Welcome to the MPLX First Quarter 2016 Earnings Webcast and Conference Call. My name is John, and I'll be your operator for today's call. Please note the conference is being recorded. And I will now turn the call over to Lisa Wilson, Director of Investor Relations.
Thank you, John. Good morning, and welcome to the MPLX Q1 2016 earnings webcast and conference call. The synchronized slides that accompany this call can be found on mplx.com under the Investors tab. On the call today are Gary Heminger, Chairman and CEO Frank Semple, Vice Chairman Don Templin, President Nancy Bezey, Chief Financial Officer and other members of the management team. We invite you to read the Safe Harbor statements and non GAAP disclaimer on Slide 2.
It's a reminder that we will be making forward looking statements during the call and during the question and answer session that follows. Actual results may differ materially from what we expect today. Factors that could cause actual results to differ are included there as well as in our filings with the SEC. Now, I will turn the call over to Gary Heminger for opening remarks.
Thanks, Lisa, and good morning. If you please turn to Slide 3, we delivered solid financial results in this 1st full quarter as a combined company and are executing on the plans we've laid out for 2016. Adjusted EBITDA was $302,000,000 and distributable cash flow was $236,000,000 Last week, we announced an increase in our quarterly distribution to $0.555 per common unit, while maintaining a strong coverage ratio of 1.18 times. We also reaffirmed our distribution growth guidance of 12% to 15% for the full year 2016 and expect a double digit distribution growth rate in 2017. Yesterday, we announced a binding agreement for $1,000,000,000 private placement of convertible preferred securities with a select group of investors.
While this transaction was originally contemplated with MPC, we elected to take advantage of strong investor interest in equity securities with attractive terms for the partnership. The combination of some opportunistic ATM issuances in the Q1 along with this transaction provides for our anticipated funding needs for the remainder of 2016 and into 2017. Therefore, enabling us to continue our execution of attractive organic growth projects that will contribute to distributable cash flow and long term value for our unitholders. We are committed to pursuing a strategy that balances capital investments to meet the needs of our customers with the sustainable growth of the partnership. In response to market conditions, we previously announced a substantial reduction to our 2016 capital investment plan and we remain focused on managing both capital and expenses across the business.
Another example of how we're executing our 2016 plans is the acquisition of MPC's Inland Marine business, which took place in the Q1. MPC clearly demonstrated its commitment to the success of the partnership as we acquired the Marine business at a supportive valuation in exchange for MPLX equity, eliminating the need to access the public market to fund the transaction. In addition, MPC provided another measure of support by waiving 1st quarter distributions and IDRs of the newly issued common units in exchange for the marine business. Upon completion of this acquisition, our sponsor still retains an inventory of $1,500,000,000 of MLP qualifying earnings, which we expect to be made available to the partnership over time. With strategically located assets, a supportive sponsor and strong relationships with our customers, we are well positioned to deliver on our 2016 plans and to continue delivering sustainable returns well into the future.
Now, let me turn the call over to Don to review our strong quarterly operational results. Don?
Thanks, Gary. Turning to Slide 4, you will see information for our Logistics and Storage segment. A key highlight during the Q1 was the acquisition of MPC's inland marine business. These high quality assets are backed by a fee for capacity contract with MPC and are expected to generate approximately $120,000,000 in annual EBITDA of which 3 quarters would be recognized in MPLX's 2016 EBITDA based on the timing of the transaction. The Marine business further diversifies our earnings mix and provides us with another source of stable cash flows.
During the quarter, we also commenced construction of the Cornerstone Pipeline and anticipate placing it into service by the end of this year. The pipeline will transport condensate and natural gasoline produced in the Marcellus and Utica to MPC's Canton Refinery in Ohio. We continue to pursue our larger Utica build out strategy, which has the potential to deliver liquids produced in the Northeast to refineries in the Midwest and pipelines to Western Canada. Together with MPC, we have the ability to accelerate and lead the development of market access by expanding existing pipelines and connectivity and completing additional storage capacity. Our Utica strategy is a great example of commercial synergy projects that connect our leading midstream position in the region with MPC's downstream operations.
