Hess Midstream delivers solid Q3 performance with $321 million adjusted EBITDA and 2.4% distribution increase, while anticipating lower capital expenditures and continued free cash flow growth.
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Summary
- Hess Midstream reported strong operational performance in Q3 2025 with increased gas throughputs despite challenges such as localized flooding.
- The company executed a $100 million share and unit repurchase and increased its distribution by 2.4%, reflecting strategic capital returns to shareholders.
- Q3 2025 net income was $176 million, slightly down from the previous quarter, while adjusted EBITDA increased to $321 million, driven by higher third-party gas gathering and processing volumes.
- Hess Midstream completed the first of two new compressor stations and expects to complete the second by the end of Q4 2025. The capital expenditure for the year is projected to be approximately $270 million.
- The company has suspended the Kappa Gas Plant project, resulting in a reduction of future capital expenditure, increasing free cash flow for shareholder returns.
- Fourth quarter 2025 guidance suggests net income between $170 million and $180 million and adjusted EBITDA between $315 million and $325 million.
- Hess Midstream plans to continue its strategy of returning capital to shareholders, with a targeted annual distribution growth of at least 5% per Class A share through 2027.
- Future guidance for 2026 and 2028 MVCs (Minimum Volume Commitments) will be released after the budget process in December.
- Management expressed confidence in leveraging ongoing growth in gas volumes, supported by Chevron's operational plans in the Bakken.
Good day ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the third quarter 2025 Hess Midstream Conference Call. My name is Gigi and I'll be your operator for today. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speaker's presentation there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised to withdraw your question. Please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jennifer Gordon, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please proceed. Thank you, Gigi. Good morning, everyone and thank you for participating in our third quarter earnings conference call. Our earnings release was issued this morning and appears on our website, www.hessmidstream.com. today's conference call contains projections and other forward looking statements within the meaning of the federal SECurities laws. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from those expressed or implied in such statements. These risks include those set forth in the Risk Factors SECtion of Hess Midstream's filings with the SEC. Also on today's conference call we may discuss certain GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of the differences between these non GAAP financial measures and the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the earnings release. With me today are Jonathan Stein, Chief Executive Officer and Mike Chadwick, Chief Financial Officer. I'll now turn the call over to Jonathan Stein.
Thanks Jennifer. Welcome everyone to our third quarter 2025 earnings call. Today I have some brief opening comments and we'll review our operations and then I'll hand the call over to Mike to review our financials in the third quarter. We continue to execute our operational priorities and deliver our financial strategy and that prioritizes return of capital to shareholders. We delivered strong operational performance with gas throughputs increasing from the second quarter despite the impact of localized flooding in August. Third quarter results benefited from an increase in third party volumes as our customers navigated northern border pipeline maintenance towards the end of the quarter. This provides upside to our results and is a good reminder of the strategic nature of our midstream assets in the Bakken. We also executed a $100 million share and unit repurchase in the third quarter and increased our distribution by 2.4% or approximately 10% on an annualized basis per Class A share. That included our targeted 5% annual increase per Class A share and a distribution level increase following a repurchase that retains our total distributed cash on a lower share and unit count. During the quarter, throughput volumes averaged 462 million cubic feet per day for gas processing, 130,000 barrels of oil per day for crude terminaling and 137,000 barrels of water per day for water gathering. Throughputs increased approximately 3% in gas gathering and processing. Compared with the second quarter. We expect fourth quarter volumes to be relatively flat with the third quarter on lower expected third party volumes as announced in our September guidance update into lawful winter weather contingency and planned maintenance at the Little Missouri 4 gas plant. Turning to Hess Midstream's capital program in the third quarter, we safely completed and brought online the first of two new compressor stations for the year and expect completion of the second compressor station in the fourth quarter. As announced in September, we have suspended activities on the cap and gas plant and removed the project from our forward plans. As a result, full year 2025 capital expenditures are now expected to total approximately $$270 million. We remain committed to our ongoing strategy which prioritizes ongoing return of capital to our shareholders, but both excess free cash flow after distributions and leverage capacity relative to our long term leverage target of 3 times adjusted EBITDA. As we noted in our recent guidance update, with the removal of the Kappa Gas plant from our forward plan, we expect significantly lower capital going forward, providing additional free cash flow to support our return on capital framework. Looking forward, we will release guidance for 2026 and our 2028 MVCs after our budget process concludes in December. With that, I'll hand the call over to Mike to review our financial performance for the third quarter and and guidance for the fourth quarter.