Welcome to the DT Midstream third quarter 2026 earnings call. I will now turn it over to our speaker today, Todd Lohrmann, Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and welcome everyone. Before we get started, I would like to remind you to read the safe harbor statement on page two of the presentation, including the reference to forward-looking statements. Our presentation also includes references to non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the reconciliations to GAAP contained in the appendix. Joining me this morning are David Slater, Chairman and CEO, Chris Zona, President and COO, and Jeff Jewell, Executive Vice President and CFO.
With that, I'll go ahead and turn the call over to David.
Thanks, Todd, and good morning everyone, and thank you for joining. During today's call, I'll highlight our key accomplishments for the quarter and discuss the constructive market fundamentals driving demand across our footprint. I'll then turn it over to Chris and Jeff to review our commercial activity, project execution, financial performance, and outlook. With that, we delivered another strong quarter, and our year-to-date performance is enabling us to raise our 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance, representing a 7% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. We are also reaffirming our 2027 adjusted EBITDA early outlook range. We continue to execute our pure-play natural gas-focused strategy, commercializing organic growth opportunities supported by strong customer demand.
During the quarter, we reached FID on three new projects in our pipelines segment, increasing our total committed capital to approximately $2.4 billion, which represents 70% of our five-year organic project backlog. Putting this in perspective, our total committed capital is approximately 2x this year's adjusted EBITDA guidance and has increased by 50% within the last nine months. While we will formally update our backlog on our 2026 year-end call, the strength of demand across our footprint and our strong competitive positioning gives us confidence in the depth and durability of our organic growth opportunities.
Turning to the market, the fundamentals supporting our long-term growth outlook remain very constructive. Natural gas remains a reliable, affordable, and abundant domestic energy source available at scale. Recent third-party forecasts project U.S. natural gas demand to grow by more than 25 Bcf per day through 2030, driven by growing LNG exports and increasing power demand as new generation is needed to replace retiring coal capacity and serve growing data center load. We see this demand growth extending well into the next decade. On the LNG side, the ongoing geopolitical tension in the Middle East appears to be driving a long-lasting shift of global LNG sourcing towards the U.S., which will continue to add demand on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Moving to power demand, recent regulatory filings in the upper Midwest contemplate meaningful new natural gas generation in the early to mid-2030s. These fundamentals reinforce the need for additional natural gas infrastructure, and our strategically located gas pipeline footprint is well-positioned to serve this growth across the Midwest, Northeast, and Gulf Coast. As the need for new energy infrastructure continues to grow, we are encouraged by the bipartisan progress on permitting reform, including the recently introduced bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, and we look forward to seeing continued progress following the elections towards a more efficient and predictable permitting process for our critical energy infrastructure.
We've also been monitoring the growing public and political debate surrounding the pace and impact of data center development. We have observed that the utilities we are contracting with are taking a thoughtful, long-term approach to engaging with local communities and ensuring reliability and affordability benefits for their existing customers. I'll now turn it over to Chris to walk you through our commercial activity and construction projects, which provide tangible evidence of how these demand fundamentals are translating into growth across our footprint.
Thanks, David, and good morning, everyone. As David indicated, the third quarter was another active quarter for us commercially, and we are announcing today that we've reached FID on approximately $0.4 billion of new organic growth projects. Unpacking the new projects, first is the MIST Southbound Phase 1 or MIST S1 expansion on Midwestern, which will serve incremental power generation demand in Southern Indiana. MIST S1 increases Midwestern's capacity by approximately 300 MMcf/d , which represents a 20% increase in the pipeline's total capacity and is supported by investment-grade utilities under 20-year negotiated rate contracts. The expansion involves a combination of incremental compression and looping and has an expected in-service date of Q4 2029.
In addition to the mainline expansion, we have also reached FID on a pipeline lateral serving a new 900 MW power plant that is under development. The lateral has a 20-year demand-based contract to serve a utility offtaker and is expected to be in service in the first half of 2028. Together, these projects demonstrate our ability to leverage the strategic location of our Midwestern pipeline to capture growth through both mainline and lateral investments, providing timely, competitive solutions for growing power demand while securing durable long-term contracted growth with high-quality customers. MIST S1 represents the latest milestone in the commercialization of the broader MIST opportunity.
