Keyera Aktie

Good morning, and welcome to the Keyera Strategic Growth Outlook and 2026 Guidance Call. [Operator Instructions] I would like to remind everyone that this conference is being recorded today, June 15, 2026. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Tyler Monzingo, Senior Specialist, Investor Relations. Tyler, please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning. Joining me today are Dean Setoguchi, President and CEO; and Eileen Marikar, Senior Vice President and CFO. We'll begin with prepared remarks from Dean and Eileen. After that, we'll open the line for questions. Before we move forward, I'll remind you that some of the comments we'll make today relate to future events and are forward-looking in nature. We will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Full details regarding forward-looking statements and non-GAAP disclosures can be found in the notes to these slides on our website and in our public filings on SEDAR.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Dean.

Thanks, Tyler, and good morning, everyone. Last month, we reached an important milestone for Keyera. We've closed the Plains NGL acquisition and are now entering the next phase of growth and value creation for the newly expanded platform. Today, we'll walk through the evolution of our integrated platform, our track record of disciplined execution and value creation and how the Plains acquisition will strengthen our business and create more value for customers.

We'll then cover the strong outlook for NGL volume growth across Western Canada. From there, we'll move into our updated long-term growth targets. We'll also discuss the pro forma Marketing segment, including 2026 marketing guidance. And finally, we'll review our financial framework and full 2026 financial guidance. We'll move through the presentation in the order shown on the slide.

Beginning with the strategic overview section, our strategy has been very consistent over time, build the most efficient NGL value chain to maximize value for customers through reliable service and superior connectivity to high-value markets. Starting back in 2008, our foundation was our South region gas plants, extracting NGL mix and getting products to high-value markets.

From the beginning, the business was built around 3 core parts of our value chain: gathering and processing, liquids infrastructure and marketing. Even in the early years, the focus was on integrating those capabilities to efficiently connect supply to demand across the system. That focus on connectivity, reliability and customer netbacks continues to define the business today.

By 2014, we made several important strategic moves. First, the creation of FSCS, our industry-leading condensate system. Second, AEF. It allows us to upgrade butane into iso-octane, accessing higher-value markets. Thirdly, Simonette. This established our North region presence and positioned us to connect growing Montney supply. All 3 of these assets continue to be important drivers of value today.

By 2020, we're continuing to build scale and connectivity as we continue to grow along the growth of the basin. The Keylink pipeline more efficiently connected our Southern gas plants directly into our downstream infrastructure. At the same time, we continued expanding our North Region Montney footprint through the addition of the Pipestone and Wapiti gas plants. We also strengthened our condensate platform through participating in a 30% interest in the Norlite pipeline.

By 2025, we had fully integrated our North Region Gathering and Processing business with the rest of our value chain, creating a more efficient, reliable and competitive system for customers. The KAPS pipeline provided a direct connection between our North Region assets and Fort Saskatchewan. This project significantly changed the competitive landscape for producers along the Montney and Duvernay fairway.

For Keyera, it substantially improves system utilization, connectivity and competitiveness. Last year, we sanctioned KAPS Zone 4, extending our reach further into the Montney and providing customers in Northeast BC with access to our integrated value chain. We also sanctioned additional frac expansions and most recently, our ACE Rail Terminal to further support growing customer demand.

Together, this has created a highly integrated platform, delivering meaningful value for customers. That value is reflected in the strong level of long-term customer commitments and increasingly contracted cash flow across our integrated value chain. Slide 13 shows the results of the execution of our growth strategy and the investments made. Since 2008, fee-based margins have grown about an 8% annual compounded growth rate, which brings us to the next slide, which highlights our proven ability to sustainably grow the dividend over time.

As we continued to reinvest in growing the fee-based business, DCF per share steadily increased, supported by both fee-based growth and contributions from our marketing segment. Importantly, we achieved that growth while remaining financially disciplined. Leverage was consistently maintained within and at times below our target range. This is shown by the orange line along the bottom of the chart. And that balance sheet strength provides the capacity to reinvest through business cycles. The result has been consistent and sustainable dividend growth over time, as shown by the dark blue bars.

This disciplined approach has translated into strong long-term shareholder returns. Since 2008, total shareholder return has averaged over 16% annually, and we intend to continue applying the same focus on strategy execution and financial discipline going forward. With the Plains acquisition, we are now entering our next phase of disciplined growth and value creation. It expands our geographic reach, improves efficiency across the value chain and enhances our competitiveness.

Having successfully closed the transaction in its entirety, we will be making our submission to the Competition Tribunal on June 17 and remain very confident in the strength of our case. For customers, this acquisition means broader market access, stronger netbacks and improved reliability. This competitiveness shows up across all products. In condensate, we operate the leading condensate system supplying the oil sands.

In butane, AEF enables premium margins. In propane, we can now efficiently access all major markets and in ethane, Empress adds scale and flexibility. Together, this creates a fully integrated system that offers more value for our customers. Slide 17 compares what we said at launch with what we're seeing today. Overall, the transaction is performing at or above expectations. We continue to expect mid-teens accretion. We now see greater synergy capture than initially identified, improving returns and lowering the effective acquisition multiple.

Deleveraging has shifted modestly due to the transaction timing and the AEF outage in 2026, yet we still expect to be back within our targeted range around the end of 2027. The acquisition will allow us to materially exceed our previous 2024 to 2027 fee-based growth target on a per share basis. After the step change from the Plains acquisition, we are further extending fee-based growth targets to be 7% to 8% from 2027 to 2029.

Before walking through the specific drivers of that growth, let me first spend a minute on the broader macro fundamentals supporting long-term growth across the basin and how Keyera is positioned to enable and benefit from those trends. Global demand for oil, natural gas and NGLs continues to increase, while Western Canada remains one of the most competitive sources of supply globally.

As Canadian crude export capacity expands, oil sands production is expected to continue growing, driving increasing demand for condensate used as diluent. To meet that demand, producers continue to target high-value condensate-rich regions like the Montney and Duvernay. That increased activity also increases production of natural gas and other NGLs like ethane, propane and butane.

At the same time, increasing LNG and LPG export capacity is improving pricing and market access for those products. This further supports basin development. As shown on the charts, most incremental NGL growth is expected to come from the Montney and Duvernay plays where our assets are well positioned to serve growing customer demand.

Our integrated system is set up to enable customers to maximize the value of those products by processing them and connecting them to high-value end markets, which ultimately drives increasing volumes across our platform. With that context, let me now turn to Keyera's specific growth outlook. We're able to deliver industry-leading, highly visible fee-based adjusted EBITDA growth out to the end of the decade.

From 2025 to 2027, we expect fee-based EBITDA to grow about 16% on average annually, largely driven by the Plains acquisition and near-term synergies. Following that step change, we expect to deliver 7% to 8% average annual growth from 2027 to 2029. Importantly, this growth is supported by tangible drivers already underway, including sanctioned projects, capacity fill across the system and identified synergies. Also important, this growth is coming from continuing to do what we do best.

It is fully aligned with our core strategy and integrated value chain. As integration progresses, we expect to further define additional medium-term synergies. As we continue advancing that work, we expect to provide a further update on our progress around the end of this year. And beyond 2029, we continue to develop a deep inventory of additional growth projects, which I'll touch on later in this presentation.

But first, let me walk through in more detail the key drivers supporting our growth targets. Starting with synergies. Here, I'll make 3 points. First, we delivered about $90 million of annual run rate synergies at closing, substantially achieving our original target on day 1. This came almost entirely from corporate cost savings.

Second, we now have visibility to increase our near-term synergy target to within a range of $120 million to $140 million. And third, we continue to see additional upside above what is reflected in our current outlook. Medium- and longer-term synergies will remain a meaningful and growing driver of value creation. As I said, we look forward to updating our view on synergies at a later date.

Let me now move to the top of our integrated value chain with gathering and processing. Over the past several years, we have strategically positioned our North Region assets to be in the fastest-growing and most liquids-rich parts of the basin, particularly across the Montney and Duvernay. These assets connect directly into KAPS and the rest of our integrated value chain, allowing us to maximize value for customers while increasing utilization across the broader system.

As you can see on the chart, strong customer demand continues to drive increasing throughput across the North region. The blue dotted line represents available processing capacity that we've been able to add over time. And the blue bars show expected throughput growth as those assets continue to fill. All of the growth reflected in the blue bars is included in the growth outlook we discussed earlier.

The orange dotted line highlights potential upside beyond the forecast, driven primarily by opportunities to further expand both the Wapiti and Simonette complexes over the next few years. Additionally, we continue to pursue a disciplined buy-and-build strategy to further strengthen the top end of our integrated value chain. And beyond 2029, we continue to evaluate greenfield opportunities. For example, we've licensed a development opportunity in the Gold Creek area for potential future development.

Moving further downstream to KAPS. KAPS connects our Northern region supply to Fort Saskatchewan and provides a highly competitive path to downstream markets. It has been instrumental in driving growth across our integrated system. The pipeline is highly contracted and volumes have now exceeded initial design capacity for condensate.

We've been adding pumping capacity to accommodate additional contracted volumes. Last year, we sanctioned the construction of Zone 4 to extend the system further to connect into Northeast British Columbia, another high-growth area of the Montney. This project remains on time and on budget. Volumes on KAPS will continue to ramp up into the next decade.

Moving further downstream to our frac business in Fort Saskatchewan. Over time, we have focused on building a reliable, efficient and flexible frac platform to help customers maximize value for their products. The addition of PFS, now called KFS North, allows us to deliver an even more reliable, efficient and competitive service offering to customers. It increases operational flexibility and redundancy across the system.

We also have significant additional growth underway. We have 2 smaller 8,000 barrel per day expansions through the KFS II debottleneck and KFS North Phase 2 projects. The KFS II debottleneck is now in service and the remaining capacity expansion is being added later this year. And then the much larger 47,000 barrel per day KFS III expansion will be in service in mid-2028. All of these projects continue to advance on schedule at or below budget.

Importantly, substantially all current and future capacity is contracted under long-term agreements. This provides highly visible growth and further strengthens the quality and durability of cash flow across the platform. As liquids production from fractionation continues to grow, efficient access to end markets becomes increasingly important. That is why we partnered with 2 other leading Canadian infrastructure companies, CN and AltaGas to create the most efficient and scalable path from Fort Saskatchewan to global markets.

This is a strong Canadian infrastructure story. Keyera brings the Fort Saskatchewan land, supply connectivity and the ACE terminal. CN brings a rail network and AltaGas brings growing West Coast export capacity. Together, we're effectively creating a pipeline on wheels through a highly efficient unit train loading system that will move products to premium export markets, allowing customers to further maximize netbacks. The project is now under construction and enables scalable expansions as additional product demand develops over time.

Turning now to condensate. Keyera already operates the most extensive and efficient condensate system in the basin. This business is supported by long-term contracts with all major oil sands producers for both transportation and storage services. As oil sands production continues to grow, demand for condensate as diluent is expected to increase alongside it.

Over the planning period, we're seeing contracted volumes continue to ramp up, and we see several capital-efficient opportunities to support the growth. These include initiatives such as drag-reducing agents, targeted debottlenecking and additional infrastructure that improves overall system flexibility and capacity. You can see the expected volume growth profile on the chart on the bottom of the right-hand side.

Looking further ahead, Slide 28 highlights several opportunities that will help extend the growth runway beyond 2029. I'll just daylight a few here, but there will be more to come on this front, and we'll update the market as we continue to make progress. First, in our G&P segment, we will continue to pursue our buy-and-build strategy to provide more customers along the Montney and Duvernay fairway our full suite of integrated services.

This allows them to maximize the value of their barrels. As mentioned before, we have already licensed a location for a potential new facility in the Gold Creek area near Wapiti. Secondly, as utilization across the KAPS system continues to increase, we're evaluating several options to expand capacity. These include measures such as adding more pumping stations and introducing drag-reducing agents.

Thirdly, as volumes grow and energy markets develop further, it will make sense to further extend our ACE Rail Terminal in lockstep with market demand. And lastly, we see several capital-efficient opportunities to further expand our condensate platform as pipeline expansions and oil sands growth continue to drive diluent demand. We expect a meaningful step change in demand over the coming years.

So stepping back, we have several highly visible drivers supporting continued fee-based EBITDA growth through 2029 and beyond. That growth is supported by sanctioned projects, capacity fill across the integrated system and synergy realization already underway. This supports a growing base of highly visible and durable cash flow that supports sustainable dividend growth over time.

With that, I'll turn it over to Eileen to walk through the Marketing segment and our updated marketing outlook.

Thanks, Dean. The Marketing segment remains a key differentiator for Keyera. It enhances customer netbacks, drives volume across our integrated system and supports higher returns on invested capital. It also generates meaningful cash flow that can accelerate deleveraging and reinvestment.

With the Plains assets, the marketing business becomes larger and more diversified while continuing to operate under the same disciplined risk management framework. This slide outlines how the marketing business generates value. It's essentially a volume times margin business. For both iso-octane and frac spread, margins are driven by the spread between input costs and realized product pricing.

Then that margin is multiplied by volume. Across the broader marketing business, we connect products to the most attractive end markets and capture margin through logistics optimization and market access. The platform is primarily driven by physical positions supported by our infrastructure. Risk is actively managed through a disciplined framework with senior management oversight and a formal committee that meets weekly to review exposures and ensure positions remain within approved limits.

Moving on now to our 2026 Marketing segment guidance. We expect marketing realized margin to be between $360 million and $390 million. This guidance incorporates a partial year contribution from the Plains assets as well as the impact of planned outages at AEF, the Empress straddle facilities and KFS. Consistent with historical seasonality, marketing realized margin is weighted towards the second half of the year.

It also reflects disciplined risk management activities and conservative assumptions and is designed to be achievable with a high degree of confidence. We have assumed more typical iso-octane premiums for the balance of the year, providing room for potential upside should current market conditions persist. Looking further ahead, once the combined marketing platforms have operated together for a period of time, we intend to reintroduce a long-term baseline marketing margin guidance range for the combined business.

I will now move to capital allocation priorities and our financial framework. Our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged. First, we preserve balance sheet strength and financial flexibility. Second, we invest in high-quality fee-based growth. And third, we aim for sustainable dividend growth. This framework has been consistent over time and continues to guide how we allocate capital. I'll start with financial strength, which is highlighted at the top of the table.

Maintaining a strong balance sheet has always been core to Keyera's strategy. It allows us to navigate market volatility and remain opportunistic when deploying capital. Importantly, the Plains transaction was structured to preserve our investment-grade credit ratings, reflecting that continued discipline. In the near term, leverage is expected to move modestly above our target range. We expect to return within our target range around the end of 2027.

Turning now to our investment criteria. We focus on strengthening and extending our integrated value chain. Capital is allocated to projects and acquisitions that grow stable fee-based cash flow, meet our return thresholds and are strategically aligned with our platform. We target returns in the range of 10% to 15% on a stand-alone basis with additional upside through integration across our system.

And finally, returning cash to shareholders. Our ability to sustainably grow the dividend is supported by 3 factors: the growth of fee-based cash flow, a strong balance sheet and a conservative payout ratio of 50% to 70% of distributable cash flow. Following the closing of the Plains transaction, we expect to be at the low end of that range, providing capacity for future dividend growth.

Dividend decisions are made by the Board on a quarterly basis. I will now move to our 2026 financial guidance. For 2026, we are providing the following guidance. We expect continued growth in fee-based EBITDA, consistent with the outlook we have discussed. Growth capital is expected to range from $550 million to $625 million, primarily directed toward advancing our major projects. Maintenance capital is expected to be between $240 million and $260 million, and cash taxes are expected to be between $70 million and $90 million.

With that, I'll turn it back to Dean for closing remarks.

Thanks, Eileen. To close out, there are 4 key points that I'd like to leave you with. First, we have a proven track record of disciplined execution, financial discipline and long-term value creation. Second, with the Plains acquisition, we are entering the next phase of growth and value creation with a larger, more competitive platform.

Third, the growth outlook we have outlined today is highly visible, supported by tangible projects and existing commercial agreements already underway with additional upside potential still to be captured. And finally, we'll continue applying the same financial and execution discipline that has defined Keyera over time as we focus on creating long-term value for both our customers and shareholders.

We look forward to providing a more comprehensive update on our expected synergies, growth outlook, cash flow quality and expanded marketing platform around the end of the year.

I'll now turn it back over to the operator for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Aaron MacNeil with TD Cowen.

You've outlined a number of potential capital-light or capital-efficient growth opportunities. Can you speak to the potential quantum of the opportunity in terms of total capital that you have visibility to and the potential range of build multiples that you'd expect across those opportunities?

Thanks very much for your question. I'll just turn this over to Eileen in a minute here. But the first thing I want to point out is that, yes, we have some great growth opportunities, which obviously are going to be available. We want to see more and more of that as the basin grows. But at the same time, we also want to point out that in addition to the guidance that we provided for the next 12 months of synergies that we expect to capture, we certainly believe that we are going to identify synergies above that, that will also help deliver more growth to our EBITDA and cash flow per share.

And we just closed this transaction, the Plains acquisition a month ago. So we're still getting up to speed and getting more information on the magnitude of those opportunities. But we believe that those will likely be the most capital efficient -- basically the lowest hanging fruit in the company, and we will pursue that with as much urgency as possible. But outside of that, I think, do you want to comment on the capital-efficient growth opportunities?

Yes. I think the only thing I would add to what you said, Dean, is that any opportunities will follow our existing investment approval process. And again, as we said before, we target that 10% to 15% return on capital on a stand-alone basis. And based on the projects that we have sanctioned, we've been well within that range, again, stand-alone. So then when you look at things on an integrated basis, the returns are just that much stronger.

Got you. And then maybe sort of the follow-on question to sort of get at this from a different perspective. Between now and 2029, how would you characterize your balance sheet capacity that you could deploy towards incremental growth projects, taking into account both your leverage targets, and sort of, a normal cadence of dividend increases?

Yes. Thanks, Aaron. Yes. So I think as you -- we noted in the presentation, the first priority is to bring our balance sheet back within our targeted range. And based on our forecast, which, again, has a very -- is more conservative view on our marketing performance. So we have the opportunity to delever, I think, quicker than what is that end of 2027 time frame.

In terms of the way we even financed the Plains transaction was to be able to be flexible so that when opportunities do arise, we have the ability to lean into those opportunities. So again, Simonette East is a great example. In December, we were able to -- that opportunity came, we were able to execute on that. And that has immediate cash flow. And when there is those types of acquisitions, those are great. They tend to be very neutral or even sometimes positive to the balance sheet. So those are things that we will continue to look at. But again, it's always going to be a competition for capital, and we're always going to lean into the things that add the most value across the value chain.

Your next question comes from Spiro Dounis with Citi.

I want to go back to the growth projects quickly. Dean, you mentioned several opportunities. And I think you put them in the context of beyond 2029. But I'm curious if you also see opportunities within that '29 time frame, specifically thinking about some potential low-hanging fruit, as you called it, related to these newly acquired assets that maybe could lead to some upside to the outlook you provided today.

Yes, it probably wasn't clear in articulating my comments there. Certainly, the guidance that we provided, the $120 million to $140 million extends out to the -- for 12 months essentially, so into 2027. Beyond that, we do see more opportunities for more synergies. And we haven't provided guidance on that yet. Again, we have to -- people have to understand that we had to operate both companies as separate entities right until close.

