a very solid cost position as we shared with you the total cost of the project. We think when we look at both C3 and ethane, ethane will be a domestic sale, but we know the strength of C3 when we look at its requirements in Asia, Japan, etcetera.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

So we think that export market will be there. And we think we're very good at executing projects. And certainly our commercial prowess will give us the ability to market that in the future. They would be a few of the things Paul that I would tell you will differentiate this project from our peers. And as I mentioned, we're not looking we're not done.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

We are really trying to adapt as these markets are changing and completing these value chains particularly when we're looking at that wellhead to water strategy. I hope that addresses your question Paul.

[Paul Cheng, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. Great. The second question is on the renewable diesel business. Yes, I mean, it does look like that the RIN price is going higher and hopefully the LCLS price will get will the amendment will go through and then we will see them higher later this year or next year. But in addition to the market condition, I mean, else are you doing internally trying to improve the profitability of that business.

[Paul Cheng, Analyst at Scotiabank]

I was a little bit surprised that we have, say, the unplanned downtime in the first quarter after or I mean that we have the fire and subsequently that you guys have rebuilt the unit or that repaired the unit. So can you help us understand that, I mean, what is the root cause of the outages in the first quarter? And more importantly, that what are the initiatives that you are doing to help to improve the operation and reliability of that business?

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

Hey, morning, Paul. It's John. I'll start here and if we have any other questions, I'll look to some of my peers as well. So I and some of this I tried to have in our prepared remarks as well. As you noted, there's a portion of this business that's supported by regulations whether it's RINs, LCF, etcetera, but we're really focused on the things that we can control.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

And as I mentioned in my remarks, we did have some opportunities here in the first quarter to address utilization. I will tell you, again we're taking a turnaround, doing some work at Dickinson, it's ready to run and quarter to date Martinez is running as we expect it to be. So without getting into details of what those things are, I think it's maybe more important to tell you the plant is running as we expect. And that's then what we're focused on. If we take our Martinez position, really looking with our partner to optimize the feedstock into the facility, really leverage that pretreat, is a competitive advantage for the facility and obviously where it's located in California the key market.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

So those are the things we're really focused on. As you note as now we get to kind of hit the ground running and really run that plant and see what we can do. So, those are the big things that we can control. Again, we'll continue to work with government affairs etcetera for the respective agencies to understand the impact of their decisions. And I guess I wanted to maybe add too Paul, you didn't ask it, but you might.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

Obviously, there's a lot of change in the industry going from the lenders tax credit to the production tax credit. We like others were reacting to guidance that came out during the quarter. As I mentioned, we had very limited recognition in the first quarter, but we've already taken action that's going to drive that. And let me be clear too, we're also going to continue to push on the regulations, etcetera, to get back the value we weren't able to recognize in Q1 as well. So that's another action we're taking.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

So hopefully that gives you a little bit of the play of the land.

[Paul Cheng, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Sean, can you tell us that what is the average duration before you have to change your catalysts and Matinsa?

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

Yes. That might be a detailed question, Paul, that we'll work with the team with you offline.

[Paul Cheng, Analyst at Scotiabank]

Okay. We do. Thank you.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

Thank you.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Thank you, Paul.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Theresa Chen with Barclays. Your line is open.

[Theresa Chen, Analyst at Barclays Capital]

Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I'd like to double click on the West Coast outlook one more time. Just on the profitability and the idea that the supply of California spec products coming from Asia by means of a regular way production of carve out in Asia versus opportunistic and the regularity and cadence of imports on an ongoing basis, even if in state facilities can produce cheaper, do you think the regularity of imports will cap benchmark cracks over time?

[Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer at Marathon Petroleum]

Hi, Theresa. This is Rick. So generally, I would say, we're tracking imports as everyone else is very closely. What imports are doing is creating a lot of volatility. And what I mean by that is when imports come in, they do have an impact on the marketplace.

[Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer at Marathon Petroleum]

But when that inventory is run through, we then see a spike within the marketplace. So it's somewhat of a feast or famine because to bring imports in is challenging because you have a forty plus day transit time. So it's a big bet on where the market will be by the time they get into the West Coast system. So we continue to see imports just reeking a lot of havoc on volatility within the industry and continue to see our advantage really overplaying any imports that would be sustainable because we don't believe they're going to be consistently sustainable long term month in month out. And that's what you've seen here as of recent.

[Theresa Chen, Analyst at Barclays Capital]

Understood. And on the midstream side, with what seems to be an increasingly visible near to medium term slowdown in associate gas growth from liquids plays and a relatively unchanged long term natural gas demand outlook. What is your view on pursuing infrastructure growth opportunities in dry gas production areas and further diversify the growth opportunity set within your footprint?

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Yes. Theresa, it's Mary Anne. I appreciate the question. If you go back and you look at the things that we have been focused on last year, we did the Utica transaction summit. We think that made sense for a lot of reasons and continues to one of the opportunities that we were looking for was increasing utilization frankly.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

We put a lot of capital to work in the Utica A Few Years And as we watch that dry to liquids move change. So we'll continue to evaluate that. But as you've seen from the things that we are looking at right now you see where the majority of our priorities are focused. But again, we'll look for those through our lens of how do we deliver mid single digit growth consistently, ensure that we got mid teens returns through that that support the 12.5% distribution. So we'll continue to evaluate.

