Hess Midstream LP - Quarter Report: 2021 September (Form 10-Q)

Note 1. Description of Business

Hess Midstream LP (“the Company”) is a fee-based, growth-oriented, Delaware limited partnership that operates, develops and acquires a diverse set of midstream assets and provides fee-based services to Hess Corporation (“Hess”) and third-party customers. We are managed and controlled by Hess Midstream GP LLC, the general partner of our general partner that is owned 50/50 by Hess and GIP II Blue Holding, L.P. (“GIP” and together with Hess, the “Sponsors”).

Our assets are primarily located in the Bakken and Three Forks shale plays in the Williston Basin area of North Dakota, which we collectively refer to as the Bakken. Our assets and operations are organized into the following three reportable segments: (1) gathering, (2) processing and storage and (3) terminaling and export (see Note 13, Segments).

Unless the context otherwise requires, references in this report to the “Company,” “we,” “our,” “us” or like terms, refer to Hess Midstream LP and its subsidiaries.

Note 2. Basis of Presentation

Note 3. Equity Transactions

Equity Offering

On March 15, 2021, the Sponsors completed an underwritten public equity offering of 6,900,000 of our Class A shares, inclusive of the underwriters’ option to purchase up to 900,000 of additional shares, at a price of $21.00 per Class A share, less underwriting discounts. The Sponsors received net proceeds from the offering of $139.9 million, after deducting underwriting discounts; we did not receive any proceeds in the offering. The offering was conducted pursuant to a registration rights agreement among us and the Sponsors. The Class A Shares sold in the offering were obtained by the Sponsors by exchanging to us 6,900,000 of their Class B Units in the Partnership, together with an equal number of our Class B Shares. As a result of the exchange, the total number of Class A and Class B shares did not change, but Hess Midstream LP’s consolidated ownership in the Partnership increased from 6.3% at December 31, 2020 to 8.8% at the time of offering. Hess Midstream LP retained control in the Partnership based on the delegation of control provisions, as described in Note 2, Basis of Presentation. As a result of the transaction, we recognized an adjustment to the carrying amount of noncontrolling interest and Class A shareholders’ capital balance of $31.8 million to reflect the change in ownership interest. We also recognized an additional deferred tax asset of $26.4 million for the temporary differences related to the change between carrying amount and tax basis of our investment in the Partnership. The effect of recognizing the additional deferred tax asset was included in Class A shareholders’ equity balance in the accompanying consolidated statement of changes in partners’ capital due to the transaction being characterized as a transaction among or with shareholders.

See also Note 14, Subsequent Events, for a description of an underwritten public equity offering by the Sponsors that occurred in October 2021.

Class B Unit Repurchase

On July 27, 2021, the Company, the Partnership and our Sponsors entered into a unit repurchase agreement pursuant to which the Partnership agreed to purchase from each Sponsor 15,625,000 Class B units representing limited partner interests in the Partnership for an aggregate purchase price of $750.0 million (the “Repurchase Transaction”). The purchase price per Class B Unit was $24.00, representing an approximate 4% discount to the 30-day volume weighted average trading price of Class A shares representing limited partner interests in the Company through July 27, 2021. Pursuant to the terms of the repurchase agreement, immediately following the purchase of the Class B units from the Sponsors, the Partnership cancelled those units, and the Company cancelled, for no consideration, an equal number of Class B Shares representing limited partner interests in the Company held by the Company’s general partner. The Repurchase Transaction closed on August 10, 2021 and was funded through issuance by the Partnership of $750.0 million aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured notes (see Note 7, Debt and Interest Expense).

As a result of the Repurchase Transaction, at September 30, 2021, the Company held a 9.9% controlling interest in the Partnership and the Sponsors held a 90.1% noncontrolling economic interest in the Partnership. The Repurchase Transaction was accounted for in accordance with ASC 810 whereby changes in a parent’s ownership interest while the parent retains its controlling financial interest in its subsidiary are accounted for as equity transactions. The carrying amount of the noncontrolling interest was adjusted to reflect the change in the ownership interest from approximately 91.2% to approximately 90.1% with the difference between the amount of consideration paid and the amount by which the noncontrolling interest was adjusted recognized in equity attributable to Class A shareholders. We incurred approximately $2.2 million of costs directly attributable to the Repurchase Transaction that were charged to equity. We also recognized an additional deferred tax asset of approximately $14.8 million for the temporary differences related to the change between carrying amount and tax basis of our investment in the Partnership, the effect of which was included in Class A shareholders’ equity balance in the accompanying consolidated statement of changes in partners’ capital.