Including our highlights for the LMS segment was an expansion of the Patoka to Robinson pipeline, which adds 20,000 barrels per day of crude oil supply capacity to MPC's refinery in Robinson, Illinois. This expansion was completed in conjunction with a light crude upgrade project at the refinery, further illustrating our strong relationship with MPC. Shifting to our Gathering and Processing segment, Slide 5 provides an overview of our operations in the Southwest, where we have diversified gathering and processing assets across established resource plays. During the Q1, we processed over 1,000,000,000 cubic feet per day and processing plant utilization increased to 82%. For the full year 2016, we forecast processed volumes in the Southwest to increase by approximately 15% and gathered volumes to increase by approximately 5%.
Growth will be driven by expanded producer activity in our East Texas operations, the further development of infrastructure to support new field stack play in the Cano Woodford Shale, and the addition of our new Hidalgo complex in West Texas. Moving next to our operations in the Marcellus and Utica, Slide 6 illustrates the productivity of this region. While other U. S. Gas basins are in decline, the Marcellus and Utica continues to grow and our producer customers are an integral part of this growth.
Currently, these plays account for over 1 quarter of U. S. Gas production at over 23,000,000,000 cubic feet per day and over 1 third of total gas rigs in the U. S. Are in the areas of the Marcellus and Utica where we operate.
On Slide 7 is a summary of our gathering and processing operations in this region. Processed gas volumes reached almost 4,300,000,000 cubic feet per day during the Q1, a 9% increase over the previous quarter. As a result, utilization of our facilities also continues to improve, averaging 81% in the 1st quarter. Producer customers continue to adapt to market conditions and we were working closely with them as their plans for rich gas development evolve. We anticipate Marcellus and Utica process volumes to increase by approximately 15% over the prior year.
In addition to our leading processing infrastructure, we have an extensive gathering footprint throughout the region. We expect gathered volumes of rich and dry gas and Utica to increase by approximately 30% over the prior year. The primary driver of our gathered volume growth is occurring from the highly prospective dry gas areas of the Utica Shale. Along with gathering and processing, we are the largest fractionator in the Marcellus and Utica, handling the majority of liquids production in the region. On Slide 8, we have provided a summary of our NGL fractionation volumes, which are expected to increase by approximately 25% over the prior year.
We produced nearly 280,000 barrels per day of purity products in the Q1, an increase of 9% over the prior quarter. Our growth was driven primarily by the recovery of additional ethane. In March, ethane recovered from our facilities supported the first ever waterborne ethane shipment from the Eastern seaboard to a petrochemical complex in Norway. This historic event marks the start of large scale waterborne exports from the U. S.
Our facilities are also the origination point of the Mariner West and ATEX pipelines, which provide producer customers with the flexibility to access major North American petrochemical markets. As new world scale petrochemical facilities are completed in the Gulf Coast and potentially the Northeast over the coming years, ethane sourced from the Marcellus and Utica will be an important feedstock to meet this growing demand. For the heavier portion of the NGL barrel, we are leading the development of efficient solutions in the Marcellus and Utica to maximize netback prices for our producer customers. We now have the scale with our NGL fractionation and logistics facilities to be able to load and deliver unit trains bound for demand markets outside the basin. In March, we delivered the 1st unit train of propane from our Hopedale complex to delivery points in the Mid Continent.
Being able to load unit trains brings efficiency to the marketing of NGLs by lowering rail transportation costs, which improves differentials for producers. We also remain focused on driving the development of longer term NGL solutions that will increase the basin's connectivity to both domestic and international markets as well as enhance local demand. These solutions include an NGL export terminal from the East Coast, participation in long haul pipeline projects to the Gulf Coast and a butane to alkali project, all of which will provide producer customers with optionality and flexibility for their future NGL production. That concludes our operational summary. And now I'll turn it over to Nancy to review our financial position and strategy.
