ONEOK Inc Q3 2025 Earnings Call Summary

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Vrathan Reddy - JPMorgan Chase & Co - Analyst : This is Vrathan Reddy on for Jeremy. I appreciate you guys don't want to provide 2026 specifics at this point. Curious if you guys could frame up tailwinds versus headwinds as you think about earnings growth into next year. Should we -- specifically, should we

Question: Vrathan Reddy - JPMorgan Chase & Co - Analyst : Got it. And then on capital allocation, $45 million of buybacks in the quarter. Could you walk through, I guess, how you think about executing on the buyback versus debt pay down or other capital allocation priorities at this point? Walter Hulse - ONEOK Inc - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Development, Treasurer Sure. Well, as we've said in the past, as we get closer to a clear path to our debt-to-EBITDA target of 3.5 times, it's going to free up our flexibility to add some stock buybacks to the equation. We continue to be on track with where we think we need to get to from a debt-to-EBITDA standpoint. And with that visibility, we're starting to feel a little bit more flexible in our asset allocation, saw the opportunity to buy back some stock there in the third quarter, and did a modest amount. We also saw a pretty nice opportunity on the bond side and executed on that as well.

Question: Michael Blum - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : Maybe we just go back to the '26 guidance. The slide in the deck, you removed the mid-single digit to high single-digit growth language. So I just wanted to make sure I understand the change there and just how you're thinking about '26.

Question: Michael Blum - Wells Fargo Securities LLC - Analyst : Okay. Fair enough. Appreciate that. And then just wanted to ask if you could quantify the potential impact of Waha spreads widening, either can you capture that from your EnLink assets, or do you have more open capacity on WesTex to capture those spreads than you have historically?

Question: Spiro Dounis - Citi - Analyst : First question, maybe to start out with capital allocation. Curious that you guys are thinking about maybe where that next marginal dollar CapEx goes. And really, if you just dig into some of the basins or the asset types between NGLs, gas and liquids, what's most attractive to you right here? Walter Hulse - ONEOK Inc - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Development, Treasurer Well, Spiro, I think we look at every project on a standalone basis. We've historically been able to use our strategy of building off our existing asset base that expand and extend approach, which has given us the opportunity to do some very attractive capital projects. That same strategy exists today with more assets. So given the acquisitions we've made, we've got more opportunities to expand and extend. So we look at each and every one of those on a standalone basis. That said, I think that our expectation is that the CapEx will trend down here over the next several years. As Pierce had mentioned in his remarks, we have a lot of operating leverage in our existing business, whether it be NGL capacity, fractionation capacity that's coming on. So we don't need to continue to expand that. So we do see CapEx starting to trend down.

Question: Theresa Chen - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Following a notable uptick in volumes across your regions, I wanted to go back to the forward outlook a bit. Given the heightened market concerns around how producer budgets may be evolving in light of recent crude price volatility and understanding that the process is still underway. But can you just give us any sense of any early indications on how you expect volumes across your supply push assets to trend through the next year?

Question: Theresa Chen - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : And would you be able to provide an update on your LPG export commercialization efforts? How are those conversations going with potential customers? And what kind of interest are you seeing in the market?

Question: Jean Ann Salisbury - Bank of America - Analyst : There's been some rumblings that there may be a call on the MidCon gas complex over the next year or two to meet all the LNG that's ramping. Is that something that you're hearing from your customers? And I guess, Sheridan, do you have a sense of if gas egress could become a limitation there for gas in (inaudible) of the Mid-Con?

Question: Jean Ann Salisbury - Bank of America - Analyst : That makes sense. And it seems like year-to-date in your processing and NGL volumes Bakken is trending a bit above the guide and Permian is trending a bit lower than the guide. Can you just talk about the dynamics of that and how much has to do with ONEOK's market share in those basins versus basin growth overall versus your expectation?

Question: Manav Gupta - UBS AG - Analyst : We are in the middle of this AI revolution. I think NVIDIA's market cap went and hit $5 trillion this morning. And I'm just trying to understand, in your comments, you did mention all the ways -- some of the ways you can benefit from this revolution. Can you elaborate on it? Where could ONEOK see the opportunities as we get into this data center build frenzy in the US?

Question: Manav Gupta - UBS AG - Analyst : Perfect. My quick follow-up here is you and your partners recently announced the Eiger Express Pipeline. Help us understand the importance of this project? And why do you see the need for this project to go ahead?

Question: John Mackay - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : You talked about I think in response to Jean Ann's question, just the ramp on kind of Permian G&P relative to the guide. Can you also just spend a minute or two on the crude side? I think also the year to date is looking a little softer versus the full year. Maybe just bridge us to the volume guidance. And then again, if you're talking about a rig environment that gets you to flat next year, how we think about that piece of the growing -- the business growing into '26?

Question: John Mackay - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : All right. That's helpful. I appreciate that. And maybe staying in the segment. Now it's the Easton kind of integration pretty well done. You're going to get more on the Conway side tied in next year. Are you able to frame up in kind of, let's say, like a mid-cycle environment, or what have you, this overall size of the blending business on an annual run rate basis at this point?

Question: Sunil Subal - Seaport Global Securities - Analyst : So I just wanted to go back to your comments on the guidance. I realize that your focused on ending 2025 strong. So in that context, realizing that we had [them] before incident also, is the midpoint of the full year guidance that (inaudible), still a good kind of an anchor point for -- as far as fourth quarter goals are concerned? Walter Hulse - ONEOK Inc - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Development, Treasurer Well, I think what we said is that we are confident to be within the range. We've affirmed that range. And we're going to see how the fourth quarter continues to play out. But at this point, we're going to keep it in the range, and we're very confident of achieving there.

Question: Jason Gabelman - Cowen and Company LLC - Analyst : I wanted to ask one just on the quarterly results. In your disclosure, you talked about the NGL segment benefiting from -- it seemed like selling product out of inventory and refined products from timing of operational gains and losses. I was hoping you can elaborate on those comments a bit more as I'm trying to understand the underlying earnings in the quarter. And I have a follow-up.

Question: Jason Gabelman - Cowen and Company LLC - Analyst : Okay. Got it. And my follow-up is a bit more strategic in nature. It seems like your growth rate -- your EBITDA growth rate is obviously going to slow here from very attractive rates the past few years, you've previously said mid- to high single digits. We'll see where it comes out next year. But as you think about attracting capital to your equity, how important is it to maintain our competitive growth rate? Or do you think that your EBITDA growth rate is not necessarily a main determinant of equity capital you could attract to the stock and there are other avenues to do that? Walter Hulse - ONEOK Inc - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Development, Treasurer Well, I mean I think, clearly, having a growth rate -- a positive growth rate is going to be something that attracts people to the stock. I would just kind of point you to our history. We've gone through cycles before where commodity prices have been up and down.