[Theresa Chen, Analyst at Barclays Capital]

Thank you.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

You're welcome.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from John Royall with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

[John Royall, Executive Director at JP Morgan]

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. So my first question is a follow-up on the LA refinery project. I know you had it as a year end start up, and it sounded like from Mary Anne's comments in the opener that, that project is getting maybe close to completion. So any more granular target on the start up timing would be helpful.

[John Royall, Executive Director at JP Morgan]

And then it seems like the project is more geared towards reliability and costs as well as compliance. So should we think of the 20% IRR target as not being highly exposed to the commodity and margin environment, therefore, maybe somewhat lower risk than your other two big projects?

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Yes. Thanks for the question, John. Yes, we're looking at you're right. We remain committed to that project and expect it to be complete, I'd say, closer to the end of the third, early fourth quarter. The 20% return is not subject to commodity price.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

One of the things that we try to do with this project, you may remember a while ago there was a NOx reduction emission requirement. I think it's rule eleven oh nine to be specific, which did which no longer allowed paper credits. It had to be absolute. So given what we believe to be one of the most competitive assets in the region, we said we would work to ensure that we had compliance. Then once we made that decision, we looked at how else we could optimize.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

So there were other changes that add efficiency and reduce overall cost. That's what's driving the 20% certainly not commodity price driven.

[John Royall, Executive Director at JP Morgan]

Great. Thank you. And then we're at the end of the call, so maybe I can sneak in a little bit more of a housekeeping question and happy to take it offline if it's too detailed. But we noticed a big step up in interest expense in 1Q and obviously there was some net issuance of debt at both the parent and the MBOX level. Is there anything one time in that line this quarter?

[John Royall, Executive Director at JP Morgan]

Or should we think about that as kind of a similar level going forward?

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

Yes, yes, probably similar. Hey, good morning, John. It's John Quaid. Sorry, I jumped right in. Probably the biggest thing if you're looking at that over time would be where as our cash balances move lower, you're seeing a little bit less of an offset from an interest income standpoint.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

You can see those details when we file our 10 Q later today. But outside of that, no one time items here in the quarter.

[John Royall, Executive Director at JP Morgan]

Thank you.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

You're welcome, John. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Matthew Blair with TPH. Your line is

[Matthew Blair, Managing Director at TPH&Co]

I had two questions on the RD side. One, are you still finding it economic to run vegetable oil based feeds? Or have you shifted entirely to low CI feeds? And then two, do you think that your RD segment is on track for an EBITDA positive quarter in Q2 as you roll off some of the challenges from Q1? It sounded like the feedstocks weren't quite optimized and you didn't capture all the 45Cs.

[Matthew Blair, Managing Director at TPH&Co]

So putting that behind you, is RD on track to be EBITDA positive in Q2?

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

Yes. Hey, morning, Matt. It's John. Let me try and take that maybe at a higher level. As I said, we're focused on the things we can control.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

What gets interesting with the feedstocks, Again, a lot of effects from 45Z kind of saying that imported UCO doesn't qualify. So that's affected some of the domestic feedstocks. And we've got teams that as you would expect are every day optimizing the best feedstocks we can push through that facility in Martinez and leverage its pretreatment unit. Look, it's a regulatory supported business. So I'm not going to go out on a limb and talk about profitability for Q2.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

We're going to focus on the things we can control and that's going to be driving the operational performance of the unit, getting the right slate through the pretreatment through the facility and meeting the demands of our customers. Mary, don't if you want

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Yes, Matt. Thanks. And I think John's done a nice job of giving you some color there. A few things that I would also comment on. Remember that, our decision to have a JV with Neste gives us a level of competitiveness we think now that the PTU unit is up and running as of the end of twenty twenty four.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Remember the requirements with Neste was their ability to bring advantaged feedstock. We certainly have that advantage as well. So, different sources of optimizing now around the PTU unit. And as you've heard us say, we continue to believe we are the most competitive relative, right, notwithstanding what the regulatory environment is going to do and we'll ensure that we have cost efficiency in that asset as we do in all of our assets. It is certainly one of our core principles when we think about operational performance and commercial excellence there.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

We'll continue to optimize, as John said. But it is something that we think is an opportunity for us now that the PTU is operating.

[Matthew Blair, Managing Director at TPH&Co]

Sounds good. Thanks for your comments. And I guess speaking of the regulatory picture, do you have any views on the upcoming RVO? It sounds like there might be a good chance that the D4 category gets moved up quite a bit. Would you expect D6s to decouple from D4s?

