This is Sandy Segrist. I'm with Hart Energy at SUPER DUG Conference & Expo in Fort Worth, Texas. Today I am lucky enough to be joined by Tom Long, co-CEO of Energy Transfer. He will be answering a few questions for today on how things have gone over the past year. To begin with, let's start with something that, a move that Energy Transfer made in regards to, I think a lot of people did not expect, announcing the Hugh Brinson pipeline and going forward on that project. This was after the Blackcomb pipeline had been announced and a lot of people said that we weren't going to need more egress out of the Permian after that. So I was just curious as far as what were the factors driving that decision?
Tom Long, co-CEO, Energy Transfer: No, actually a very, very good question. It's like so many of these large projects like this. There's a lot of different peers have these things on the drawing board and a lot of times they're talking to a lot of the same customers out there. And customers I'm referring to in this instance is a lot of the upstream folks who were looking for takeaway out of the Permian. So as we continue to have that dialogue and looking at the contracting, it was moving along like these things do. They don't necessarily just get signed up overnight. We were moving along at an okay pace, but then we saw these other projects and they were likewise looking at those. But as we continue to get close to fully contracted, before then we would go to FID [final investment decision], we go to our board and ask for approval for the project.
You could see what was happening. All the gas supply just continue to grow and it was more and more needed regardless of what some crystal balls were saying, it was clearly needing another takeaway pipe. Anyway, we got it contracted, but we broke it down into two phases, phase one and phase two. So all we were doing was, is going with the phase one. We had looked at a 36 inch pipe, 42 inch pipe or a 48 inch. We landed on the 42 inch based upon the discussions we were having. And that will get you 1.5 Bcf/d. Once again, a 400-mile pipe, 42-inch from Waha over to Maypearl is what we looked at as we continued to look at the project and looking at a phase two, which would take it up to 2.2 Bcf/d. But anyway, that's how we went about it to get the project at least built.
SS: All right, well thank you. Moving on to something that's changed recently, the U.S. and China engaged in tariffs trade war Energy Transfer has sort of a pivotal role to play in that. Energy Transfer is one of two firms in the U.S. that exports ethane to China. So the one product that China decided not to tariff turned out to be ethane. So could you tell me as far as Energy Transfer’s viewpoint going through that process?
TL: Yeah, actually a little bit of a funny story on that is that all the tariffs were coming out and being announced, but there was not a lot of clarity on what it was going to look like. Some of the ships that came into our Nederland facility, they would say ‘start loading’ and then all of a sudden they'd say, ‘stop,’ then they'd start loading again. But anyway, that happened over just a very short timeframe. I mean we're talking days now, but as you continued to look at that, you saw what the demand in China for ethane was and how critical it was to a lot of the new facilities, large crackers that they had been building. You knew that they needed feedstock or they were going to have to shut all these in. So we were very excited about that and at the end of the day, we never missed a beat on getting ships loaded and getting it moved over to China.
The other component of that that I think helped us a lot, as far as Energy Transfer goes, is we have one of the largest consumers of the ethane that had just built some of these plants, likewise invested in some of the ethane assets that we had just recently built at Nederland. So they bought into it. They invested a little less than $300 million into it, but it had kind of a take or pay contract to it. So it was going to be very difficult for them not to take that. But regardless, there was a great outcome after I'm sure a lot of wrangling and we have continued to be the largest ethane exporter in the world, basically.
SS: Okay, well thank you. And then something that well energy transfer happened to made big news just over the last few months with the decision of the Greenpeace case, which started last decade. Energy Transfer won in a North Dakota state court, huge penalty. Some of the legal mines who monitor the industry were basically calling it a transformational verdict. Now there's not really, I understand it's an ongoing legal session, but what can you tell us about going through that process?
TL: Probably one of the largest projects that we were building was of course Dakota Access. And we were on the defense all the time and there was a lot of both damage being done to us with delays and cost with our financing. So it was very, very punitive to us what was occurring. Yet we couldn't ever seem to get on the offense. We're all about free speech staying within the laws, but when you start crossing over the laws, you have to be held accountable. And that's what we did when we went back is we finally got on the offense to go back and get this suit. So the verdict that came out, we were obviously very, very pleased with, we feel confident it was the right verdict. Once again, we're in the kind of still the legal battles of it. So we're not going to let our foot off the gas pedal. We're going to continue to stay on the offense here after being on the defense so long and with all the damages that we were inflicted upon us.
SS: All right, well that is all that I have for today. Thanks for taking the time sir, and thanks for tuning in. I appreciate it.
TL: Thank you. I really appreciate it.