We weren't privy to a lot of the details of contracts and things like that until we close. So now that we have all that information in hand, we're just getting up to speed as to the details and nitty-gritty behind it. What I'd say is that when you think about the 3 different buckets of synergies that we identified right from day 1, from June of 2025 when we closed the transaction -- or we announced the transaction, the 3 different buckets of corporate cost savings, the cost efficiencies and the commercial synergies, what I would say is that after the first month, what we see is opportunities greater than what we would have modeled and identified when we put our initial numbers together.

And I would say that the probability of being able to capture those synergies is probably higher than what we would have originally modeled as well. So we feel very confident about what this is going to translate in terms of value creation for our shareholders. We just won't be able to quantify that in greater detail until probably closer to the end of the year.

Got you. And sorry if I misspoke, that was helpful. It's actually my second question. But I guess what I was getting at was more around growth projects. You had identified a few expansion projects that I think you sort of highlighted as beyond 2029. I guess what I was curious about was -- could anything sneak inside this time frame within 2029 from a growth perspective that maybe leads to upside on the outlook today?

Well, I think that growth projects, I mean, other than small, like, again, on the Plains side, we think that there's going to be small growth opportunities. Keep in mind that they've been capital starved for quite some time. So we think that there are some low capital, high-return projects that we'll be able to pursue within that time line. But anything significant, if we were to acquire -- or sorry, build a new gas plant or things like that, it would largely fall out of that 2029 window, just given the amount of time it takes to complete all the engineering and feed work on it and actually construct the asset. So -- and Eileen, do you want to just comment what's actually in our guidance so far based on our revised outlook out to 2029...

Yes, absolutely. Yes, I do want to reiterate, we are providing industry-leading fee-based growth that really reflects our base case. It includes the projects that are already underway, the synergies that we just updated to that $120 million to $140 million that we feel is quite conservative as well as the regular ramp on KAPS. What it does not include is any unsanctioned growth or synergies beyond that $140 million. So when you layer on that with a positive macro outlook, I think our fee-based growth out to 2029 is quite conservative. And I think the last thing I would say is that the growth is 100% on strategy. It is all about enhance, extend our NGL value chain.

Got it. That's helpful. That's exactly what I was looking to get. Maybe just second quick one, kind of a tag along to Aaron's earlier question. But as you think about M&A, obviously, you've just completed this transaction and want to digest it. Balance sheet, I think you mentioned late '27 is kind of when it comes back within target. But as you think about small bolt-on, maybe tuck-in type M&A, are you out of the market until that time? Or do you feel like the balance sheet has got enough flex to keep you in it?

Yes, that's a good question. I mean, obviously, our focus is on just continuing to integrate and capture synergies of planes. And certainly, we see a lot of -- as I mentioned, a lot of low-hanging fruit there. As Eileen mentioned that we expect to delever throughout the end of 2027 and get within our 2.5 to 3x range which provides more flexibility.

So we always want to make sure that we maintain a strong balance sheet. But again, we also look for opportunity at the same time. So I think that any opportunities that we might pursue would have to be just highly strategic, high-value opportunities that would be incremental to what we've just done. Yes, as Eileen said, though, it'd definitely have to be on strategy and really creating value to our integrated system.

Your next question comes from Sam Burwell with Jefferies.

I wanted to unpack the upside Plains synergies just a little bit more. It seems like these could be a benefit to the existing '27 to '29 CAGR. But curious like how much of these synergies would require no CapEx versus some of these like highly synergistic capital projects that you've called out so far?

That's hard to quantify right now. Thanks for the question, Sam. That's really -- we need more time to sort of quantify that. I've talked to a number of our leaders already in the first month from different groups that are in charge of running these assets. And what I can say is they're capturing synergies on the fly. I mean they're seeing opportunities that we wouldn't have identified before and they're just capturing on the fly as they go.

So there's going to be a period where we have to aggregate what that all translates to. At the same time, there's going to be some opportunities that require a bit of engineering, which will require some capital, and we'll have to, again, with time, quantify that. I'd say there's also commercial synergies, some that we can probably capture ourselves.

So some of that might be waiting until next April for, let's say, the propane contracting season and things like that, how we would structure contracts versus how -- what we inherited from Plains. Some of it also involves having to work with third parties to capture commercial opportunities. So we have to work with other third parties to understand how feasible they would be.

So I just want to make sure that people walk away with the notion that we see a tremendous amount of opportunity. It's just going to take a bit more time to, again, quantify in the way the market would probably want to learn more about it.

Okay. Got it. Understood. And then the next question ties to both marketing and maintenance CapEx. So you called out the Empress turnaround. Just curious if you could maybe quantify what that means for maintenance CapEx, so we have a better idea of run rate going forward? And then I guess between that and more broadly on marketing, like what sort of uptime are you assuming across the -- all the assets that contribute to marketing for the rest of the year?

Yes, Sam, I'll pass that over to Eileen, and she'll respond to your question.

As it relates to the Empress outage, so that is expected to be in that Q3, Q4 time frame. And it is expected to be several weeks in duration, and that is built into our updated maintenance capital guidance that we provided. Typically, the straddles are every -- so there's 5 straddles at Empress and each one has a maintenance outage every 10 years, and this is a larger one for Empress 6 as well as the fractionation also having the turnaround as well.

In terms of our -- and then also the KFS North, so that's the old PFS facility, I do want to point out that, that also will be going down for several weeks in the third quarter as -- that's mainly to bring on the frac debottleneck. So that's exciting. The one thing I do want to point out is that this is the benefit of having the 2 platforms together. It does benefit the customer because we are able to mitigate some of the outage impacts to our customers by providing them with the C3+ storage.

So Plains, the PFS site on its own does not have C3+ storage. So this is just another benefit to having the 2 platforms together. As we look at the marketing, we really step back and look at the year, I think the 3 key most impactful items were, of course, on our side, the legacy Keyera marketing was the outage at AEF that was very impactful. As the facilities come up in early June, it does take time for those sales to start to recognize those sales and as they go into their final destination.

So the second quarter, I would expect to be weak. The other pieces of the marketing guidance for 2026 are related to the Plains part of the business. So one is, as you are aware, we have the 12-month hedge with Plains to protect our downside. But also there wasn't -- for a certain amount of volumes, there wasn't much upside as well. So I think that's important to know that we did lock it in and it was prudent to do so. So now we're about 90% hedged.

And the other thing I would note on the Plains part of the business is that it tends to be -- it's very seasonal because it's mostly propane sales. So you have 1/3 in the first quarter, 1/3 in the fourth quarter and then the balance in the second and third quarter. So of course, the mid-May close would have an impact as well.

So as we look at potential catalysts for upside, it is those premiums for iso-octane as we really get into the summer months. It is potentially more volumes through the East Gate that are available to be straddled. And the other would be as we get into the winter, potential better premiums for propane, whether it is the Far East index or volumes going to the East.

Your next question comes from Robert Catellier with CIBC.

I'm wondering just with respect to risk management, having more marketing exposure, how does that impact your risk management philosophy? And is there an opportunity to keep the same value-at-risk but hedge more frac spread relative to iso-octane because it's not possible to hedge those premiums anyway. And by overweighting frac spread hedges, you could lower the basis risk and outage risk associated with AEF.

Rob, thanks for the question. And I'll turn that over to Eileen, too. But I just want to say that I'm very pleased that with the hedge that we put in place with Plains, and the subsequent hedges that we locked in since closing in the last month or so. I'm very pleased that we have a large proportion of that frac spread locked up for the remainder of 2026. And as you heard, about 50% in 2027. So again, that gives us a lot of certainty in our capability to be able to delever our balance sheet and preserve that -- restore that financial flexibility. But I think do you want to talk about our risk management strategy?

Yes, absolutely. I would say, overall, Robert, our risk management strategy doesn't really change. And that's really how we got comfortable with introducing a frac spread business to our marketing as well because it is, again, it's the AECO, which we would normally hedge as well in our existing business, but certainly to a far larger extent now. And then it's the corresponding natural gas liquids, propane in particular, so -- and FX as well.

So those are things that we're already very used to as part of our program. And then in terms of, yes, the frac spread and how that might change between how we hedge versus maybe take some potential exposures. I think as it relates to the frac spreads, we're going to be very, very prudent. And so just even saying that as we saw those spreads really kind of improve and widen into even next year, we have locked in more than 50% of our exposures into next year.

And I think, again, we feel like that's the prudent thing to do. And I would say that those spreads are at a better rate than what we would have included in our deal thesis. So we feel good about that. In terms of iso-octane, I don't think a lot changes there. Obviously, as you know, the premium is something that cannot be hedged anyway. As for the RBOB cracks, again, with all of the volatility that we saw this year, we really saw those RBOB cracks even into next year, even a little bit into 2028 really wide and very, very strong cracks. So we've been layering those into next year as well. So again, overall, we think we're really set up well for next year into 2027.

Okay. That's very good context. And then my second question was just on capital allocation. So acknowledging that your capital allocation priorities haven't -- they're largely unchanged here. How are you approaching dividend growth given that you've seen a step change in fee-based EBITDA and there's a high level of synergy capture already and you're hinting to future upside and you have a strong hedge book.

I know you don't pay out on the marketing income, but it seems like you have at minimum a step change in the EBITDA and some pretty good synergy capture and maybe some upside and you've derisked the business. So what's management's current thinking about a dividend increase, the next dividend increase? Are you going to do -- just keep to the smaller sustainable increase? Or is there an opportunity for something larger here?

Eileen, do you want to answer that?

Sure. Yes, Robert, I mean, I would, as you said, take it back to our capital allocation priorities. It is balance sheet back within target. That's the #1 priority. And then it's how to allocate to those highest value growth opportunities. And Dean has talked about many of them organic, inorganic. The goal is to continue to grow that fee-based cash flow. And you can do, as you said, have very, very strong fee-based EBITDA growth.

But ultimately, it is based on distributable cash flow, and we want to make sure that, that dividend is sustainable for the long term. And we want -- we really are targeting that payout at the lower end of the target range. But again, we -- as you saw from the presentation, we are very proud of that long history of dividend growth. So those are some of the principles that we think about. But ultimately, the timing and the amount would be important...

Yes. And just maybe to emphasize what Eileen is saying, Rob, is that right now, obviously, we've stretched our balance sheet a bit to the higher end of our limit. So our first priority is going to be to bring it back in line, which, again, we expect to happen by the end of 2027. And second of all, we see this as a really great environment to reinvest in infrastructure, just given what we're seeing in the basin and the amount of growth that we see. So there's going to be a lot of infrastructure that will be required to enable that growth, and we're well positioned to capture a lot of market share there.

The next question comes from a -- your next question comes from Maurice Choy with RBC Capital Markets.

I wanted to break down your assumptions for 2027 and 2029 outlook a little bit. And specifically, can you discuss where in your value chain do you see the greatest competition for volumes and margin? And how do your outlook assumptions reflect this competition?

Maurice, maybe I'll start with that. And I'd say that a lot of our growth is contracted. And so we're going to see that growth and those contracts step up over time. So some of that relates to our GP volumes, some of it relates to the volumes on our KAPS system and the contracts that we signed there. They do ramp up over time. And the amount of growth that we see in our condensate system.

So overall, a lot of it is contracted, but it probably doesn't mean that we go super aggressive in capturing a significant amount of market share. A lot of that is all stuff that is within our reach already. I think that for us to go above and beyond, I mean, I think that's where you start sanctioning perhaps a new gas plant or you get into expansions of Simonette and Wapiti, which we think are probably realistic outcomes just given the amount of growth that we see in the basin, plus some of the activity that we see around those facilities, which is very exciting. But Eileen, do you want to -- have anything else you want to add?

No, I think you said it, Dean. It's largely we're well contracted, and even in the gathering processing, more than 70% of our margins coming from the north -- the Montney gas plant. So long-term contracts there throughout the value chain. So I don't really see a lot of volume risk in our base case EBITDA guidance.

And if I could finish with my second question about your assumptions on portfolio as well as synergies. Can I just confirm that the outlook for 2029 and also how you approach all these synergies includes all of your current Keyera and Plains assets as you have it today?

Yes. Are you suggesting -- Yes, of course, everything is on our 100%. We own and operate the full platform, correct.

Your next question comes from Patrick Kenny with National Bank.

Update. Just on the back of the ACE Rail Terminal investment, we're hearing more and more about demand for Western Canadian ethane be exported off the West Coast, the West Coast into Asian markets. I'm just curious what sort of opportunities that could present for the integrated platform here, whether it's on the rail side, fractionation or even within the marketing group?

Thanks for the question, Pat. First of all, we're very excited about the ACE terminal. I mean it's going to give us, I think, the best access out of the industrial heartland with our unit-train facility to get barrels to the West Coast and certainly the partnership with AltaGas and CN Rail, those are the right 2 partners to be working with. We like the terminal because we need a solution for propane. But once it's built, it's going to be easier to expand from there to include other products.

And one of those products, as you mentioned, could be ethane. And with our asset base now, we're going to be a much -- we are a much larger player in the ethane market. So you think about our de-ethanizer at Fort Saskatchewan, our de-ethanizer at Rimbey and then obviously, the straddle facilities that we have at Empress. When you add all that up, we have a lot of flexibility in ethane supply.

And we do have extra ethane supply at Empress right now that we're rejecting because we have a surplus that's uncontracted. So the supply cost of supplying ethane to ultimately be exported to the West Coast is already in our system without us having to invest more capital. So it's something that we're interested in. I think that it's going to take a while to develop an opportunity like that if it actually does get developed. But it's certainly something that we're looking into amongst other opportunities for ethane.

Got it. Okay. And then maybe just double-clicking on the Empress and Sarnia opportunities there. I guess if we do see an expansion of the TC Mainline as part of the proposed settlement there, if you could just speak to potential upside, whether it's volumes or debottlenecking straddles at Empress or perhaps storage down at Sarnia, what that could mean for the eastern assets that you've acquired?

Yes, that's a really good question. First of all, we are operating above our sanction case in terms of volumes that are flowing through Empress already. We have about a Bcf of extra capacity to straddle more gas there, so without further investment. So we do see opportunity there. We think that volumes are going to continue to increase through Empress naturally. And it's just because of all the natural gas demand for data centers, more gas or more export capacity for LNG out of the U.S. Gulf Coast and also the Bakken solution gas declining over time as well.

So all of that bodes well for increased volumes, again, going east. And we're also seeing that TC is, as you mentioned, is adding more capacity to go East -- some of the pipes that were derated 10 or 20 years ago, they're basically re-rating them to accommodate more gas. So I think that's all positive. It means that we'll get more product over time.

It's a volume times margin gain. And we like our opportunities out East as well to perhaps capture more market share out there because, again, there has been a lack of investment in infrastructure, whether it's a truck or rail infrastructure or storage. We think there might be opportunities there to make some investments to expand our capacity out there to serve a greater market.

Okay. That's great color. And last one, if I could. Eileen, you mentioned that the any additional sanction growth would be upside to the 7% to 8% CAGR. Can you just confirm what the annual self-funded growth capital target would be out to 2029?

Again, that -- it really doesn't include any unsanctioned capital. It's really what we've already got in the hopper. And I also do want to reiterate that the synergies, that $120 million to $140 million doesn't include really any capital associated with that either. So again, as we begin to delever, we will have the capacity. We see lots of opportunities to continue to grow and extend that growth rate beyond 2029. And again, we will provide more updates towards the end of the year.

There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the meeting back over to Tyler for closing remarks.

Thank you all for joining us today. Feel free to reach out to the Investor Relations team for any additional questions. Have a great rest of your day. Thank you.

Good morning. Before we begin, Keyera acknowledges and is grateful for the histories, cultures and traditions of the First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples, that are embedded in the treaty and traditional lands of Canada. We thank the original inhabitants for these lands, generations past, present and future for sharing your homelands with us.

Welcome, everyone. My name is Jim Bertram, and I am the Chair of Keyera's Board of Directors. Thank you for joining us today for our 2026 Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders. We are holding the meeting in person and online applying technology by allowing virtual participation to make the meeting more relevant, accessible and engaging for all involved, permitting a broader base of shareholders to participate regardless of their geographic location.

Today, I'm joined by Dean Setoguchi, Keyera's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Christy Elliott, Keyera's General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. I'm also joined by Eileen Marikar, Keyera's Chief Financial Officer, who is available to answer any questions. Our 2026 director nominees and Keyera's executive team as well as representatives Deloitte LLP, Keyera's independent auditors are also attending today's meeting in person or virtually.

Before beginning the formal part of the meeting, I wish to take a few moments on behalf of the Board to acknowledge two individuals who have been instrumental to Keyera and its success. I wish to acknowledge Thomas O'Connor and Gianna Manes, who are not standing for reelection to the Board at this meeting. On behalf of the Board, we wish to extend our deepest appreciation and sincere gratitude to Tom and Gianna for their many contributions as directors, including Gianna acting as Chair of our Human Resources Committee, and Tom acting as a member of the Audit Committee and the HSE Committee. I wish to thank you both for your service as directors and extend our best wishes to you and your families in the future.

I will now ask Christy to take us through the details of the meeting.

Thank you, Jim. Welcome to our shareholders and all other guests attending the meeting this morning. Today, we are joined in person and online by our Board of Directors. As Jim noted, Thomas O'Connor and Gianna Manes are not standing for reelection. In addition, Renee Zemljak is standing for election to the Board for the first time at this meeting. All remaining current directors, including our Chair, Jim Bertram, have been nominated by the Board for election at this meeting. Our nominated directors standing for election are: Jim Bertram, Isabelle Brassard, Michael Crothers, Blair Goertzen, Tim Kitchen, Bob Pritchard, Charlene Ripley, Dean Setoguchi, Janet Woodruff, Renee Zemljak.

We will conduct today's meeting in three parts. First, we will complete the business portion of the meeting. During this portion, shareholders will have the opportunity to vote and submit questions on each item of business described in our notice of meeting. Following the business portion, our President and CEO, Dean Setoguchi, will provide a brief presentation and business update on Keyera. The final portion of the meeting will consist of a question-and-answer session to address inquiries that have been submitted online. We remind you that only shareholders and proxy holders who are attending in person or who have logged on to the meeting using their 12-digit control number are able to vote today. These shareholders and proxy holders may vote on any and all business items at any time during the business portion of the meeting.

Thank you to those shareholders who voted prior to the meeting. If you voted in advance and do not wish to change your vote, there's nothing further you need to do. If you wish to change your vote, you can submit your vote using the paper proxy or online during the meeting. This action will have the same effect as revoking your previously submitted proxy. For those attending online, instructions on how to vote will appear on your screens. Voting polls will remain open until the conclusion of the business portion of the meeting.

Shareholders and proxy holders may also submit questions at any time during the meeting. If you're attending online and wish to submit a question, please select the messaging tab and enter your comment or question in the ask a question box. You may submit a question at any time from now until the conclusion of the Q&A portion of the meeting. We will endeavor to address as many of the questions submitted as we can. Unanswered questions will be addressed on our website at keyera.com shortly after the meeting.

I would also like to remind you that some of the statements made in this meeting may be considered forward-looking. We encourage you to review the cautionary statements and other information contained in our filings on SEDAR, which outline a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements made during the meeting. Copies of these filings are available on our website at keyera.com or on SEDAR at sedarplus.ca. As the virtual component of this meeting depends on technology, we appreciate your patience in the event we need to pause or experience technical issues.

I will now invite our Board Chair, Jim Bertram, to call the meeting to order.

Thank you, Christy. It is now shortly after 10:00 a.m. Mountain Time on May 14, 2026. This meeting is officially called to order. As provided in our bylaws, I will act as Chairman of this meeting. Christy Elliott will act as Secretary and Nazim Nathoo of Odyssey Trust has been appointed to act as scrutineer. We'll now deal with the business items specified in the notice of the meeting. Voting on these items will be conducted by poll. You may vote on all or any one of the business items at any time prior to closing of the polls. I now declare voting to be open on all resolutions.

