Summit Midstream Partners Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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August 12, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Negative Sentiment: Q2 adjusted EBITDA of $61 million came in slightly below expectations due to well underperformance, completion delays and lower commodity prices, leading to a forecast at the low end of guidance.
  • Positive Sentiment: Connected roughly 47 new wells in 1H and have four active drilling rigs, positioning volumes to recover in 2026.
  • Positive Sentiment: Executed a new 10-year extension on Williston gathering agreements, boosting weighted average contract life from 4 to 8 years and offering rate relief to customers.
  • Positive Sentiment: Signed a 10-year precedent agreement for $100 k/day of firm Double E capacity tied to a new Lea County processing plant, targeting Q4 2026 in-service.
  • Positive Sentiment: Added to the Russell 3000, 2000, and Microcap indices, expected to enhance visibility, liquidity and broaden the shareholder base.
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Earnings Conference Call
Summit Midstream Partners Q2 2025
00:00 / 00:00

There are 4 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Summit Midstream Corporation Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press 11 on your telephone.

Operator

You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To destroy your question, please press 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker for today, Randall Burton. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thanks, operator, and good morning, everyone. If you don't already have a copy of our earnings release, please visit our website at summitmidstream.com, where you'll find it on the homepage, events and presentations section, or quarterly results section. With me today to discuss our 2025 financial and operating results is Heath Denneke, our president, chief executive officer, and chairman Bill Malt, our chief financial officer, along with other members of our senior management team. Before we start, I'd like to remind you that our discussion today may contain forward looking statements. These statements may include, but are not limited to, our estimates of future volumes, operating expenses, and capital expenditures.

Speaker 1

They may also include statements concerning anticipated cash flow, liquidity, business strategy, other plans and objectives for future operations. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward looking statements are reasonable, we can provide no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Please see SMC's annual report on Form 10 ks for the fiscal year ended 12/31/2024, which the company filed with the SEC on 03/11/2025, as well as our other SEC filings for a listing of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expected results. Please also note that on this call, use the terms EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, distributable cash flow, and free cash flow. These are non GAAP financial measures, and we have provided reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in our most recent earnings release.

Speaker 1

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Heath.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Randall, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us on the call today. So it's been an active first half of the year as we continue to see strong development activity behind our footprint, as highlighted by roughly 47 new well connections and continued development from our customer base. We currently have three active drilling rigs behind our systems with a fourth expected to come online in the Arkoma later this month. We reported second quarter adjusted EBITDA of $61,000,000 which came in slightly below expectations primarily due to initial underperformance of some wells in the DJ, delays in timing of certain well completions and lower realized commodity prices in the DJ as well.

Speaker 2

As we mentioned in our first quarter earnings call, we had some customers defer development given the drop in crude prices earlier this year. And while those prices have rebounded from the lows earlier in the quarter, these customers have continued to hold to that deferred timing. So as a result, we expect to end the year towards the low end of our adjusted our original adjusted EBITDA guidance range. The good news however is that the total well count for the year remains roughly the same and in line with our original expectations. So we should see volumes recover as we move into 2026.

Speaker 2

On the commercial front, we executed a new ten year extension of certain gathering agreements with a key customer in the Williston, which significantly increasing or increases our weighted average contract life from four to eight years and further demonstrates the durability of our business and the long term value our assets provide to the customers. As part of this extension, we agreed to offer some rate relief in a particular area with significant remaining inventory, which improves our customers drilling economics and further incentivizes them to drill the inventory. We also picked up additional acreage, an additional acreage package in close proximity to our existing system, expanding our overall inventory in the basin. In the Arkoma, our anchor customer is preparing to kick off a 20 well development program with completions expected to begin in the fourth quarter and continue through mid-twenty twenty six. This won't have a big impact on 2025 earnings, but these new wells will represent a sizable volume catalyst for our system in 2026 and will also provide some additional insight into a pretty exciting dry gas development opportunity adjacent to our existing footprint.

Speaker 2

The rig should show up in the third quarter and we will keep you all updated on how things are progressing. And then in the Permian, I'm happy to share that we have signed a new ten year proceeding agreement for $100,000,000 a day of firm capacity on E E, which is tied to an expansion of a processing plant in Lea County, New Mexico. The agreement is contingent on the customer's final investment decision to build a new plant but they are well underway with permitting and have already and already have the plant in and equipment in inventory. We are currently expecting a Q4 twenty twenty six in service date for this new connection. And this is a great step forward to fill up the remaining unsubscribed capacity on E E and the associated plan lateral extends the Double E system to additional nearby processing plants in Lea County that could be connected in the future.

