NuStar Energy L.P. (NS) Tops Q1 EPS by 7c

NuStar Energy L.P. (NYSE: NS) reported Q1 EPS of $0.24, $0.07 better than the analyst estimate of $0.17. Revenue for the quarter came in at $393.9 million versus the consensus estimate of $439.44 million.

Positive Outlook for Remainder of 2023

Shoaf also gave an update on full-year guidance for net income and adjusted EBITDA, as well as strategic capital and reliability capital for 2023.

“While high inflation and volatility that distinguished 2022 have persisted so far this year, we expect to generate full-year 2023 net income in the range of $257 to $295 million and full-year 2023 adjusted EBITDA in the range of $700 to $760 million,” said Shoaf.

He also noted that NuStar still plans to spend $130 to $150 million in strategic capital in 2023.

“Depending on the activity of our Permian producers over the course of the rest of the year, we expect to allocate between $45 and $60 million to growing our Permian system,” said Shoaf. “We continue to expect to spend around $25 million to expand our West Coast Renewable Fuels Network.

“In addition, we still expect to spend between $25 and $35 million on reliability this year.”

Barron stated that NuStar expects to once again self-fund all of its cash requirements, including all of its growth capital spending and its distributions.

“What’s more, even with our planned Series D redemption later this year, we are still on track to finish 2023 with a healthy debt-to-EBITDA ratio of below four times,” said Barron.

Barron closed by highlighting an agreement that was jointly announced by NuStar and OCI Global yesterday that will involve NuStar transporting ammonia on a new segment of its existing 2,000-mile anhydrous ammonia pipeline to OCI’s state-of-the-art ammonia products facility in Iowa.

“We expect this healthy-return, low-capital project will meaningfully increase utilization of our Ammonia System,” said Barron. “And we expect this project to be just the first of several, as we are actively working with a number of potential customers interested in connections to our system, across our footprint, for a variety of different opportunities.”

Barron continued, “As you may know, about 90 percent of ammonia is used to support agricultural production and more than half of the world’s food production is dependent on this key chemical. Because of its importance, there is increasing focus on de-carbonizing the process used to make ammonia, either by capturing emissions or by utilizing electrolysis fueled by solar or wind to lower emissions, referred to, respectively, as ‘blue’ and ‘green’ ammonia.

“We are seeing growing interest in lower carbon ammonia from many different companies and potential customers. In addition to the ‘greening’ of ammonia expanding the market domestically, international demand is also driving interest in ammonia export, which could drive additional utilization of not only our Ammonia System but also, potentially, our St. James facility, which has dock capacity that could support ammonia export. So as you can see, this growing interest in ammonia – to reduce emissions and supply the globe – is generating opportunities for attractive return, low-spend projects that we are confident will increase our system utilization significantly, across our footprint, over the next several years,” Barron concluded.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on NuStar Energy L.P. (NS) click here.

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