I will now ask Christy to lead us through each of these business items. Christy?

Thank you, Jim. I can confirm on April 14, 2026, the Notice of Meeting, related circular and form of proxy were mailed to shareholders of record as of March 26, 2026. The scrutineers' report shows that a quorum of shareholders is present for the transaction of business at this meeting. A copy of the scrutineer's report, along with an affidavit confirming the mailing of the notice of meeting and related meeting materials will be filed with the records of today's meeting.

With respect to the formal business portion of the meeting, I will read each business item. We will then pause briefly to enable shareholders and proxy holders an opportunity to vote and to confirm whether any related questions have been submitted. Where a question has been received on a specific business item, we will seek to address it at that time. Questions of a more general nature will be addressed during the Q&A portion of the meeting. As Jim noted, voting for all business items is now open. Voting will remain open until the last item of business has concluded, and voting is declared to be closed. Certain shareholders have volunteered to move or second motions in respect of each business item. I will call on these individuals at the appropriate time. Preliminary voting results have been received and will be announced at the conclusion of the formal business portion of the meeting.

The first item of business is to receive the audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2025. The financial statements have been approved by the Board of Directors and previously mailed to shareholders. I confirm we have received no questions on the financial statements. As no shareholder vote is required or proposed with respect to the financial statements, I will proceed to the next item.

The second item of business is the election of directors. The Board has fixed the number of directors to be elected at this meeting at 10. Accordingly, there are 10 directors nominated for election at this meeting. Information about each of our 10 director nominees is provided on Pages 25 through 46 of our circular. Shareholders have the ability to vote for or withhold from voting for each individual director nominee. In accordance with the advance notice provisions of our bylaws. The only persons nominated to stand for election at this meeting are the director nominees set forth in our circular. As there are no further nominations, I declare the nominations closed.

May I please have a motion on this item?

My name is [ Jerry Kubick, ] and I'm a shareholder, and I move that each of Jim Bertram, Isabelle Brassard, Michael Crothers, Blair Goertzen, Tim Kitchen, Bob Pritchard, Charlene Ripley, Dean Setoguchi, Janet Woodruff and Renee Zemljak be hereby elected directors of Keyera Corp. to hold the office until the next annual meeting of the shareholders or until their respective successors have been appointed.

My name is Brandon Wood. I'm a shareholder, and I second the motion.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I confirm we have received no questions on the election of directors. Shareholders and proxy holders are invited to submit their vote now if you've not already done so.

The next item involves the appointment of Deloitte LLP chartered professional accountants as Keyera's independent auditors for the upcoming year. The Board of Directors recommends the appointment of Deloitte LLP as auditor.

May I please have a motion on this matter?

My name is [ Jerry Kubick. ] I'm a shareholder, and I move that Deloitte LLP, chartered professional accountants, be appointed auditors of Keyera to hold the office until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders at such remuneration as shall be fixed by the Board of Directors.

My name is [ Brandon Wood. ] I am a shareholder, and I second the motion.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I confirm we have received no questions on the appointment of auditors. Shareholders and proxy holders may submit their vote now if they have not already done so.

The next item involves the reconfirmation and approval of Keyera's shareholder rights plan. The shareholder rights plan was last approved by shareholders at our May 9, 2023, Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The shareholder rights plan must be approved by shareholders every 3 years. The full text of this resolution is set out on Page 23 of our circular. The Board of Directors recommends that the shareholders approve this resolution.

May I please have a motion?

My name is [ Jerry Kubick. ] I'm a shareholder, and I move that the resolution set out on Page 23 of the circular with respect to Keyera's shareholder rights plan be approved.

My name is [ Brandon Wood. ] I am a shareholder, and I second the motion.

Thank you. And Mr. Chairman, I confirm we've received no questions on this item. Shareholders and proxy holders may submit their vote now if they have not already done so.

The last item of business is an advisory vote on Keyera's approach to executive compensation, commonly referred to as say on pay. The full text of this advisory resolution is set out at Page 24 of our circular. The Board of Directors recommends shareholders vote to approve this resolution. I will now ask for a motion on this matter.

My name is [ Jerry Kubick. ] I am a shareholder, and I move that the ordinary resolution set out on Page 24 of the circular with respect to Keyera's approach to executive compensation be approved.

My name is [ Brandon Wood. ] I am a shareholder, and I second the motion.

Thank you. And Mr. Chairman, I can confirm we've received no questions on this item. We invite shareholders and proxy holders to submit their vote now if you have not already done so.

As this is the last item of business before the conclusion of the formal portion of the meeting. For those who have not voted on all resolutions, please do so now.

[Voting]

Jim, I confirm that the shareholders have now had an opportunity to vote.

Thank you, Christy. As everyone has now had an opportunity to vote, I now declare the voting polls for the meeting to be closed.

Christy, I would ask you please read the preliminary voting results of the meeting.

Thank you, Jim. I have received the scrutineer's report and can confirm that the preliminary voting results are as follows: Each of the 10 nominated directors have been elected with an average support of over 96% of shares voted or represented at the meeting. Deloitte LLP have been duly appointed as Keyera's auditors for the upcoming year with average support of 82.73% of shares voted or represented at the meeting. The shareholder rights plan, reconfirmation and approval resolution has been duly approved with support of over 96.32% of shares voted or represented at the meeting. Finally, the say-on-pay advisory resolution has been duly approved with support of over 96.53% of shares voted or represented at the meeting. Final voting results be filed on our website as well as SEDAR as soon as practical after the meeting.

Thank you, Christy. As that now concludes the formal business of the meeting. I now declare the formal business portion of the meeting to be terminated.

I would like to turn the meeting over to Keyera's President and Chief Executive Officer, Dean Setoguchi, who will provide a brief management presentation. Dean's presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session to address inquiries submitted during the meeting. You may continue to submit questions in the online platform until conclusion of the question-and-answer session or ask questions in person. Dean?

Thanks, Jim, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending today's event. Before we begin, I want to take a moment to thank retiring directors, Tom O'Connor and Gianna Manes for their contributions and service over the last several years. Tom joined our Board in 2014, and Gianna joined our Board in 2017, and their insight, expertise and thoughtful guidance have helped shape Keyera into what it is today. It's been a privilege to work alongside them and their contributions to Keyera will be felt for years to come. I want to welcome our newly elected Director, Renee Zemljak. We're fortunate to have such an accomplished individual join our Board, and I look forward to working with Renee as we continue to grow and move Keyera forward.

Before I get started, please note the forward-looking information and non-GAAP financial measures on the screen. This information is also available on our website, and I'll spare you from reading all that.

I'll kick it off with Keyera's strategic priorities, which are on the right side of the slide, starting with financial discipline, which has always been a core focus of ours. We prioritized maintaining a strong balance sheet, and our investment criteria is focused on growing stable fee-for-service cash flows, which, in turn, support attractive shareholder returns.

Next, we drive competitiveness of our assets through a focus on safe, reliable operations, combined with the competitive cost structure. Next, we strengthen our integrated value chain by extending our asset footprint and providing greater access to high-value markets for customers. And lastly, long-term sustainability is embedded in our strategy. We proactively manage risk, reduce environmental impact and maintain strong collaborative stakeholder relationships. To execute our strategy, Keyera focuses on three priorities, which are safety, competitiveness and growth, seen here on the left side of the slide. Each year, we set goals under each priority to advance our strategy. These goals align our alignment across the organization with each team setting objectives that support our three priorities. This focus enables measurable progress in delivering our strategy year after year.

2025 is a great example of our disciplined execution. So let me highlight the key achievements that advanced our strategy. We sanctioned the Frac II debottleneck and KFS Frac III expansion, further strengthening our Frac platform and highly contracted long-term capacity additions. We executed a commercial agreement with AltaGas to extend our value chain and provide diversified access to international markets in Asia, helping deliver stronger netbacks for our customers. We also sanctioned KAPS Zone 4, expanding our pipeline network to access growing liquids-rich Montney production in Northeast BC and Northwest Alberta under long-term contracts. And of course, the transformational acquisition of Plains' Canadian NGL business. This deal makes us more efficient, extends our integrated value chain into Eastern Canada and the U.S. and creates a platform for accelerated capital-efficient growth.

We also completed the Simonette Gas Plant acquisition for approximately $200 million, adding approximately 68 million cubic feet per day of processing capacity. And divested -- we divested the non-core Wildhorse terminal to recycle capital into higher return opportunities. Together, these actions reflect disciplined execution and meaningful progress against our strategy. Keyera continues to have a strong focus on the management of long-term risks. This is partly achieved through our sustainability program.

Last year, we announced that we achieved our 2025 greenhouse gas emissions intensity target 1 year early. We realized a 28% reduction from our 2019 baseline exceeding our goal of a 25% reduction. Absolute emissions are also down 9% over the same period. On governance, 40% of our senior leaders and 40% of our independent directors are female, and our Board committees are 100% independent. And say-on-pay support has averaged 97% over the last three years. You can see along the top of the slide some third-party recognition, which reinforces our progress.

Financial discipline has long been a part of Keyera's DNA, and our capital allocation framework reflects that commitment. Our priority is the strength of the balance sheet. We exit 2025 below the bottom end of our leverage target and continue to maintain an investment-grade credit rating. After that, we balance deploying capital between reinvesting in our fee-for-service business and returning value to shareholders. We have a long history of sustainable dividend growth, and we once again increased the dividend by 4% this past year.

We aim to allocate capital in a manner that creates the most value for shareholders. Keyera at its core is a service-oriented company and delivering value to our customers is central to everything that we do. Our differentiated liquids supply and market access directly enhance customer netbacks, giving producers a compelling reason to choose Keyera. By continually driving competitiveness across our services, we're able to offer superior value which in turn strengthens our customer relationships and increases throughput volumes across our integrated platform.

Our Marketing segment further reinforces this value proposition by working alongside customers to seek the highest possible netback, ensuring our services are fully aligned with their preferences. Ultimately delivering more value for customers translates into delivering more value for our shareholders. This chart tells a powerful story and highlights our successful track record. Since 2008, Keyera's delivered a 7% compound annual growth rate in distributable cash flow per share and a 6% CAGR in dividends per share.

Now what makes this remarkable is the consistency. We grew through the 2008 financial crisis, the 2015 commodity price collapse and the COVID-19 pandemic without ever cutting our dividend. That resilience is driven by a fee-based business model that provides cash flow stability and disciplined capital allocation that has kept leverage consistently within target. Growing cash flow, growing dividends and a strong balance sheet is the value proposition we continue to deliver to shareholders.

Now let me turn to the transformative Plains' acquisition. We're thrilled to have closed the deal. This transaction is a natural extension of our strategy to extend our integrated value chain, enhances connectivity across our system and improves our ability to efficiently process, transport and market products. For our customers, the combined platform provides improved access to key markets, greater flexibility and increased reliability. It also represents an important step for Canada, bringing critical energy infrastructure under Canadian ownership and supporting the development of a more efficient NGL network.

Looking ahead, we will continue to enable basin growth by extending our integrated value chain in a disciplined and capital-efficient manner. The runway ahead remains significant, and we're confident our strategy will continue to deliver attractive long-term returns and sustainable growth.

Let me close with three takeaways. Keyera has a clear strategy focusing on strengthening and extending our integrated value chain. We continue to execute that strategy through disciplined capital allocation and highly strategic investments that improve connectivity, competitiveness and customer value. With a more efficient platform and a deep inventory of growth opportunities, we're well positioned to continue delivering sustainable, long-term growth and returns.

With that, I'll turn it back to Jim for Q&A.

Thank you, Dean. We will now open the question-and-answer session to respond to any questions submitted during the meeting. Christy, can you please read any questions that have been submitted during the meeting.

Jim, there have been no questions submitted during the meeting.

Thank you. Seeing as there are no further questions, this concludes our question-and-answer period. On behalf of the board -- is there any questions in the room? I got a hand up here.

My name is [ Richard Blumhoff ] as of the date I was a shareholder. I don't know if I am right now. But what I was wondering about is, I'm a little concerned about swaps. Do you use swaps?

Thank you for that, Richard. Dean or Eileen, do you like to answer?

If you're talking about financial swaps for our hedging program, we do use financial instruments for us. We want to provide a stable cash flow with our marketing business. And so we basically market physical product. And what we aim to do is to make sure that we lock in margin. And sometimes, we incur hedging losses because of that. But again, what's important for us is to basically lock in and hedge a sustainable cash flow. And that's why we use different financial instruments to support that program. Thank you for your question, Richard.

There's another question, I believe.

Okay. My name is [ Bill Maneluk, ] and I am a shareholder.

Thank you for your support.

So I may have trouble formulating this question because it's based on the efficiency -- business efficiencies that you get with the combination with Plains' and whether they would outweigh any problems or concerns that there might be over any increase in charges that you might develop over -- with your customers, with your new business. This is related to the concerns with the Competition Bureau. Does that make sense?

Yes, I think I understand your question. First of all, we're in a process with the tribunal, so we can't speak directly to that. But what I can say is that we are a service company, and our focus is to deliver the most efficient, cost-effective, reliable service for our customers. And with this platform, we are going to be more cost efficient. We'll have more redundancy in our system. So if you look at our Frac complexes, whenever one complex is down, we have the assets that we can continue to allow product to flow and catch up on fracking and processing that product at a later time. So for producers, what we're trying to do is to maximize their cash flow. So the more we can provide that reliable service, the more profitable they'll be and the happier they're going to be. Our intention is not to increase prices. It's quite the opposite. We think that we'll have a more cost-effective operation and a lot of those costs flow through to our customers. So we believe that we'll be able to provide a service at a lower cost, not a higher cost than they received today. And at the same time, you know what a big part of our service is getting their NGLs to high-value markets. And with this cross-Canada NGL corridor and assets that we have now, we're going to be able to access those high-value markets more efficiently, which again will translate to higher value for our customers. Thank you for your question.

Any other questions from the audience? Not seeing any hands. I can now say that concludes our question-and-answer period. On behalf of the Board and management of Keyera, I wish to thank you for your participation today and for your continued support of Keyera. Thank you, and that terminates the meeting. Thanks.

Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Joelle, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Keyera's 2026 First Quarter Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to Dan Cuthbertson, General Manager, Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thanks, and good morning. Joining me today will be Dean Setoguchi, President and CEO; Eileen Marikar, Senior Vice President and CFO; Jamie Urquhart, Senior Vice President, Liquids Business Unit; and Brad Slessor, Senior Vice President, G&P and NGL Pipelines Business Unit. We will begin with some prepared remarks from Dean and Eileen, after which we will open the call to questions. I'd like to remind listeners that some of the comments and answers that we will give today relate to future events.

These forward-looking statements are given as of today's date and reflect events or outcomes that management currently expects. In addition, we will refer to some non-GAAP financial measures. For additional information on non-GAAP measures and forward-looking statements, please refer to Keyera's public filings available on SEDAR and on our website.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Dean.

Thanks, Dan, and good morning, everyone. Two days ago, we successfully closed the acquisition of Plains' Canadian NGL business in its entirety. This is a transformative deal that materially expands Keyera's integrated platform. This transaction is a natural extension of our strategy to extend our integrated value chain. It enhances connectivity across our system and improves our ability to efficiently process, transport and market products.

For our customers, the combined platform provides improved access to key markets, greater flexibility and increased reliability. It also represents an important step for Canada, bringing critical energy infrastructure under Canadian ownership. It enhances Canadian energy security, supports economic resilience and establishes a stronger, more efficient across Canada NGL corridor. As previously disclosed, the Commissioner of Competition has filed an application with the Competition Tribunal in connection with the transaction.

As you can appreciate, this matter is now before the Tribunal, so we're limited in what we can say about this process. We are confident in the strength of our case and excited to demonstrate to our shareholders and to our stakeholders the strategic rationale and the value creation that will result from this transaction. Our focus now is on integration and capturing the synergies of the expanded system.

Turning to our quarterly results. We continue to execute on our strategy, building a more connected and efficient system to support our customers and strengthen our platform. In gathering and processing, we delivered a new quarterly record for realized margin, driven by record throughput at Wapiti and contributions from our recently acquired interest in the Simonette East gas plant. We also continue to advance our growth projects. The KFS Frac 2 debottleneck remains on schedule for completion by the end of June and is now expected to come in below budget. Frac 3 and KAPS Zone 4 continue to progress well, both on time and on budget. These projects are highly contracted and will continue to drive growth and stable fee-for-service cash flow, supporting the strength of our balance sheet and long-term dividend sustainability.

Now turning briefly to AEF. Following the previously announced outage, the repairs have been completed. We're also now completing the turnaround planned for the fall, eliminating the need for a separate shutdown later this year. The facility is expected to return to full operating capacity by the end of May. While the reliability of the asset has been below expectations, we recognize the importance of AEF to our business and the value it delivers.

During the outage, we completed a comprehensive review of the facility and its operating plan. As a result, we expect to enhance our maintenance strategy by supplementing the existing 4-year major turnaround cycle with a smaller planned outage between major turnarounds. Our objective is to maximize production of iso-octane during a 4-year cycle while ensuring safe and efficient operations.

With that, I'll turn it over to Eileen to walk through our financial results and outlook.

Thanks, Dean, and good morning, everyone. Keyera's first quarter results reflect continued strength in our fee-for-service business, which was offset by lower marketing contributions. Excluding transaction costs related to the Plains acquisition, adjusted EBITDA was $232 million and distributable cash flow was $133 million or $0.58 per share. Net earnings for the quarter were a loss of $122 million. In our fee-for-service segment, Gathering and Processing delivered record quarterly realized margin of $118 million. In Liquids Infrastructure, realized margin was $141 million. Results included record throughput across our condensate system, supported by continued growth in oil sands production.

Turning to the Marketing segment. Realized margin was $13 million for the quarter. The decrease compared to last year was primarily attributable to the AEF outage and corresponding butane risk management activities. We ended the quarter with net debt to adjusted EBITDA of 2.2x, which remains below our long-term target range and provides continued financial flexibility. Following the completion of the NGL contracting season, we are providing 2026 Marketing segment realized margin guidance on a stand-alone basis. Marketing realized margin is expected to range between $210 million and $250 million, with the majority of contributions weighted towards the second half of the year. All other Keyera stand-alone guidance for growth capital, maintenance capital and cash taxes remain unchanged.

With that, I'll turn it back to Dean for closing remarks.

Thanks, Eileen. Keyera continues to execute on a clear strategy to strengthen and extend our integrated value chain, building a more connected and efficient system that supports customer growth and improves access to key markets. With the closing of the Plains acquisition, we're entering into the next phase of growth for the company with an expanded platform that further enhances our ability to serve customers across the basin.

Looking ahead, we will remain focused on disciplined integration, continued execution of our growth projects and delivering long-term value for our customers and shareholders. On behalf of the Board and management team, I want to thank our employees, customers, shareholders, indigenous rights holders and other stakeholders for their continued support.

With that, we'll open the line for questions. Operator, please go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Rob Hope with Scotiabank.

I'd like some more color on the Competition Tribunal process. So you have 45 days to put in your application there. Can you maybe give us a little bit more incremental color on what the key themes that you would like to put forward to the Competition Bureau to state your case that the acquisition should close as filed as well as do you think it'll take the full 45 days? Or could you accelerate that?

Rob, thank you for the question. We're not in a position to speak more about what our position is. I just want to emphasize that we're very confident in the strength of our case. And again, because of the matters before the Tribunal, we're limited to what we can say. But with respect to the actual process, maybe I'll just turn it over to Eileen and she can speak to it in more detail.

