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Tallgrass Energy, LP (TGE)
Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call
Jan. 31, 2019, 4:30 p.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
See all our earnings call transcripts.
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good dad, everyone, and welcome to the Tallgrass Energy Fourth Quarter 2018 Earnings Call. Today's Call is being recorded.
At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Nate Lien. Please go ahead, sir.
Nathan Lien -- Investor Relations
Thank you, Kristy. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining the Tallgrass Energy Quarterly Earnings Call as we discuss TGE results from the fourth quarter of 2018, which were released through our press release this morning.
Joining me on the call this afternoon are David Dehaemers, President and Chief Executive Officer; Bill Moler, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Gary Brauchle, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Before turning the call over to David, let me remind you that this event is being recorded and a replay will be available for a limited time on our website. Additionally, our comments today will include forward-looking statements and estimates. These forward-looking comments are subject to various risks and uncertainties and reflect management's views as of January 31, 2018. Please refer to our filings with the SEC, which are available on our website, which provide discussions of factors that may cause actual results to differ from management's projections, forecasts, estimates and expectations.
Note that except to the extent required by law, Tallgrass undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement. Please also refer to our earnings release and website for reconciliations between the non-GAAP financial measures referenced in this presentation and the most comparable financial measure or measures calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP.
With that, let me now turn the call over to David for his opening remarks.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Good afternoon, everybody, and thanks for joining our Tallgrass Energy Fourth Quarter Earnings Call. I know many of you are anxious to hear about the Blackstone transaction and we will get to that in as much detail as we can in a moment. But first I want to talk about our financial performance in order to highlight the hard work our Tallgrass employees put in in each day to produce outstanding results for our Company. As you saw from the headline numbers in our press release, it was another excellent quarter of operational and financial results, which exceeded just about everyone's EBITDA estimates and solidified results above the high end of our 2018 financial guidance.
In addition, 2018 was marked by a number of other notable accomplishments including the merger of TEGP and TEP, which set the midstream standard for fairness for LP and GP equity owners alike and fully aligned the interests of all of our stakeholders. In 2018, we continue to responsibly grow the Company through accretive acquisitions and organic growth projects and we received investment-grade credit ratings at both Tallgrass and REX. Importantly, during 2018, we announced a number of projects under development which we will for -- which will further position Tallgrass as one of the leading midstream energy infrastructure companies in North America.
Now let's review the fourth quarter financial results, which were the catalyst for our dividend increase. Adjusted EBITDA was $241 million, cash available for dividends was $199 million, producing a robust dividend coverage ratio of 1.36 times for the fourth quarter. This performance drove TGE's 14th consecutive quarterly dividend increase. Again, I do this every time but you know we originally started out on an annualized $0.53 and at IPO about three and a half years ago. Now we're at 2.08, again almost four times in three and a half years, not too bad.
That quarterly dividend increased -- increases to $0.50 -- $0.52 per share or $2.08 annualized which is a sequential increase of 2% from the third quarter of 2018 and an increase of 41.5% over the fourth quarter of 2017. Before I turn the call over to Gary, I'd like to briefly address the Blackstone announcement. Gary will also comment on some financial considerations related to the transaction in his remarks, but we can touch on it now. Blackstone is a large open-ended fund dedicated to infrastructure with deep access to capital. It's also a firm that takes the long view and builds to last. We like to think they have deep value view of Tallgrass. We believe all these attributes bode well for Tallgrass as we continue our transition from what began as a high growth MLP into an established large midstream infrastructure company.
A company with a number of transformative projects announced under development and on the horizon. These projects will likely require external capital in the coming years and Blackstone has expressed a keen desire to invest in these type of projects for the long term. This is also a positive transaction for all Tallgrass stakeholders including our employees for whom we expect business as usual in the short term and more professional opportunities again for the employees in the future as we continue to grow. The transaction with Blackstone at its core investors will transfer control of the general partner to Blackstone and effectively replace Kelso and EMG's Class B ownership.
The portion of the management team's ownership and Tallgrass will also be purchased in the transaction and all active members of the team will continue to have significant interest going forward. The team will stay on in their current roles and I plan to remain CEO at least through the end of 2019. The transaction requires no major regulatory approvals and we expect closing in late February or March and I should amend that it will be kind of mid march to the end of March. We expect no immediate changes to the independent board members and the publicly held Class A shares of TEG will remain outstanding and continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Gary.
Gary J. Brauchle -- Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Dave, and good afternoon. Moving to the segment performance for the quarter. The natural gas transportation segment produced adjusted EBITDA of $124 million in the fourth quarter of '18 which is an increase of $3 million from the third quarter of '18. The primary driver was again higher distributions from our 75% interest in REX resulting mainly from lower interest expense at REX due to the retirement of $550 million of debt at the REX level in July.
