Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) reported fourth-quarter 2025 adjusted EBITDA of $2.7 billion, setting a new quarterly record and topping the prior high of $2.6 billion posted in the fourth quarter of 2024. Co-CEO Jim Teague said results reflected strong performance from a slate of projects placed into service during 2025, even as weaker commodity-sensitive margins and marketing spreads weighed on parts of the business.
Record quarter supported by 2025 project start-ups
Teague highlighted multiple assets that entered service during 2025, including Frac 14 in mid-October; the Mentone West and Orion projects midyear; several gathering and treating projects in the Permian; the Neches River Terminal ethane export train midyear; a midyear start-up of diluent exports to Canada; and the Bahia NGL pipeline in December. He said these assets “performed well,” while also helping offset declines in commodity-sensitive businesses and marketing spreads.
Teague discussed pressure in splitter-related spreads, citing RGP/PGP spreads of $0.14 per pound in the fourth quarter of 2024 versus $0.03 per pound in the fourth quarter of 2025, which he attributed to weakness in the housing market. He said Enterprise renegotiated RGP purchase agreements to a fixed-fee structure during 2024 and 2025, making the splitter business “largely spread agnostic.”
NGL export expansion and ramp expectations
Enterprise emphasized growth in its export business. Teague said the partnership loaded between 350 million and 360 million barrels of NGLs in 2025 across 744 ships, and he expects volumes to rise with completion of phase two of the Neches River Terminal and an LPG expansion at the Houston Ship Channel. By next year, Teague said Enterprise expects to be exporting near 1.5 million barrels per day of NGLs, or about 550 million barrels annually.
On ethane exports and Permian processing, Teague said the company’s ethane export terminals are fully contracted, and all 20 processing trains expected to be online in the Permian by year-end are fully contracted. He added that the two processing trains brought online in midyear 2025 are “virtually full today.”
During the Q&A, Tyler Kott provided additional detail on the Neches River ramp. He said the facility came online last year and that, during the fourth quarter, the partnership began ramping ethane volumes “in earnest,” with that ramp continuing into the first several months of the year. Kott said overall ethane export capacity should be “very near full utilization” by the second quarter, at which time the second train at Neches River is expected to come online and ramp over subsequent months—initially driven largely by propane, then shifting to mostly ethane by around the end of next year.
Kott also said international demand has been “pretty resilient” despite “noise” in export markets, adding that U.S. LPG is finding new markets, including India and Southeast Asia. He said the company continues to see strong interest in long-term export capacity commitments for both LPG and ethane.
Bahia pipeline and ExxonMobil partnership
Teague described Bahia and Shin Oak as an integrated system with 1.2 million barrels per day of capacity running at about 80%. He said having Exxon as an undivided joint interest (UJI) partner and agreeing to expand Bahia to 1 million barrels per day was a “win for both Enterprise and Exxon,” and noted the UJI includes a dozen downstream agreements.
Randy Fowler, co-CEO, said ExxonMobil’s acquisition of an undivided joint interest in the Bahia NGL pipeline and the related expansion includes a 92-mile extension to connect Exxon’s Cowboy processing complex and Enterprise plants in the Delaware Basin.
Management clarified that the UJI will be proportionately consolidated, meaning the partnership will report only its share of the investment.
Financial results, capital returns, and balance sheet
Fowler said fourth-quarter 2025 net income attributable to common unitholders was $1.6 billion, or $0.75 per common unit on a fully diluted basis. Adjusted cash flow from operations (cash flow from operating activities before working capital changes) rose 5% to $2.4 billion in the quarter and reached a record $8.7 billion for full-year 2025.
The partnership declared a quarterly distribution of $0.55 per common unit, a 2.8% increase from the fourth quarter of 2024, payable Feb. 13 to holders of record as of Jan. 30. Enterprise repurchased about $50 million of common units in the fourth quarter, bringing 2025 buybacks to about $300 million, and Fowler said the partnership has used about 29% of its $5 billion authorized buyback program.
Fowler said Enterprise returned $5 billion of capital to equity investors during 2025, consisting of about $4.7 billion in distributions and $300 million through buybacks, representing a 58% payout ratio of adjusted cash flow from operations.
On spending, total capital investments were $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter, including $1.0 billion of growth capital and $203 million of sustaining capital. For 2025, organic growth capital investments totaled $4.4 billion (with about $100 million shifting into 2026), alongside $620 million of sustaining capital expenditures.
Enterprise ended 2025 with total debt principal outstanding of $34.7 billion, a weighted average life of about 17 years, and a weighted average cost of debt of 4.7%. Fowler said about 98% of debt was fixed-rate. Consolidated liquidity was approximately $5.2 billion at year-end. The partnership’s net consolidated leverage ratio ended the year at 3.3x, and management reiterated a leverage target of 3.0x ±0.25 turns, expecting a return within the target range by the end of 2026 as new projects contribute a full year of EBITDA.
2026 and 2027 outlook: modest growth near term, step-up expected in 2027
Management guided to a lower growth pace in 2026 followed by a larger increase in 2027. Teague said the fourth quarter was “more ratable than not” given fewer outsized spreads versus prior years. Fowler added that Enterprise expects “modest” adjusted EBITDA and cash flow growth in 2026—likely toward the lower end of a 3% to 5% range discussed on the call—before moving to “10% area” growth in 2027 versus 2026 as projects reach fuller utilization. Fowler also cautioned that fourth and first quarters are seasonally stronger and said investors should not “straight line” results.
Enterprise expects 2026 growth capital expenditures of $2.5 billion to $2.9 billion, or $1.9 billion to $2.3 billion net after applying about $600 million of asset sale proceeds already received earlier in the year (the final installment related to the Bahia transaction). Sustaining capital is expected to be about $580 million in 2026, including roughly $80 million for a turnaround at the octane enhancement facility.
On free cash flow and capital allocation, Fowler said adjusted free cash flow in 2025 was $3.1 billion, and after distributions, discretionary free cash flow was negative $1.6 billion. Based on expected lower net capital investments and a net increase in distributions, management said discretionary free cash flow has the potential to be “in the $1 billion area” in 2026. Fowler said the partnership expects discretionary free cash flow in the near term to be split between buybacks and retiring debt, with 50% to 60% targeted for buybacks in 2026, combining opportunistic and programmatic repurchases.
In response to questions about contributors to 2027 growth, Fowler highlighted a full-year benefit from a Delaware Basin processing plant expected to come online later in the first quarter, another processing plant targeted for the Midland Basin at the end of the year (benefiting 2027 results), incremental contributions from the OxyRock acquisition, and downstream benefits as volumes flow through the Bahia pipeline, fractionators, distribution system, and marine terminals. Management also cited higher fees expected on the Acadian Haynesville system.
About Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD)
Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD) is a Houston-based master limited partnership that provides midstream energy services across North America. The company owns and operates an extensive network of pipelines, storage facilities, processing plants and export terminals that transport and handle natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), crude oil and refined and petrochemical products. Its core activities include gathering and transportation, fractionation of NGLs, natural gas processing, crude oil and condensate pipelines, and marine and terminal services that enable domestic distribution and exports.
Enterprise serves a diverse set of customers including producers, refiners, petrochemical companies, marketers and end users.
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