Sure. Thanks, Rob. There's not too much incremental from what was already in Dean's opening remarks. The matter now will proceed through the Tribunal process. And it's an impartial and independent specialized court, which gives us the opportunity to have our case heard by a panel of judges and non-judge Tribunal members. And as Dean mentioned, we believe in our case and look forward to presenting it to the Tribunal. At this point, it's really too early to speculate on what the time line will be.

All right. I thought I'd try. Maybe moving over to the marketing guidance ex Plains. Can you maybe help us understand what commodity price assumptions are included in that, just given it is looking similar to kind of the prior guidance, yet the commodity pricing looks quite a bit different than before.

Thanks, Rob. I can take that one. So the guidance we did provide is on a stand-alone basis, and it does incorporate the AEF outage, which was approximately $110 million. I would say it's conservative at this point in time. It does include the impact of butane, which is lower than our 10-year average. So that's a positive. Certainly, there were some hedges that on the inventory where we took a loss in the front month, but we'll start to see that as we sell the inventory.

The one thing that, again, could be a tailwind to the guidance we put out is the iso-octane premiums. As you are aware, that's something that we cannot hedge. And so as AEF comes up and by the end of the month and we get into the summer driving period, that is a potential tailwind to the guidance that we provided. But largely in line with the assumptions that we had laid out, the hedges that were already in place, which is the $210 million to $250 million.

I think just to add on to Eileen's comments, Rob. Overall, we think that there is a more of a macro tailwind to our marketing business. I mean if you think about the situation at Strait of Hormuz, the longer that blockage lasts, it really puts a higher floor under the whole price complex for crude oil, natural gas, and also LPGs for a longer period of time. So we think that's positive for Frac spreads. We think that's positive for our octane business. And Eileen talked about the premiums. But obviously, if you look at the gasoline cracks, they're very strong as well and the underlying crude oil price is very high. So we think the forward prices for the rest of this year, I mean, we do have some hedges in place, but into 2027 as well. Those are positive tailwinds overall for our business.

Your next question comes from Spiro Dounis with Citi.

I want to start, Dean, with some of your closing comments there on the next phase of growth. You've got 3 major projects now sanctioned and under construction. If I think back, those projects are highly visible to you and us well into sanctioning them. Just curious, as you look beyond '28, how you're thinking about that next wave of expansions? And when do you think you'll be in a position to start communicating them?

Yes. Thank you for the question. First of all, what I would say is that speaking to the 3 major projects, they are progressing very well. Our team is doing an outstanding job of executing those projects. I mean nothing is done until they're done, but so far, they are progressing very well. We're very excited about the Plains acquisition, and when we think about how we add value for our customers and our shareholders, the lowest hanging fruit is going to be with the Plains assets.

And we've talked about $100 million of synergies, which we have very high conviction in, but we're seeing some really great opportunities well beyond the $100 million. And so we are going to capture that low-hanging fruit as fast as we possibly can. And we've been operating, obviously as separate companies until the last 2 days. So there is certainly a period of time that is going to require us to get further up to speed and some of the opportunities on their side and get more detail behind it. But we just think that there's a lot more upside than we had envisioned at the beginning when we signed this transaction. So I think that's very positive.

On top of that, I think it's great that we're hearing more positive momentum on LNG Canada Phase 2 and also crude oil export pipelines and adding more capacity from that front. So I think both from our gas gathering and processing perspective, there's going to be more of that required, which translates to more volumes down our KAPS pipeline and potentially downstream from there, but also our oil sands business. So I can see more capacity expansions around that. Maybe I can just turn it over to Brad and if you want to speak specifically to the gas gathering and processing side and maybe some other opportunities we see there.

Yes, sure. Thanks, Dean, and thanks for the question. I think on the gathering and processing side, we see really great activity progressing around our northern plants. You can see it in our volumes and in our quarterly results, including the new assets we've brought in. We see at both Simonette and Wapiti opportunity to debottleneck those facilities. And then we're starting to look at incremental things past those projects as well. And as Dean said, more gas processing comes with more liquids that need to make it down the value chain and all the way through the integrated chain. So we're excited to see what the basin will give us. And as Dean said, we see some of those tailwinds behind the basin as well.

Got it. That's great to hear. Second question, maybe just pivoting here to condensate a bit. It came up quite a few times on the last call, and that was, of course, before Iran. Since then, obviously, things on the macro side seem to have improved. There's potentially over 1 million barrels a day of crude egress being contemplated out of Canada. So just maybe want to get your latest views on how you're thinking about the impact to condensate and whether or not those volumes can unlock more expansions on your current footprint.

Yes, that's a really great question. I think a lot of people, when they think about crude oil, egress, I think it's fantastic that there'll likely be a lot more capacity built for crude export pipelines. But people have to remember that for every 2 barrels that you flow down the pipe, you need a barrel of diluent, which is the condensate to flow with it because the bitumen is so viscous. So that's really great for our business because we have the hub for condensate. I mean, roughly 2/3 of the condensate that flows up to the oil sands comes off our system. So that's our pipeline connectivity. That's our storage caverns. And we also have the Norlite pipeline that also delivers up to the oil sands. So that is a business that's in big demand, but I'll maybe just turn it over to Jamie to provide additional commentary.

Yes. Thanks, Dean. So I don't know what more I can add really other than we've anticipated this or positioned ourselves to be able to understand how our condensate system can be expanded in the most capital-efficient and time-efficient manner. And just to remind everybody as well that we do have an ownership in the Norlite pipeline, which is, in our minds, a very strategic pipeline that we're working with our partner to maximize the opportunities as we're looking at industries -- looking at expansions up in the oil sands area. So oil sands is often a part of our business that doesn't get focused on very much. It's a huge contributor to our business, and we see that there's a significant opportunity for growth.

Your next question comes from Robert Catellier with CIBC Capital Markets.

Congratulations on the closing of the transaction. I imagine we're going to get a more fulsome update at some point. But I'm wondering what you can tell us about the impact the Plains acquisition will have on that 7% to 8% fee-based growth CAGR you have. Obviously, there's going to be some uncertainty related to the Tribunal process. But on an as-is basis, what is your confidence level in that fee-based growth extending beyond the current forecast time line you've given?

Rob, thanks for your question. I just want to emphasize that we see a lot of synergy value with Plains. And -- but with that, I'll turn it over to Eileen, and she can maybe add some more color.

Thanks, Rob. We do plan to provide an updated guidance for probably around the mid- to late June time frame, and it will be a refreshed fee-based EBITDA growth rate, again, on the combined basis within the coming weeks. So we do want to give some time to actually operate the assets for a period of time, but we are really excited to provide you with that update. And just remember, our existing CAGR that goes out to 2027, and we've largely hit that. And that was really from filling white space, again, which we have done.

So now as we bring on all of these new projects that we're currently in the process of executing like Zone 4 and all of the Frac expansion, those come in, in '27, '28, those have very, very strong returns that will continue to improve that growth rate to the end of the decade as well as the synergies and the synergies beyond the $100 million that Dean just spoke about. So an update is coming shortly.

Okay. That's understandable. And then just on the synergy side, I wonder if you could describe the path to that full synergy capture. I'm thinking that there's -- we don't know what the outcome on the Tribunal process might be, of course. So like how do you go about capturing those synergies when there's some uncertainty as to what the final product might look like?

Yes. I mean, as I said before, we see a ton of synergies here. And we captured the majority of them on day 1. A lot of it is just the overhead. I mean, we're able to run this business more efficiently by combining together. When you look beyond that, we've talked about some of the synergies. There are certainly operating synergies. We're going to be able to apply our supply chain and procurement strategies across the entire entity and leverage our expanded size.

Our maintenance activities, our company will be spending north of $200 million a year in maintenance activities. So can we get better at that and more efficient at that? Absolutely. Jamie has talked about our railcar fleet and our logistics. We're going to be much more efficient with this cross-Canada corridor, NGL corridor, we're going to be able to deliver product to market more efficiently than in the past. So we'll need less railcars and things like that, which are very expensive.

On top of that, we do see some issues or opportunities where we can increase reliability. With the combined asset base, we have more redundancy in our system. So I think that can translate to more effective capacity overall, which is good for our customer and good for our shareholders. There's commercial opportunities, too. So when you add all that up, we believe that, that we should be able to deliver well beyond the $100 million of synergies that we put out there. And anything else you want to add, Jamie?

No, I think you nailed it.

Okay. Just a follow-up to the condensate questions then. I'm wondering if you had anything in terms of time lines or potential CapEx requirements for whatever solution you might have to expand that condensate system.

Yes. Well, I can speak to the time lines, and it's just consistent with what companies are communicating to the market around their -- the timing of their projects. But we fully expect that we'll be able to see some growth -- continued growth in that business in the '27, '28 time frame.

Your next question comes from Ben Pham with BMO Capital Markets.

You had a comment in the MD&A around the South region production growing by a couple of percent. I think the last time we've seen that basin grow at all for some time. Can you comment on the outlook you're expecting there? And any sort of impact you anticipate on your assets in the region?

Yes, thanks very much for the question. I'm going to turn that over to Brad.

I'm glad to get a question on the South. Our team has been working very, very hard on that asset base. In the last several years, they've really worked to transform the contract behind that asset base as well, and you're seeing that with the increased utilization, and we put much longer-term contracts into that asset than we've historically seen. In the past, a lot of that South Basin was really driven off of gas pricing. What we're seeing now is an increased uptake in Duvernay drilling with the West Shale Duvernay and Carrot Creek, and we're seeing those volumes working their way into our system. Those are also ultra liquids rich.

So we see those coming into some of our gas plants in the South, which are already connected into our value chain all the way to Fort Saskatchewan. Good example of that is our Rimbey gas plant. It's a large deep cut plant that's super well positioned to capture a lot of the gas that you're seeing coming out of the Duvernay play. And so we're very happy with how those assets are performing. We think that there's still lots of legs for that to keep on going.

Got it. And maybe to -- maybe going back on the business update and you think the mid- to late June time frame, is the focus really in extending that guidance CAGR time frame that you have there currently?

Yes, that is the idea to extend the CAGR to near the end of the decade.

Next question comes from Theresa Chen with Barclays.

Going back to the tailwinds related to the iso-octane business and stemming from the global supply shock in liquids products, including premium gasoline. With the significant refining infrastructure sustaining physical damage in the Middle East, coupled with curtailed exports from major Asian suppliers, do you view this as a transient benefit, i.e., the elevated octane spreads we're seeing now would dissipate if when the Strait is fully open? Or do you view this as a more durable uplift to your iso-octane margins given your ability to ratably source feedstock and the reliability of supply? Does this factor into your commercial discussions related to this business at all?

Yes. You know what, that's a very good question, Theresa. And I'll turn it over to Jamie, but just maybe a couple of comments is that I think there are some elements that are very durable going forward. And part of it is, there is more refining capacity being shut down too in North America and mainly in California. So some of the markets that we serve in interior, the United States, they are now going to feed more gasoline to California to make up for that loss of production. So we think that's maybe net positive.

But what also is happening right now is that some of the naphtha crackers in Asia are shutting down and they're basically getting displaced with crackers that take a lighter-end feedstock. And those naphtha crackers, they produce more chemical octanes, which they do compete in the octane world on the -- off the water. So I think overall, with less octane supply, that should be a net tailwind for our octane premiums when you think about the trends going forward. So anyway, those are just some of the tailwinds that we see. But Jamie, I'm sure you have some more thoughts.

Yes. So maybe I can layer a little bit more on, and it's a great observation and a great question is that the one thing I'd mention as well is that I think the destruction of infrastructure and the timing of being able to repair that infrastructure is going to have ripple effects throughout a lot of different commodities. Certainly, that's impacted propane pricing as well and the longevity we see of elevated propane pricing. Dean touched on that, that's going to support our deal for export on the West Coast that we're stepping into with AltaGas in the 2028 time frame and just the fundamentals, but also Frac spreads that we're now assuming more exposure to with the Plains assets. But it's also impacting non-North American refinery capacity as well, specifically in Asia. And so as we think about the global flow of gasolines, we also see a pull out of North America to serve those markets. That's going to leave us a little short.

Dean has touched on the fact that we've got lower naphtha costs that ultimately are a primary feedstock for blending. And ultimately, you need octane to mix in that blending activity to be able to generate gasoline. So as we connect all those dots together, certainly, you've seen that in the RBOB crack or the gasoline crack pricing in '26 and '27. And you're also seeing that with respect to the octane demand and associated octane premiums that we're seeing unfold, not only in this summer driving season, but our expectation is going into '27 as well.

That's very helpful. And related to the AEF facility specifically, do you have an update on how the turnaround is progressing following the unplanned outage? Can you share some of the key learnings here? And in relation to the new maintenance strategy, what exactly are you planning to do during the smaller planned outages between major turnarounds that is supposed to enhance reliability of the asset? What does that work entail?

Yes. So great question. I can't really get into the specifics of the root cause of the outage that we incurred in January other than we did determine the root cause, and we're applying those learnings to ensure improved reliability go forward. To get to your question with respect to the shorter, we're calling it a pit stop in that -- in between our regular 4-year turnaround schedule. It's more around inspections and ensuring the integrity of equipment and making sure that we're being proactive with respect to our maintenance activities based on comparing condition of equipment relative to baselines to ensure that we're not reacting to things at AEF rather than we're being very proactive from our maintenance activities.

As we said before, our objective is to make as much octane over a 4-year cycle. And we've learned a lot over the last 5 years. We've had a number of unplanned outages. And we feel with all the work that we've done and the valuation of the entire facility while we've been out for this extended period of time, that's really benefited us. And we do believe that small minor pit stop and a 4-year turnaround is the best way to go and to produce the most octane over that period.

Your next question comes from Patrick Kenny with NBCM.

Appreciating it's business as usual or integration is planned here until further news comes out of the Tribunal process. But just thinking in the meantime, as you look to compete for new business in the field, perhaps offer customers access to your extended value chain. Just wondering how you're managing the commercial dynamics while waiting for the final decision here.

Yes, thanks for the question. And it is business as usual. I mean the #1 objective for us is obviously safe operations, reliable operations. But for our customers, this has to be seamless. And we have to deliver them a great service. And we believe that we're going to have a superior service offering right across the board for our customers, and we have to deliver that. So we're going to be working with all of our customers like we do and the new customers that we're going to pick up and new contracts that we'll pick up with Plains. As always, we work very closely with our customers to understand what's important to them and understand their needs. And we work to customize a solution that adds the most value for them, and that's exactly what we're going to do as we add value through this integration and synergy process.

Okay. And then I guess looking at forward Frac spreads, obviously, there's still a healthy level of backwardation into '27 and beyond. But I'm just curious if you're able to capitalize on some of the near-term commodity price volatility here from a hedging standpoint while you're waiting for final resolution.

Yes, that's a great question. Well, certainly, I just want to remind everyone that we have a 12-month hedge in place. So that was negotiated as part of the original transaction and terms of the transaction. So we have that in place, and we want to make sure that we had good cash flow stability from that part of the business for the first full year. And so it's the majority of production. So we're still exposed a bit beyond and above that and partly because the flows through Empress have been higher than what we've modeled, which is positive.

As we said before, we certainly think the pricing floor is higher than what it was pre the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. So again, the longer this outage lasts, we believe that the higher prices, especially for propane are going to linger higher, which will give us opportunities to further extend the hedge past the 12 months, and we'll look for opportunities to do that.

Sounds good. And then last one for me here. I know it's a bit of a what-if question, but just thinking from a balance sheet perspective, with the sub receipts now converted to shares, I guess if you do find yourselves in a position of receiving some proceeds from certain assets being sold, would you look to redeploy that cash right away into other opportunities either organically or through tuck-ins? Or would you maybe prioritize buybacks or further debt repayment?

Yes, that's a great question. Well, you know what, first of all, we really believe in the strength of our case, and we're not focused on remedies. So that would include any sales associated with this acquisition. I am -- as a company, our strategy is always to look at our asset base and high grade it. So as you saw, we sold our Wildhorse Terminal last year, and we're redeploying that -- those proceeds into our Canadian business. we see a lot of opportunity going forward. So we'll look to reinvest our cash flows to capture that opportunity to deliver expanded service to our customers.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Maurice Choy with RBC Capital Markets.

If I could focus on what seems to be the next phase of big project developments once you have a combined entity. I know you shared your accomplishments on KFS Frac 2 debottleneck, costs have come down there. But as you think about your next phase of growth here, what are some of the emerging areas of a project development that you are anticipating will require greater focus and perhaps pinch points that needs to be dealt with early?

Maurice, thanks for the question. As we said before, I mean, certainly with more egress for both all products for natural gas, for crude oil, more export capacity that's getting built. We just think that there's going to be a lot of core infrastructure, NGL infrastructure that will need to be built with it. And at the front end of that, as Brad talked about, there'll be more gas gathering and processing capacity that will have to be built. And we're located in the best spot in the liquids-rich part of the basin, the Montney Basin. So we think that we can participate and offer a great service, both with the connectivity to our existing infrastructure and to add incremental capacity beyond that.

But for us, it's all about allocation of capital, and we want to allocate our capital and our resources to where we can add the most value. And as I said before, with the Plains assets that we just acquired, we see a tremendous amount of opportunity there. And we can -- we're going to direct a lot of our efforts to, again, enhance our service offering for our customers and to maximize the value we deliver to our shareholders as well.

If we could finish off with a question on how you touched on incremental gas and crude egress from the basin. Obviously, there's been a major upstream M&A recently. And I wonder if you could just talk to any direct or indirect impact to your company given your commercial relationships? And then just more broadly, what that you think means for the outlook of the basin?

Yes. Well, first of all, I'd just say it's a positive for our basin and an industry in Canada if this means that the probability of LNG Canada Phase 2 moves forward. We should be exporting that and adding way more capacity and exporting a lot more LNG off the West Coast of Canada. So this is fantastic from that perspective. I'd say that there's a part of me that feels a bit sad, to be honest. I look at a company like ARC that's a homegrown Canadian company that's been around for over 2 decades. The team is -- Terry Anderson and his team, they're fantastic people to work with, and we've worked very closely with them for a long period of time. So they should be pretty -- very proud of what they built. And -- but I'm sad to see that management team go. And hopefully, they start up something new and build another ARC.

But with regard to Shell, we've worked with them on -- we tried to work with them on different projects already. So we're very familiar with them. One of our directors is the former Country Chair of Shell. So we do have some connections, Michael Crothers. So whether our customer is Shell or a very small company, every customer is important to us, and we are going to work very closely with each one of them, including Shell, to understand what's important to them, how we can add value to their business, and we'll deliver them the best service possible.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Dan for closing remarks.

Thank you all once again for joining us today. Please feel free to reach out to our Investor Relations team with any additional questions. I hope everyone enjoys the upcoming May long weekend in Canada.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.

Good morning. My name is Danny, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Keyera's 2025 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the call over to Dan Cuthbertson, General Manager of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thanks, and good morning. Joining me today will be Dean Setoguchi, President and CEO; Eileen Marikar, Senior Vice President and CFO; Jamie Urquhart, Senior Vice President, Liquids Business Unit; and Brad Slessor, Senior Vice President, G&P and NGL Pipelines Business Unit. We will begin with some prepared remarks from Dean and Eileen, after which we will open the call to questions.

I'd like to remind listeners that some of the comments and answers that we will give today relate to future events. These forward-looking statements are given as of today's date and reflect events or outcomes that management currently expects. In addition, we will refer to some non-GAAP financial measures. For more information on non-GAAP measures and forward-looking statements, please refer to Keyera's public filings available on SEDAR and on our website.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Dean.