For the crude oil transportation segment, adjusted EBITDA was $88 million for the fourth quarter matching the adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of '18. The excellent performance from Pony Express was again the result of a strong continued volumetric throughput on the system. As you may have seen in our earnings release, volumes for the quarter averaged 336 barrels a day and about 300 -- excuse me, 366,000 barrels a day for the quarter and about 336,000 barrels a day for the year. Again let me repeat that to make it clear, Quarter volumes were 366,000 barrels a day in 2018 or 336,000 barrels a day. The gathering, processing and terminaling segment generated an adjusted EBITDA of $29 million for the fourth quarter, more than doubling the performance from the third quarter, as we began to more fully realize the growth from the water assets that we've been investing in over the course of 2018. Before I get into our capital structure update, I'll just note for you that we expect to file our Form 10-K with the SEC and also make available GEP and REX financial statements all on an audited basis on Friday, February 8th.
Now moving on to capital structure, at the end of the fourth quarter, our leverage was approximately 3.7 times based on the trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA as calculating according to our credit agreements. When including our 75% share of REX's 2.018 billion in debt, our consolidated leverage for the quarter would have been approximately 4.8 times. While these metrics have increased over the past couple of quarters, they remain investment grade metrics and importantly we expect our leverage ratio to decrease throughout 2019, as our adjusted EBITDA is expected to notably grow throughout the year.
As for liquidity, today, we have undrawn revolver capacity of over 1.0 billion, representing ample liquidity to fund organic growth and small acquisitions. One other item of note with respect to REX's capital structure. REX had a bond maturity on January 15th of this year and the amount of $525 million. As we prepared to refinance at maturity in late '18, bond spreads moved materially in the wrong direction and we elected not to issue at rates so unfavorable for REX.
We instead arranged a 364-day term loan with five very supportive banks at attractive terms to REX which will allow us timing flexibility for a more permanent refinancing of that maturity. We will continue to monitor the market in the coming weeks and months for the right opportunity to do just that.
Moving on to our 2019 financial guidance. Tallgrass Energy expects adjusted EBITDA of $965 million to $1.035 billion. Cash available for dividends of $760 million to $835 million and dividend coverage in excess of 1.25 times for the year ending 2019. Additionally, we expect dividend growth of 6% to 8 % for TGE, not the cut in distributions like some may speculate. And organic growth CapEx in excess of $300 million. This does not include other material projects we are currently working on such as Seahorse, PLT or Pony Express expansion.
As Dave mentioned earlier, I'll make a few comments about the financial impacts of the Blackstone transaction. There'll be also an opportunity for follow-on questions in the Q and A, but beyond that Nate and I will not really be able to provide additional details that we suspect many would like and many have already called to obtain.
The transaction triggers a change of control related to our revolving credit facility for which we will be seeking a simple majority consent vote from our existing lenders. It does not trigger a change in control in the Tallgrass bond indentures unless there is a ratings downgrade by two of the agencies within 60 days of the closing of the transaction for the 2024 and 2028 notes and a downgrade by all three of the agencies for the 2023 notes. While we do not expect downgrades of Tallgrass related to this transaction, I could however foresee a scenario where it makes sense to consent -- to seek a consent from Tallgrass bondholders as a precautionary measure.
As for REX, the transaction does not trigger a change in control in the REX revolving credit facility, the newly issued short-term loan, and since the REX indentures are investment grade indentures, there is no change in control concept in those documents.
And with that, now I'll turn it over to Bill for commercial updates.
Bill Moler -- Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Thank you, Gary, and good afternoon, everyone. There was another positive operational and commercial quarter for Tallgrass, as we closed the acquisition of the strategic water assets in the Bakken, closed the land purchase for the Plaquemines Liquids Terminal in Louisiana, signed an agreement with potential anchor shipper on the Seahorse, continued to build out the numerous organic growth projects, advanced recontracting discussions on both REX and Pony, and announced a partnership with Kinder Morgan to provide much needed, cost-effective, incremental crude oil takeaway capacity from multiple supply basins to Cushing.
In the gas transportation segment, we continued to see strong volumes on REX, as the west end averaged right about a billion cubic feet a day and the east end averaged approximately 2.7 billion cubic feet a day during the quarter, totaling an average of approximately 3.65 billion cubic feet a day during the quarter. For 2018, the west end averaged approximately 1.4 billion cubic feet a day and the east end averaged approximately 2.6 billion cubic feet a day for a total of approximately 4 billion cubic feet per day. The decrease in volumes from quarter three to quarter four is primarily a result of weather staying in the Rockies and on the West Coast and the ongoing West Coast pipeline outage, which has resulted in increased volumes of gas flowing from the Rockies to the West Coast.
