Unitholders of record on Nov. 6 will collect $0.3425 per unit on Nov. 19. That’s the 20th straight quarter in which Energy Transfer has raised its payout, and the distribution announcement puts the increase at more than 3% from a year earlier.
The numbers behind that payout arrived on Nov. 3, when Kelcy Warren’s Energy Transfer reported its third-quarter results. Adjusted EBITDA reached $5.03 billion, up 31% from $3.84 billion a year earlier. Distributable cash flow attributable to partners rose 33% to $2.52 billion, and net income attributable to partners came in at $1.21 billion, compared with $1.02 billion.
Management lifted its full-year target, too. The partnership now expects 2026 adjusted EBITDA of $19.7 billion to $19.9 billion. Its previous range was $18.8 billion to $19.1 billion.
Energy Transfer runs more than 140,000 miles of pipeline across 44 states with about 12,000 employees, figures the Texas Stock Exchange cited when the partnership moved its primary listing there in October.
It didn’t begin that way. Kelcy Warren and Ray Davis started the company 30 years ago with a staff of 20 and a 200-mile pipeline system in East Texas. Warren is now Executive Chairman of the Board.
Hugh Brinson Pipeline and Record Volumes Lift Third-Quarter Results
Intrastate transportation volumes climbed 14% and midstream gathered volumes rose 6%, both partnership records. The intrastate segment’s adjusted EBITDA jumped to $346 million from $230 million, helped by early volumes on the Hugh Brinson Pipeline and new third-party transportation contracts tied to it.
Hugh Brinson’s 1.5 billion-cubic-feet-a-day first phase was placed into full service on Sept. 1, ahead of schedule. The full project is still expected to come in under budget.
Midstream segment adjusted EBITDA rose to $864 million from $751 million on higher gathered and processed volumes and stronger natural gas liquids prices. The partnership’s third-quarter presentation shows about 90% of earnings are fee-based. Since the start of 2025, it’s signed more than 9.5 million MMBtu a day of natural gas agreements with demand-pull customers, a group that includes data centers and power plants. The latest additions are two agreements for 150,000 MMBtu a day of firm service on the MRT Pipeline to power plants under construction in Missouri.
Energy Transfer’s 2027 Growth Capital Plan Reaches $7 Billion
Growth spending for 2026 is now expected at $5.4 billion to $5.6 billion. Next year’s number is bigger. “We currently expect 2027 growth CapEx to be approximately $7 billion,” co-CEO Tom Long said on the earnings call.
Several new projects were announced alongside the results. A final investment decision was reached on the 215-mile South Mississippi Pipeline, a roughly $1.6 billion project designed to carry 1.2 billion cubic feet a day, with service expected in 2030. The partnership also plans Frac X, a 200,000-barrel-a-day fractionator at Mont Belvieu due in the first half of 2029, and the 200 million-cubic-feet-a-day Bear II processing plant in the Delaware Basin, targeted for the third quarter of 2027. The Mustang Draw II plant in the Midland Basin started up in October.
“The demand for our products and what we do, especially natural gas is going to continue to grow exponentially,” co-CEO Mackie McCrea said on the call.
Still pending for Kelcy Warren’s partnership is the roughly $2.6 billion Vaquero Midstream acquisition. It hasn’t closed yet, and Energy Transfer expects to wrap it up in the fourth quarter.