As a reminder, our initial non-binding open season was oversubscribed and gave us greater visibility into where and when customer demand is developing. We subsequently conducted a binding open season for the demand requiring capacity in 2029, which has led to today's FID announcement. Our perspective on the broader MIST opportunity and the magnitude of potential investment has not changed, and we are now actively progressing the next phases to serve customer needs in the 2030 and 2031 timeframe. The next project we are moving forward with is the second phase of modernization on Guardian, which reflects the continued investment opportunities we see across our interstate pipelines to ensure reliability, and is expected to be in service in Q3 of 2030.
The first phases of Guardian, Midwestern, and Viking modernization are advancing as planned, including the recent FERC approval of our Guardian rate case settlement, which provides recovery for Guardian's phase I modernization investment starting in mid-2027. Looking ahead, we continue to see meaningful future expansion opportunities across our footprint. On Millennium, we recently launched an open season for the Ramapo Enhancement project, which is designed to provide additional capacity to serve growing demand in the Northeast, with a targeted in-service date in the fourth quarter of 2028. We are also progressing a broad set of other opportunities, such as the Vector 2030 expansion, the Guardian G4 expansion, and Haynesville system expansions, and we will keep you updated as they move forward.
Turning to project execution, our Guardian G3 expansion project continues to advance on plan through the FERC certificate process, with an order expected in mid-2027. All of our other in-flight growth investments remain on track and on budget. Finally, operationally for the quarter, total gathering volumes were in line with our expectations, with the Haynesville averaging 2.17 Bcf per day and the Northeast averaging 1.25 Bcf per day. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, we expect Haynesville volumes to be in line with the third quarter and the Northeast volumes to be lower due to producer curtailments in October and the impact of downstream outages.
With that, I will now pass it over to Jeff to walk you through our quarterly financials and outlook.
Thanks, Chris, and good morning, everyone. In the third quarter, we delivered adjusted EBITDA of $301 million, representing a $4 million decrease from the prior quarter. Our pipeline segment results were $2 million higher than the second quarter, driven by higher revenue from our joint venture pipelines. Gathering segment results were $6 million lower than the prior quarter, reflecting lower Northeast volumes. Looking to the remainder of the year, we expect the fourth quarter to be lower than the third quarter, driven by offline capacity and incremental expenses on Stonewall and, as Chris noted, lower Northeast volumes driven by producer curtailments. As David stated in his opening remarks, following our strong year-to-date performance and considering our expectations for the fourth quarter, we are raising our 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance midpoint and narrowing the range to $1.185 billion-$1.225 billion.
In addition, we are reaffirming our 2027 adjusted EBITDA early outlook and plan to provide our formal 2027 guidance and 2028 early outlook on our year-end call. We are also raising our distributable cash flow guidance range to $860 million-$890 million. On the capital front, due to capital efficiency, we are reducing our 2026 growth capital range to $375 million-$425 million, which represents more than a 10% reduction to the midpoint of our range. With the stronger distributable cash flow and reduced capital expenditures, we expect year-end leverage to be approximately 2.8x for on-balance sheet and approximately 3.4x for proportionate. As Chris mentioned, DTM has approved investments in the MIST S1 pipeline expansion and a new power plant lateral, and we expect total investment to be $275 million-$325 million for these projects related to Midwestern at an attractive build multiple.
DTM has also approved investment in the phase II Guardian Pipeline modernization project, where we expect to invest $130 million-$150 million. We have increased our committed capital to reflect these new investments. 2027 is approximately $610 million, and total committed capital over 2026 and 2027 is approximately $1 billion. Finally, today we also announced that our Board of Directors approved our third-quarter dividend of $0.88 per share, unchanged from the prior quarter, and we remain committed to grow the dividend in line with adjusted EBITDA.