Thanks, Dan, and good morning, everyone. 2025 was a transformational year for Keyera. We continue to demonstrate the strength of our fee-for-service business, delivering record results in both Liquids Infrastructure and Gathering and Processing. These results were driven by higher utilization across our integrated system, which supports continued dividend growth.

Keyera's marketing business finished the year at the top end of our revised guidance. While results were below our long-term base expectations, we continue to view our marketing segment as a strategic differentiator that provides strong cash flow and in stronger market environments can deliver outsized contributions. This cash can be used to strengthen our balance sheet and accelerate growth by reinvesting in our fee-for-service business.

During the year, we continued to advance our strategy of strengthening and extending our integrated value chain. We sanctioned 3 highly strategic and capital-efficient growth projects, including 2 frac expansions at KFS in addition to KAPS Zone 4. These projects are highly contracted and will continue to support growth and high-quality fee-based cash flow. These contracts demonstrate the competitiveness of our services.

In June, we announced the transformational acquisition of the Plains' Canadian NGL business. Once this highly strategic transaction closes, it will expand our national platform, strengthen our integrated value chain and enhance our ability to better serve customers and partners across Canada. For Keyera, it will support further growth and long-term shareholder value.

We continue to demonstrate disciplined portfolio management, completing 2 additional transactions, the addition of the additional gas plant capacity in the Simonette area and the divestiture of our noncore WildHorse asset. Together, these transactions reflect our continued focus on optimizing our asset base and recycling capital into higher return on-strategy opportunities.

I'll now briefly discuss the AEF outage. In mid-January, we announced an unplanned outage following the identification of an issue with a vessel on site. The safety of our employees, contractors and the integrity of the facility remain top priorities while the restart work continues. Repairs are underway, and we expect the facility to be back to full production in May.

Lastly, I want to touch on our recent organization changes. In preparation for the closing of the Plains transaction, we have reorganized our leadership reporting structure to better position the business for its next phase of growth and to drive competitiveness.

Under the new structure, we'll operate with 2 business units supported by our existing enablement teams, and Brad Slessor now leads the G&P and NGL Pipelines business unit and Jamie Urquhart leads the Liquids business unit, which includes our liquids infrastructure assets and marketing business. These changes do not affect how we'll report our segment and financial results. Overall, 2025 was a year of strong execution. We have continued to build a more efficient and competitive platform that creates meaningful value for our customers and shareholders while positioning Keyera for long-term growth.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Eileen to review our financial results and outlook.

Thanks, Dean, and good morning, everyone. Keyera's fourth quarter and year-end results reflected stable performance and continued strength in our fee-for-service business. Not including deal and integration costs associated with the Plains acquisition, annual adjusted EBITDA was $1.16 billion. Distributable cash flow was $767 million or $3.35 per share for the year, and annual net earnings were $432 million.

As Dean mentioned, we continue to see strong year-over-year growth in our fee-for-service segment, delivering record results driven by higher utilization across the value chain. In Gathering and Processing, we have record annual realized margin, delivering $439 million, up from $413 million last year. The increase reflects higher throughput and growing contributions from our Wapiti and Simonette gas plants as contracted volumes continue to grow.

In Liquids Infrastructure, realized margin was a record $593 million for the year, up from $558 million in 2024. This growth was supported by higher storage contracting and utilization of our condensate system as well as the steady ramp-up of KAPS volumes.

Now turning to the Marketing segment. Realized margin was $300 million for the year compared to $485 million last year. The lower results mostly reflect lower premiums and volumes for iso-octane sales.

Now I'll touch on our 2026 guidance. Growth capital is still expected to range between $400 million and $475 million. Maintenance capital is expected to be $140 million to $160 million. Cash taxes are expected to range between $60 million and $70 million. Consistent with prior years, Marketing segment realized margin guidance will be provided with first quarter results in mid-May, following the conclusion of the NGL contracting season.

As previously disclosed, this will reflect the approximate $110 million impact associated with the unplanned AEF outage and turnaround. Following the closing of the Plains acquisition, we'll provide pro forma guidance and a comprehensive business outlook for the combined platform, reflecting our enhanced scale and long-term growth profile.

With that, I'll turn it back to Dean for closing remarks.

Thanks, Eileen. 2025 was a transformative year for Keyera. We executed on our strategy, strengthened our value chain and continue to build a competitive and efficient platform that creates value for our customers and shareholders.

On behalf of our Board and management team, I want to thank our employees, customers, shareholders, indigenous rights holders and other stakeholders for their continued support.

With that, we'll open the line for questions. Operator, please go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Aaron MacNeil of TD Cowen.

As you can imagine, we're getting a lot of inbounds on the Simonette gas plant acquisition this morning. Just wondering if there's any more details that you could provide in terms of the transaction multiple or potential financial contributions? Whether or not the assets are connected to KAPS? And if not, what the time line might be for connectivity there or any other details?

Aaron, it's Dean, and thank you very much for the questions regarding the Simonette area gas plant capacity acquisitions that we made.

What I'd say is that we like the area. And as you know, we have our own Simonette gas plant. So this really fortifies and strengthens our G&P footprint in that area. We're working with a private oil and gas company, and we do have confidentiality provisions.

And it's important for our customer not to disclose details of that contract. So we are not able to do that. But I'd just say that there are some downstream services that are included as part of this transaction. And as we've always said about our infrastructure investments is that this one included is solidly between our -- meets our 10% to 15% return on capital threshold.

That's helpful. And maybe just a bit of an oddball question, and I can appreciate that you won't speak to specific customers or contracts. But ARC recently removed the second phase of Attachie from its 5-year outlook, which was expected to be a meaningful contributor to overall basin condensate growth.

I guess just broadly speaking, would you sort of reiterate your stand-alone Keyera growth outlook despite that removal of the project?

Yes, absolutely. I mean, first of all, I'm not going to make specific comments on ARC and their plans other than to say that I think that they're a very good operating company, and they are going to continue to find ways and deliver growth for their stakeholders.

When you step back from a macro perspective, the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin is a very competitive place to drill and grow your production base. And as we see -- confidently see more product egress out of our basin, that just gives us optimism that we're going to see continued growth in the future. And I'm talking about, again, just filling up the original 2 phases or the 2 trains of LNG Canada. We're hearing there's a lot more momentum around the next phase being sanctioned sometime in the next year or so. So that will be positive.

Data centers on both sides of the border are, I think, a real thing, and that's going to drive more gas -- nat gas demand. And then obviously, the expansions on Trans Mountain and also in Enbridge's system are very good for condensate demand.

So when you take that macro overlay and where we're positioned on the liquids-rich Montney fairway, we're in the sweet spot and which is why we expand our footprint in the Simonette -- the Simonette acquisition. And we see it as an area that we see a lot of demand for more services, and we're going to compete for that.

So overall, our business outlook is still very strong. And I do want to reiterate the contracts that we announced last year and we continue to sign the very high take-or-pay. So we have a high level of confidence in the delivery of our cash flow growth, which we again reiterate our 7% to 8% fee-for-service EBITDA growth out to 2027.

And as you know, projects like KAPS Zone 4 and specifically our Frac III will continue to drive our growth outlook for our fee-for-service business beyond 2027 as well. So overall, again, we think that the basin is going to be strong, and we're certainly going to capture our fair share of that growth and deliver meaningful results.

Your next question comes from Robert Hope of Scotiabank.

I want to go back to the Simonette acquisition. The MD&A has some commentary that the transaction also unlocks potential follow-on growth opportunities in the area. Can you maybe add a little bit of color to this? And then maybe just would this include a KAPS connection? Or are those assets currently connected to KAPS?

Yes. You know what, like I say, I'm not going to speak to the specific services that are attached to this contract because, again, we're just respecting the wishes and the confidentiality provisions in agreement. But what I'd say is that we generally see very good demand in that area. I mean the Simonette area really borders the Montney and the Duvernay developments, and we like it.

We do have extra capacity in our Simonette gas plant. We are working on opportunities to potentially expand our Simonette gas plant. So when you look at these two other gas plant working interest that we acquired, it ties in very nicely with that G&P footprint in the Simonette area. So again, when we look at that footprint, we see ways that we can continue to offer a broader service to the customers in that area.

Maybe a more broad question. Looking at 2025, the dividend payout ratio was kind of in the midrange of that 50% to 70% target range. As you add the Plains assets, which will be quite accretive, how are you thinking about allocation of capital? Because that will put you kind of towards the lower end, if not below your targeted payout range.

Yes. Maybe I'll just make a general comment and remind everyone that Keyera originated back in 2023 when we became public, it was as a trust. And I know that there are a lot of investors that still love that dividend. And so that's something that's very important to us, but also very important to our shareholders and something that we continue to want to grow just like we have in the past. So if I didn't, my parents probably wouldn't talk to me anymore.

But anyway, with that, I'll turn it over to Eileen for further comments.

Sure. Rob. Yes, just again, our philosophy overall on the dividend growth really won't change even as we bring Plains on. We want to make sure it's sustainable through all the various business cycles. And so we do that by maintaining, as you noted, a conservative payout ratio and by continuing to grow our fee-based cash flow.

And so with Plains and our recent sanctioning of growth projects, that fee-for-service cash flow is going to continue to grow. So beyond the dividend, really, our capital allocation priorities are to fund our sanctioned growth capital program and repay debt so that we bring our balance sheet back to the low end of our target range. Maintaining that low leverage has been a competitive advantage for us and really has allowed us to pursue opportunities when they arise, and we want to always be in that position.

Your next question comes from Ben Pham of BMO.

I just want to stay on the topic of acquisitions. I would love to hear your thoughts around just the pace of potential acquisitions that's crossing your desk there? And do you think this could be maybe a repeatable strategy for you in Western Canada?

Ben, thank you for the question. Overall, we just think that there's a great opportunity to continue to grow. I really love the -- starting from the macro, I mean, I love the Prime Minister's vision to -- for Canada to be an energy superpower, and we should be.

And so as we see more LNG and pipeline expansions to the West Coast and also more capacity built in the United States, there's going to be a lot of growth in this basin. We have a very competitive basin. And with that, there's going to be core infrastructure requirements and capacity that's going to be required to enable that growth.

And some of that is going to be greenfield, brownfield and tuck-in acquisitions like what we just announced. So we see opportunities on the horizon for all 3. At the same time, though, our primary focus today is to deliver on the 3 projects that we have sanctioned, the 2 Frac expansions and Zone 4. And also closing our Plains acquisition and getting that fully integrated and capturing synergies.

So we just don't want to get ahead of ourselves, and we want to make sure that we don't bite off more than we can chew. Those are our big priorities in the near term. But certainly, medium to long term, we see a lot of great opportunities.

Got you. And then on the Plains transaction, you mentioned the end of Q1 '26 and sense on all the conversation you're having. But are you -- is Keyera in a position now where you have a good sense of what you need to do or not do to close the deal? And is there anything in particular that's driving that target on the timing?

Yes. You know what, I can't speak to specifics on details of our discussions with the bureau. But like I say, we feel very confident that we'll be able to close this transaction somewhere around the end of the quarter. But again, we're dealing with a federal agency and not all the timing is within our control, but we are where we thought we'd be at this point in time.

Your next question comes from Maurice Choy of RBC Capital Markets.

Maybe just sticking with the Plains discussion, notwithstanding that the deal hasn't closed. But if I could just look beyond the closing, have you seen your customers already wanting to initiate contract discussions to look at the combined portfolio and service offerings? And do you see these being executed relatively soon after the deal closes?

Maurice, thank you for the question. I think the first comment I'd say is that we still have to operate 100% as separate entities until this transaction closes. So there are no discussions going on that involve combined services between the 2 platforms today.

And we want to make sure that, that's very clear. But certainly, I want to reiterate that we see a lot of opportunities to provide our customers a more competitive service than they receive today. We think with the combined assets, they're going to have a more reliable service and also a competitive service as well with our logistics capabilities or market capabilities and cross-country reach to access markets. So this is going to be a great benefit for our customers. But again, we -- it will have to wait. Those discussions will have to wait until after we close.

Makes sense. Maybe I could just switch over to the Simonette transaction. I'm not necessarily looking for color on the assets specifically, but just more philosophically. Are you seeing further opportunities for these sorts of partnerships where you own a partial ownership of a gas plant that can benefit fully downstream? And what would some of the gating items be for you to form these types of partnerships?

Yes. That's a great question. I mean we're a midstream infrastructure company, and we're a service company. So we're there to provide solutions that help our customers be successful. And there are opportunities sometimes where it makes more sense for us to own infrastructure and again, provide them other needed services to help enhance their netbacks and their success.

And this is just one example of that. And we see more opportunities in the future. But again, we just don't want to get ahead of our skis, and we just want to -- we want to focus on the Plains acquisition. And again, the 3 projects we have underway. But longer term, medium and long term, for sure, we see more opportunities like that.

Your next question comes from Robert Catellier of CIBC Capital.

I think I might try another Plains question here. Under Keyera's ownership, we'd expect the cash flow from the Plains assets to be reinvested in Canada, whereas the cash flow was largely being repatriated under Plains' ownership. So how big a consideration do you think that is in terms of the various approvals you're seeking?

Rob, that's a great question. But I can't comment on, again, the competition process and -- but what I can say is that there's never been a greater time where it's important for Canadian companies to own Canadian assets.

And especially one like ours where this transaction helps us provide a more competitive service for our customers that helps them -- enables them to grow and our basin to grow and for us to fulfill that vision of being the energy superpower. And you just look at what's happening with our partners or our neighbors in the United States and what's happening in the world, the Middle East, it's just never been a more important time for us also to have control of our own resources and energy security.

And you're right, with that as a Canadian company, we are going to reinvest in Canada. This is where we -- our headquarters are right here in Calgary. And with that, we're going to create a lot of jobs. We do a lot of great work with the communities that we invest in. And so -- and we have great indigenous partnerships in terms of all the services that we award or contracts we award to them as well. So it's a win-win for everybody. And so anyway, yes, I agree with you 100%. Right now, it's got to be -- Canadian ownership is super important.

I know it's a tough question to answer under the circumstances. My second question has to do with -- I wanted your views -- updated views on the investment conditions required for a potential condensate splitter?

Yes. Well, you know what, it would have to meet our investment hurdles just like any other investment. So we generally have a guideline public that we've shared publicly the 10% to 15% return on capital on a stand-alone basis for infrastructure. And generally, we wanted to be -- have integrated benefits as well, which will enhance those returns.

We wanted to have contracting behind it, so we mitigate our commodity exposure on an investment like that. And obviously, we want to make sure we can build infrastructure like that at a cost that, again, helps us generate those kind of returns.

Anything else you want to add, Jamie?

Okay. Then maybe my last question in the marketing, you talked about the lower crude prices and the effect on blending margins. I wonder if there's -- understanding your guidance for market will come out later. I'm wondering if there's any way you can quantify what impact you see that having on the lower crude prices having on blending margins?

Yes. So Robert, it's Jamie. Thanks for the question. Yes, there's no doubt that lower crude prices have an impact on lots of components of our business, including our blending business. I think the thing that I would say is that in order for us to hit our guidance, there's just a few core assumptions that we've shared with the market for many years now with respect to commodity pricing, but also the ability for our assets to operate the way we expect them to operate, AEF and our Frac capacity being the primary drivers of that.

So all I can share is that even in today's current commodity environment with those assets operating the way we fully expect them to do in the future, we're confident with respect to meeting and being within the guidance that we've provided to the market.

Also say, too, I mean, if you look where crude is trading, I mean, I think everyone thought it was going to trade down to 50s, we're in the mid-60s, and that's a pretty good value.

The next question comes from Theresa Chen of Barclays.

With diluent flows altering across North America, given the need for the U.S. to send incremental barrels to Venezuela, how does this inform your view of condensate supply and demand balances in Western Canada and Keyera's role within this outlook?

Yes, thank you for the question. I mean before I turn it over to Jamie, I'd just say generally that we have an industry-leading condensate system. So irrespective of where it comes from, whether it comes from the field or whether it comes from the pipeline from the U.S. We provide storage services. We aggregate those volumes, and we also deliver it up to the oil sands. The other thing I'd point out is that we have the ability also to rail it in and when needed. So again, we have a very, very strong system for condensate, which is used for deal with.

But Jamie, do you want to add some comments?

Yes. No, I think the only thing I'd add is that -- and it comes back to Dean's earlier comment with respect to our belief in the basin is that we believe that condensate growth within the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin will be a big part of continuing to be the primary supply of condensate needs for oil sands and the growth that we expect to see in the oil sands industry.

So not to say that Venezuela won't perhaps have at some point in the future, but that will be requiring tens of billions of dollars of investment and some significant time in our view, there might be a little bit of a pull for condensate out of North America. We fully expect that, that won't have a significant impact on the condensate supply in Western Canada.

And in terms of the unplanned outage at AEF, can you provide more details on the nature of the outage and how you're addressing the operational ratability of this asset on a go-forward basis?

Yes. So that's a great question, and I'm surprised we've taken that long in our call to get to this, but happy to -- all I can share is that we've got an investigation underway and really are looking to determine the root cause of the event.

At this time, the repair work is underway, and we fully expect to be back up and running at full rates in the May time frame. But I think really to the last part of your question is while the facility is offline, we're taking the opportunity to look at that unit holistically. We're taking a very proactive approach by inspecting all the major accessible components during that outage to ensure the long-term integrity of the asset.

Next question comes from A.J. O'Donnell of TPH.

Just wondering if I could go back to condensate. Just thinking about kind of the robust supply and demand signals that we're going to be seeing over the coming years and in light of the couple of egress expansions that we've had between mainline and also a DRA optimization on TMX.

Just curious where you guys sit right now with -- as far as evaluating growth capital projects on your condensate system? Like what innings do you think we're in right now? And at what point do you think we could start to see some projects get across the finish line?

A.J., I'm going to turn that question over to Jamie.

Okay. Well, I mean, you alluded to that, yes, we see obviously some really positive tailwinds with respect to the ability for oil sands growth within our basin. And with that comes condensate growth.

And our condensate system, as Dean alluded to earlier, handles approximately 70% of all the condensate that ultimately is used within the oil sands. And so we've identified different opportunities within our system, obviously, to be able to serve that growing need. And there was a reference earlier to the condensate splitter.

But it's storage for condensate. It's lots of different components of the business model that we've created for the condensate system. All I can share with you is that, as condensate demand grows within the basin, we expect to be -- continue to get more than our lion's share of the opportunity within that growth of the condensate requirements in our basin.

Yes. And just to add to what Jamie said is that we've evaluated our system. And as the basin continues to grow, we have evaluated opportunities to debottleneck it if we need to. So we're being proactive about it. And again, we certainly believe we're going to be able to provide those services as the demand continues to grow.

Okay. I appreciate the detail there. Maybe going back to -- on the G&P segment broadly. Just looking at volumes, Q4 versus Q3 down a little bit. But just curious, as we sit here roughly halfway through Q1, can you give us an update on kind of how producer activity is overall trending in your system?

Yes, that's a great question. And I'm going to turn that over to our new Senior Vice President, Brad Slessor. Go ahead, Brad.

Thanks for the question. Yes, you noted in Q4 volumes were down a little bit. We had a planned curtailment in one of our bigger plants in the north. So that would be the result of some of that.

That outage went very well safely. We got all the work done and the team has done a great job getting that facility back up and running back to full rates. We're seeing a lot of great wells being drilled around our facilities. We're seeing both Simonette, Wapiti and a lot of our plants in the South continue to add volumes kind of month-over-month. So we're very optimistic about how that business is trending right now.

