NuStar Energy (NS) Q2 2019 Earnings Call Transcript

NuStar Energy (NS -1.83%)
Q2 2019 Earnings Call
Aug 08, 2019, 11:00 a.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the NuStar Energy LP second-quarter 2019 earnings conference call. [Operator instructions] As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Tim Delagarza, manager of investor relations. Sir, you may begin.

Tim Delagarza -- Manager, Investor Relations

Good morning, and welcome to today's call. On the call today are Brad Barron, Nustar Energy LP's president and CEO; and Tom Shoaf, executive vice president and CFO, along with other members of our management team. Before we get started, we would like to remind you that during the course of this call, NuStar management will make statements about our current views concerning the future performance of Nustar that are forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to the various risks, uncertainties and assumptions described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. During the course of this call, we will also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered as alternatives to GAAP measures. Reconciliation of certain of these non-GAAP measures to U.S.

GAAP may be found in our earnings press release with additional reconciliations located on the financials page of the Investors section of our website at nustarenergy.com. With that, I will turn the call over to Brad Barron.

Brad Barron -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today. Before I turn the call over to Tom for more details. I want to take a few minutes to walk you through some highlights on NuStar's performance in the second quarter.

Our progress on our 2019 capital projects, as well as,what we expect for NuStar in the second half of 2019 and beyond. First, for the highlights on the strong results we generated in the second quarter. In a word, we were up over second-quarter 2018 on all of our key indicators. Total pipeline store revenue, up 7%.

Adjusted EBITDA, up 8%. Adjusted net income, up 85%. Adjusted EPU was up 20%, even with the impact of our merger to simplify our structure and eliminate our IDRs. DCF available limp -- common limited partners, up nearly 10%.

There was one key metric, however, that was down in the second quarter compared to Q2 2018. And I think we all agree that in this case, down is better than up. Our second-quarter debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 3.95 times, significantly lower than the 4.72 times we reported at the end of Q2 2018. In addition to the EBITDA increases I mentioned, another key factor in longer debt-to-EBITDA ratio this year is our sale of the St.

Eustatius operations. I'm very pleased that we're able to close on our sale at St. Eustatius at a healthy double-digit multiple in July. Net sales, along with EBITDA improvements for the quarter I reported earlier, has allowed us to lower our year-end 2019 debt-to-EBITDA projection to 4.1 times, improved from our prior guidance of 4.3 times, well under our revolver debt covenant of 5 times.

But more, the sale of St. Eustatius operations, not only lowered our leverage. It also simplified our business, reduce our risk profile, lowers our 2019 reliability capital, and allows us to focus 100% on our core business here in North America. Speaking of our core business, we've made great progress on our 2019 capital projects this summer.

And I want to congratulate and thank our project teams for what they've accomplished. As you know, we have capital projects in 2019, totaling between $500 million and $550 million, marking a high point in NuStar's historical capital spending. The majority of our 2019 spending earmarked for three things. The continued build-out of our Permian crude system, our project to deploy underutilized assets to supply refined products in Northern Mexico, and our Corporate Christy export project.

Starting with the Permian. We continue to expand our system to keep pace with our customers' needs. So far this year, we've expanded our capacity by 100,000 barrels per day from 460,000 barrels per day to 560,000 barrels per day. We've also added 25 additional well connections and completed connections of third-party pipelines and facilities to ensure we have the flexibilities our shippers need.

And our volumes continue to grow, and reflect our Permian team's hard work, the quality of our dedicated acreage, and the skill and experience of our producers. Our system throughput has now grown by amazing 200% since we acquired it in May 2017, far outpacing overall Permian Basin throughput, which has grown about 80%. We are currently moving nearly 400,000 barrels per day. And based on what we know from our producers forecast, we still expect to exit the year around 450,000 barrels per day.

As I've mentioned before, we work closely with our producers to understand their drilling plans and meet their needs. And contrary to some commentary we've heard about the Permian's overall production growth slowdown, our producers are proceeding full speed ahead on our dedicated acreage. Turning to our projects to supply refined products in Northern Mexico, our early service for Valero and Nuevo Laredo project is scheduled to go in service this quarter. Our Valley pipeline expansion is also on schedule to be in service this quarter, and we're pleased that our open season for the Valley line was fully subscribed.

Finally, turning to our Corpus Christi export project. We're happy to announce that the first stage of the project, which utilized our 16-inch pipeline in South Texas to receive and transport WTI from a connection to Cactus II to our Corpus Christi export facility is now complete, and ready for service. We're excited to report this starting as soon as early next week. Our Corpus Christi dock facility will be the first in the port of Corpus Christi export barrels to transport in South Texas via one of the three large Permian long-haul pipeline projects.

