Enterprise Products Posts Record Profit, Raises Spending Plan
Second-quarter revenue rose 61% to $18.27 billion as pipeline and marine-terminal volumes reached records.
Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), the energy-infrastructure operator, reported record second-quarter net income attributable to common unitholders of $1.84 billion, or $0.84 a unit, up 28% from a year earlier. Earnings rebounded from $0.68 a unit in the first quarter and surpassed the fourth quarter’s $0.75.
The quarter marked a broad acceleration from the start of the year. Adjusted EBITDA rose 17% to a record $2.83 billion after increasing 10% in the first quarter, while operational distributable cash flow climbed 21% to a record $2.31 billion after 5% growth. Distribution coverage increased to 1.9 times from 1.8 times in each of the previous two quarters.
Revenue increased from $11.36 billion a year earlier and rose 27% sequentially from an implied $14.39 billion. Total gross operating margin advanced 21% to a record $3.00 billion, including $77 million from higher unrealized hedging gains, as all four operating segments improved from the first quarter.
Higher throughput and stronger processing economics drove the gains. Equivalent pipeline volumes rose 8% to a record 14.7 million barrels a day, while marine-terminal volumes increased 33% to a record 2.8 million barrels a day. Natural-gas processing and related NGL-marketing gross operating margin climbed to $512 million from $341 million, aided by higher sales margins, mark-to-market earnings and volumes.
Crude-oil pipeline volumes increased by 403,000 barrels a day to a record 3.03 million, and crude marine-terminal volumes reached 1.12 million barrels a day. Natural Gas Pipelines & Services gross operating margin rose 33% to a record $556 million, including $91 million from natural-gas marketing, even as pipeline volume grew 3%. Petrochemical and refined-products margin increased 18% to $418 million as pipeline and marine volumes advanced.
Some of the marine-volume increase proved temporary. Volumes returned to normal in June and July after demand in April and May to replenish supplies disrupted by Middle East hostilities.
Enterprise raised its 2026 net growth-capital guidance for a second consecutive quarter to $2.9 billion to $3.4 billion, from $2.3 billion to $2.6 billion in April. The company has $6.5 billion of organic projects under construction after adding plans for a 150,000-barrel-a-day NGL fractionator and two Permian gas-processing plants with combined capacity of 600 million cubic feet a day.
The partnership increased quarterly unit repurchases to $159 million from $116 million in the first quarter and raised its distribution to $0.56 a unit from $0.55. Its trailing-12-month payout ratio improved to 56% of adjusted cash flow from operations, leaving more internally generated cash available as the construction program expanded.