We see these lower volumes as a temporary phenomenon which has not changed our reconstructing outlook for -- and confidence in REX. During the quarter, we made a number of incremental positive steps with new and existing customers toward clarifying the long-term west end contract deck. So stay tuned for a more fulsome update later this year. As we have previously mentioned, we continue to believe that the Cheyenne connector and Cheyenne Hub projects will play a key role in providing incremental volumes into the west end of REX.
We expect a good portion of those volumes will ultimately flow on REX through contracts with the Cheyenne connector shippers or other shippers that may purchase gas at the Cheyenne Hub. The projects received their environmental assessments in December and continued to progress on schedule with an expected in-service date in the fourth quarter of 2019.
In the crude oil transportation segment, we've recently closed the expansion of our joint venture with Silver Creek Midstream, which will operate under the name Powder River Gateway. Tallgrass now owns 51% and operates the JV, which owns the Powder River Express Pipeline, the Iron Horse pipeline and terminal assets at Guernsey that will serve both pipelines. We continue to see the Powder River Basin as an important area of current and future growth for our crude oil transportation business. In addition to our enhanced PRB footprint -- Powder River footprint, on January 22nd, we announced an exclusive agreement with Kinder Morgan to jointly develop additional crude oil takeaway capacity from the Powder River, DJ, and Williston basins and for Western Canadian production.
The proposed venture would include both existing and newly constructed assets with Tallgrass contributing its Pony Express system. Kinder Morgan contributing portions of its WIC and Cheyenne Plains systems which would be converted to crude oil service .
An additional 200 miles of new pipeline would be constructed to provide crude oil deliveries into Cushing. The combined system is expected to be capable of delivering up to 800,000 barrels per day of light crude oil from Wyoming and Colorado and 150,000 barrels per day of heavy crude oil all to Cushing.
While we expect the total capacity could be 950,000 barrels. The commitments we need in order to get to FID are far less than the 550,000 barrels of incremental capacity for the project. In Q4, the average daily throughput on Pony was a robust 366,000 barrels per day with an average of 336,000 barrels per day for all of 2018. These figures in combination with recent contracts we have signed on Pony an agreement to build another significant lateral on the DJ to connect additional volumes, continued to support not only our ongoing recontracting discussions but also the additional expansion plans being proposed and of course the Seahorse and PLT projects. At Tallgrass midstream, our gathering and processing margins continue to grow in the fourth quarter and we recently signed a new 15-year agreement with a significant producer to gather and process their future volumes.
Turning to BNN Water Solutions. As I mentioned earlier, in December, we closed the acquisition of the Bakken water assets from NGL and our combined North Dakota systems are performing well, as you can see from the strong results in our gathering, processing and terminaling segment. Water Services continues to see strong organic growth opportunities and we are actively pursuing several exciting opportunities, which would further expand our footprint in basins we currently serve and give us entry into new basins.
Finally, for a quick update on the Seahorse and PLT projects. We continue to have productive conversations with potential Seahorse shippers, and as we announced in November, we have one potential anchor shipper signed, which has continued to generate additional interest and momentum for the project. The stand-alone open season for Seahorse was recently extended to February 15th and the joint open season with Pony Express was extended to February 28.
With regard to PLT in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, in November, the land acquisition was closed and we are in ongoing discussions with a number of potential counterparties that are looking to anchor the project.
And now David will conclude our remarks ahead of Q&A.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Bill. As we communicate another outstanding quarter and full year for 2018, our team has already been hard at work on delivering for our partners again in 2019. I should say partners/shareholders. Our 2019 financial guidance that we just announced coupled with a new partnership with Blackstone are just a couple of reasons why Tallgrass future is so promising. In the past six years, we have grown from a small primarily natural gas transportation, MLP, into a large diversified midstream energy infrastructure company that is on the verge of taking the next step in our life cycle.
Fueling the next phase of growth will be the transformative projects we have under development such as Seahorse, PLT and the partnership with Kinder Morgan. Blackstone's long-term vision and deep capital will lend further strength to our strategy. Most importantly, I believe we have the brightest, hardest working and most efficient team in the industry that will continue to lead and transform this company going forward. As always, thank you to our employees for what they do every day to keep themselves and our communities safe and our assets operating reliably. Thank you as well to our shareholders for their confidence in investing in TGE and to everyone on this call for your interest in our company.
And with that, operator, we will turn the call back to you to begin the Q&A portion of our call.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And we'll go first to Dennis Coleman from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is open.
Dennis Coleman -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess if we can start with the Blackstone transaction and you know I guess the broad question is, what changes in strategy if any distribution policy, those kind of things that we might expect as a result, if you can talk about that at this early state. And then also it seems like you're indicating that they're interested in funding a good bit of the growth projects that you do see on the horizon if you can talk about that a little bit as well.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, is this Dennis?