The second stage of our export project, a new eight-mile, 30-inch pipeline to transport WTI from a connection to Cactus II and Taft to our Corpus Christi terminal is on schedule to be in service this quarter. I would like to add, even in advance of completion of significant project, we are seeing volumes on our South Texas crude system, up to around 180,000 barrels per day, significantly above our minimum volume commitments of 106,000 barrels per day for the system, and near the record volumes we transported on that system back in 2015. And that increased pipeline volume has also increased utilization of our Corpus Christi terminal storage. In addition, we now expect to connect our South Texas crude system to Gray Oak at Highway 97, which should bring additional volumes to our system as early in the beginning of the fourth quarter.

We expect our strategic capital spending to peak in the third quarter as we get -- as we begin completing these projects. Moving to our expectations for the full year. We continue to expect 2019 adjusted EBITDA in the range of $665 million to $715 million, and we now expect to finish 2019 with our DCF coverage in the range of 1.3 times to 1.4 times, also improved from our prior guidance of 1.2 to 1.3 times. Beyond 2019, while we won't be able to provide the specifics on 2020 until later in the year, I can tell you that next year, as the cash flows from those completed projects ramp up fully.

We are also planning to spend significantly less strategic capital, which we expect will lead to another solid year. In 2020, we plan to execute on a smaller scale capital program on low cost, low multiple projects to enhance our existing assets while providing world-class service across our footprint. We continue to build financial flexibility, improve our debt metrics, and strengthen our balance sheet. For the remainder of this year, we are focused on completing our projects and operating efficiently and safely.

So we can continue to generate the solid consistent growth demonstrated by our second-quarter results. Now, I'll turn it over to Tom for more details on those results.

Tom Shoaf -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Brad. Good morning, everyone. Before I get started, I just want to have a few housekeeping items related to our sale of the St. Eustatius operations.

First, because of that sale, the St. Eustatius operation results for all periods presented in our earnings tables are now reported as discontinued operations. Further, discontinued operations for the prior-year periods includes the results of our European operations, which were sold in late 2018. Our reported second-quarter results, which include adjusted net income, adjusted EPU, adjusted EBITDA, DCF, and related metrics include results for both continuing and discontinuing operations.

Excluding these measures is a noncash impairment charge totaling $8.4 million related to our St. Eustatius divestiture. For the second quarter of 2019, we generated adjusted EBITDA of $169 million, up $12 million over the second-quarter 2018 adjusted EBITDA of $157 million. Adjusted net income for the second quarter of 2019 was $54 million, up $25 million or 85% over the adjusted net income of $29 million in the second quarter of 2018.

Second-quarter 2019 adjusted earnings per unit was $0.18 compared to adjusted EPU of $0.15 for the second-quarter 2018. Second-quarter 2019 DCF available to common limited partners was $90 million, up $8 million compared to DCF available to common limited partners of $82 million for the second quarter of 2018, and our distribution coverage ratio for this common limited Partners was a strong 1.39 times. Second-quarter 2019 EBITDA in our pipeline segment was $120 million, up $18 million or 18% from the second quarter of 2018 due to continued throughput volume ramp in our Permian crude system, increased crude volumes on our Ardmore system resulting from our recent connection to the Sunrise pipeline at Wichita falls. For segment reporting, we exclude the divested St.

Eustatius and European operations from all prior periods for an apples-to-apples comparison of our results between periods. Our second-quarter 2019 EBITDA in our storage segment was $62 million comparable to second-quarter 2018 EBITDA. While we have seen increased storage and dock fee revenues at our St. -- I'm sorry, at our Corpus Christi North Beach terminal from increased quarterly volume receipts on our South Texas crude oil system, as well as, the start-up of revenue from some recently completed West Coast biofuel storage projects.

Those increases were offset by a one-time accounting entry related to contract termination in the second quarter of 2018. Second-quarter 2019 EBITDA in our fuels marketing segment was $3 million, essentially flat compared to the second quarter of 2018. On May 16th, we raised $500 million by issuing 6% seven-year senior notes. This bond offering was significantly overscribed -- subscribed, and we used a portion of these proceeds to refinance $350 million of notes that matured in 2018.

And for general corporate purposes, including funding our capital spending program and repayment of our outstanding borrowings on our revolving credit facility. Our June 30th debt balance was $3.5 billion, and our debt-to-EBITDA ratio was 3.95 times, significantly below our credit agreement covenant threshold of 5 times. Turning to our projections for full-year 2019, which now include our recent sale of the St. Eustatius operations.