I will now pass it back over to David for closing remarks.
Thanks, Jeff. In summary, we are pleased with our performance through the first nine months of the year, delivering strong financial results while advancing our organic growth strategy. The projects announced today are tangible examples of our ability to convert customer demand into durable, long-term contracted growth, and we remain encouraged by the future opportunities progressing across our network. With our strategically located pipeline portfolio and disciplined execution, we are well-positioned to capture the opportunities supported by the highly constructive long-term outlook for natural gas infrastructure in North America, underpinned by growing LNG and power demand.
With that, we can now open up the line for questions.
We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Jeremy Tonet with J.P. Morgan. Jeremy, your line is now open.
Hi. Good morning.
Good morning, Jeremy.
Thanks for the detail this morning. Just wanted to go through, I guess, MIST South, and it sounds like there's potential for more down the road here. I'm wondering if you could help frame, I guess, what could be the drivers here. It looks like there could be a connection to Southeast Connector that can start to pull more gas. Possibility for more power plant laterals along the way. Just wondering if you could help us think about, I guess, what the possibilities are on that side in the 2030, 2031 timeframe that you touched on, I think.
Sure, Jeremy. I can maybe start, and Chris, you can fill in some of the details. Jeremy, maybe I'll start at the highest level. We're just consistently executing the plan right now on Midwestern. The initial non-binding open season we did in the spring sort of illuminated the demand, the location of the demand, and the timing of when that demand would come onto the network. I think as Chris said, this phase I has really focused on the demand that's manifesting in 2029. So that's been our focus, is to get that commercialized, and we now have that commercialized. We're now turning our attention to the other elements that are out there. The expansion project that you just announced is very encouraging. I'll use those words.
Chris, maybe I'll pass it over to you, if you want to add any details.
Sure. Thanks, David. Jeremy, I would start with, as David mentioned, obviously, we're launching here in the 2029 service needs for those customers. Obviously, as you would expect, we're staying very engaged with the next, I'll say, subset of shippers who have requirements in the 2030, 2031 timeframe. When you look at a lot of those customers are utility-type customers. As you think about MIST, then I think about how we sit competitively in the market, proximity to the load, the ability to have cost reliability and the supply diversity in particular are all, I think, facets and important drivers to why MIST is a very attractive option for those customers.
As David mentioned, I think the whole Southeast Connector is just another proof point of the depth and durability of the natural gas demand that's developing in the upper Midwest. Yeah, I think that's very encouraging.
Got it. Sounds like more sizable opportunities ahead, and this step maybe could be replicated in size going forward. I guess we'll wait to hear more about that. Maybe continuing with MIST a little bit, just wondering if you could comment on the source of gas there, what type of opportunities that could bring as well as even MIST North at this point. There's been kind of noise around large load development in Wisconsin, Michigan, but it seems like overall it's plowing forward here. Wondering if you could talk about those two elements a bit more.
Sure, Jeremy. Maybe just for clarity on MIST S1, the primary receipt point on those contracts will be REX. Just clarity on where the supply for this particular round of demand is coming from. But like Chris said, one of the interesting elements of Midwestern is that we can take supply from a number of different pipelines egressing out of Appalachia. We can take it from Vector in the north, we can take it from REX right in the middle, and then we have two or three pipes down on the southern end that we also can take gas from. So, that supply diversity is a feature that is well understood by the demand that's manifesting along the line, and I think one of the advantages that we enjoy as we commercialize these opportunities.
In terms of timing of as the market materializes, I think as we've always said, we don't control the timing of the demand. We're a derivative of the demand. Our objective here is just to stay close to all those customers and just consistently execute, be reliable, be cost competitive, bring projects in on time, and earn our fair share of the market growth that's happening in the region.
Got it. That's helpful. One last one, if I could. I was breaking out my AI ruler, just trying to see timelines for projects. Has anything changed or is everything, I guess, in line with your previous expectations?