Dennis Coleman -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
It is. Yes.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Dennis. Thank you for the questions. So you know relative to Blackstone, so that we expect that to close in March. You know Kelso and EMG today have four Board seats, between they have two each. So that's four, Bill and I sit on the Board and we have three independent board directors. You know strategy has been set all along by not only the management team, Bill, I, Gary, Chris, et cetera, a much broader team than just us, but also clearly our board of directors. Really don't see anything changing there just instead of having two Kelso and two EMG guys are going to have four Blackstone folks which is great.
You know in terms of distribution, nothing has changed, you saw our guidance for 2019. They're actually getting to the closing of the transaction in March, do not anticipate any of that changing any of that. In terms of funding, yeah, you know this investment by my way of understanding would be in Blackstone's new. The fund that they believe they're going to raise $40 billion in which is their infrastructure fund. And so we've gotten to know those guys. We believe Tallgrass is a platform for them relative to investing capital. So that's kind of how I would answer that.
Dennis Coleman -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Great. Thanks for hanging on all those. I guess just as a follow-up, in terms of structuring the transaction, I just want to make sure I understand. So they are buying the general -- 100% of the general partner interest and so they effectively have control of Tallgrass. Is that sort of the traditional general partner control, because I've had some questions about that and whether that structure had gone away at some point?
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, that structure has not gone away. I mean just to kind of take you through it, if the transaction closes, Blackstone would be buying all of the private Tallgrass Holdco, which is the general partner that you speak of. I probably take a little bit of exception relative to control. The control of the Company is by the Board of Directors. And again, I indicated to you, you know, we have a Board of nine, Bill and I sit on it, we have three Independents as required by the New York Stock Exchange that has up to five and then we would have the four Blackstone folks, so it's nine. The Company is controlled by the Board. Blackstone in addition to buying the General Partner is pretty much taking out Kelso and EMG relative to their investment and the B units that are there and then management also to some degree is participating that. I would add that again repeating from our call -- you know, from our prepared comments, management that is still staying here which is everybody and that has been investors in the past who still have fairly significant investments.
Dennis Coleman -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Great. Thanks again for that. And then Just I guess the last one. Was there any consideration about taking out the public unit holders at the offer price, Blackstone have any interest in that?
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
I don't want to answer for them, the transaction kind of speaks for itself. So, I may ask Moler a question to ask them. We would like everybody to view the transaction at this point if it -- when it closes in March as if though this is just a infrastructure/private equity group replacing other private equities that have been our partners for the last seven years. The Kelso and EMG relationship has been fantastic. Those guys supported us with big checks six and a half years ago. They have made a great investment. As you know, most private equity funds have a limited life and while we weren't necessarily at the end of theirs, seven years is a fairly long in investment for them and so this turned out to be the right transaction at the right time. One interesting thing about the Blackstone Infrastructure Fund is it's kind of open-ended fund and it's very long tailed. So you know the questions that we have gotten over the years of how long it will Kelso and EMG stay in as your financial partners, we don't expect to have that here, because their fund is kind of indefinite time frame. So Dennis, I hope that answered your question and really appreciate it.
Dennis Coleman -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
It does. I'll get out of the way. I'm sure others have others. So thanks for the answers. I really appreciate it.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
You bet. Thanks for your time.
Operator
And we'll take our next question from Colton Bean from Tudor, Pickering, Holt. Your line is open.
Colton Bean -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
Good afternoon. So, I'll just follow up with one on the deal and then hopefully switch over to OPs here. But just wanted to touch on the announcement. Is there any interest in participating in Blackstone's existing infrastructure assets and kind of general thoughts along those lines?
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, you know my understanding from getting to know these guys is that the -- I'm suspecting the existing infrastructure assets you're talking about perhaps are their minority interest in Rover, et cetera. Those are in different funds there. That creates issues internally for them and then obviously you know to the extent there would never be anything where those might come into Tallgrass. We have -- we would have to go through our conflicts committee and kind of arm's length type transactions, et cetera.
Blackstone does also own private pipelines, again typically in different funds and there would be a number of hurdles that they would have to jump through being in a different fund as well as our Company kind of having the independent directors basically deciding what is a fair transaction.
Colton Bean -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
That's helpful. Can you assist in regard to the JV announced with KMI, any additional commentary you could offer on sourcing barrels from both the Bakken and WCSP would be particularly helpful, that expectations may be pulling barrels off express or kind of how are you guys thinking about that?
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. I'll let Bill take that one.
Bill Moler -- Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
It's a good question and the answer is off of express barrels in and around Casper, wherever we can find a heavy barrel, we're proposing to have route out and we're in discussions with folks in Calgary and others about accomplishing that waiting.
Colton Bean -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
Got it, just the last one if I could. Gary, maybe on the processing logistics segment, any additional breakout you could provide on the deficiency payments there would be great. Appreciate the time.
Gary J. Brauchle -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, we don't break out really the deficiency payments by segment, but I will tell you that there was, in Q4, a significant uptick in the volumetric deficiencies that we realized relative to the water segment there and that is by virtue of MVCs, et cetera, and things like that, but also just the investments we've been doing over the course of 2018 and those bearing fruit as well on a non-deficiency basis too.