I think sometimes though you see some blips in our production -- sorry, our throughputs. And sometimes that's just related to well pads and just normal declines and then the next well pad, the timing of that being tied in and things like that. But overall, we feel very, very good about the demand behind our facilities, especially in our North portfolio.

Your next question comes from Patrick Kenny of National Bank Capital Markets.

Just on the disposition of the WildHorse terminal, I know the contracting demand wasn't panning out as you had hoped. But just given post Venezuela and all storage assets perhaps gaining some option value at least, curious your thoughts around the decision to sell now at this price. And then also, maybe you can confirm your thoughts around your Canadian crude oil storage assets still being core to the business going forward.

Yes. Yes, you know what, listen, we have a very disciplined strategy, and we want to make sure that we're staying focused on what matters most to our business and our customers.

And we're not -- as you know, we're not a big crude product handler and service provider and especially down in the U.S. We do not have big competitive advantages down in the U.S. So you know what, we thought it's best to sell this asset. And you know what, Plains is going to be able to take it and make it a much better and more profitable part of their organization because they have a very big footprint in Cushing. So it's a win for them. For us, again, we're able to redirect funds into other core activities like the Simonette acquisition.

And I also want to point out, I mean, this is just part of a trend of, again, our disciplined strategy. We sold off 3 gas plants last year, our North Pembina gas plant, Caribou and also Edson. And so we want to always clean up our portfolio of noncore assets because they take a lot of extra time and effort -- a disproportionate amount of time and effort amongst our people and we want to direct that to what is core to our business, which is our integrated NGL value chain in Canada.

Got it. Okay. And then I guess just on the leadership changes. So first off, congrats to Brad on the well-deserved promotion there. But it looks like the bench might be shortened here a little bit with Jarrod's departure. So I'm just wondering if you might be looking to refill more of a dedicated operations or COO role going forward, especially with the integration of the Plains assets right around the corner? Or is this the team in place capable of handling the pro forma portfolio?

Yes, that's a great question. You know, first of all, I want to acknowledge Jarrod's departure because we've all worked with him for a long time. I mean the guy started as a summer student and worked his way all the way up in the organization. So it tells you what a strong performer he's always been. And he's had a really great career here, and he's had a lot of value. And -- but we also respect his own personal decisions.

Having said that, when we look at our organization, we made a significant investment in our leadership. And when I look across at our Vice President Group, both on the operations and engineering side, these are very, very strong leaders. And when I look at the leadership stack below them as well, very, very strong leaders in place. So when we think about the long-term future of Keyera, we want to make sure that any one of us around the table when it's our time to retire or leave, it's very seamless for this organization, and we can continue on and continue to grow and be more successful.

So that's always part of our succession plans in our company, and so it brings opportunities for others. And you know what, I have a very strong confidence that they will step up. I think from an organizational perspective, we're always evaluating what the best structure is for Keyera. And if it involves hiring a senior ops engineering leader at some point in the future, we'll absolutely do it. But again, I just want to reiterate that we have very, very strong bench strength in our leadership across the company.

Hopefully, you're going to get a chance to watch the game. So go Canada.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Dan Cuthbertson, please continue.

Thanks all, again, for joining us today. Please feel free to reach out to our Investor Relations team with any additional questions. Enjoy the rest of the day, and have a good weekend, everybody.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Good morning. My name is Eena, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Keyera's 2025 Third Quarter Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Thank you.

I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Dan Cuthbertson, General Manager of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you, and good morning. Joining me today will be Dean Setoguchi, President and CEO; and Eileen Marikar, Senior Vice President and CFO; Jamie Urquhart, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer; and Jarrod Beztilny, Senior Vice President, Operations and Engineering. .

We will begin with some prepared remarks from Dean and Eileen name, after which we will open the call to questions.

I'd like to remind listeners that some of the comments and answers that we will give today relate to future events. These forward-looking statements are given as of today's date and reflect events or outcomes that management currently expects. In addition, we will refer to some non-GAAP financial measures. For additional information on non-GAAP measures and forward-looking statements, please refer to Keyera's public filings available on SEDAR and on our website.

With that, I'll turn the call over to the Dean.

Thanks, Dan, and good morning, everyone. This quarter again demonstrated the strength of our fee-for-service business, where realized margin grew by more than 10% year-over-year. This continued increase in stable cash flow reflects higher utilization across our integrated system and support ongoing dividend growth.

2025 has been a defining year for Keyera, built on several years of disciplined execution of our strategy to extend and strengthen our value chain. We built a highly competitive integrated platform that continues to attract customer volumes and support long-term growth. This year alone, we secured more than 100,000 barrels per day of new contracting on caps and our existing implant fractionation capacity is now substantially contracted.

Those wins demonstrate the value customers place on our services. We're also making solid progress on our major growth projects. The KFS frac 2 debottleneck, frac 3 expansion and Capstone 4 are each advancing on time and on budget. Together, they will further strengthen our integrated system and provide stable long-term fee-for-service cash flow supported with a significant portion of take-or-pay contracts.

Pending acquisition of Plains Canadian NGL business will build on that foundation. It adds meaningful scale, expands our reach to key demand hubs in the East and allows us to offer customers more flexibility and connectivity across the value chain. The transaction remains on track, and we expect to close in the first quarter of 2026.

Turning to the Marketing segment. While the quarterly results and full year outlook came in below expectations, the segment remains strategically important to our business. It provides strong cash flow and, in some years, delivers exceptional contributions. That cash has helped us strengthen the balance sheet and accelerate growth in our fee-for-service business, further compounding value for shareholders.

I want to briefly touch on our sustainability progress. We met our 2025 GHG intensity reduction target of 25%, a full year ahead of schedule. This has been accomplished through economic investments that improve efficiency and meet our return threshold.

More importantly, our sustainability program focuses on managing long-term risks and positioning the company for lasting value creation. We published our 2024 sustainability performance summary on our website.

Overall, 2025 has been a year of strong execution. We continue to build a more efficient and competitive platform that creates meaningful value for our customers and shareholders while positioning Keyera for long-term growth.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Eileen to review our financial results and outlook.

Thanks, Dean, and good morning, everyone. Keyera's third quarter results reflected stable performance and continued strength in our fee-for-service businesses. Not including deal and integration costs associated with the Plains acquisition, adjusted EBITDA was $286 million.

Distributable cash flow was $186 million or $0.81 per share, and net earnings were $85 million. As Dean mentioned, we continue to see strong year-over-year growth in our fee-for-service segment, driven by higher utilization across the value chain.

In gathering and processing, realized margin was $112 million, up from $99 million last year. The increase reflects higher throughput and growing contributions from our Wapiti and Simonette plants, as contracted volumes continue to grow.

In liquid infrastructure, realized margin was $147 million compared to $135 million last year, supported by higher storage and utilization of our condensate system as well as the steady ramp-up of CAPs volumes.

Now turning to the Marketing segment. Realized margin was $73 million for the quarter compared to $135 million last year. The lower results reflect reduced condensate import volumes as domestic production displaced UM imports. While this shift benefits our fee-for-service business, it reduced marketing opportunities. Liquids blending activity and iso-octane premiums were also lower.

For the full year, we now expect marketing realized margin to range between $280 million and $300 million. Results would have been within our long-term base guidance range without the approximate $50 million impact from the unplanned AEF outage earlier in the year. We are reaffirming our long-term annual base marketing guidance of $310 million to $350 million. This is based on certain commodity price assumptions and AEF operating at nameplate capacity.

During the quarter, we issued $2.3 billion of senior notes and $500 million of hybrid notes, which completed the financing requirements for the Plains acquisition.

Now I'll touch on our capital outlook and guidance update. For 2025, we've made a few adjustments. Growth capital is now expected to range between $220 million and $240 million, down from our previous estimate of $275 million to $300 million. The change reflects the deferral of some spending to 2026. This does not impact the expected in-service dates of our major projects.

Maintenance capital is now expected to be $60 million to $70 million, slightly lower than before, again, reflecting some timing shifts. And cash taxes are expected to come in between $90 million and $100 million primarily due to lower marketing contributions.

Looking ahead to 2026, we're providing stand-alone guidance until the Plains transaction closes. We remain on track to deliver our 7% to 8% compound annual growth rate in fee-based adjusted EBITDA from 2024 through 2027. Growth capital for 2026 is expected to range between $400 million and $475 million, mainly directed toward our sanctioned growth projects.

Maintenance capital for 2026 is expected to range between $130 million and $150 million, which includes about $60 million for the planned 6-week turnaround at AEF starting in September. Following closing of the Plains acquisition, we'll provide pro forma guidance and a comprehensive business outlook for the combined platform, reflecting enhanced scale and long-term growing profile.

With that, I'll turn it back to Dean for closing remarks.

Thanks, Eileen. 2025 has been a transformative year for Keyera. We've executed on our strategy, strengthened our value chain and continue to build a competitive and efficient platform that creates value for customers and shareholders. With a fully financed plan and self-funded growth ahead, we're well positioned to support the continued growth of the basin and deliver strong fee-for-service margin growth for years to come.

On behalf of our Board and management team, I want to thank our employees, customers, shareholders, indigenous rights holders and other stakeholders for their continued support.

With that, we'll turn -- we'll open the line for questions. Operator, please go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] And your first question comes from the line of Robert Hope from Scotiabank.

So good to see the continued growth in gathering and processing cash flows, even with the weakness in AECO. As you look at your northern footprint and the increasing volumes there, how are you thinking about further optimizations or expansions?

Yes, thank you very much for the question. We see our Northern footprint as being really in the most economic fairway of the Montney -- the liquids-rich fairway of the Montney. So we do see continued growth in demand for our services in that area, and that's exactly why you're seeing continued volume growth even with weak natural gas prices because, again, the values in the liquids, we think that we're going to have opportunities to continue to not only fill the remaining capacity that we have up there, but also to expand and build new capacity.

So it's something that we're extremely excited about. And again, a lot of that development is going to continue with the continued announcements of new LNG capacity off the West Coast of Canada. But I'll also turn it over to Jamie to add any other comments.

Yes, Dean, thanks for the opportunity. Robert, I think the one thing I'd point out is that we have really strong gathering interconnectivity between the 3 facilities that we have in the North. So as we look at the opportunity to debottleneck and expand specifically Wapiti and Simonette, what we're finding is the demand by the customers in that area for both short-term and long-term processing solutions, and we think we're going to be able to do some capital-efficient debottlenecks at those facilities to enable them both to continue to grow in the short term and then potentially have line of sight to be able to pursue a new facility in that area as well.

All right. That's helpful. Maybe more broadly on the liquids contracting strategy. You were quite active securing contracts, we'll call it, in the first half of the year, less so with this update. Has the pending acquisition of Plains added some complexity to the contracting strategy, just given you're going to have more optionality?

And I guess another question there would be, how would the addition of Plains impact the contracting strategy moving forward?

Yes. No, that's a great question. I mean, first of all, the Plains acquisition is proceeding and we certainly believe that we'll be closing some time in Q1. But right now, we're operating Keyera as a totally separate entity. And as you would have seen in our -- look, we don't provide every quarter an update on what we've contracted.

But I can tell you that there's continued momentum to the contracting on our asset base beyond what we've announced previously this year. So again, it just tells you how competitive our services are and the demand there is very strong. So we're going to continue to do that.

I think with the combination of Keyera -- sorry with Plains, we're going to be able to provide an even more diversified service in terms of market access, but also with the size and the scale and the synergies between our asset bases, we're going to be able to provide a more competitive service for our customers, and that's going to obviously lead to more contracting on the combined platform.

Jamie, anything else you want to add?

No, I think you hit it perfectly, dean. .

And your next question comes from the line of Aaron MacNeil from TD Cowen.

I fully appreciate that this may be front-running some of the disclosures you plan to provide post Plains. But as we think about a refreshed 3-year guide with 2025 as the base year, should we think about 2028 as a consequential year for growth for Keyera on a stand-alone basis, just given the timing of contracts associated with CAP zone 4 and KFS 3? And can you give us a sense of the potential magnitude, all other things being equal?

Yes, you are front-running us. But I think it's a very good question. I mean we've guided out to 2027, and that's the 7% to 8% fee-for-service base growth. And again, a lot of that is investments that we've already made, and we're just filling that capacity.

I'd say on top of that, obviously, as we've announced the CAP zone 4 and our 2 frac projects are highly contracted with high take-or-pays, so you're going to see a lot of cash flow growth in 2027 and beyond as those projects come into service and volumes ramp up. So yes, that's going to be very good for our fee-for-service business.

We haven't provided guidance on that yet, but that will come in the future. And then on the Plains side, we've announced that our plan is to deliver, I'll say, at least $100 million of synergies. And we have a clear line of sight to that. Based on where we are, and we've put some positions -- we have an arrangement in place where we have very good certainty on the frac spread for the first year of acquisition when we close the Plains.

So we're very confident on our mid-teens DCF accretion. And beyond that, like I say, we see a lot of opportunity to create further synergies beyond the $100 million. So when you add all that up, what it boils down to is that I think it's going to be very exciting for Keyera with our -- both our internally internal projects, but also the combination of Plains and creating a more efficient platform that's going to translate to better service and more profitability for our shareholders.

So I'm not trying to dodge your question. I think at the end of the day, we will be providing more guidance in the future. We have to get, obviously, the closing with Plains first before we can disclose mentioned.

Okay. Fair enough. I had to try. You you reiterated the long-term base marketing guide. How does the planned turnaround at AEF fit into that next year?

Thanks, Aaron, it's Eileen here. Thanks for the question. Just maybe stepping back, looking at this year. Historically, our isooctane margins have made up more than 50% of the marketing. And based on fundamentals that we see for isooctane, we expect it to remain strong. And if not for the 7-week unplanned outage of AEF, the impact of $50 million, we would have been well within our base guide, if not near the top end of it.

So all that to say, we feel very confident in that long-term base guidance. So you're right, based when we look at the assumptions that underpin the, one of the key assumptions is that AEF operates near capacity and certain other commodity price type of assumptions, especially around WTI.

So next year, you're absolutely right that there is a 6-week planned turnaround that would certainly play into that guidance. And so we -- again, next year, we will provide guidance as we normally would, as we close out our supply season.

Yes. I'd just maybe add to that. I mean when you look at the big picture, we feel pretty good about our marketing business. And again, it's a physical business. So when you think about our frac expansions, what it means is that we're going to be catching and marketing more barrels and making margin off those incremental barrels.

So I think that's a bit of a tailwind. When you think about our isooctane business, we think that's pretty strong. And again, the demand for premium grades of gasoline are increasing. And certainly, with some of the policy changes in the United States, the demand for gasoline and the demand for our internal combustion engine vehicles is much higher than what anyone would have expected even a couple of years ago. So I think that bodes pretty well there.

And thirdly, I think with the Plains acquisition, we're going to really enhance our market access and especially out to the East, which is really going to complement the markets that we can serve already in the West and also locally, especially with our condensate system, our isooctane business. Our propane access is going to be much stronger with the Plains business. So again, that's going to be another positive tailwind for our marketing business.

And your next question comes from the line of Robert Catellier from CIBC.

I wanted to follow up on Rob Hope's first question and just the practical implication of the timing on the Plains transaction. So my question is, what is the likelihood that the transaction closes in time for Keyera to go to market for the '26 contracting year on a more integrated basis?

Well, that's a good question. At the end of the day, we are certainly -- the bureau process is that review is proceeding as we would have expected. This is a large acquisition. So with any large acquisition, it takes time and that timing isn't always certain. So we believe that we're still on track to get through that process in the first quarter and close. It would be nice if we could have a close before contracting season, but that still remains to be seen. This is, obviously, not 100% within our control.

Yes, it would be great for the customers as well. .

Absolutely.

And just bigger picture here, just looking at CAPs, and we don't know the ultimate size of the pipeline, but my question is, given your view of basin growth, which is similar to ours and pretty strong, what is possible in terms of an expansion of caps in terms of the time line? And is that possible without a material gathering and processing expansion by Keyera?

I love the question. It wasn't like 2 quarters ago when you guys were asking us how we're going to fill CAPs, there you asking us to expand it. But I mean, hey, with the contracts that we've signed, yes, I mean, CAPs by the end of the decade is going to get start to get pretty full, which is very exciting and tells how competitive our system is and the demand for that service. But maybe I'll turn that question over to Jarrod.

Yes. Robert, I think that's really was part of the plan is to add particularly pump station capacity as the volumes warranted. And that's really what we're doing. So there's some of that coming along with zone 4, and we expect that will continue out through the end of the decade. So we still have some runway there to do some very capital-efficient expansions through additional pumping before we'd have a step change in capital beyond that.

Okay. And last one for me, just on the bigger picture, Dean. What are you seeing in terms of how the basin is changing? We've had some more producer consolidation recently, but we're also seeing maybe a different approach towards LNG with the major projects office, putting another project on there. So just when you look at those things together, how was the customer interaction and maybe the growth outlook changing?

Yes. I mean it's -- I feel a lot more optimistic today than I have in a long, long time. And it's encouraging to hear some positive comments come from our Prime Minister and some actions in the right direction. I think it's great for Canada if we can continue to develop more LNG off the West Coast. .

And certainly, hey, we'll benefit from that because we have critical infrastructure that helps enable that basin growth. I think there still needs to be some -- still some progress on key policies that would, again, just give everyone a lot of confidence that we can do this in a competitive manner.

When you think about -- so I think the basin is going to grow. And I should also mention, too, it's exciting that Enbridge is finding ways to add more capacity on their system. We know that TMX, Trans Mountain has ability to also debottleneck to you. So I think this bodes well for our industry and for Canada, which is great and help us boost our economy.

We think about consolidation. The way I think about it is that as an industry, we should be working together to create the most competitive low-cost and environmentally friendly energy to serve the world. And some of the consolidations that we're seeing, I think it's good because it creates more size and scale and efficiency to help accomplish that.

And for Keyera as a midstream service provider, we're doing the same thing. And that's what Plains is all about. We're consolidating, and we're going to be more efficient, we're going to provide a more competitive service, and that's going to make our basin more competitive, and that should help us export more products with additional market access that we're going to be getting in the future. So I think it's a good thing overall.

And your next question comes from the line of Theresa Chen from Barclays.

Just a quick follow-up one from me on the marketing segment. Octane premiums seem to be improving so far in fourth quarter 2025 despite what should be a seasonally soft period. What are some of the factors contributing to this dynamic in your view? Is it octane demand-related alluding to some of the long-term trends you mentioned earlier or have there been supply disruptions in octane observed in the market?

You're very astute to be about watching that market. But I'll turn that over to Jamie to provide more color on.

Yes. So as being said, yes, you're bang on. Q4 premiums are actually trading above historical levels. Our view is that it's really attributed to both the supply and the demand side. On the supply side, we're seeing some significant refinery outages, also some closures of refineries, specifically on the West Coast, which is an area where a lot of our products in the Western U.S. is sold.

So -- but also demand has been strong. Certainly, as well have really had some tailwinds over the last period of time. And it's interesting with respect to gasoline pricing and octanes are not necessarily always limited to North America and what's going on in North America. But long term, we have a really strong view that both cracks and isooctane premiums, octane premiums are going to be robust.

They're going to continue to be above historic levels. Not to the levels that we would have seen in 2022 or through '24 based on some very unique geopolitical events on the planet. But we expect the strength in isooctane premiums will persist into 2026.

And your next question comes from the line of AJ O'Donnell from TPH.