Yeah. When I think about this quarter and any changes, I think we're getting more clarity on some of the timelines, and as we get clarity, we'll communicate that to the audience. I'd say, there's a bit of a pull forward happening on Millennium right now with the current open season that we're in flight on. A smaller volume, but similar to the last project on Millennium, where sort of we're dipping our toe in the water, taking a low-risk approach, and incrementally expanding capacity into that constrained market, into the New York, New England market. But other than that, Chris, are you seeing anything on your side in terms of time shifts?
Not at this point, David, no.
Yeah. Thanks, Jeremy.
Got it. Very helpful. I'll leave it. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Praneeth Satish with Wells Fargo. Praneeth, your line is now open.
Thanks. Good morning. Maybe I'll stay on MIST here. The spring open season had 1.5 Bcf per day of interest across both directions. Phase I took 300 of that. I guess, how much of that remaining interest is southbound that could serve the demand in Tennessee? I guess, with Southeast Connector, and now that that's FID, would that be additive to what you saw during the open season? I know it's early, but I guess from everything we can see, it just feels to us that MIST South Phase 2 could be a larger opportunity than phase I. Is that kind of the right read?
Yeah. I'll jump in here, and Chris, you can climb in as well if you'd like. I don't think anything has changed. I think we're just in what I'll call execution mode right now, post the non-binding open season in the spring. That illuminated the depth and breadth of the market, like I said, the location and the timing. Obviously, this FID on the southern end of Midwestern is very positive for us. Is it changing anything that we're focusing on? Not necessarily. Does it add more depth and more confidence in what we're thinking? Absolutely. I think what you should expect here is we're just going to just keep executing, just keep plowing ahead one step at a time and consistently executing the plan.
Got it. Then maybe if I, again, piggyback off of Jeremy's question, dig into the supply side. If we do move forward with a phase II, and it's, let's say, sizable, and REX doesn't expand, then I guess is your next option here to kind of pull from Chicago and those different pipes that are in that area? I guess, is Vector 2030, and your decision to potentially expand that, is that commercially linked to the next MIST phase with shippers contracting the full path?
Those are all great questions, but I think at this point, we're going to not dive into the nuts and bolts of all the different pieces, obviously, for competitive reasons. It's a competitive market. There's nothing that you said, though, that is surprising or unusual. Maybe I'll say it that way. Obviously, we look at the entire network, and when we're talking to customers, we're talking to them holistically about the different solutions as the demand manifests. So, we work very collaboratively with our interconnecting pipelines, and as you would expect. We support them, and they support us. So I'll leave it at that.
Got you. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Theresa Chen with Barclays. Theresa, your line is now open.
Morning. Looking at the gathering side of things, we have seen very recently, substantially more consolidation, both upstream in Appalachia and midstream in the Haynesville. David, how has this informed your thought process about engaging with customers, recontracting, and general midstream competitive dynamics in the two basins for which you gather?
Yeah, those are all great strategic observations. You are seeing consolidation. I think from a production perspective, economies of scale are very real for the public producers. I would say that is one data point, and I suspect you will continue to see consolidation over time. In terms of the market dynamics, I think the whole North American market has moved or changed from what I will call a supply-push market to a demand-pull market. So I think some of this activity is a reflection of that reality, and you are seeing lots of different public producers making strategic decisions to position themselves longer term in a demand-pull market environment versus supply push.
In terms of some of the consolidation on the midstream side, our experience has been that a lot of our producer customers like to work with independent parties that do not have any conflicts per se, that do not compete with them. So, I think that is one of the dimensions that we provide in the areas that we gather, is that we are sort of an arm's length independent provider and can focus on just providing good, reliable, competitive service, and have the best interest of all of our customers at heart.
Got it. Thank you. Looking at your projects under development and in execution, that growing list in slide eight, can you just talk about what you're contemplating as far as storage developments and expansions across your system?
