Enbridge Inc Q1 FY2026 Earnings Call

Good morning, and welcome to the Enbridge Inc. first quarter 2026 conference call. My name is Marlon Samuel, and I am the Vice President of Investor Relations and Insurance. Joining me this morning are Greg Evel, President and CEO, Pat Murray, EVP and Chief Financial Officer, and the heads of each of our business units, Colin Grinding, Liquid Pipelines, Matthew Ackman, Gas Transmission, Michelle Herodin's Gas Distribution and Storage, and Alan Capps, Renewable Power. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session for the investment community. Please note this conference call is being recorded. As per usual, this call is being webcast and i encourage those listening to follow along with the supporting slides we'll try to keep the call to roughly one hour and in order to answer as many questions as possible we will be limiting questions to one plus a single follow-up if necessary we will be prioritizing questions from the investment community so if you are a member of the media please direct your inquiries to our communications team who will be happy to respond as always our investor relations team will be available after the call for any follow-up questions on to slide two where i will remind you that we will be referring to forward looking information on today's presentation and q a by its nature this information contains forecast assumptions and expectations about future outcomes which are subject to the risk and uncertainties outlined here and discussed more fully in our public disclosure of violence. We will also be referring to non-GAAP measures summarized below. With that, I'll turn it over to Greg Ebel.