Note 4. Related Party Transactions

Commercial Agreements

Effective January 1, 2014, we entered into long-term fee-based (i) gas gathering, (ii) crude oil gathering, (iii) gas processing and fractionation, (iv) storage services, and (v) terminal and export services agreements with certain subsidiaries of Hess. Effective January 1, 2019, we entered into long-term fee-based water services agreements with a subsidiary of Hess. For the services performed under these commercial agreements, we receive a fee per barrel of crude oil, barrel of water, Mcf of natural gas, or Mcf equivalent of NGLs, as applicable, delivered during each month, and Hess is obligated to provide us with minimum volumes of crude oil, water, natural gas and NGLs. Minimum volume commitments (“MVCs”) are equal to 80% of Hess’ nominations in each development plan that apply on a three-year rolling basis such that MVCs are set for the three years following the most recent nomination. Without our consent, the MVCs resulting from the nominated volumes for any quarter or year contained in any prior development plan shall not be reduced by any updated development plan unless dedicated production is released by us. The applicable MVCs may, however, be increased as a result of the nominations contained in any such updated development plan.

Except for the water services agreements and except for a certain gathering sub-system as described below, each of our commercial agreements with Hess has an initial 10-year term effective January 1, 2014 (“Initial Term”). For this gathering sub-system, the Initial Term is 15 years effective January 1, 2014 and for the water services agreements the Initial Term is 14 years effective January 1, 2019. Each of our commercial agreements other than our storage services agreement includes an inflation escalator and a fee recalculation mechanism that allows fees to be adjusted annually during the Initial Term for updated estimates of cumulative throughput volumes and our capital and operating expenditures in order to target a return on capital deployed over the Initial Term of the applicable commercial agreement (or, with respect to the crude oil services fee under our terminal and export services agreement, the 20-year period commencing on the effective date of the agreement).

We have the unilateral right, exercisable by the delivery of a written notice on or before the date that is three years prior to the expiration of the Initial Term, to extend each commercial agreement for one additional 10-year term (“Secondary Term”). For a certain gathering sub-system, the Secondary Term is 5-years and for the water services agreements the Secondary Term is 10 years. On December 30, 2020, we exercised our renewal options to extend the terms of certain crude oil gathering, terminaling, storage, gas processing and gas gathering commercial agreements with Hess for the Secondary Term through December 31, 2033. There were no changes to any provisions of the existing commercial agreements as a result of the exercise of the renewal options. For the remaining water gathering and disposal agreements as well as the remaining gas gathering agreement, we have the sole option to renew these agreements for an additional term that is exercisable at a later date.

During the Secondary Term of each of our commercial agreements other than our storage services agreement and terminal and export services agreement (with respect to crude oil terminaling services), the fee recalculation model under each applicable agreement will be replaced by an inflation-based fee structure. The initial fee for the first year of the Secondary Term will be determined based on the average fees paid by Hess under the applicable agreement during the last three years of the Initial Term (with such fees adjusted for inflation through the first year of the Secondary Term). For each year following the first year of the Secondary Term, the applicable fee will be adjusted annually based on the percentage change in the consumer price index, provided that we may not increase any fee by more than 3% in any calendar year solely by reason of an increase in the consumer price index, and no fee will ever be reduced below the amount of the applicable fee payable by Hess in the prior year as a result of a decrease in the consumer price index. During the Secondary Term of our commercial agreements, Hess will continue to have MVCs equal to 80% of Hess’ nominations in each development plan that apply on a three-year rolling basis through the Secondary Term.

For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020, approximately 100% of our revenues were attributable to our fee‑based commercial agreements with Hess, including revenues from third‑party volumes contracted with Hess and delivered to us under these agreements. We retain control of our assets and the flow of volumes based on available capacity within our integrated gathering, processing and terminaling systems. Together with Hess, we are pursuing strategic relationships with third‑party producers and other midstream companies with operations in the Bakken in order to maximize our utilization rates.

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PART I – FINANCIAL INFORMATION (CONT’D)

HESS MIDSTREAM LP

NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (UNAUDITED)

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