Bill Moler -- Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah, I'd just add a little bit, said it just slightly a little bit differently. You know like he said -- like Gary said, these are typically minimum volume commitments with take or pay contracts and we're getting paid just because somebody necessarily hasn't produced water in this instance relative to this example. And so, we've got plenty of bandwidth relative to our water systems, and on any given quarter when somebody may not have had the produced water for disposal or be using the fresh water for injection, that doesn't mean that they won't soon be ramping that up. So the deficiency thing is in our view, not a bad thing, it's just a classification-type thing.
Colton Bean -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
Thank you very much.
Operator
And we'll take our next caller, Michael Lapides from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.
Michael Jay Lapides -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Real quick, two items. One on the JV with Kinder. Can you just remind us I want to make sure we've got this. How much of the total capacity is actually new capacity versus capacity that's just being contributed into the JV?
Gary J. Brauchle -- Chief Financial Officer
Michael, I'm not sure what -- how to characterize your question. Today, Pony can move 400,000 barrels of light volume and it's intended upon completion of conversion and extension that that light volume move over to the bigger line of the converted gas line and 200 miles of late to Cushing and that pipe will have at least 800,000 barrels a day of capacity. And then Pony, our intention is to use it for heavy movements and it -- moving heavy can move between 150,000 to 200,000 barrels a day of capacity.
Michael Jay Lapides -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Got it. And then can you talk a little bit about the dialogue you're having with shippers both for the recontracting of both Pony right now, but also REX. When you expect to have a little bit more clarity on -- especially on the REX side given the year-end contract roll off. And kind of just what shippers are saying to you about the recontracting and potentially even the reconstructing rates for Pony?
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
I'll take REX and you do Pony. So, Michael, this is Dave. you know on REX, we continue to have a lot of conversations like we said last quarter, it's really difficult in the environment we're in that kind of constant we'd be given updates. Having said that, we understand why everybody's interested in it. I will tell you that I think we had somewhere around 1.1 BCF that -- and it all doesn't roll off this year in November, some of it is actually I believe February of 2020. But we've either already signed up or have basically things waiting on final approvals by management teams or board teams where we probably have already recontracted, catched (ph) this right 10 months in advance, roughly about 30% of our uncontracted capacity by the end of the year. So, that's the best we're going to give you. That's a pretty good amount, almost a year in advance and we continue to make more progress and again we have a number of shippers that are committed on the Cheyenne Connectors, an example that haven't necessarily yet committed on REX. So, we feel really good about it. We're unworried about it. I can understand why everybody has the keen interest in it. At the end of the day, our belief is this is going to be a nothing barrier and I guess I would also tell you just while we're sharing good information here, the rates that what I've told you that we've recontracted on are almost there on right smack in the middle if not better than the range that we're trying to give everybody publicly. So, you want to talk about Pony?
Bill Moler -- Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Yeah, relative to Pony recontracting, we talked about some of the incremental projects that we have under way, the Plaquemines line that we did in '18. We are laying an extension into the Hartford area here and short order and when we do that, all of those come with associated contracts which is good news, but really our deal with Kinder is allowing us to do a number of things. One, it's allowing us through just a sheer volume that can be placed on the larger diameter pipe that's allowing us to offer rates to folks in the future that are competitive if not better than competitive than others who are out there pitching Greenfield projects. Secondly, it allows us to get in service way sooner than anyone who's pitching a Greenfield project coming bringing crude, light crude specifically out of the Rocky Mountains. How are we faster and how are we competitive, converting a line versus laying a new line avoiding environmental consequence and avoiding landowner issues, avoiding permitting issues, it's just going to be an easier road to owe, and laying 200 miles of pipe in Kansas and Oklahoma is always looked upon favorably. So we expect that contracting will take care of itself as we roll out this new strategy with lights and heavies.
Michael Jay Lapides -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Got it. Thank you, guys. Much appreciate it.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Welcome. Thank you.
Operator
And we'll go next to Christine Cho from Barclays. Your line is open.
Christine Cho -- Barclays Bank -- Analyst
Thank you. Dave, I was just wondering if you can talk about your involvement going forward. You talked about running the Company at least through the end of this year. What happens afterward and what would determine whether or not you would stay longer?
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Well, Christine, Hi. (Multiple speakers). Appreciate you calling me out specifically here. I've been doing this for six and a half, seven years. We have a great team here. We're keen to keep it going. Our new partners were keen to have the same people who've been running the Company keep it going. So I've just -- I've committed through the end of this year to at least be the CEO for that period of time. I'm not really thinking beyond that at this point. And again, I think one point is it's not like I'm being required or they're kicking me out after that. I've agreed to kind of be on the Board for a minimum of two years. And so I think it's just never natural evolution and creating opportunity. I've got a great group of people here, you've met them all and can't all do everything forever. And so I mean that's it. I mean I may find out that I'm reenergized, and a year from now, I want to do it another 10 years. I'm just going to play it a year at a time I suppose at this point.