Thanks very much, Marlon, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us once again today. The first quarter was a strong start to the year, reflecting solid financial performance and continued execution across our businesses. We reaffirmed our 26 guidance and medium-term outlook and continue to operate in line with our 4.5 to 5 times debt-to-ebit debt target. From an operational standpoint, utilization was high across all businesses, with record Q1 mainline volumes and numerous peak delivery days on our U.S. gas transmission and distribution systems. In April, we completed our seventh expansion of tank storage at Ingleside and have now increased storage capacity to approximately 20 million barrels, and we brought the 120,000-barrel-per-day Grey Oak expansion into service. On the execution and growth front, we announced open seasons on the Flanagan South and Southern Access Extension pipelines, which support mainline optimization phase two. We also completed a successful open season on the Spearhead Pipeline. During the quarter, we sanctioned a number of exciting projects in gas transmission, including expansions to our Trace Palacios natural gas storage and our 60% all-infector pipeline. We also announced an expansion of unregulated natural gas storage at Enbridge Gas, Ontario, and the 300-megawatt Cone Power Project. We'll dive in a little deeper into these projects in the business update slides. But first, let's take a look at how Enbridge continues to connect supply with rising energy demand. The importance of energy security has become even more evident since the start of the conflict with Iran, and Enbridge is well positioned to deliver North America's abundant energy resources, both domestically and globally. LNG exports remain a critical component of energy security. North American liquefaction capacity is expected to require over 30 BCF per day of natural gas by 2030, and Enbridge is poised to support the global demand through serving 100% of the operating LNG facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast. We continue to deepen our integration with LNG markets as well, by storage expansions of Aiken Creek, Trace Palacios, Egan, and Moss Bluff, new Permian gas egress projects, and the advancement of wood fiber LNG. Natural gas demand in North America is expected to increase by 28 BCF per day by 2030, and we have already begun capturing that growth through sanctioned projects, with more new projects to come in the quarters ahead. Tennessee Ridgeline, connecting to a power generation facility converting from coal to gas. Algonquin gas transmission expansion, providing additional capacity to the underserved U.S. Northeast, and the vector expansion serving utilities in the Midwest are just a few examples of infrastructure we're currently building to support local demand. On the liquid side, we are in the midst of advancing 430,000 barrels per day of incremental mainline and express capacity by 2028, adding timely and efficient egress for our WCSB customers. Our Permian super system remains a cornerstone of the export story, and it continues to grow. Projects like the Grey Oak expansion and the new storage tanks at Ingleside support the export facility, which delivers roughly 25% of all U.S. crude exports today. We expect all this to lead to North America moving more than 5 million barrels per day of crude on an ongoing basis to key international markets, including Europe, Asia, and Latin America. We all know energy markets have been disrupted since the conflict in Iran, and Enbridge will be ready to play its part in providing reliable, secure, and affordable energy to customers domestically and overseas. Now, let's take a look at how Enbridge's business model is designed to succeed regardless of the macro environment. Despite market volatility since the start of 2026, Enbridge continues to deliver consistent and growing shareholder returns. Our cash flows remain of the highest quality and predictability, diversified across more than 200 asset streams, and are largely protected by regulated and long-term take-or-pay contractual frameworks. We have unmatched market access, serving more than 75% of North America refineries, moving roughly 20% of all natural gas consumed in North America, and directly serving over 7 million gas utility customers. Our diversified platform allows us to provide end-to-end energy solutions across liquids, natural gas transmission, gas distribution, and power. Longstanding relationships with customers and our continuously growing partnership with Meta remain a key competitive advantage and underpin our creative project backlog. We continue to grow through our $40 billion capital backlog, which supports visible growth through the end of the decade. And we can finance that growth using our $10 to $11 billion of equity self-funded annual investment capacity and the strong balance sheet. Now let's dive into the business unit updates, starting with Liquids Pipelines. Our Liquids Pipelines business continued to deliver strong performance as we advance efficient egress and storage expansions to meet rising demand. On the mainline, we achieved record first quarter volumes of 3.2 million barrels per day, reflecting strong utilization and the critical role of the system. We're advancing mainline optimization phase two, or MLO2, which is expected to add 250,000 barrels per day of incremental WCSB egress capacity by the end of 2028. In support of MLO2, we launched a binding open season for 200,000 barrels per day of incremental FSP capacity and 50,000 barrels per day of incremental capacity on the Southern Axis Extension Pipeline. Early construction activities, including clearing of the right-of-way, have now begun on Line 5 relocation project in Wisconsin, supporting the continued flow of vital energy supply in the region. We also completed a successful open season on the Spearhead Pipeline, recontracting volumes into the next decade. And in April, we received a number of presidential permits for our liquids pipelines. These permits provide operational flexibility for day-to-day operations as well as future expansions. Along the Gulf Coast, our Ingleside Storage Expansion has entered service, increasing site capacity to approximately 20 million barrels and finally the gray expansion is now complete and the pipe operating capacity is now over 1 million barrels per day further strengthening our export connectivity so now let's take a look into our gas transmission business we continue to benefit from diversified demand drivers creating attractive and highly visible capital opportunities across our gas transmission footprint. In the U.S., we are executing well across our system to support rise in demand from power generation, local gas utilities, LNG facilities, and new data centers. And we are advancing over $10 billion of near-term growth opportunities with several projects reaching FID this quarter, with more to come this year and next. Those projects include the Trace Palacios expansion, adding 25 BCF of natural gas storage along the Gulf Coast. The project CAPEX is expected to be $400 million and enter service in stages from 2028 to 2030. We have also sanctioned an expansion of the Vector Pipeline for just over $100 million, adding 400 million cubic feet per day of westbound capacity to serve growing local utility demand and targeted for in-service in 2028. We continued to evaluate additional expansion opportunities on Vector and recently closed a non-binding open season in April for another 300 to 500 mmCF per day on that pipeline. This open season was highly successful with customer interest exceeding the offered capacity. Our East Tennessee pipeline reached a settlement in principle on the rate case filed last year and we expect to file the agreement with the FERC in the second quarter. In Canada, expansions to our gas transmission network are also advancing. Recently, we received all of our required approvals on the $4 billion sunrise expansion with construction expected to begin by early summer. At Wood Fiber LNG, the delivery of the liquefaction module this quarter represents another important execution milestone. Altogether, we have approximately $10 billion of projects under construction in British Columbia to support both domestic energy needs and Canada's growing LNG export market. Let's move over to gas distribution. In Ontario, we sanctioned approximately 8 BCF of unregulated natural gas storage expansion at the Dawn Hub with an in-service date of 2029. This project strengthens the critical energy platform for Ontario and surrounding regions. At Enbridge Gas, Ohio, we filed a new rate case on December 31st, 2025, with rates expected to go into service effective in 2027. And as a reminder, Utah and North Carolina saw new rates go into effect on January 1-26 and November 1-25, respectively. Our gas distribution and storage business continues to deliver steady, regulated growth through disciplined rate-based investment. The T-15 project is progressing, supporting the Roxborough power plant's conversion from coal to gas and expected to have a phased-in in-service from 2027 to 2028. At the Mariah Energy Center, the $600 million US LNG storage facility will strengthen system resiliency by adding 2 BCF capacity in 2027. Collectively, we expect our utilities to grow rate-based by 5% annually through 2029. And while Ontario's growth is slowing, our diversity of assets allows us to redirect capital to the U.S., which very likely will exceed their 8% growth taker through 2029. Now we'll move on to the renewables segment. Our renewable power business continues to progress, with disciplined focus on high-quality projects anchored by blue-chip customers and long-term contracted cash flows. At Sequoia, we will have 815 megawatts of generation capacity, about half of which is already in service, and the remaining capacity is expected to come online later this year. We are also happy to announce we are extending our partnership with META once again by sanctioning Cone, an onshore wind project in Texas, which we expect to invest $700 million U.S. and have the project enter service by the end of 2027. Our partnership with Meta has grown to over 1 gigawatt of power generation between Clear Fork, Easter, and now Cone, and we expect the partnership to grow further. Beyond our sanctioned projects, we have approximately 1.5 gigawatts of additional safe Harvard renewable projects, providing meaningful capital optionality. With all that, I'll pass it on to Pat to go over our financial performance through the start of the year.