Yeah, sure. Hey, Theresa, this is Chris. I would say a couple of things on the storage side. What we're seeing is a tremendous amount of demand for incremental storage, and I'll say specifically high deliverability storage, given the volatility that the market sees coming with all the power generation. We have a high demand on the quality of storage service. We have some opportunities, I would say, both from an incremental capacity perspective, but also more immediately here around our Washington 10 asset, an opportunity here to provide enhanced deliverability services.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Julien Dumoulin-Smith with Jefferies. Julien, your line is now open.
Hey, guys. This is Alex Overmeer on for Julien. Just a question on the lateral off of MIST. Is that potentially repeatable, and could that lead to further expansions down the line on MIST itself pulling off from the mainline expansion?
Yeah. Hey, Alex. Chris here. Absolutely. In fact, I would say a lot of the other opportunities that we're looking at, again, for the 2030, 2031 timeframe, lateral solutions are part of some of those discussions. I think you're spot on. Connecting to the mainline is one opportunity. The other opportunity is the mainline expansion itself, and we have a combination of those opportunities going forward.
Gotcha. That's super helpful. Then it looks like you guys sort of put more of a timeline on G4 expansion. Just curious how that opportunity set has evolved and kind of what you're waiting for to get to an open season, and then also if you have any kind of insight on how big the opportunity could be there. Thank you.
Sure, Alex. I would say, again, that timing is a direct feedback, as David mentioned. We're going to time that to the commitment requirements of our customers. As we get clarity to it, I think that's what you're seeing there. I would say at this, very encouraged. I think if you look just from a fundamentals perspective in terms of, we continue to see strong demand signals from upper Midwest utilities. You see a number of utilities publishing their plans here for incremental power generation. In Wisconsin, there were some announcements around some new power plant proposals, and I think those are all indicative of kind of the magnitude of the need that's coming in that location. I think Guardian's well-positioned to serve that demand.
Awesome. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Jean Ann Salisbury with Bank of America. Jean Ann, your line is now open.
Hi. Good morning. Gas prices have been a bit softer year to date than I think was originally expected. Has your expectation for Haynesville growth in the medium term shifted at all, or are you hearing any changes to Haynesville producer plans for the medium term?
Yeah. Good morning, Jean Ann. Yeah, I think that has been a big shift. I'd say in the last two, three months, we've seen, especially the prompt gas prices really weaken, function of weather and the expectation of weather going into this winter. It's sort of the tale of two stories, right? We got the short-term bearish sentiment that's sort of laying across the market right now, just exposed against the long-term bullishness of the demand that's coming. Just in the last quarter, we've had 1 Bcf a day of LNG announcements down in the Gulf. So you just see this demand ramp coming. So you've got these two phenomenon that are pulling in opposite directions.
I think the short answer is, in the near term, like I think we said earlier on the call, we are seeing some curtailments, particularly in the Northeast, just due to the weak short-term price. I think in the medium to long term, these demand fundamentals start to kick in. I think we are obviously going into year-end, and as kind of we have said in the past, we always sit and get much more clarity from our producer customers going into the new year on their plan for 2027 and 2028. This year will be no different. We will get a better read on that, obviously be able to talk with more specifics on the year-end call. But it is a very interesting dynamic that you are highlighting that is setting up right now, short term versus kind of the medium, longer term.
That makes sense. Thank you. As these projects go forward, many of which are yours and some have been referenced on the call that are others', it seems like eventually there will be a very intense need for more actual Appalachian egress. I guess I am just wondering what your latest view on the potential for the NEXUS expansion is, and whether that could ultimately be sized bigger than just the sort of pump adds that you had originally talked about.
Yeah. I think we agree with that thesis that you just described. Again, as this demand manifests, and it is clearly coming. You see it in the IRPs with the utilities and just as we are expanding and some of the other pipelines in the region are expanding. This demand is real, and it is coming, and it is measured in Bcf, not in hundreds of thousands. Just the IRPs for the Michigan utilities, there is 3.5 GW in their IRPs in the early 2030s, which just that alone is 600, 700 MMcf/d of gas incremental. There are lots of really bullish fundamentals kind of materializing in the market right now that is going to support the thesis you just described.
