Enable Midstream flows through second quarter
Enable Midstream Partners continued to grow its natural gas transmission business during the second quarter of t he year as well owners across its footprint returned shut-in wells to production, it reported Wednesday.
Company officials discussed those issues and others as part of its second quarter operational and financial results, released before markets opened.
The company reported earning a net income of $35 million, or 8 cents per unit, on total revenues of $515 million for the period.
In the second quarter of 2019, it had earned a net income of $115 million, or 26 cents per unit, on total revenues of $735 million.
The company's distributable cash flow to unitholders during the second quarter of 2020 was $148 million, compared to $197 million the same quarter in 2019.
On Aug .4, its board of directors declared a second quarter cash distribution of 16.525 cents per common unit. Officials said the distribution will be paid Aug. 25 to unitholders of record Aug. 18.
It also authorized a second quarter cash distribution of 62.5 cents per preferred unit to be paid Aug. 14 to unitholders of record Aug. 4.
“With producers bringing shut-in well sin oilier plays back to our gathering systems earlier than anticipated, we saw less than expected curtailment of crude-focused production during the second quarter,” Rod Sail or, Enable's CEO, stated as part of the earnings release .“Highlighting the strength of the Haynesville Shale play, the second quarter also saw the highest quarter of natural gas gathered volumes in the Ark-La-Tex Basin since the partnership's inception.”
Commitments obtained
During second quarter 2020, Enable contracted or extended over 950,000 dekatherms per day of firm transportation capacity, including previously announced recontracted capacity with Enable Gas Transmission's largest customer, CenterPoint Energy Resources Corp.
Officials said the contract term for most of the renewed CenterPoint capacity is nine years, and the effective date of the new contracts will be April 1, 2021.
Enable's Mississippi River Transmission unit, meanwhile, also recently picked up a five-year commitment for 80,000 dekatherms per day of firm capacity for the pipeline's Southbound Expansion project.
The project will provide transportation capacity from various receipt points on its East Line to various delivery points in its market and field zones, and is scheduled to go into service in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Meanwhile, Enable continues to work on its plans to build its Gulf Run Pipeline project and to build another project it calls MASS, intended to move natural gas from the Anadarko Basin to emerging markets on the Texas Gulf Coast.
Officials said seven rigs across Enable's footprint were drilling wells at the end of July that were expected to be connected to Enable's gathering systems.
Three of those rigs were in the Anadarko Basin, three were in the Ark-La-Tex Basin and one was in the Williston Basin.
The partnership' s ArkLa-Tex Basin natural gas gathering system gathered record quarterly volumes for second quarter 2020, driven by continued producer investment in the Haynesville Shale play, officials said.
As producers have returned shut-in wells with natural gas, crude oil and condensate productions online, Enable has not experienced a degradation in production from these wells, officials said.
“Enable continues too perat eat a high level of safety and reliability through these uncertain times, and we remain on track to achieve the capital and cost reductions announced in April of this year,” Sailor stated as part of the release.