Thank you, Greg, and thanks to everyone for joining the call today. I'm happy to say we're off to another strong start in 2026. Compared to the first quarter of 2025, adjusted EBITDA remained consistent, DCF per share is up 3 cents, and EPS is down above 5. In liquids, as expected, the absence of a litigation settlement, lower contributions from our market access pipelines, and lower line 9 tolls resulted in a decrease compared to Q1 2025. In gas transmission, favorable contracting on our U.S. gas transmission assets and strong storage results drove the year-over-year increase in EBITDA. Gas distribution increased year-over-year after the recent rate cases in Utah and North Carolina took effect, as Craig mentioned earlier, and from rate escalators in Ontario. In renewables, results were lower compared to last year due to the absence of investment tax credits relating to the Fox Squirrel solar project, partially offset by strong international wind resources in the first quarter of 2026. A seven-cent decrease in the average CAD to US FX rates year-over-year impacted all four business units, resulting in lower EBITDA in 2026. This was, however, partially offset in eliminations and other due to our realized hedge rate being higher and closer to the actual effects rate we saw in the quarter. Cash distributions in excess of equity earnings was higher in 2026 due to the absence of a legal settlement recognized in Q1 2025 earnings, but primarily received in cash in subsequent periods. Higher depreciation from assets placed into service and higher income taxes from the absence of investment tax credits in 26 drove the decrease in EPS. I'm pleased to reaffirm the 2026 guidance that we shared last December. Our resilient business models support strong and predictable performance across all market cycles and conditions, something that is evident in our results given the volatile periods we've seen recently. We're on track to achieve the midpoints of our guidance ranges for both EBITDA and DCF per share, and are also reaffirming our post-2026 growth outlook, a 5% average annual growth rate for EBITDA, DCF per share, and EPS. As a reminder, Q1 and Q4 reflect our strongest quarters as a result of higher utility demand and higher volumes in our liquids pipelines and gas transmission systems during winter months. Moving on to our capital allocation priorities, our approach remains unchanged in 2026, supported by continued equity self-funding and the stability of our regulated and predictable cash flows. Returning capital through dividends remains core to our value proposition. We return $38 billion to shareholders over the past five years and expect to return $40 to $45 billion over the next five years. Our $40 billion backlog extends through 2033, providing strong, long-term growth visibility as we prioritize accretive brownfield opportunities. And with that, I'll pass it back to Greg to close out the presentation.

Thanks, Pat. Enbridge remains a first-choice investment opportunity with a value proposition designed to deliver superior shareholder returns across all markets, geopolitical, and commodity cycles. At the core of this is stability, reflected in our low-risk, utility-like business model and a fundamentally diverse asset base. Our strength comes from predictable, resilient cash flows that support a strong balance sheet, disciplined capital allocation, and ongoing strategic investments. Consistency is a defining feature of our story, highlighted by 31 consecutive years of annual dividend increases, as well as 20 years of achieving financial guidance. Looking ahead, we expect approximately 5% annual average growth through the end of the decade, driven by our growing secured capital program. And we maintain the ability to deploy capital across our four franchises, allowing us to respond quickly to the most compelling opportunities in front of us. As the long-term total return performance on this slide illustrates, our business model has continued to perform through events ranging from financial crises to global pandemics and geopolitical shocks. Enbridge's scale, diversification, and stable business model positions us well to continue delivering durable growth and long-term value to our shareholders, making us that first choice investment opportunity. We are in a world with an amazing growth macro for energy infrastructure, the best growth opportunities I have seen in 10 to 15 years. This could be a real upside for investors should we see the EBITDA multiples of that period reemerge as the macro fundamentals seem to suggest they should. With that, I'd like to thank you all for listening in and we'll now open the line for questions. Thank you. If you would like to ask a question,