In terms of the near term, the NEXUS team is very focused on getting these new interconnects constructed and online. That is kind of step one. Connect the demand to the main line. Chris, if you have any color on sort of the nuts and bolts of the conversations going on, maybe you could share that with Jean Ann.
I would just add to that regarding those interconnects. We are seeing a lot of progress on the construction of those facilities. That is moving along quite well, and I would say we already have commenced early conversations about that capacity and firming up that capacity on a long-term basis. It feels very, to your point, very positive, and the market is real. It is being built, and the concern is now shifting, okay, how do we make sure we fuel this for the long term?
Great. I will leave it there. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Keith Stanley with Wolfe Research. Keith, your line is now open.
Hi. Good morning. First, wanted to follow up on G4, on Guardian. You are showing it as a 2031+ project. Should we think of that as late 2031 at the earliest? If that is the case, should we think there is probably a fair amount of time you still have to commercialize and be in a position to sanction that?
Hi, Keith. Yeah. No, I think, yes. We have time to do that. I think if we needed to be quite frank, we could pull that forward if the customer needs that, but that is our best estimate based on where they are in their development process right now.
Okay, great. Second one, the Northeast gathering volumes. It feels like we are seeing a similar thing this year as last year with some volatility in the volumes with curtailments and the like. What are your expectations just on an annual basis? Do you still think your Northeast gathering system holds flat to some growth, or how are you thinking about it on an annual basis and over time?
Well, my crystal ball is pretty fuzzy, Keith, on this. I would say this. I think in the way we look at it, we see, given the demand that is coming into the region, kind of in line where I think shorter term, you are looking at a flat type approach, but longer term, that gets into probably a low single-digit growth. I think that is how we look at it in the short term. Obviously, the opportunity as these load centers and demand centers materialize, there is a lot of, I will call it, torque in the system here where we can expand rapidly as we need to to serve those loads. As they build it, we can respond, and that is kind of our approach here.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Spiro Dounis with Citi. Spiro, your line is now open.
Thanks, operator. Morning, team. I want to start with the capital plan. David, fully respect that it is not coming until February, so really just curious if you are able to offer some high-level thoughts on how the inputs have changed since the last update. Specifically, you talked about the full probability backlog being multiples of the current one. Curious if that is directionally changed or improved. Then as you think about the probability weighting, have you been surprised in either direction at how these projects have progressed, either increasing or lowering your probability?
Good morning, Spiro. Great question. Maybe I will start with the highest level. I think we are very bullish, the portfolio. That bullishness has been building over the last 18 months as the market has been evolving. Lots of opportunities presenting across the entire network. Maybe a way to help frame this for the audience, for you and the audience, would be look back over the last three quarters. We have sanctioned $800 million of capital in the last three quarters. So Q1, Q2, and Q3. That is a pretty healthy pace that probably feeds the bullishness that I feel. As you said, we will provide the clarity on the year-end call, but right now it feels like the market is very constructive.
We are just trying to be very consistent, execute well, strong commitments to the capital deployment in terms of the quality of customers that we are bringing onto the network, the type of contracting that we do, and just make this a very durable capital investment cycle. That is really our top priority right now.
Got it. Appreciate the color there, David. Second one, maybe just moving to the Haynesville expansions that you added to that project queue. Sorry if you said it directly, but I assume that means LEAP. To the extent that is right, just curious if you can provide a little more color there. Maybe safe to assume that these are still kind of bite-sized expansions, similar to what you have done in the past. I guess, where are you finding most of this interest is coming from early on? Is it supply push, demand pull on the LNG side? It sounds like based on prior comments, this is demand pull driving that.
Yeah. Good question, Spiro. Thanks for asking. I am going to start at the high level, and Chris, maybe you can provide a little more color. I would say at the highest level, you are correct. It is demand pull. There are kind of two little swishes on that map going south of Gillis and then east of Gillis. I would say at the highest level, we see a lot of demand manifesting on the east side of Louisiana. That is a combination of incremental LNG demand, domestic power demand that is procuring from this region going into the southeast area, and industrial demand that is occurring. There is a lot of really interesting fundamentals that are evolving down there. The thesis is beyond LNG. For the other swish going down towards the coast, it is more LNG driven.