Thanks, Don. Slide 9 provides a summary of our capital expenditure program for 2016. Our organic growth forecast remains in a range of $800,000,000 to $1,200,000,000 and we expect maintenance capital to be approximately 60,000,000 dollars The midpoint of our CapEx range represents a decrease of approximately $650,000,000 from our initial 2016 forecast of 1,700,000,000 We continue to aggressively manage our capital expenditures and work closely with our producer customers. Our focus remains to complete projects on a just in time basis and to continue to increase utilization of our existing facilities. Throughout the course of 2016, we'll continue to evaluate our capital spending program and seek to optimize our investments as we take into account the forecasted changes in our producer drilling activity and the infrastructure needed to support our customers' drilling growth plan.
Turning to our financial highlights on Slide 10. We reported adjusted EBITDA of $302,000,000 and distributable cash flow of $236,000,000 for the Q1 2016. Total segment operating income attributable to MPLX was $345,000,000 for the Q1. Strong volume growth in our Gathering and Processing segment continues to drive operating income in addition to higher throughput volumes and tariff rate increases in the Logistics and Storage segment. We forecast fee based net operating margin of approximately 95% for the full year 2016.
The bridge on Slide 11 shows the change in adjusted EBITDA from the Q1 of 2015 compared to the Q1 of 2016. The prior year quarter, we increased adjusted EBITDA by $238,000,000 The addition of Mark West operation accounted for nearly all of this increase, while higher tariffs and pipeline throughput volumes accounted for the majority of the remaining change. Slide 12 provides a key summary, financial highlights and select balance sheet information. At the end of the Q1, we had 1 point $67,000,000,000 available on our revolving credit facility and $62,000,000 available on our intercompany loan with MPC. We remain committed to maintaining an investment grade credit profile.
And during the quarter, our investment grade status was reaffirmed by one of the rating agencies. We continue to target a leverage ratio of around 4.0x by the end of this year. Our consolidated total debt to pro form a adjusted EBITDA ratio was 4.3x at the end of the Q1. We expect to continue reducing leverage by growing our EBITDA, and we do not anticipate increasing our net debt in 2016. As Gary mentioned, yesterday, we announced the financing of $1,000,000,000 of convertible preferred securities with select third party investors.
Leasing of this transaction, combined with approximately $300,000,000 of opportunistic ATM issuance during the Q1, fulfills our anticipated funding needs for the remainder of 2016 and into 2017. On Slide 13, we reaffirm our 2016 forecast, which is based on our expectations for producer volumes, forecasted commodity prices and our strategy of deploying capital on a just in time basis. Excluding the impact of the goodwill impairment recorded in the Q1, 2016 net income remains in a range of approximately $325,000,000 to $485,000,000 adjusted EBITDA remains in a range of $1,250,000,000 to $1,400,000,000 and DCF remains in a range of $970,000,000 to $1,100,000,000 We have a strong record of growing distributions to unitholders. Based on our quarterly financial performance, the Board of Directors of our general partner declared a distribution of $0.55 per common unit. Q1 2016 distribution represents a 23% increase over the same period of last year and marks the 13th consecutive quarter since our IPO in October 2012 that we've increased the distribution.
We reaffirm our guidance of a 12% to 15% distribution growth rate over the prior year, and we expect a double digit growth rate in 2017. We target a long term distribution coverage ratio of 1.1x and reported a strong coverage ratio of 1.18x for the Q1 2016. We are well positioned to manage through the current environment and remain focused on execution and achieving our financial and operational targets. MPLX is one of the largest gas processors and fractionators in the United States and has an expansive crude and refined projects logistics system. This provides us with an exceptional opportunity to continue pursuing high quality organic growth projects.
Combined with the compelling backlog of synergistic projects with our sponsor and the ability to pursue high quality acquisitions, we look forward to successfully demonstrating the unique competitive advantages available to our partnership. Now I'll turn the call back over to Lisa.
Thanks, Nancy. As we open the call for questions, we ask that you limit yourself to one question plus a follow-up. You may re prompt for additional questions as time permits. With that, we will now open the call for questions. John?
John, we're opening the call for questions at this point. Thank you.
Thank you. And our first question is from Kristina Kazarian from Deutsche Bank.
Hey, guys. Great deal on the preferred. Did you just some a couple of a quick question on this one first. So did you guys preview this deal with the rating agency? Or is there any kind of color you guys could give me on how they're going to account for how much equity credit and just general thoughts on that first?
