J. Mike Stice, the CEO of Access Midstream Partners, L.P. (ACMP), Interviews with The Wall Street Transcript
67 WALL STREET, New York - March 31, 2014 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its Oil & Gas: Master Limited Partnerships Report offering a timely review of the sector to serious investors and industry executives. This special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs and Equity Analysts. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
Topics covered: Increasing Demand for Midstream Assets - U.S. Energy Infrastructure Build Out - Emerging Shale Plays - Outlook for Natural Gas Liquids - Oil and Gas Investing - Shale Production Growth
Companies include: Access Midstream Partners, L.P. (ACMP) and many more.
In the following excerpt from the Oil & Gas: Master Limited Partnerships Report, the CEO of Access Midstream Partners, L.P. (ACMP) discusses company strategy and the outlook for this vital industry:
TWST: Would you tell us about the kind and location of your assets? Where is your focus?
Mr. Stice: That's probably one of our bigger competitive advantages. One of the huge benefits of chasing Chesapeake's drill bit was that they were very aggressive; they were the number-one driller in North America and still are today, and they had the largest acreage positions in the heart of all of the unconventional shale basins, with the exception of the Bakken. So being their midstream provider and having Chesapeake's acreage dedicated to us by the company with the largest position, and more importantly the company that was being most aggressive, we were there first, so we had kind of a built-in first-mover advantage. We were in there putting pipe in the ground ahead of anybody else. So that put us heavily in the Marcellus, in the Utica, in the Eagle Ford, and in the Mid-Continent.
The Mid-Continent we describe as Anadarko Basin, Permian and Miss Lime - and these are unconventional technology applications, but not necessarily shales - in the Barnett, in the Haynesville and in the Niobrara. So that's every unconventional basin in North America and every unconventional application in North America, with the sole exception of the Bakken. That put us in a very diverse and strong position.
Now if you're not familiar with those basins, there is another kind of competitive advantage built in, and that is about half of those basins are liquids-rich, so they are motivated by oil prices, and the other half are dry gas, and they are motivated by gas prices. So we have a built-in diversity of economic motives. Our activity levels might change from one basin to the other, but many of our competitors have either one or the other, so they can find themselves with a dry spell, where we don't have that.
By being in all these basins and by being the first mover, we have the largest position in every one of the basins; we have the largest pipeline system there, and that will allow us to do more business with other producers as time goes on. We effectively will be the natural consolidator in each and every one of these basins, and so that is why I think we trade so well in the marketplace. We have this fairly substantial access to organic growth. We've guided to $3.5 billion in organic growth over a three-year period - 2013, 2014, 2015 - and we're on target for doing that. No other company has that. In this very short period of time we have become the largest gathering and processing MLP in the industry, so we've gone from being nothing to the largest as measured by throughput volume, and it's been an amazing story.
TWST: I was going to ask you where growth is coming from, whether it's organic or via acquisitions or both, and if it's taking place in any particular plays. What would you add on the subject?
For more of this interview and many others visit the Wall Street Transcript - a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs, portfolio managers and research analysts. This special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