Chris, I do not know if you want to provide some additional color here.
No, and that is spot on. The way that I think about it, Spiro, is when you look at where our asset sits, right? We sit on some of the best reserves of the Haynesville for our Haynesville gathering system. We have got a long pathway of economic expansions. That is what we have done on LEAP 5 [audio distortion]. We are already talking about LEAP 6, but very economic solution of getting those high-quality reserves to those premium markets. As David said, those LNG and industrial markets, that combination is a very compelling long-term competitive position for our assets and for the producer customers where this demand pool is coming from. We can serve those quite well, and I think that is where a lot of our focus is right now.
You think of just the LNG numbers alone. You are hearing numbers that 15 Bcf through mid, early 2030s, just on that alone, plus the industrial demand. I think a lot of great opportunity there, and we are highly focused in that region.
Great. I will leave it there. Thank you, gentlemen.
Your next question comes from the line of Brandon Bingham with Scotiabank. Brandon, your line is now open.
Hey, good morning. Just one quick one from me. I would like to maybe go over to the coal switching side of things. Pretty sizable amount of potential demand there. Just curious, what are some things that could possibly pull that forward coming and kind of hitting the Midwest region sooner than maybe you initially think? Or, on the flip side, what might delay some of that converting over to gas in the future?
Yeah, I think you are accurate that a portion of the demand that is manifesting is coal to gas switching. At the very highest level, it is very attractive to do that when you have an existing kind of brownfield footprint that is already interconnected to the grid. You sort of bypass that connection friction, for lack of a better word. I am just keeping it simple here in our conversation. That creates tremendous value for some of these developers, is to have confidence that they can connect to the grid reliably. And some of these brownfield sites deliver that. And then the other thing for us is that our location is very advantageous, I will say it that way, where the pipeline is and where some of these facilities are.
The convergence of those things create a really robust opportunity for us. What could pull it forward or push it back? That is a hard one to speculate on. I think at the highest level, I think as the electric grid continues to tighten and the demand loads up on the existing grid, the price signal is probably the biggest signal that could accelerate some of these developments. We are watching reserve margins shrinking, substantially going down in both MISO and in PJM, and that is creating a lot of anxiety for the regulators as they watch that. The whole thesis around reliability is very front of mind right now for the regulators. I think those are the elements that could move the timing on some of these opportunities.
Great. Very helpful. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Saumya Jain with UBS. Saumya, your line is now open.
Hi, good morning. You previously mentioned a domino effect where downstream bottlenecks opening up on Vector create more value for upstream assets. Just want to pull color on how is the ongoing execution of Vector 2028 and then 2030 affecting recontracting rates and capacity utilization on NEXUS? And what structural shifts or utility load sizes in Ohio or Michigan would trigger you moving from an evaluation to an active open season for that expansion?
Yeah. Thanks for the question. The domino effect is real across our portfolio, and there tends to be a lag. What I'll call the last mile happens first, and then you kind of see the dominoes start falling, and they move upstream from the demand center. I think G3, Guardian 2028, Expander are good examples of that. I'd say that the next domino that probably gets hit is probably the storage complex.
Chris, I don't know if you want to give any color on what you're seeing in the near term in the storage world.
Sure. And I'll say, a lot of the demand that I referenced earlier in terms of both capacity and durability are the same set of customers that are coming on the Vector 2028 and the Vector 2030 expansions. A lot of those utility customers, that's a very critical component for their needs. Of course, that's driving the pricing point on the capacity. I think we've seen some capacity here going at rates that continue to increase, I'll say, very, very favorable. Also, I know quite well that as part of the Vector 2030 expansion, there's conversations going on on the upstream capacity of NEXUS.