Sure, Christina. We absolutely talked to the rating agencies all throughout the process and reviewed every piece of this with them. And our understanding from them is we will receive 50% equity credit on the transaction and that's from all three agencies.
Sounds great. And then limiting it to my second one is going to be about, just the Northeast. I know NGL pricing uplifts kind of become a theme du jour recently. So can you just since you guys touched such a high percentage of Northeast NGLs, can you offer some color on what you're thinking of here and kind of translate that into numbers we saw in the slide deck? So I think it looks like it's 15% versus 20% now guidance and frac came down a little bit as well.
So just that would be great. Yes, absolutely. Happy to talk about that.
Yes, Marcellus volumes are continuing to grow and we are seeing quarter over quarter increases there. We're also seeing we are seeing quarter over quarter increases there. We're also seeing in the Utica a little bit more in terms of the dry gas volume. Those are continuing to go up. You did see a slight decline in process and fractionated volumes there, but it is also relatively small numbers at this point in time.
But gathering in the Utica is increased because of Gulfport. We also brought our Jefferson County gas project online to support Ascent Resources. So there are some good things going on there. So fundamentally, we will see volume increases, although we have slowed that down a bit in terms of a forecast, as you've noted.
Yes. Christina, this is Don as well. I mean, we are very encouraged by the strength of the business in the Marcellus and the Utica. And as you know, we are very much tied to what our producer customers are doing. And so they manage their portfolio dynamically.
I think, the fractionated volumes and the process volumes may be seeing a little bit of downward movement there, but the gathered volumes have been incredibly strong and that's actually offset any of the downward movement in the other. So a very dynamic time. We are encouraged by the improving NGL prices. I think our producer customers are very encouraged by that. And we are also very committed to working on projects that allow them not only to realize the improvement in the NGL pricing, but to reduce the differential, the basin differential that currently exists.
We spent tremendous amount of time working on those projects and we are making very good progress on them.
Perfect. Thanks guys and nice job on the preferred again. Thanks.
Our next question is from Jaron Holder from Goldman Sachs.
Good morning. Just wanted to start off with just given that the drop down has been done to date about $1,300,000,000 worth of equity through the preferred and ATM so far. How should we think about, I guess, expectations for further sponsor support for the remainder of the year and I guess into 2017?
Sure. I think that one of the things that we thought was really important about the convertible preferred was to take off, if you will, any potential overhang or concern around our ability to grow our business and to fund our business in an appropriate manner. We are very pleased with the sponsor support that we received around the marine drop. It's a fantastic transaction for MPLX. We are very excited about the assets that we have there.
In terms of our core business, as I mentioned when Christina asked her question, it's very sound. And so our expectations is that we will be supporting a substantial amount of our growth and our distribution growth through organic projects. The great thing about having a sponsor like MPC is that there are opportunities if you would like to supplement that growth. We've always anticipated that there would be some acquisitions that we would be making over time. We expect to grow our core business through organic growth, but we would expect to be making acquisitions over time, whether they're 3rd party or from the parent sponsor.
So I'd say core business is the priority right now. We have an opportunity to access or to be supported by MPC, but I think we're very comfortable where we sit looking into 2017.
Thanks. And I guess as a follow-up, with the 2016 equity funding largely done, and some prefunding for 2017, should we expect further opportunistic prefunding of the 2017 CapEx program through ATMs or anything else for the remainder of the year?
Yes. You've got it just right. With the $300,000,000 of equity raised in the quarter as well as the $1,000,000,000 on the convertible preferred, we really have taken away our financing needs for the balance of the year. However, depending on how market conditions continue to evolve over the course of the rest of the year, we'll certainly be opportunistic as we think about prefunding further into 2017.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Our next question is from Jeremy Tonet from JPMorgan.
Hi, good morning. It's actually Andy for Jeremy. Thanks for taking our question. The first question is, we saw the guidance for Marcellus Utica processing volumes touched a bit lower for 2016. Might that push back the timing of some of the G and P projects slated to be in service for 2017?