please press star one in your telephone keypad if you would like to withdraw your question simply press star one again your first question comes from a line of aaron mcneil from td cowan

your line is open hey morning all thanks for taking my questions morning last quarter you had a you had a slide in your uh deck that highlight highlighted 10 to 20 billion of near-term growth opportunities one of the more interesting items on that slide was export optionality at Ingleside in light of, you know, the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the market's renewed focus on, you know, energy security and non-Middle East supply. So you noted the new storage in your remarks and, you know, the acquisition of the Flint Hills docks not too long ago. I guess my question is, are you seeing a measurable increase in inbound inquiries for incremental export capacity at Ingleside and you know would you expect export growth to pull through additional pipeline to bottlenecking upstream or is

the sequencing the other way around Aaron hey good morning it's Colin and obviously a timely question and I think well the short answer is yes I can elaborate a little further and we didn't see a lot of that come through in the in q1 period right in march because of the trade cycle and things but it's uh it showed up uh strongly in in april may and and june here um and everyone's understands the dynamic there um we do expect a lot more business there i think on a capital efficient basis right so as you mentioned we we purchased the neighboring docks a couple of years ago uh we've got permitting headroom there We just finished a $2.5 million storage expansion at Ingleside, so there should be some operating leverage here. So hopefully it's capital efficient, but yes, on the dock and on the pipe as well over time. I mean, there's an implicit comment there around the outlook for the Permian Basin, which we continue to believe is a winner and the majors are there. And I think you're seeing a lot of discipline at the outset here. a couple producers adding some rigs um but uh i think the consensus view would be that the price of oil globally it probably has a higher floor and um we'll likely see uh rigs added through through the fall budget cycle and into 27 as well hey aaron it's greg i just i would just

add that everything colin says bang on and you know exports now kind of pushing six million barrels just with the conflict i think it'll be really interesting to see is even when the conflict is solved how much more reliance and i think there will be uh on the u.s gulf coast and canada for that matter as well and that should position well for those with the docks closest to blue water which would be us but let's not lose track of how important it also is for the refining complexes as people look for more secure product. You've seen refining capacity creep up. Obviously, that's important for inland pipelines as well as exports. And then as Colin said, you know, I don't know exactly what the price will be, but if you thought, well, it was going to be 65 to 70, I don't think you should be surprised that the new base is 75 to 80, which is helpful for production too. So it's actually lining up to be a super favorable environment for oil infrastructure in north america both domestically and export wise great thanks for the

the color there you mentioned the one and a half gigawatts of safe harvard renewables projects in your prepared remarks the wedge of renewables projects coming into service in 2027 is is pretty significant so i guess like do you think you could see another meaningful contribution in 2028 and when would you need to see announcements by in order to sort of lock that in well and i'll

speak to that but you know one of the great things you've pointed out is just how relatively quick cycle these are even though when we announced today gets into 27 and that that gigawatt and

a half is important but alan you want to speak to that sure thanks aaron uh good morning so really have on that on the backlog we could probably see some of those actually coming in in probably 28, 29 timeframe. That said, you know, these things tend to come in kind of chunky. I think you've seen quite a bit in the last few quarters where we've seen, where we've had pretty much an announcement every quarter for quite some time. And you'll see probably a few more in the coming, you know, two to three quarters, then may tail off for a little bit. And then you'll start to see more of them come back in as we're taking advantage of those State Harbor opportunities. And a lot of those opportunities that we have, not only are they safe harbor, they have the permits, too. A lot of folks are concerned about the federal permits and a lot of them have those federal permits as well. So a real opportunity for us, I think you'll continue to see, is the demand for renewables is really good right now. And I think that's evidenced by all the projects that we have coming in. So as you continue to see that demand be robust on the renewable side, I think we'll be taking advantage of it.

Yeah, and it's not just renewal, it's power, right? So I think what you're seeing with the meta deals and stuff that Alan talks about, and we've said this before, but I think it's bearing out. No one's talking about the color of electrons. The number one thing that prevents AI from progressing further isn't GPU architecture. It's really access to energy. And that's the first time that's happened. So, yeah, game on for power. But that's why it's nice to have gas infrastructure and renewable infrastructure so we can serve those Mag7 clients.