I was hoping to maybe just start on the macro and just kind of what's going on right now in Q4. Wondering if you could talk to maybe some of the activity levels you're seeing across the North and South in light of LNG Canada starting to ramp up that second train and AECO prices starting to improve?

Yes, thanks for the question. I think from a big picture standpoint, I mean, most of the growth in the basin has been and will continue to happen up in the Montney. And a lot of value is derived from the liquids. So even though -- so they're up in that area is not really that sensitive to natural gas prices, it's probably more sensitive to crude oil prices.

And even at $60 WTI for condensate, roughly, you multiply that by the FX rate, in Canadian dollar terms is still a pretty good price, which is still a good price incentive for producers to continue to drill and grow. I think up in that area, too, that there's not as much infrastructure capacity and that's from gas plants and all the way through that value chain.

And so whenever you have scarcity of supply, the producers want to make sure they have -- they secure that in order to fill their growth plans in the future. So what we can say is that demand has been very high for the remaining capacity that we have. So we expect to continue to add volumes and grow, even in the price environment that we're in and obviously, adding the second train at LNG Canada it's going to help.

But we're going to look beyond that, and we think that there's going to be more LNG developed off the West Coast, which is going to, again, create further demand for more processing capacity and CAP service in our downstream business. So overall, we think that demand will remain strong in the South.

I think that's where it's a little bit more sensitive to natural gas prices. Our volumes have been relatively steady, especially when you consider what AECO prices have been. And I think that if we catch a little bit of a period with stronger gas prices, I'm sure the producers down there are probably hedging forward too with some of the curves that you can see. And there's a lot of gas still in place down in the South. And over time, we expect that to get drilled up and see some more volume growth there as well.

Anything you want to add, Jamie?

Yes. So the only thing I'd add is everything -- I agree with everything being said on the North. In the South, I think we're seeing some really positive tailwinds there. As a result, there was a bunch of consolidation 2, 3 years ago, and it takes the company a period of time to understand the resource that they're inheriting and ultimately putting drilling programs together.

And what we've seen is those companies then really starting to get after what they purchased 2, 3 years ago and seen some very, very good results as a result of applying their technology, their competency, frankly, one of the reasons why they would have bought those assets because they believe they could do bigger things with the land base and the prospectivity of those assets. So we are seeing some really positive results in the South as well.

Okay. Great. Then maybe just one more kind of on the medium or longer term. We've seen a handful of refined products pipelines being announced in the U.S. pulling from pad 2 and then going into some of those refinery closure markets that you talked about into pad 5.

I'm just curious, as you kind of kind of think about your isooctane business, how you anticipate either 1 or multiple of these projects impacting those margins or having an impact on that business?

Yes, that's a good question. Jamie?

Yes. So I love the fact that you guys are on top of our business because, yes, there's 2 pipelines that are being proposed, refined pipelines that are being proposed to serve the sort of the Nevada, Arizona, but primarily the California market and the California market has seen some refinery closures happening.

And that's really drawing -- creating a pull for those refined products out of -- likely out of Texas and and even further to the East. So those 2 projects, we think, have a lot of merit. And we currently serve a bunch of the refineries that would have connectivity, and we would expect to supply into the markets that they're being built into. So we have relationships. Net-net, we see that as a very positive development for our business on the isooctane front.

We like the markets that are served, the continental markets that aren't served off the water because we're advantaged. We're moving our railcars down south. And so we can certainly save on the transportation cost, if we don't have to take it all the way to the U.S. Gulf Coast and we can hit one of those inland refiners or places where they blend gasoline.

So we like the developments of what's happening with the closures in California of refiners. And also the gasoline demand growth that we're seeing, as Jamie discussed, in Arizona and Nevada, Salt Lake City, that area and also in the Denver area as well.

[Operator Instructions] And your next question comes from the line of Maurice Choy from RBC Capital Markets.

Just wanted to think about the world beyond the Plains transaction and then more big picture about how you view partnerships. Can you talk to what's worked well, what you'll be looking for when establishing a new partnership? Or alternatively, maybe you don't see that many new partnerships being formed over the coming years.

Yes. That's a really good question. And I think one thing that we have replication for is that we're a good partner. We work well with others. We understand the need for a win-win if we want to have a successful partnership that's sustainable. When we look at our business in the long term, I think that we really believe in the value of partnering with indigenous groups and recognizing that they have unique needs and investment criteria. .

But when I think about future partnerships and if there's an opportunity that, again, would work for us and work for them, it's something that I think that we should definitely be exploring.

Understood. And if I could just finish off on the marketing side of the business. I think you touched on the AEF turnaround, you touched on the strengthening cracks as well as premiums. Anything in terms of the market dynamics that you highlighted today for marketing that you think will continue negatively into the new year or do you think most of that will unwind?

Yes. I'll turn that over to Jamie.

Yes. So sorry, Maurice, I understand your question, is there any negative market dynamics that we expect to persist...

Like to carry on, yes.

So we did highlight the fact that we've seen a reduction in condensate imports and into Western Camden. And that's something that we think is likely short-lived based on the oil sands growth and the demand for diluent. But other than that, we're very bullish with respect to the demand for spec, propane in particular and excited on both the export deals that we put in place with AltaGas, and as Dean said, getting the assets from Plains to access to markets in Eastern Canada and the U.S. So yes, no, I -- we don't see any major headwinds on the commodities that we touch for our marketing business going forward.

Yes. I'd just say, though, that I think everything is all relative. And if you compare it to 2023 and 2024, those were outsized years. I mean we delivered $480 million, $485 million in those years. And we certainly don't want anyone to think that, that's the norm. But I think we have a business that there will be years where we have outsized performance.

And I just want to make sure that everyone understands that we have the discipline when we have those outsized years, we take those extra marketing dollars and we pay down our debt. And that afforded us that and our free cash flow affords us ability to sanction or CAP zone 4 or 2 frac projects. And also pursue Plains, the Plains' Canadian NGL business, which really is a big game-changer for our company.

So I think we have to think about marketing in our business in a more holistic macro manner and what it does for our overall business. And it's been a very successful model from day 1, and I think it will be in the future as well.

And your next question comes from the line of Patrick Kenny from National Bank Capital Markets.

Maybe just on the CapEx budget here through '26 and looking at the balance sheet still in really good shape heading into the Plains acquisition. But just given the slippage in commodity prices and some near-term marketing contributions, any thoughts on how much you'd be willing to flex your growth capital program over the near term, if new opportunities arise? Or on the flip side, any thoughts around building any further cushion over the near term just until commodity prices normalize?

Thanks for the question. I'll turn that over to Eileen.

Sure. Thanks, Pat. Just as a general comment, I'd say, kind of reiterating what Dean said earlier, is like the strength of our balance sheet and the low leverage has been a competitive advantage for us. And we intend to maintain that advantage. So it's because of this philosophy that we were able to pursue Plains this year, which, again, being touched on.

And when we planned our future capital allocation, whether it's growth capital or dividends, et cetera, we always assume a more normalized marketing. We never plan for exceptional results. So the lower contribution this year or a more muted contribution would not impact what we put out in terms of our leverage, which is still once we close Plains within the first 12 months, to be still within our target range, that 2.5x to 3x, albeit at the higher end.

And the only other thing maybe I'd add is that when we did the funding plan for Plains, it contemplated that we remain within those bands and then we quickly deleverage really by once we're through this growth capital so that we are keeping our options open for other opportunities, especially with the basin growth that we see, we absolutely are able to still continue to grow and leverage those options that as they come along -- opportunity.

And Pat, just to add to that. I mean, certainly, the frac projects and CAP zone 4, I mean that's already built into our central forecast, and we still remain within our guidance range or our goalpost of 2.5x to 3x debt to EBITDA.

And so -- and I also point out that the 2.5x to 3x where we like to be is more conservative than sort of the infrastructure peers. So if we get to the higher end of that range, I don't think that's the end of the world because we're still in a very good range relative to our peers. But again, we always like the ability to pay it back down, restore flexibility and enables us to be more opportunistic.

Okay. I appreciate that. And -- but Dean, maybe just back on the 3.5 Bcf a day of LNG projects being of national interest. Would you be able to help us just to still what opportunities, say, over and above filling your existing assets you might be looking at from a brownfield or even a greenfield perspective, just to take advantage of this long overdue window in political support?

Yes. No, I think it's tremendously exciting. And first of all, a lot of it is, is that there's not enough gas gathering processing capacity to process that gas. And when you think about where the bulk of that growth is going to come from, it's that Montney fairway in the most economic parts of the fairway where we're located is going to get developed disproportionately.

And so we see an opportunity to provide that integrated service right from the gas plants. So we're going to look at debottlenecks, we're going to look at potential greenfield expansions up there or we also consider like a tuck-in acquisition that could also support our network up in the North, and again, provide that full integrated service to our customers to offer them the best economic netback for the product.

Okay. And last one for me, just a housekeeping item. You touched on your confidence in the normalized marketing guidance range. And Eileen, you mentioned this is based on, I guess, a return to a more normalized commodity price environment of looks like $65 to $75 per barrel.

Just wondering, as we look at the strip, having a hard time breaking through a $60 a year or at least for the next couple of years, [indiscernible] or walk us through what other positive margin tailwinds you could point to, whether it's butane feedstock costs or perhaps other products that you market that might help offset some of these existing headwinds for now and firm up that confidence in the $3.10 to $3.50 range for at least '26 and '27?

Pat, it's Jamie. Well, you hit on one of the big ones is butane as an input into isooctane and also in a complement to our blending business. We do look at butane being in an oversupplied. Our market in Western Canada is oversupplied in butane and it's forecast to be. So as we've talked about as there's more development in our basin, it's good to know that all those developments have are fairly rich in natural gas liquids and ultimately, with all the frac expansions that are happy with ourselves and some of our peers, we expect that there's going to be additional butane that we'll continue to have -- see that market oversupplied.

So we expect that butane prices will be relatively soft relative to historic levels, and that will be a positive for our business. We touched on it, I think based on fundamentals worldwide with respect to the pull for -- sorry, for propane and ultimately, with the assets that we're inheriting with the Plains acquisition, we see some opportunities to create value for our customer and also our shareholders on the propane side. So those would be the 2 big ones. Other than what we talked about, which is the strength in our view around our cracks and isooctane premiums.

Yes. And ultimately, we'll provide an update like we usually do in the second quarter of next year.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand the call back to Mr. Dan Cuthbertson for any closing remarks.

Thank you all again for joining us today. And please feel free to reach out to our Investor Relations team if you have any additional questions. Have a good weekend, everybody.

And this concludes today's call. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.

Good morning. My name is Angeline, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Keyera's 2025 Second Quarter Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the call over to Dan Cuthbertson, General Manager of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you, and good morning. Joining me today will be Dean Setoguchi, President and CEO; Eileen Marikar, Senior Vice President and CFO; Jamie Urquhart, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer; and Jarrod Beztilny, Senior Vice President, Operations and Engineering. We'll begin with some prepared remarks from Dean and Eileen, after which we will open the call to questions.

I'd like to remind listeners that some of the comments and answers that we'll give today relate to future events. These forward-looking statements are given as of today's date and reflect events or outcomes that management currently expects. In addition, we will refer to some non-GAAP financial measures. For additional information on non-GAAP measures and forward-looking statements, please refer to Keyera's public filings available on SEDAR and on our website.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Dean.

Thanks, Dan, and good morning, everyone. Keyera delivered strong results in the second quarter and advanced its long-term strategy. Strong commercial momentum led to the sanctioning of key growth projects.

We also secured more access to LPG exports off the West Coast and announced a transformational acquisition that significantly expands our scale and enhances our service offering for customers. So far in 2025, we've sanctioned 3 capital-efficient growth projects. These are the Frac II Debottleneck, Frac III and KAPS Zone 4. In the last several months, we've also secured over 100,000 barrels per day of new long-term contracted volumes on KAPS Zones 1 to 4. These have been mostly integrated deals and as a result, frac capacity at KFS, including both expansions is now substantially contracted.

These developments keep us well on track to achieve our growth target of 7% to 8% annual fee-based adjusted EBITDA from 2024 to 2027, and they'll continue to drive growth well beyond that time frame. This continued visibility to fee-for-service growth gives us the confidence to continue to sustainably raise our dividend. Yesterday, the Board approved another 4% annual increase.

In June, we announced the transformational acquisition of Plains' Canadian NGL business, a defining step that expands our scale, reach and service offering across the NGL value chain. This acquisition creates a much larger integrated network, adding more efficient connectivity to key demand hubs across the Prairies, Ontario and the U.S. It also strengthens our ability to serve customers across all NGL products, specifically enhancing our propane market access.

For customers, it means better connectivity, optimized product flows, increased diversification and stronger netbacks. For shareholders, the deal is expected to be mid-teens accretive to DCF per share in the first full year, assuming $100 million in near-term synergies. Our fee-based adjusted EBITDA will increase by approximately 50% over that period.

And it's also important to note that this transaction is a great Canadian story. This deal brings strategic infrastructure under Canadian ownership, supporting energy security and ensuring that value creation and decision-making remain right here at home. With this expanded footprint, Keyera is even better positioned to enable the next phase of volume growth.

The basin continues to benefit from low-cost, long-life resources in the Montney and Duvernay. Increased demand from LNG exports, oil sands and petrochemical development is driving sustained increases in natural gas and NGL volumes. Our combined platform will play an important role in meeting that demand efficiently.

With that, I'll turn it over to Eileen to walk through our financial performance this quarter.

Thank you, Dean. We delivered solid financial results in the second quarter, driven by continued strength in our Gathering and Processing and Liquids Infrastructure segment. Adjusted EBITDA was $252 million, which includes $12 million in onetime transaction costs related to the Plains' acquisition.

This is compared to Q2 2024 of $326 million. Distributable cash flow was $159 million or $0.69 per share. Net earnings were $127 million compared to $142 million last year. Our fee-for-service segments, which are G&P and Liquids Infrastructure together contributed $255 million in realized margin. This is up over 8% from the same period last year.

This steady growth in high-quality contracted cash flow continues to strengthen the foundation of our business and underpins the long-term sustainability of our dividend.

The Gathering and Processing segment delivered realized margin of $111 million, up from $102 million last year. The increase was driven by strong performance in the North region, including a new daily throughput record at Wapiti and higher throughput at Simonette. Liquids Infrastructure delivered $143 million in realized margin, up from $133 million in the same period last year.

This segment benefited from continued growth in long-term contracted volumes on KAPS and strong utilization at our fractionation assets and condensate system. Marketing realized margin was $60 million compared to $136 million last year. The decline mainly reflects softer commodity pricing as both periods included outages at AEF.

Annual impact of the 2025 AEF outage remains estimated at $50 million. We ended the quarter with net debt to adjusted EBITDA of 2x, well below our 2.5 to 3x target. This is excluding acquisition-related costs. Our strong financial position enabled us to pursue the Plains' acquisition while preserving our investment-grade credit ratings and long-term leverage target.

Turning to 2025 guidance. We are reaffirming our marketing realized margin range of $310 million to $350 million. Growth capital is now expected to range between $275 million to $300 million compared to the previous range of $300 million to $330 million. The difference is mostly related to project timing. Maintenance capital and cash tax guidance are unchanged.

With that, I'll turn it back to Dean for closing remarks.

Thanks, Eileen. Our strategy is clear, and we're executing it. We're advancing capital-efficient growth projects, securing long-term contracts, expanding our integrated platform and creating value for both customers and shareholders. The Plains' acquisition builds on this momentum and positions us for the next phase of growth.

Combined with the strong macro tailwinds for volume growth, we are very confident in our long-term outlook. On behalf of Keyera's Board of Directors and management team, I want to thank our employees, customers, shareholders, indigenous rights holders and other stakeholders for their continued support. With that, I'll turn the call back to the operator for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Rob Hope with Scotia Bank.

Regarding the next wave of unsanctioned growth projects, what's looking most attractive currently, whether it be kind of a G&P expansion in the North, some rail expansions or future extraction projects?

Rob, it's Dean. Thank you for the question. We're very excited about our entire business, to be honest. And first of all, I'd start with the macro outlook. We see a lot of continued growth across our basin, both for natural gas and crude oil growth, which obviously we support with diluent. So with that, we just see a lot of opportunity.

We're looking at our rail logistics options and some of that might be through the Plains' acquisition and optimizing it or it might mean building a new unit train facility on our Josephburg site. And so that's a project that we're doing some early-stage engineering work on. Certainly, we're very excited about opportunities that we see in our G&P business up in the Montney, Duvernay fairway.

And certainly, we see a lot of growth up in that area. So we're looking at opportunities where we may be able to acquire some assets and enhance them, certainly looking at ways that we can expand our capacity at our existing facilities and potentially a new greenfield facility. So again, lots of opportunity.

I would emphasize that any opportunity that we pursue on the G&P side will be based on very solid contracting for any assets or investments we make in that part of our business. But also the contracts will be integrated contracts with our downstream KAPS fractionation and marketing business as well.

So we just see tremendous opportunities to provide a lot of great service for our customers to enable them to grow. Outside of that, I might also mention that some people have made note of a condensate fractionator, a license that we applied for very recently. And what it is, is it's a fractionator that would process condensate into various hydrocarbon products, and that would include light to midweight condensates, NGLs and also crude oil.

And anyway, this is still early stages. So we're working on engineering and also contracts with customers to potentially toll through a facility like that. So anyway, those are just some of the examples of the opportunities that we see long term. But at the same time, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves.

And we do have a lot of projects, as you know, that we need to execute well on in addition to the Plains' acquisition. So we have a very full plate, but we have a team that's very eager to do a great job at it, and I have full confidence that we will do it, too.

Great. Appreciate that. And then maybe sticking with contracting. So good to see the KFS is largely contracted now. Looking forward, how do you expect your contracting strategy to evolve as you layer in the Plains' assets as well as kind of what you would target for fees for service and marketing?

Well, one thing I'd like to point out, maybe I can throw it over to Jamie as well. But I'd just point out that, to your point, we've signed a lot of long-term contracts across our business. The demand for our services is very strong, as you saw. 100,000 barrels of contracting on KAPS Zone 1 to 4. I'm very pleased with that.

But again, a lot of those contracts tied to volumes in through our frac and into our marketing business. So on an enterprise level, we can generate superior results. When we look at the combination of Plains, -- and with those growing contracted fee-for-service cash flows.

Overall, our business is going to be roughly 70% fee-for-service and 30% marketing with the Plains assets, too. So the overall composition isn't going to be significantly different. We're going to apply a very disciplined and rigorous risk management strategy to the Plains straddle business like -- and again, no different than the discipline we apply to our marketing business today. So yes, it's a bit different.

But overall, the composition of our business doesn't change that much. And we think that the marketing piece will again be a differentiator that helps us generate best-in-class return on capital metrics. But anything else you want to add to that?

Yes. The only thing I'd add, Dean, is that we are confident that with the acquired assets with Plains' that does have some commodity exposure that we will adhere to the same disciplined risk management process that we do in our existing business, and we're very comfortable with the assets that we're bringing in through the Plains' acquisition.

The next question comes from Robert Catellier with CBIC Capital Markets.

I wondered if you could just comment on any initial customer feedback you've had on your agreement to buy the Plains' NGL assets and how that might influence the Competition Bureau strategy.

Rob, yes, thanks for the question. And you know what, I can tell you that our customers have been very supportive generally overall. I think that they can see what we're trying to do for our industry, which is to create very, very efficient solutions for our customers that maximize their netbacks.