[Matthew Blair, Managing Director at TPH&Co]

And then finally, regarding the new California LCFS targets, do you think they'll be implemented in 2025? Or are we looking more like a 2026 start up date for that? Thank you.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Hey, Matt. Thank you. Thanks for your question. I'm going to ask Jim to provide as much color as we possibly can to many of your questions. As you know, the regulatory environment ebb and flowing there and some of those things we just don't have control over.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

We can certainly give you our views. But let me pass it to Jim and he'll provide some of the color that he can on where the specifics are.

[James Wilkins, Senior Vice President of Health, Environment, Safety & Security at Marathon Petroleum]

Hey, Matt. Still a lot of uncertainties on the LCFS timeline, but we anticipate CARB will issue that revised package to the Office of Administrative Law by the May. That will allow the Office of Administrative Law to make their final decision by the June. So there'll be a lot more clarity by the June. CARB's been pretty quiet in the public regarding the effective date if the administrative law approves the package.

[James Wilkins, Senior Vice President of Health, Environment, Safety & Security at Marathon Petroleum]

It could be anywhere from the beginning of second quarter or push all the way into 2026 as you suggest. They just have not been open about that.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Hopefully that's somewhat helpful and responsive there, Matt.

[Matthew Blair, Managing Director at TPH&Co]

Great. Thank you.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

You're welcome.

[Operator]

Thank you. And our last question will come from Jason Gabelman with TD Cowen. Your line is open.

[Jason Gabelman, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Yes. Hey, good morning. Thanks for squeezing me into the call. I wanted to go back to the $7,000,000,000 debt target that you mentioned. And I guess it's kind two parts.

[Jason Gabelman, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Given decline in prices, I think you could see another working capital headwind in the quarter. I know you suggested some of the 1Q working capital will unwind. But given that and potential for some volatility in the stock, given the macro environment, how willing are you, if at all, to go above the $7,000,000,000 debt target either to absorb working capital volatility and or support buybacks if the stock gets further dislocated?

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

Hey, Jason, it's John. Thanks for the question. I'll start and see if there's some other comments as well. Said, let me take the tail end of that and I think I'll circle back to some of Mary Anne's comments. We're focused on driving our performance and driving our cash flow and having that then drive our capital return, right.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

So we're in a nice position with midstream business, MPLX growing that business, that cash flow covering our capital, covering our dividend up at the MPC side. So we're performing, we're running our assets safely and reliably, we're getting all the value and then some that the market is providing. That's the cash we're going to look to use to return capital and do repurchases, not really looking to increase debt to do repurchases. That's not on my radar right now. Again, we'll manage the business with our revolvers, etcetera, as working capital moves.

[John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO at Marathon Petroleum]

That's what those are for. But really comfortable with that $7,000,000,000 of debt long term.

[Jason Gabelman, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Great. Thanks for that. My follow-up is just on midstream growth. Again, I know we've touched it quite a bit on the call, but I'm wondering if you could characterize the appetite to do larger deals as the market weakens here. You'd seem pretty bullish on the midstream growth outlook.

[Jason Gabelman, Analyst at TD Cowen]

You've done small deals that are enhancing the earnings growth of that business. So do you feel like it's more favorable to continue to do those smaller deals? Would you be open to a larger deal if the right one came across? Thanks.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

Yes. Thanks, Jason. And appreciate your comments on midstream growth. I would say as we continue to look at those opportunities, we're going to do it through the lens of strict capital discipline. We want to ensure that they have the ability to deliver mid teens returns that they are supportive of our mid single digit growth objective.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

And we certainly have the ability to execute. We hopefully have demonstrated to you over the last several quarters our ability to lean in both organically and inorganically to drive the wellhead to water strategy. I mentioned earlier the strength in the Utica and what we try to do there. We just announced a smaller one gathering crude oil, water and nat gas. So hopefully, we've demonstrated to you, the opportunities that we see and the ability to support it.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

But they will be through that strict capital discipline lens regardless of their size, Jason.

[Jason Gabelman, Analyst at TD Cowen]

Okay, great. Thanks for the answers.

[Maryann Mannen, President & CEO at Marathon Petroleum]

You're welcome. Thank you.

[Kristina Kazarian, Vice President, Investor Relations at Marathon Petroleum]

All right. If there are no further questions, thank you for your interest in Marathon. Should you have additional questions or want clarifications on topics discussed this morning, please contact us and our team will be available to help with your calls. Thank you for joining us today.

[Operator]

Thank you. That concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may disconnect at this time.

Participants

Executives

• Kristina Kazarian, Vice President, Investor Relations
• Maryann Mannen, President & CEO
• John Quaid, Executive VP & CFO
• Rick Hessling, Chief Commercial Officer
• James Wilkins, Senior Vice President of Health, Environment, Safety & Security

Analysts

• Neil Mehta, Analyst at Goldman Sachs
• Doug Leggate, Managing Director - Senior Research Analyst at Wolfe Research
• Manav Gupta, Executive Director at UBS Group
• Paul Cheng, Analyst at Scotiabank
• Theresa Chen, Analyst at Barclays Capital
• John Royall, Executive Director at JP Morgan
• Matthew Blair, Managing Director at TPH&Co
• Jason Gabelman, Analyst at TD Cowen