Great. Thanks, everyone. I'll turn it back. Thanks, Aaron.

Your next question comes from a line of Rob Hope from Scotiabank. Your line is open.

Morning, everyone. I have two comments or two questions on the crude oil business. First, how are you thinking about the competitive positionings of MLO2, but I guess more importantly, MLO3 versus some of the competing options which I would say are bubbling up to the surface being Prairie Connector as well as a larger expansion of the Trans Mountain system?

sure rob hey good morning and um you know a few points of color around that um listen i think you followed us for a while and realized our mainline path there's is resilient and uh and advantage so has defensive and offensive uh strength it's demonstrated time and time again we're growing it um as a reminder something like connector and mlo1 or an execution and trending well and we're commercializing uh mlo2 as as we've discussed um mlo2 is well engineered relatively advanced on scope capital costs well understood we're actively engaged with a number of customers and in contrast to alternatives i think a reminder that MLO2 was always intended to be an inside-the-fence expansion, permit light, executable, no new pipe per se, which is novel, using existing pipelines, and in-service quickly, which is important, and another point, which is often lost, with modest take-or-pay deficiency requirements, right, given that the main line is generally a walk-up. So that's trending well. You know, I think we've seen other competitors respond to the quite favorable outlook in the Canadian Basin, which is not surprising. I won't comment, you know, exactly on each of the competitors. I think they're well covered. um but uh you know if we do see shippers term contract on uh on any of these i think i would view it as a positive sign and a vote of confidence in in the base and in the outlook which which should we should float all uh oil infra so that's a very as greg was saying i think it's a very positive macro. And certainly, the mainline expansion program will get its share. You mentioned MLO3, we're developing that still. And with, you know, seven pipelines in the right of way. And now with amended US presidential permits, modernized and harmonized with respect to product type and flexibility around capacity limits. We've got, you know, a plethora of flexibility here to tailor and design whatever is needed at the right time. And we've got a number of versions, I would say, of MLO3, if you want to think about it that way. So that's how we see it play out here. I zoom back out and just observe that it's a very favorable macro and we're all trying to serve customers who are monetizing a world-class resource.

Appreciate that, Keller. Maybe then moving over to line five, looks like there's been a number of updates there. So can you maybe add a little bit more color on some of the legal challenges on the tunnel, as well as the construction in Wisconsin.

Thanks, Rob. Yeah, I'll try to abbreviate my answer. This question tends to get long, but maybe, yeah, we haven't talked about Line 5 in a while, which is probably a good thing. But I'll give you a quick update. As you know, you know, big picture, Line 5 tends to be pretty critical energy infra for Canada the u.s great lake region contributing to this all-important energy security the line is closely scrutinized including by phimsa the u.s pipeline safety regulator and it will continue to operate safely for the for sealable future and i think courts have increasingly recognized this this u.s federal uh jurisdiction recent uh court findings um but as a reminder nonetheless we are permitting and pursuing relocating two sections of line five at the request of local governments and tribes at industry's expense. In Wisconsin, we're advancing a 41-mile relocation to discontinue operation across the Bad River Reservation. And in Michigan, we're moving the pipe from the lake bed to the tunnel timeline wise where we expect to complete these in late 26 and the early 30s respectively in wisconsin we have state and federal permits we have easements on the 41 mile relocation route and have been completing pre-construction activities think tree clearing and prepping the right-of-way. It's May now, so spring road bans have recently ended and will advance construction here through the summer and late fall. With the permits now contested and well-known and in hand, we're now better able to accurately estimate the Wisconsin project cost, which is now approaching U.S. $900 million. Now, this is more than you'd typically expect for this 41-mile distance, but consider that about a third of that $900 million value is related to six years of considerable permitting, legal, and tribal engagement, and has been incurred. So we've got about 600 million left. And you should expect to see this project added to our secured project listing in the second quarter, Rob. Quickly on Michigan, we don't have a refreshed estimate capex-wise for the tunnel at this time as we continue to await state and federal permits and conditions. And maybe the last point I'll just make here a reminder that the investments in line five infra wisconsin michigan regular stuff are all covered as eligible rate based within our commercial arrangements and will be borne by our shippers uh through tolls over time so i don't that up catches you up uh hopefully rob that's great