Christine Cho -- Barclays Bank -- Analyst
Okay. And then are you able to at least give us some idea of how we got here. Can you just sort of talk about the process, I'm sure there were other funds -- you know other infrastructure funds that were interested. Why is this the one that got the deal?
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, I now inquiring minds want to know and it's probably really not too appropriate to talk about that. Whether other funds were involved or not. I mean I know that there was that December rumor out there. We don't comment on rumors. So that's -- any of that is just absolutely pure speculation. I guess I would characterize it as most good things in life, right time, right place, right party. We weren't necessarily actively looking to have Kelso and EMG get a liquidity event, but we've always talked to everybody. And it just so happened with this rather large infrastructure fund that Blackstone was raising, you know. They wanted to start making investments and putting their money to work. So I think again kind of right time, right place, right group of people after we got to know them. And so that's kind of a very high level of the background story.
Christine Cho -- Barclays Bank -- Analyst
So, like you say they weren't -- it wasn't -- It doesn't sound like there was a formal process running, but what do you say you guys were talking to funds, because you're -- you know as you say there is like a deep bench for projects and you are looking at potential ways to fund it. Was that part of the equation at all?
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, again I'm not going to talk about other funds and whether we were talking to more or not, it's -- we are where we're at, but I would say that every -- I don't want to put words in Blackstone's mouth, but I mean I think it speaks for itself. Yeah, they're interested in a company with a good manager team, a great set of assets that they think is stable and long term infrastructure and that people have executed on growth in the past and can execute on in the future. So again I am providing you as much color as I think kind of appropriate given this -- given also that I just -- I've gotten to know our potential new partners here and really like them, but I always hesitate to speak for other people.
Christine Cho -- Barclays Bank -- Analyst
Fair enough. Thank you.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
You bet.
Operator
And next, we'll go to Becca Followill from U.S. Capital Advisors. Your line is open.
Becca Followill -- U.S. Capital Advisors -- Analyst
Good afternoon. As a seque to that, you talked about keeping -- you're keen to keep the group together. Are there any retention agreements that keep Gary and Bill and the three heads of the business units there, and how long is that for?
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, clearly, in my comments, Becca, the Blackstone being the potential significant new partner of ours is interested in that. I think it's -- I'd like to share all that. I think when the transaction closes relative to whatever documentation we have to file at that point that may become apparent. I don't think it's just -- I don't think it's appropriate that I should kind of go into the detail of that right now. But I guess the overall arching answer is, yes, they're absolutely interested in keeping the team together and the team is interested in continuing on.
Becca Followill -- U.S. Capital Advisors -- Analyst
And for a sustained period?
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Absolutely.
Becca Followill -- U.S. Capital Advisors -- Analyst
Okay, super. Thank you.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
You bet.
Operator
And next, we'll go to Michael Blum from Wells Fargo. Your line is open.
Michael Jacob Blum -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst
Hey, good afternoon, everybody.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Michael.
Michael Jacob Blum -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst
Just a few more questions. So I apologize, so one just let me try understand it. So post -- so effectively management is selling their class B shares, but you'll still own your class A shares. Is that the right way to look -- to think about it?
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, it's not a general rule. I think my -- the right way to think about it relative to what I said earlier, Mike, is that or Michael is that management is going to participate and by participation while there is some liquidity for management on their B shares. We also all are retaining some significant relative to each of a significant investment -- investment/interest in the Company.
Michael Jacob Blum -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst
Okay. And then it looks very rough math relative to if we assume the B and As trade at the same price. It looks like there was roughly a 10% premium and I'm wondering was that the control premium for the GDP or should we think about it like a premium for the stock or any thoughts on this?
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. And I would caution you against dumbing it down to where's all the As trade out and therefore the Bs were kind of the same and then gross purchase price divided by some number which again you don't really know the denominator of yet, I guess the point being I would caution you a little bit against that. And we're not at a position right now. When we file -- we will have to file Form-4s on the closing. So you'll have more details about who sold what then.
And I guess I would tell you that again from keeping it a high level here. Clearly, the General Partner in the private control entity is part of the deal and so there is a portion of that being you know in the consideration. But we're just not at liberty right now to share that.
Michael Jacob Blum -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst
Ok. And then last question for me, just you know with Blackstone being the new owner, is there a plan for them to communicate to the public, they're obviously not on this call, but do you think there'll be something post close or at some point in the future?