Yes, absolutely. And that's what you're seeing with the as a result of our capital expenditure program. So as the producer volumes get moved out at times, you'll see our spending follow suit and we can wait longer to bring projects online. You'll see that through increased utilization. We're maximizing all the capacity at our existing facilities and we won't be bringing on new capacity until it's needed.
Okay. But incrementally from the last time you provided an outlook and an update on those volumes and CapEx, nothing's really changed. This is just updating?
That's right. Okay.
Got it. And then the follow-up to that is on CapEx for Cornerstone. Can you remind us how much that project is costing in total and then how much is left to spend between the 2nd 4th quarters of this year? And then also how can we think about the EBITDA ramp up into next year? And then lastly, is MPC the only counterparty?
Sorry about the 3 questions in one.
Yes. So on Cornerstone, the total CapEx is will be a little over $200,000,000 for that project. We expect to have that project online by the end of the year. And originally, MPC had made the initial commitment on volume. So if you recall in terms of how we arrived at this project, it started off as solely an MPC project to move condensate from the Utica Marcellus area to the Canton refinery.
As we were thinking about the project, it became more clear to us that we could provide an industry solution that seemed to make a lot of sense. And we expanded the size of the of the business or the operation, we expect that it's of the business or the operation, we expect that it's predominantly to move condensate on behalf of MPC to their refinery.
And our next question is from Eric Genkow from CIPI.
Hi, good morning. I just wanted to follow-up on a couple of questions. Just the, I guess, the takeaway options for NGLs for the Marcellus and Utica. You mentioned the unit train and improving basis differential there. I was just wondering if you could touch on sort of how that is improving the basis differentials, if you could put some number to it?
And then also, I guess, long haul to the Gulf Coast, you mentioned that as being a potential solution you were looking at. Is that something you could expand on a bit?
Sure, Eric. This is Don. In terms of the railing to the East Coast, that project is advancing very well. Our expectation is that we would load unit trains at our Hopedale facility. You probably saw or heard in our comments that we were able to load our 1st unit train in the Q1, which gives us all sorts of confidence and should give our producer customers confidence that we are able to do that on a regular basis.
So the expectation is that we would move that propane to the East Coast. It would then be exported to international markets. We have not provided publicly information on the uplift, but our expectation is that it should be substantial.
Okay. And then just as a quick follow-up, I mean, just wondered if maybe we should read into anything. I guess Majorsville 7 was originally scheduled for 4Q 2016 and then it was 2017 and now it's TBD. Are there any incremental concerns that in any way tied? And we know ME2 was delayed a bit the last time through.
Are you hearing anything different there? Is there anything that concerns you? Is that tied to ME2? Or are we reading too much into it?
I think you're probably reading too much into that. We are big fans of ME2 because we think that's an important gateway or ability to take away MGLs from the base. And so we are very supportive of that project, but we also think our rail project is a very good project and one that is necessary to ensure that we are meeting the timing and the needs of our producer customers. But I don't think anything should be read into that.
All right. Well, thank you very much for
your time. Really appreciate it.
Our next question is from John Edwards from Credit Suisse.
Yes. Good morning, everybody. Just a couple of follow ups here. So on the volumes that you are expecting to deliver outside the region, could you give us any detail on that? I think you indicated both the unit trains as well as volumes on ethane export expected?
John, I don't think we've given that type of information yet. I mean, clearly, we are interested in making sure that we're evacuating the basin, But that will be that will in some regards be dictated on pricing and where our producer customers can get the best net back.
Okay.
And then the unit train volumes here, is I mean, in a way, you're alluding to the fact that it's compete you've got competition from ME2. I mean, is it the intention here to these to be complementary or what's the thinking there?
Well, I think it's important that our producer customers have multiple ways to get to markets. And so the Unitrain project is offering a solution to our producer customers. The second thing about it is that it is very flexible, and we can ramp up or ramp down volumes around unit trains. I'd say the third thing is that because we have the capacity unit train loading capacity at our facility, we thought it was a solution that we could get to market quickly to provide our producer customers, the a reduction, if you will, in the discount that they were seeing in the basin this past summer and potentially in the coming summer.