We continue to expect NuStar's 2019 adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $665 million to $715 million. With regard to 2019 capital spending, Brad mentioned that we continue to expect $500 million to $550 million of spending for strategic and other capital in 2019, which is primarily made up of approximately $175 million on the Permian crude system, $150 million for the Northern Mexico refined products supply projects, and about $105 million for our Corpus Christi North Beach terminal export projects. Regarding our reliability spending for 2019, we now expect to spend $60 million to $80 million, which is lower than our prior estimate range. Based on these projections, as Brad noted in his remarks, we now expect our common unit distribution coverage ratio for 2019 to be in the range of 1.3 to 1.4 times, and our year-end debt-to-EBITDA ratio to be around 4.1 times.

And with that, I'll turn the call back over to Brad for his closing remarks.

Brad Barron -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Tom, and thank you all for listening today, and giving me the opportunity to talk to you about what our employees have accomplished so far in 2019. We look forward to reporting more good news as the year progresses, more positive results, more projects completed, and more information about the growth and improvement we planned for 2020. And with that, I'll open it up for Q&A.

Questions & Answers:

Operator

Thank you. [Operator instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Jeremy Tonet with JP Morgan. Your line is open.

Unknown speaker

Hi, this is Joe for Jeremy. I wanted to ask, first, just kind of accounting-wise the $62 million, I think you mentioned for storage EBITDA. Is that before or after the $8 million impairment for St. Eustatius?

Brad Barron -- President and Chief Executive Officer

No, it doesn't. It doesn't include that. That's not there. No, $62 million does not include the $8 million.

Unknown speaker

OK. So then including that, it would be $8 million, is that correct?

Brad Barron -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, that's been moved, that's down in all the --

Tom Shoaf -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

In all the results, that $8 million relate to St. Eustatius and all the results we're seeing in stations are included in a line call discontinued operations, none of the St. Eustatius results are included in the storage segment results, store-segment earnings for either period.

Unknown speaker

OK. That makes sense. That's helpful. And then also, I wanted to ask with Capline Reversal proceeding.

Could you just kind of talk about the opportunities you're seeing at your same St. James terminal and the possible size and timing of any expansion you may see there?

Danny Oliver -- Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Development

Yeah, Joe, this is Danny Oliver. We're working on a project right now to get our portion, our connection there reversed. We plan on being in service at the time that they've said, Capline will be reversed. We've got many customers in the facility that are interested in that connection, and we expect that it will increase throughputs at the terminal, probably very significantly.

And we'll just continue to monitor that interest and look for opportunities, possibly even to build more storage if the volumes come.

Unknown speaker

Great. That's helpful. That's all for me.Thank you. [Operator instructions] Our next question comes from Ryan Levine from Citi.

Your line is open.

Ryan Levine -- Citi -- Analyst

Good morning.

Brad Barron -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Good morning.

Ryan Levine -- Citi -- Analyst

Can you -- what are the volumes that you're expecting to come off of Gray Oak. I think in your prepared remarks, you mentioned some connectivity that you're building there?

Tom Shoaf -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, we've got connectivity our -- some of our customers want that connection. We're expecting at least initially, the bulk of the volume coming in from the Permian to come in on the Cactus line with one of our customers. We don't have a specific volume that we're anticipating coming over there, but they will supplement their exports with volumes off of Gray Oak.

Ryan Levine -- Citi -- Analyst

What's the capacity that you're able to take up on Gray Oak?

Tom Shoaf -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Through this connection because it flows through our Eagle Ford system, we could probably run 50,000 to 75,000 barrels a day through that system or from that system, from that point.

Ryan Levine -- Citi -- Analyst

OK. Thanks. And then in terms of the reliability capex, what's driving the lower numbers that you're guiding to?

Brad Barron -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Pulling St. Eustatius out.

Ryan Levine -- Citi -- Analyst

OK. And then to your point about your leverage is coming down, you're expecting more -- or consolidated free cash flow for next year. Are you more open to strategic acquisitions and is there certain types of assets that you're more focused on today?

Brad Barron -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I'd say, right now, we're really focused on completing our projects, lowering our leverage. We've got great business. And so we want to continue to grow our business and our organic opportunities. At this point, look better than anything we see out in the market.

Ryan Levine -- Citi -- Analyst

OK. Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. And I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to Tim Delagarza for closing remarks.

Tim Delagarza -- Manager, Investor Relations

Thank you, Sidney. We would once again like to thank everyone for joining us on the call today. If anyone has any additional questions, please feel free to contact NuStar Investor Relations. Thanks, again, and have a great day.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 19 minutes

Call participants:

Tim Delagarza -- Manager, Investor Relations

Brad Barron -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Tom Shoaf -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Unknown speaker

Danny Oliver -- Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Development

Ryan Levine -- Citi -- Analyst

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