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, you know we filed a joint press release early this morning and it's my understanding that 9:00 Eastern Blackstone actually had their public earnings call this morning and this transaction was referenced by them a couple of times. Again, I don't know them that well. I would be surprised if there is any plan with that and that wouldn't -- frankly it doesn't surprise me and I don't think it should surprise you, because just like you know Kelso and EMG in the last seven years never publicly participated in anything we did or had their own private conference call or talked about what they were going to do, this or that. I would be surprised if Blackstone plans on doing that. So that -- but also I don't view that as being particularly strange. On the other hand, if they choose to, particularly as we get toward closing or at closing, if they want to talk about it more, that's their prerogative.
Michael Jacob Blum -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst
Okay. Thank you very much.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, you bet.
Operator
And next, we'll go to Ethan Bellamy from RW Baird. Your line is open.
Ethan Bellamy -- Robert W. Baird & Co -- Analyst
Good afternoon, guys. With respect to Blackstone's willingness and ability to commit capital going forward. Is it appropriate to view Tallgrass as a dropdown story again and is it safe to say that your equity financing needs are covered for the foreseeable future?
Bill Moler -- Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Look, it's a good -- those are good questions and you know fairly well put forward. I don't know that I would blanket answer them with kind of unequivocal yes or no. I think the good news here's the way I choose to view it, right, is that we all know that there's not been a lot of equity raises in the midstream space. The mid MLP space and now the midstream space for us and so it's questionable about what -- at least in my view, what the pricing dynamics are for that. Blackstone like any investor to the extent they put additional capital into something that is going to look for appropriate level of returns. And so I don't expect that to be any different. I do however believe that there is a read through that again large infrastructure fund incented to get that money put to work. I do think that again I think my view after getting to know these folks is that they do see deep value here that the public is not seeing in my view. And so while I can unequivocally say all of our equity needs are met forever, I do think that that's in some way is a fair conclusion.
Ethan Bellamy -- Robert W. Baird & Co -- Analyst
That's excellent. Thank you. And Dave, do you anticipate having a noncompete when you leave?
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
I'm with one exception which is a very -- it's not worth going into for the last six and a half years, I'm the only employee in this Company that has had an employment agreement and my existing employment agreement for the last six and half years has had a noncompete provision in it. My employment agreement is still in effect today and I I frankly don't see any of that changing. So.
Ethan Bellamy -- Robert W. Baird & Co -- Analyst
All right. Thanks very much and congrats on the deal.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
You bet. Thanks you very much.
Operator
And next we'll go to Simon Kyle (ph) from Stifel. Your line is open.
Salmon Kyle -- Stifel -- Analyst
Thank you. Good afternoon. A lot's been covered, but just real quick, you talked about PLT land acquisitions and you said you've closed that and you're speaking to a number of potential anchors. And I'm just wondering if you could put -- maybe add some goalposts we should be looking for on future updates?
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
On PLT specifically?
Salmon Kyle -- Stifel -- Analyst
Yeah.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
We are completing permitting and like we said, in Q4, we completed the land acquisition. We are in daily discussions with customers both domestically and internationally. And people like the idea of PLT. Can I tell you with any specificity when they're going to commit to the project. I'd like to say it would be in Q1 of this year, '19, and that's what we're working hard to achieve in Q1.
Salmon Kyle -- Stifel -- Analyst
Okay. Thanks for that additional color and best of luck.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Bill Moler -- Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Thanks, Salmon.
Operator
(Operator Instructions) We'll go back to Michael Lapides from Goldman Sachs.
Michael Jay Lapides -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Hey, guys. Just easy question for you. Is there a way to get a -- to quantify like if the KMI joint -- if the Kinder Morgan joint venture goes through if you get Seahorse and Plaquemines done. Is there a way to think about what kind of the total backlog of projects you have that you're working on now. Just trying to quantify the capital investment opportunity and think about what that would imply as you put a range of EBITDA multiples on it, what it would imply as kind of a future earnings power or earnings growth?
Bill Moler -- Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Michael, I mean I think we've talked about all those in different forms if you added them up at multi billions of dollars somewhere and maybe the $4 billion to $5 billion back load range, because we are working with Kinder to figure out what works for both of us and kind of makes two and two equal five. We're not in a position competitively nor kind of want to front run that process to where we would talk about what those potential economics might be, it's just not -- it's not fair to Kinder, it's not fair to us.
Relative to the other ones, I would thank -- I guess I would just tell you, so I've given you kind of an overall capital number if you want to risk weight that we'll get some of that done, then you just take at times our historical return on invested capital that we have in our presentations and I would say that's our expected future set relative to those large projects. And again I'd tell that I also look at just kind of our add-on stuff that's not the large stuff. We've got probably -- we say in the K that we're just -- we're in a five here in next week, I think somewhere around $270 million to $300 million of unspent CapEx approved already and we're constantly adding to that. I think we're probably run rate absent, the big investments that we've made in the past probably have been closer to $400 million, $500 million a year. So I hope that's helpful to you.