Okay, that's great. And just last one, just any I know you guys have guided that you think you've done drop down you've done you don't need to do any additional drop downs. I mean with the big reduction here in the cost of capital, the rally in MPLX equity. I mean, any thought here to doing considering an additional drop down and you may be boosting the distribution growth outlook as a result?
Yes, I think we are always evaluating ways to improve unitholder value. So I think the Q1 was a fairly challenging environment around unit pricing and cost of capital. We are very encouraged with the sort of the recent performance of the MPLX units. We think that is due in large part to some of the actions that we've taken as well as the very positive, in our view, outlook for 2016 2017. So as the cost of capital decreases, it certainly increases our optionality around being able to do things that increase unitholder value.
I guess, Nancy, any other I
would offer relative to the drops, I think they're just one part of the portfolio. As Don mentioned earlier, we'll be looking at 3rd party acquisitions. We'll be looking at a lot of opportunities for internal organic growth and drops are also part of the portfolio. We've got a whole suite of sponsor tools we can use. So drops are certainly part of the optionality we hope to preserve.
Okay. Thank you. That's very helpful.
Our next question is from Mike Boon from Wells Fargo.
Hi, thanks. Good morning, everyone. Just a couple of questions for me. One, I'm just curious on the preferred offering. If you could just give us a little insight into the market, specifically trying to think about is there why did you decide to go preferred?
I mean, I understand the economics of it, but just kind of wondering is there not an appetite in the market generally for common equity in your common equity specifically? Or did you choose to do this anyway? Just trying to get a sense of the different options and
what that looks like.
Sure, Michael. I think the good news is as we demonstrated by the bit of common equity we did on the ATM throughout the quarter, there is interested in PLX equity and we had no problem raising those dollars. As we continue to think about it, the equity yield has moved around quite a bit in the course of the quarter and we like the optionality to lock in a rate. Again, that's a known amount and we'll pay that over the period until conversion. So we feel very comfortable about locking that in.
It also gives us the ability to indicate that we've taken our financing needs for the balance of the year off the table. And I think with everything we've been faced with in the quarter, that's a very important messaging component. And it also demonstrates that while the transaction was originally contemplated to be done with MPC, we did, as Gary mentioned earlier, have very strong investor support to do this transaction. So we feel like it was just a good set of economics, and we feel like it's nice to take the issue off the table.
Okay, great. And then in terms of distribution growth, and I'm sort of thinking more long term, so you've got the double digit out there for 2017, but you've got the drop down portfolio, you've got the pretty delineated organic growth, you've got the $6,000,000,000 to $9,000,000,000 of potential projects. How do we think about kind of out year growth? Do you think double digit is sustainable long term? It seems like you've got the tools to do it or would that sort of drop to single digit over time?
Yes. We've not given guidance, as you know, past 2017. I think you did mention we do have a lot of tools that will allow us to support the business and the partnership over the long term. So I think we are as well positioned or better positioned than many or most of the MLPs to deliver that strong growth. And we're very confident in 2016.
We're very confident in the double digit growth in 2017. And I don't see anything in the underlying business that would cause us to be concerned about that.
Great. Thank you.
Our next question is from Tim Schneider from Evercore.
Yes. Hey, guys. I got more of a technical question. So you have ATAX is running essentially full and there's really no other ethane solution at the time. It's my understanding you can't move ethane on rails.
So is there a scenario where your NGL production is actually going to be, I guess, capped because you don't have anywhere for the ethane to go?
Yes. This is Frank. Is this Tim?
Yes.
Okay. So you really start with the issue around what is the what amount of ethane is going to be required to be recovered just because of the downstream quality issues, what we call must recover ethane. And we've got a lot of headroom right now in terms of the available capacity on ATEX and Mariner West. And you probably know that Mariner East is now moving ethane to their Marcus Hook facilities. So that it's an ethane and propane mix that gets split in Marcus Hook, but it opened up a whole another set of markets for ethane out of the East Coast.
So near term, there's really no problem from a must recover in a gas quality standpoint because of existing capacity. In fact, there's again a lot of headroom in the basin for the ethane that's going to be produced. Longer term, you'll see more and more projects come online that could help provide more market access to Don's point earlier. So the short answer is no problem with that thing.