And they can see that it's still a very competitive space. Any customers that -- if you look at a situation like where we have our KAPS and Pembina's Peace pipeline, anybody that is in that fairway knows that we compete very hard with Pembina and our goal is to be the most competitive integrated midstream operator.

And with that, we aim to provide our customers the very best service and again, to maximize their netback. So I think that they can see that. It's not to say that they don't have any concerns, but certainly, we're addressing what those -- any questions that they might have.

As for the Competition Bureau, all I can say with that is that we're certainly working with the Competition Bureau. It's a process that is necessary to get the closing. We'll provide an update when it's appropriate. And I just want to reiterate that we're very confident that we'll close this deal as disclosed in every material aspect.

Yes. That's great. Obviously, there's a lot more to it than just price. Obviously, the entire netback and flexibility matters a lot. And I'm just curious, you're still very confident in the time line as well, given that you've just started up with the Competition Bureau. Is that time line still on a high level of confidence?

Yes. We believe in the time line, but obviously, some of that is out of our control. It's -- we're going through the process. We're working very closely with them and plans through this process. So we believe Q1 is a sweet spot. But again, we'll provide an update when it's appropriate.

Okay. Great. Last one for me then. Just on the Duvernay, I wondered what your specific plans are there. just get the sense that maybe activity there is picking up. And do you need to add any capacity or services to help support the Duvernay?

Sure. I'll turn that one over to Jamie.

Yes, Rob, thanks for the question. I guess I want to get specific on what portion of the Duvernay you're referring to? Is it the West Shale around our Ruby gas plant? Or are you talking more up in around our Simonette gas plant? -- or both?

I was thinking more of Simonette.

Yes. So yes, we're -- the Simonette gas plant, we actually -- I think people will have noticed, we had more throughput through that facility over the last couple of quarters than we have historically. And we've had some good success in being able to attract additional volumes, but we're also consciously looking to see what that facility can do. It originally wasn't built for a Montney, Duvernay type gas.

And so we've actually gotten some comfort that we're going to be able to get the effective capacity at that facility up by about 50 million a day from about the low 200s to the higher 200 million a day range and the associated liquids that come with it. And ultimately, obviously, that is destined for the KAPS pipeline and downstream markets.

So we right now have a higher level of confidence in being able to contract with the Duvernay or Montney producers in that area. And then we're also doing some further work to see how we can unlock even more natural gas and liquids capacity over the next year or 2.

The next question comes from Aaron MacNeil with TD Cowen.

Dean, maybe to build on Rob Hope's question, with fractionation capacity now fully contracted, does that make it more challenging for you to provide that sort of full path service and contract incremental volumes on KAPS? And then just as an extension of that, how should we think about spare capacity on the Plains' fractionation assets and what potential connectivity to KAPS might that create if you're able to successfully...

Yes. No, thanks for the question, Aaron. And certainly, we're very pleased with the long-term contracts that we signed on our frac complex at KFS. What I'd say is that it's not 100% contracted. When we say substantially all, we're kind of saying around the 90% and greater mark. So we do have some capacity.

Most of the contracts are long term, and when I say long term, 10-plus years, but we do have some -- a few shorter-term contracts that will be expiring over the next few years. So we will have some capacity available to work with. Certainly, we are going to -- when we integrate the Plains assets in, one of our objectives, too, will be to improve reliability overall between both complexes.

Some of that is with utilizing our storage more effectively between the 2 complexes. -- to manage any short-term outages and again -- but also keep the reliability run rates super high. So those are some of the things that we're looking at in capacity. Certainly, we are here to provide the capacity that the industry needs.

So if there's more demand in the future, we're going to be looking for the most capital-efficient way between the Plains and Keyera assets to add that capacity when it's needed. So I certainly believe we could bridge that time period when we see growth above and beyond what we're building already. Go ahead, Jamie.

Yes. The only thing I'd add, Aaron, is that you made reference to KAPS and PFS, Plains' Fort Saskatchewan. We're already in the process of having Plains' Fort Saskatchewan be connected to KAPS. That happened -- that commitment was made a couple of years ago to help support customers on KAPS and our commitment to customers that they're allowed to connect to any fractionator that they so choose off of the KAPS system. It's an open system for our customers.

Makes sense. And that's what I was expecting in terms of other contracts potentially rolling and allowing you to re-up. And then maybe just keeping with the 100,000 barrels per day of contracted capacity on KAPS. Can you give us a sense of how those contracts layer in by quarter or year? And if we need to see any compression adds to the pipe in order to accommodate those contracts?

Aaron, it's Eileen. I can try to answer that question. I think just really stepping back, it is -- we have that 7% to 8% EBITDA growth, and that's from our existing -- up to 2027, that's our existing KAPS 1 to 3. And beyond that, our new projects like Zone 4 and all of this additional contract, whether it's on the fractionation expansions as well as Zone 4, those will continue to ramp up all the way into even the next decade.

So again, it's -- but the ramp on Zone 4 will be quicker than what we saw on Zones 1 to 3 when we initially brought KAPS on. So it will be a quicker ramp as we bring on Zone 4. But again, this will just help to push out growth well beyond that 2027 time frame and well into the 2030.

Yes. And so just to further add on to Eileen's comments is that when we look at our profile, it's really in the early into the new decade is where we reach the max capacity of the contracts that we've signed, not the max capacity, the max production flow of the contracts that we signed early 2030s.

The next question comes from Maurice Choy with RBC Capital Markets.

Sticking with the theme about contracting here. You've highlighted that over the past several months, you've added more than 100,000 barrels a day of new long-term contracts at KAPS and also are fully contracted at KFS.

Can you give us a flavor as to what generally are the top reasons your customers choose you? And also take the opposite direction where what are some of the reasons why they don't choose you, which perhaps offer you upside if and when a deal like Plains is closed or through other deals that could improve your offering?

That's a great question. They love us now. Listen, I think there's a number of reasons why customers deal with us. I do think that they appreciate the fully integrated service offering that we do provide. And with that, we can be very competitive when we're offering a bundled deal.

So I think that they appreciate our ability to access high-value markets for their NGLs, which help them maximize their netbacks. And as we said, with the Plains acquisition, this is going to enhance that market access out to Eastern markets, both in Canada and the United States. So it's going to give them a lot more optionality overall. I think that they like the reliability of our system, and it's something that we continue to improve.

And we're going to be able to improve reliability and again, optionality with the combined assets of Plains. So this is only getting better for our customers with the combination. So lastly, we try to be very customer-focused. It's not like one solution fits all.

We try to understand what our customers' needs are, what's important to them and what we can offer to help them successfully execute their business plan. So while we're smaller, I feel like we can be more custom fitting to the needs of our customers and hopefully nimbler. Jamie, if there's anything else you want to add?

No, I think you hit the reasons why they choose us. Maybe I'll touch on why historically they haven't supported or chosen us. And that's just uncertainty whether we had a project or not.

And now that we have the project, and you'll see that we announced -- when we announced the sanction of Zone 4, we had 75,000 barrels, and we're now at 100,000. So once you have a real project, I think there's great -- the greatest momentum that we've got is yet to come.

Thanks for that wholesome answer, if I could just finish off with another big picture, but perhaps a longer-term thought here. Just curious how you think over the long term, how NGL molecules will move differently from how it does today.

Obviously, today, a lot of liquids-rich growth are being piped and fracked to and at Fort Task, including KAPS and -- but as you see more export heading out West, do you see the potential for more midstream assets in Northeast BC and North Alberta? And what does that all mean to you and your facilities?

Yes, that's a great question. I mean, certainly, we see the runway for a lot of growth in natural gas and we've had a lot of NGLs in Western Canada. And obviously, that's what's driven the contracting that we've seen so far. There's absolutely -- and I certainly don't see -- I've been asked before whether there will be an LPG pipeline built to the West Coast.

There's no world I see that you can justify the capital cost of building a pipeline like that to the West Coast because there's just not enough volumes to support it. So I think that would be cost prohibitive. So a lot of barrels will still move by rail. Some of that, as you suggested, I certainly believe that there's going to be more field frac projects and whether that's in Northwest Alberta or into BC. I think we'll see more of that. And there will be some product that gets railed directly to the West Coast. But anybody that moves any product by rail would also appreciate that rail is not ratable like a pipeline. So whether the weather freeze ups, you get strikes, you get whatever, other issues that your cars get bunched up, whatever happens, there's disruptions.

And -- and so if you don't have enough storage and on-site storage, aboveground storage is very expensive. So if you are -- you can't ship out your product for a couple of weeks, that adds to a lot of dollars and a lot of value. And if you have to truck all that, that's super expensive.

And so the reliability of having a pipe to underground cavern storage to the hub where all of those NGLs, a lot of them are consumed already. Still, there's -- what the point I'm trying to make is still going to be a lot of demand for those products to still go to Fort Saskatchewan. So I see a little bit of all the above where there's still going to be field frac, but there's still going to be a lot of demand to get to the hub in Fort Saskatchewan.

And just maybe the other point I'd like to make is that the West Coast, obviously, we think that there's growing demand in Asia, and that's a good place to be, the FEI index. But I'd also point out that there's also high demand centers locally. And we want to make sure that we can provide optionality for our customers because a lot of times, they don't want to put all their eggs in one basket or one market. So again, with the Plains acquisition, we're also going to be able to help them access those Eastern markets.

And I can tell you, when it's cold, they need the product, and they're going to price the product. The product is going to be priced to stay in Canada so that they get the ability to heat their homes and things like that. So bottom line, I think there's going to be great demand still at KFS Fort Saskatchewan.

The next question comes from Ben Pham with BMO.

Maybe to expand on that last question, but more specifically on the propane market in Western Canada. Can you comment also similarly on the flow dynamic that you think could anticipate LPG exports has been viewed as taking market share from other regions. Can you comment on that and whether there's any potential impact on the Sarnia market or the U.S. export side of things?

Well, thanks for the question, Ben. First of all, like I say, the NGL market is just getting over and oversupplied. We are a supply-based basin. We have a very small population. So our consumption relative to how much we produce, that is becoming more imbalanced. So you're just going to have a growing oversupply of product that has to clear the market somewhere.

And so yes, the West Coast Asian markets, yes, they're going to be a very valuable market to access and clear some of that excess surplus product. But what we've seen is that in the Mid-Continent U.S., in the Northeast U.S. and places like you get into Wisconsin and also into Michigan and Sarnia, you get into the Prairies in Canada.

I mean, it gets cold here, as you know. And when that happens, it's almost -- it's price inelastic, like they need to heat their homes. And there's a lot of homes that will never be connected to natural gas. And so they rely a lot on propane. And so when you get demand spikes because of weather, they need the product, and it's going to price higher than the West Coast because it has to, to make sure that product goes there.

So I just think it's always great to have options and optionality of accessing high-value markets because the highest place to send a molecule propane changes from time to time and even during the same season. And I'm really happy that we can hit any one of those markets and take advantage of the strong pricing.

Okay. Understood. So it sounds like maybe there's some potential market share changes, but the absolute movement is on a trend up versus down.

I'd say yes.

And maybe my next question, you mentioned a reference to some acquisition activity. How do you think about framing that inorganic strategy now with a large deal you're getting approval for and then integrating afterwards, you pulling back on the BD side of things, telling those folks to reallocate their time? Are you still looking actively on transactions, considering just where your balance sheet is heading towards?

Yes. I'd say overall that we're still looking for opportunities to enhance our integrated service offering. And at the top end of that service is our G&P business. So we're not looking to do big acquisitions right now or anything like that, but could we look at some smaller tuck-in opportunities that integrate well with our existing business? Absolutely.

So we're in the business to provide a service for our customers, and we can't start it and stop it. It's a business that continues every day. And the great thing is that with our -- the financial plan that we executed on, and Eileen can speak to that in more detail, we've left ourselves some flexibility to maintain those activities. So Eileen, is there anything you want to add?

No, no, just to add that, yes, as Dean mentioned, it is the strength of our balance sheet, and it was really getting our base business, the execution of it, the growth in our fee-for-service that allowed us to do such a transformational acquisition.

And so the funding plan that we did put in place was intended to maintain our targeted leverage at that 2.5 to 3x so that it didn't stop opportunities because we do see so many, and we want to continue to grow.

Yes. Maybe one thing more thing, I'd just like to add is that the bulk of our people in our company are still driving our business and working hard to make it more competitive and more profitable.

And we have a segregated team that is going to be dedicated to the integration and bringing in the Plains' business and combine it with ours when closing happens. So we have different work streams in our company, but our base business is still a big focus of most of our people.

Got it. And if I may, just one quick follow-up on that topic with gas processing transactions. I mean, is the focus more looking at that North Montney area where maybe utilization is already quite strong, but you're bolstering an entire footprint? Or is it more maybe the South region where you can buy for value and enhance and integrate?

I mean, again, we're here to supply services where there's greatest demand. And right now, the greatest demand is up along the Montney, Duvernay fairway up in our northern region. We still have capacity available in our South region. So again, most of our focus down there is to fill what we have.

The next question comes from A.J. O'Donnell with TPH.

I was wondering if we could go back to just overall NGL competition in the basin. In light of some of the contracts -- incremental contracts that you guys have been able to sign with KAPS Zone 1 to 4. Just thinking over the longer term and maybe some of the comments from larger producers in the basin about overall transport rates are looking to save on overall transport rates by the end of the decade.

How would you characterize the contracts that you've been signing? Have they been pretty competitive from a price advantage? Or are we getting into a situation where we start to build out all this NGL infrastructure in the basin, and we could potentially see some margin compression later on in the decade as things start to roll off and recontract.

A.J., and again, thank you for the question. Certainly, the basin is very competitive, and that's why we have such a competitive marginal cost supply overall for the basin, which is great. And what I'd say is that our -- I said this earlier is that our objective is to build the most competitive integrated midstream platform.

And our goal is to keep on improving every day, and this is a relentless pursuit that will never stop. And -- so we're very pleased that we could be competitive to sign and attract 100,000 barrels of supply onto our system. And that led to obviously including downstream contracts through our frac and logistics and marketing business. So we can be very competitive. I do want to reiterate that all of our projects are well within our capital return expectations. So they fill that and they're well within the range on an independent basis.

And again, when you look at it on an integrated basis, we feel very confident that we're going to deliver superior return on capital returns for our shareholders. So we believe this is very sustainable. We think that there's going to be more consolidation in the basin. And if that happens, again, we're very well positioned to compete for the business in that world. and still deliver strong returns for our shareholders.

Yes. I think the only thing I'd add, Dean, and I agree 100% with everything you said, is that, I mean, as we think about our frac expansions coming online, and as Dean has said, is that there -- the way we look at it is we contracted fracs I and II and then we contracted frac III. So when you think about fully contracted, it's not just frac III and a bunch of contracts are rolling off on I and II.

We looked at it from a stacked perspective, and it's all of our frac complex that has a high degree of contracting. The contracts that are rolling off, and there's some, not a huge amount. We think about it with respect to being able to offer that integrated offering, as Dean said. The fact that we've got another fractionation expansion coming online next year might create some very short-term oversupply in the market, but the fundamentals and the drilling activity that we're seeing is our view is that frac capacity within our basin is going to be highly utilized in the long term.

And I can't speak for our competitor, but we're already looking at the next frac expansion. We're not looking to wait another 7, 8 years like we did the last time between frac II and frac III. We believe that the basin is going to require more frac capacity much sooner than that.

Great. I appreciate that detail. Maybe just the last one for me. I know it's only been a couple of months in and the Plains' assets are not quite in your hands yet, but you guys have kind of talked about your prudent risk management activities and -- just wondering, as you look out over the frac forward curves into next year, maybe what your ability is like? Have you been able to lock in any additional margin or hedges on that business? Yes, just any comments on that?

A.J., thanks for the question. And yes, I think I can speak generally about our hedging. As we mentioned earlier, in terms of the pro forma business mix, there's not going to be that significant of a change as to the amount of marketing. It's about 30%, which is kind of what we've seen over the past few years from our stand-alone business.

And again, we view our marketing business as a true competitive advantage because we have the storage, the logistics and the risk management discipline. So as it relates to hedging specifically, really, our philosophy isn't going to be very different. What we do is we look to protect inventory, which is really key, and we look to lock in future margins.

So when it comes to the frac spread exposure, the key elements to this is AECOgas, propane in particular, and butane as well as FX. These components already fit very well within our existing risk management program. So I think we feel very confident that we will be able to manage this as we close and get into next year.

Yes. I'd also add, A.J., that we can't speak to this in a lot of detail, but I'd say that there are hedges in place that gives us confidence with our mid-teens DCF accretion in the first full 12 months of closing.

The next question comes from Patrick Kenny with National Bank Financial.

Just on the G&P margin front, I know LNG Canada is still working through some growing pains. But in light of where AECO prices are at, just wondering if you could comment on how you're seeing fees and overall margins holding up across your G&P portfolio going forward, especially in the South where whether or not you might need to share the pain at least over the near term just to support current production levels at whether it's Rimbey, Brazeau or Straken?

Patrick, thanks for the question. I'll turn this over to Jamie. But I just want to make a couple of quick points. One is that about 70% of our margins from our G&P business is generated from the North. So -- and that's more linked to condensate pricing. So it's less elastic to natural gas prices.

So the 30% is in the South. What I'd say is that we've seen low prices for a long time. So this is nothing new. So our volumes have been pretty steady because of that. But I'll turn it over to Jamie.

Yes. Well, I was going to make the same point is that sharing in the pain, we've been sharing in the pain for a period of time now, Patrick. Obviously, everybody is aware of where gas prices have been over the last few years. The point I'd like to make is that the growth that we see around some of our facilities have some liquids associated with them.

So we're optimistic with respect to some of the growth opportunities we do see in the South. And that spans all of our facilities, not just around the Rimbey gas plant. But also the facilities that we do have great interconnectivity -- have deeper cuts traditionally, and they have great interconnectivity to market. So if you look at the plays that we service in the South, there's still a pretty significant liquids component and value proposition associated with them.

That still makes it attractive for customers to drill wells. Now would they prefer gas prices to be north of $2, $3, of course, but they can still make it work for them. And I think you would have seen there's just more plays that are developing to be a little bit repetitive around the Duvernay, the Belly River that we're obviously in conversations with customers to help serve their needs on those emerging plays that are more liquids based.

Yes. And maybe one more thing to add, Patrick. I'd also say that Jarrod's team has done a lot of work to find optimization efficiencies across our entire portfolio, including our South G&P. And with that, it helps enable us to provide a service to our customers at a price point where it makes sense for them, but where we can also generate a margin as well.

Got it. Okay. That's great color. And then just on the shift in some growth CapEx into '26. I know it's not a huge number, but just wondering if you had a bit more color on which project or projects might be experiencing a bit of a delay, whether it's specific to the project or more macro related, but also maybe what initiatives your team might be undertaking just in order to maintain the target in-service dates?

Patrick, I can start and maybe Jarrod has something to comment. Honestly, the reduction in growth CapEx, it's really just a shift in timing. It's largely just reforecasting. And so there's really been no impact to timing, schedule, overall cost of any of the key projects that we have sanctioned.

So I would say, overall, our guidance that we provided in December of last year, I think we said over '26 and '27, we would average $350 million to $450 million in each of those years. I think you can expect that 1 year may have higher spend versus the other, but on average, that still remains.

What I'd add, Patrick, is as some of that timing was shifting as the commercial arrangements were coming together on some of those projects, our engineering team was in lockstep with our commercial group and understood that.

So we were able to make a bunch of adjustments in terms of kind of sequencing and timing around those projects, when we ordered some of the long lead equipments and made some of those commitments to still preserve the ISVs that we originally had planned for.

There are no further questions at this time. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.