On NEXUS, we probably have about 300 MMcf/d or so of short-term capacity that the conversation of that could be tied into longer-term commitments. Again, once that domino falls, that would trigger into when we would see a NEXUS expansion would be the next.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of John Mackay with Goldman Sachs. John, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hey, team. Thank you for the time. David, I want to go back to your comments earlier on the elections coming up, kind of watching some of the permitting and regulatory stuff coming out of that. Just curious, from your conversations with customers, how much of a focus is it for them? If things, let's say, go well, quote unquote, could some of the projects you guys are evaluating get pulled forward? I guess, would you expect to see a kind of pickup in contracting activity based on the outcome of next week?
Yeah, good question, John. I think generally speaking, there's a lot of anxious feelings right now going into the midterms, and there's a sense of optimism around the permitting reform legislation that's kind of lingering out there, the bipartisan legislation. I think what we're watching for is, regardless of the outcomes of the midterms, we get on the other side. Does Congress really lean into getting this bipartisan permitting reform legislation done? I think that'll be the hallmark that the whole market is going to be paying attention to. It's needed. It's needed for all energy forms. It's not just natural gas. It's somewhat agnostic to whether it's the power grid or the gas grid.
We just need to take some friction out of the system on the regulatory process because it creates risk, a lot of risk in some cases. Some of our peers are experiencing that as we speak, surprises. That's really difficult when you're looking at making big capital investment decisions to have those variables kind of lingering out there that can upset the investment thesis. I think it's very important for the country to do this. That's what we're really watching closely and leaning in on, to the extent that we can be supportive. I think the entire market is watching that as well, John.
I appreciate that. Maybe my quick follow-up then is, let's say we actually do get permitting reform done this time. Could that be helpful for your current projects underway in terms of pulling in service dates forward? Or should we think about that as more likely to be a benefit for, let's say, the next set of projects to be announced? Thanks.
Yeah. I'm not sure that in the near term it's going to change the near-term schedules on any of the demand. I think what it does do for the longer term, and more broadly, is it takes risk out of the system and creates some clarity and confidence in the investment community. Specifically for certain parts of the country that are in a difficult spot, like New England and New York, as probably the hallmark of that comment. They have incredibly high prices because no infrastructure's been built there for the last decade.
I think if we can get through this, if Congress can get through this, it's going to provide some economic relief in areas of the country, and it's going to provide a better risk backdrop for anybody making big capital investments in energy infrastructure, whether it's electric or gas.
That's clear. I appreciate the time. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Zack Van Everen with TPH Research. Zack, your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Hi, all. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe the first one back to the Northeast curtailments in Q4. I know historically you all had talked about some level of MVCs on the gathering side. Are we at those levels at this point? Are there going to be financial impacts, or is it mostly just on the volume front?
Yeah. Hi, Zack. Chris here. I'd say no. If you look at where our volumes have been traditionally and where we are today, we're well above the MVC amounts here today. All that's in our guidance, is the bottom line.
Okay. That's helpful. Then maybe one on the supply conversation in the Northeast. What is the upstream ability for Viking to bring more gas down from Canada? Is there the ability for you guys to bring more down, or would there have to be upstream work done across the border to help bring additional gas down?
No, Zack, I would say there's a lot of gas sitting at the border. I think it is an expansion opportunity for us, for those northern shippers in Minnesota. Yeah, I would say the opportunity is there, and that's something that is a little bit longer term out is what we see in our backlog. But definitely a real opportunity here, and would not require significant work upstream. Again, it depends on the volume. But those are conversations that we continue to have.
Zack, that supply is very competitive when you look at the pricing. If we could just wave a magic wand and a price determined everything you'd have incremental volume flowing down Viking right now because of the competitiveness of the Canadian supply at the border. It's a very interesting opportunity, like Chris says, probably a little further out on the time horizon for us. But we're pursuing that.
Makes sense. Well, I appreciate the time. Thanks, all.
There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to David Slater for closing remarks.
Well, I would just like to thank everybody for joining us today. Appreciate the dialogue. Some really good questions today. Thank you for your support of DTM. Look forward to seeing everybody in person in Q4.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.