Summit Midstream CEO says strategic review ‘entering advanced stages’

Heath Deneke, President, CEO, and Chairman, commented, “Summit delivered solid fourth quarter 2023 financial and operating results representing run-rate Adjusted EBITDA of $300 million. It has been a very busy quarter, advancing a range of strategic alternatives and executing several key commercial milestones. We are pleased with the continued strong level of interest from third parties for potential transactions, ranging from the sale of specific assets to consideration of Partnership-level transactions. We believe the strategic review process is entering advanced stages, and while there is no guarantee that any transaction will result from our strategic alternative review, we are making good progress narrowing the range of alternatives with the goal of maximizing value for the Partnership’s unitholders. From a commercial perspective, we recently commissioned our DJ Basin de-bottlenecking projects, which will enable us to better utilize our processing complex and extract approximately $5 million of synergies in 2024. We commissioned the previously announced compression project behind our wholly owned Utica system, resulting in an incremental compression fee beginning in the first quarter of 2024. Further, our Ohio Gathering Joint Venture executed a new 25,500 acre dedication with a producer in the condensate window, illustrating the competitive positioning of our Joint Venture’s gathering footprint in the Utica. At our Double E joint venture, we executed a new 40 MMcf/d 10-year take-or-pay contract with an investment grade shipper to support a connection to a new 300 MMcf/d processing plant three miles from the pipeline. With this new connection, we believe Double E is well positioned to commercialize additional contracts as volumes upstream of the new processing plant increase. We announced 2024 adjusted EBITDA guidance range of $260 million to $300 million, which we believe reflects the current headwinds, particularly in natural gas prices. Despite this volatility, we continue to see significant customer activity upstream of our assets with five rigs running behind our systems and remain encouraged with the long-term prospects for SMLP.”