Speaker 2

And finally, on the IR front, we are pleased to be added to the Russell's 3,000, the Russell 2,000 and the Russell Microcap indices during the June reconstitution. This is a milestone that reflects the progress we've made over the past several years to strengthen the business, convert to a corporation and broaden our exposure in the public equity markets. We believe this inclusion will enhance our visibility among institutional investors, increase passive investment, improve liquidity in our stock and broaden our overall shareholder base over time. With that, I'll turn the call over to Bill to walk through the financial and segment level results in more detail.

Speaker 3

Thanks Heath, and good morning, everyone. Summit reported second quarter adjusted EBITDA of 61,100,000.0 and capital expenditures of $26,400,000 including approximately $5,500,000 of maintenance CapEx, with the majority of growth CapEx spent in the Rockies and Mid Con regions on pad connections and compressor relocations from the Piance to the Arkoma. As we've mentioned previously, we identified an attractive project to move owned latent compression from the Piance And DJ Basins to the Arkoma to replace leased units, and we kicked off that project in the second quarter. We expect to have all the units in service by year end and anticipate an increase in EBITDA margin beginning in the 2026 as a result. With respect to SMC's balance sheet, we had net debt of approximately $944,000,000 and our available borrowing capacity at the end of the quarter totaled $359,000,000 which included $1,000,000 of undrawn letters of credit.

Speaker 3

Now turning to the segments. The Rockies segment, which includes our DJ and Williston Basin systems, generated adjusted EBITDA of $25,200,000 an increase of $400,000 from the first quarter, primarily due to a 5.4% increase in liquids volume throughput and a 14% increase in natural gas volume throughput following the acquisition of the Moonrise Midstream business on 03/10/2025. This volume growth was partially offset by a reduction in realized commodity prices, lower margin mix and increased operating expenses in the DJ Basin, primarily due to timing of spend and onetime items. Relative to the first quarter, realized residue gas prices decreased approximately 40%, realized NGL prices decreased approximately 10%, and realized condensate prices decreased approximately 15%. These price changes had an estimated adjusted EBITDA impact of approximately $2,000,000 relative to the first quarter.

Speaker 3

Volumes on Summit's legacy DJ Basin system, excluding incremental volumes from the Moonrise acquisition, were flat quarter over quarter. However, margin mix declined due to higher volume contribution from lower margin contracts, resulting in an estimated $1,000,000 adjusted EBITDA impact. Additionally, segment operating and general and administrative expenses increased by approximately $4,500,000 relative to the first quarter. This was partly due to the acquisition of Moonlightis Midstream, but also included approximately $1,000,000 of timing related items and one time costs, which we would expect to claw back here in the second half of the year. Operationally, we remained active during the quarter, connecting 38 new wells, and there are currently two rigs running and approximately 85 docks behind the systems.

Speaker 3

The Permian Basin segment, which includes our 70% interest in the Double E pipeline, reported adjusted EBITDA of $8,300,000 a slight increase relative to the first quarter, primarily due to higher volume throughput. Double E averaged six eighty two million cubic feet per day of throughput during the second quarter. The PON segment recorded adjusted EBITDA of 10,500,000 a decrease of $1,300,000 relative to the first quarter, primarily due to higher operating expenses and a 1.1% decrease in volume throughput. The Mid Con segment reported adjusted EBITDA of $24,900,000 an increase of 2,400,000 compared to the first quarter, primarily due to a 2.9% increase in volume throughput and higher natural gas sales. The throughput increase was driven by three new wells in the Arkoma and six in the Barnett, partially offset by natural production declines.

Speaker 3

In July, we connected six new wells in the Arkoma and four new wells in the Barnett, which had, been held in DUC inventory since 2023. We continue to see strong well results in the Mid Con, exceeding our internal expectations. And as Heath already mentioned, we're extremely excited about the incremental development expected in the Arkoma later this year and into 2026. There's currently one rig running in the Barnett with another expected in the Arkoma later in the third quarter and 17 DUCs behind the system. And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Heath for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Will. So look, in closing, while we expect to end the year towards the low end of our original adjusted EBITDA guidance range, we see this as primarily timing related and we remain very optimistic about the outlook for the company. Our development activity across our footprint remains strong and we're excited about the commercial progress we're making in the Rockies, the E E and Mid Con segments. We remain confident in the underlying fundamentals of our operations, the strength of our asset base and the continued organic and M and A growth opportunities ahead. So with that operator, I'd like to open up the call for questions.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press 11 on your telephone. You will hear that automated message advising your hand is raised. We also ask that you please wait for your name and company to be announced before proceeding with your question. One moment while we compile the Q and A roster.

Operator

And at this time, I'm not seeing any questions in the queue. So that does conclude today's conference call. Thank you so much for joining. You may all disconnect.

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