Michael Jay Lapides -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
No, that's completely helpful. And finally can you just remind us this is really nuts and bolts. What maintenance or sustaining CapEx is for 2019?
Gary J. Brauchle -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, Michael, it's Gary, It's in the neighborhood of $35 million to $40 million, which is pretty consistent with prior years plus an embedded amount for the asset growth that we've experienced over time. So give or take $35 million to $40 million.
Michael Jay Lapides -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Just to be clear, does that include REX?
Gary J. Brauchle -- Chief Financial Officer
That does not include REX, REX is not consolidated with that number. So did you follow all that, Michael?
Michael Jay Lapides -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Yep, yep, I did. Okay. Very much appreciate it, guys. Thank you.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Thank you.
Operator
Operator, would you give an opportunity to the audience one more time for additional questions, And there is any, we'd be glad to take them and?
Certainly (Operator Instructions) We'll go next to Kyle May from Capital One Securities.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Kyle.
Kyle May -- Capital One Securities -- Analyst
Hey. good afternoon. Apologies if I missed this already but. You've already announced a lot of projects that could potentially flow into Seahorse. Is there anything that you could give us like goalposts of what else you may need to move forward with that project?
Bill Moler -- Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
With the seahorse project?
Kyle May -- Capital One Securities -- Analyst
Yes.
Bill Moler -- Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
There are a number of open seasons that are open today. We think not only by getting the superhighway of lights out of the Rockies and the heavies brought to pushing together, that would be close to 950,000 barrels of incremental coming into Cushing. Those barrels are getting to the coast. It's a matter of do you want to go to Corpus Christi or do you want to go to St. James area. We believe that our project has better flexibility diversity. It's got refinery connections of significant offtakes that should a boat not show up or weather be a problem, folks have a place to take their barrels. What we need now is, we need commitment. We need barrels to be committed to the project. I will tell you that our costs are coming down. We see an ability to right-size our line and we believe that we're going to be competitive with every other project that's out there and have the potential to be in service far earlier and in a way that is going to expedite the whole process.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
And look, Kyle, I know you asked for goalposts and your goalposts were really on timing and it really is hard to say that we're working it hard. We have those open seasons, I think, that running through February and we have told everybody that we have signed up a anchor shipper. We probably need another anchor shipper. And so we're not -- it's probably not very satisfying relative to Spain. By March 31 or May 31, we'll have FID. We're trying to just give you the color about what goes on in the process. I think one read through relative to what Bill said is that probably working on, as he called it the super highway joint venture with Kinder maybe pushes back Seahorse just a little bit, because that's critical to get even more volumes to Cushing which will then you know is going to -- is suspected of being constrained in the future relative to getting those barrels to the water. And I'm not saying that pushes it out a year, I'm just saying I think what I'm trying to say is is that well -- that's probably more prudent to figure that piece out first. And you know we're working on it. We've got teams and Kinder has two that have met days long each week for the last couple of weeks.
Kyle May -- Capital One Securities -- Analyst
Ok. Got it. And that helps and I appreciate the color. And one other thing is, you're looking at the guidance range that you gave for the year. Can you give us any additional color on how you see the different segments rolling up to that.
Gary J. Brauchle -- Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, Kyle it's Gary. We don't give guidance at the actual segment level, but I think what you can look at is another very strong year from Pony Express increases from Rex on a significant basis year-over-year within the natural gas transportation segment, in part because of the NKA (ph) contracts step up and then gathering, processing and terminaling. Again, I won't get into the specific assets, but there are nice growth opportunities that we have made a lot of water investments and those are bearing fruit. And so without getting too specific on water, there is a very nice increment coming in 2019 from that as well. So I think those are the big pieces at the lower segment level. But beyond that, we probably choose not to get too granular.
Kyle May -- Capital One Securities -- Analyst
Got it. Thanks a lot, guys.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
You bet. Any more calls, Nate?
Nathan Lien -- Investor Relations
No.
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Well, look, everybody, appreciate you calling in today. Thank you for your continued interest in Tallgrass. We're very excited about what's going on around here and energized about it. And we look forward to continuing to produce outstanding results for our stakeholders. So with that, thank you and we'll talk to you next quarter. Thank you.
Operator
And that concludes our call for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
Duration: 57 minutes
Call participants:
Nathan Lien -- Investor Relations
David G. Dehaemers -- President, Chief Executive Officer
Gary J. Brauchle -- Chief Financial Officer
Bill Moler -- Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Dennis Coleman -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Colton Bean -- Tudor, Pickering, Holt -- Analyst
Michael Jay Lapides -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst
Christine Cho -- Barclays Bank -- Analyst
Becca Followill -- U.S. Capital Advisors -- Analyst
Michael Jacob Blum -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst
Ethan Bellamy -- Robert W. Baird & Co -- Analyst
Salmon Kyle -- Stifel -- Analyst
Kyle May -- Capital One Securities -- Analyst
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