Got it. Have you guys seen any interest from petchem customers along the Gulf Coast and kind of saying, hey, look, what can we do about maybe securing some longer term ethane supply?
Absolutely. Yes, there's a lot of interest. You started your question on the ATEC subject, but clearly our producer customers in the Northeast are doing a great job of optimizing their capital, making decisions around rich versus dry and including the ethane production that would be provided through our deethanization facilities. And a lot of that those netback issues that they're considering really are driven by the increasing demand for ethane in the Gulf Coast because of the petrochemical complex down there. So, yes, it's becoming a bigger, bigger part of the equation from a netback standpoint, ethane is, and that's all good news.
All right. Last one for me. Just how much is it on a per gallon basis to actually rail liquids from ununitrain down to the Gulf Coast from one of your facilities?
We've not provided that information, Tim.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
And our next question is from Shneur Gershuni from UBS.
Hi, good morning guys. A couple of follow ups. I guess the first one is kind of to Tim's last question there. You had made some very strong ethane remarks in your prepared remarks. So I'm trying to square this away here because your response to Tim and I think in earlier answer to Christina suggested that there were some challenges on the ethane side.
I'm just trying to understand kind of where you expect the rejection to be because I would assume that the Marcellus would turn on last in terms of the entire ethane rejection reversal. And then if does this sort of set up the producers to drill differently than they are now? I was just wondering if you can provide a little bit more color on that.
Shneur, this is Frank. Let me just make sure I understand your question. There really from an ethane production standpoint in the Marcellus and the Utica, really there's not a concern or a problem. Ethane has been a critical part of our planning process for 5 years. And so it's really the way that we've designed our system and also interfaced with the downstream markets has been a function of, as I said earlier, making sure that we have enough deoptimization in place with a lot of headroom to be able to meet the downstream specs for the interstate gas pipelines.
And then it becomes much more of a market driven demand for deethanization facilities and pipeline facilities to be able to support the producers' objectives relative to their marketing for ethane. So that's kind of the high level perspective. So ask now why don't you ask the question again?
So given that those comments and the strong comments that were made in the prepared remarks, is this sort of a setup for something happening with Centennial or some other outlet that you guys are exploring that you're not ready to discuss yet? Is that how we should think about that?
Well, the earlier comments really were meant to provide you the perspective that ethane is a critical part of the value chain for the producer customers. And I really see this as a ethane is a really good news story. It's becoming much more of a global product that's being provided by the U. S. And our Northeast facilities and our producer customers are benefiting from that.
So there's no hidden message there, the the fact that we're we feel really good about the flexibility our operational flexibility in our complex in the Northeast to be able to support both the operational issues around ethane as well as the commercial objectives of the producer customers.
Okay. Thank you for that. Just as a couple of quick follow ups here. The reduced growth profile that was guided to, is this a shifting of CapEx into 2017 2018 or have some of the projects been, I guess, been put on ice for a little bit. And I was also wondering if you can also comment also balance sheet related to when we think about drops going forward, I know that you haven't specifically said 1, do we go back to a fifty-fifty debt equity split now that the preferred has been placed into the marketplace?
Yes, Shneur. I think the way to think about your first question is really everything is tied to the producers drilling forecast. So from volume forecasting to CapEx, it's all driven by what we anticipate their needs being. So projects are not being canceled. They're being pushed back to meet the forecasted needs.
So nothing is off the table. It's really just a timing issue around when facilities are needed and when we need to spend the dollars. And then relative to your financing question, yes, it's anticipated. We've said that we'll offer no new debt, net debt in 2016 because we are working on getting our leverage ratio down and doing that predominantly through the growth of EBITDA. And so the way to think about financing after that is really a return more to a fifty-fifty.
Okay, perfect. Thank you very much, guys.
I'll turn the call back over to Lisa for closing remarks.
Thank you, John. Thank you for joining us today and thank you for your interest in MPLX. Did you have additional questions or would like clarification on any of the topics discussed this morning, Kevin Hawkins and I will be available to take your calls. Thank you.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.