thank you thanks Rob your next question comes from a line of Spiro Dunas from Citi your line is open good morning thank you team I want to start with with

opportunistic gains here and the results for the first quarter strong start to the year but you're reaffirming the guidance so he's curious if you just walk us through how much of that 1q performance exceeded internal expectations and understanding that your assets are built for stability, it did seem like you were able to benefit from some of the volatility and weather out there. So to the extent that's accurate, how do you think about your ability to keep capturing some of that upside volatility for

the rest of the year? Yeah, I'll let Pat go at this, but I would say a reminder, and we rarely change our number in the first quarter, no matter how good it may be, largely because we've got a strong first quarter and a strong fourth quarter so um and as you point out you know with a highly contracted very small commodity exposure um you you know that's why we've structured the company that way but pat do you want to speak a little bit too yeah i mean um there's probably two or

three areas that we benefit from weather as you're noting uh on the edges of the business model you know first being in ontario where we've got um you know weather impacts is about net year over year only about 10 million dollars because we had a colder q1 last year as well so uh so there's about 10 million there um aiken creek uh with the storage facility that we're currently expanding has the ability to take advantage and there's probably a penny or so of over performance there and then a little bit on uh things like uh interruptible service on our gas pipes so all in all you can think of it as being a couple of pennies in the quarter and that just speaks to the business model that we have and the fact that we have like no commodity exposure so i think you know more so than the weather uh colin's talked about the uh implication of a tailwind for things like ingleside and gray oak we'll monitor that in the second quarter and see how that goes and how long that lasts for and adjust as we go but right now we're still pretty comfortable with the range

that we've given you that's that's great uh maybe switching gears to to the permian uh greg you You sound understandably pretty constructive on the basin. I think your reference was to the crude side, but, of course, a lot of gas coming out of the ground with it. You're obviously pretty active there on the Permian gas egress side. You'd think over 10 BCF a day of new pipelines coming would be enough to satisfy, but we're already getting a lot of indication that that might not be enough. So just curious how you're thinking about the need for more egress and Enbridge's potential involvement in more expansions there.

Yeah, and let's not forget our position in Whitewater. And I think as you may see some information on that, I would agree with your bullishness in that regard. We are, too. We seem to fill up every pipeline industry-wide the minute they open up the valves in the Permian. So I think there's more opportunities there, and we're pursuing those. And Matthew, maybe you want to speak to some of that.

Yeah, sure. Hi, good morning. A couple areas of opportunity there, and as Greg mentioned in Reminder, There are interests in the whitewater assets, which is sort of our direct play on the pipes. There are a couple pipelines coming into service this year there. Still, we have Bayrunner coming into service later this year in Blackcomb. And then a whole bunch of other stuff going forward. We have a position, as you know, in Eiger. I think the other piece, though, for us that we see, and you saw this in our announcements, is storage. And, you know, with all the activity coming out of the Permian, a lot of that gas is obviously going to be going offshore. And a lot of additional storage required just for additional demand and some of that for the LNG crowd. So, you know, we've got great exposure to that, expanding all of our storage assets in the Gulf. As you know, now we have almost 50 BCF of expansion underway down there. So that's another way that we can profitably, with low capital, high returns, play that theme.

You know, the other nice thing about the storage is, you know, we always talk about our gas business growing up, being able to build it six to eight times. But that project we talked with you and announced today is actually a little bit below that. So when you can get into the fives when you're building brownfield storage and given some of the demands Matthew spoke to, those are super attractive for us.

Got it. It's a great color. I'll leave it for today. Thank you.

Your next question comes from a line of Maurice Choi from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Thanks, and good morning, everyone. Just wanted to pick up on one of the comments you made, Greg, in your prepared remarks. You mentioned that this is the best set of growth opportunities you've seen in the last 10 to 15 years. Can you elaborate a little bit more on that, but also speak to how the returns compare today versus in the past, and what kind of risks that industry players like Enbridge are experiencing today versus the past?

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm thinking about that period, you know, the 2012-16 period, which was a super positive element, and you saw dramatically higher EBITDA multiples. And where I was going is you see the increased need for energy, energy security, whether it's global security issues or technology, AI, and power growth, which you're well aware of is a multiple of what we saw. I've seen that opportunity from an investment perspective fully be realized by the market below, say, look, you've got the tech companies, you've got the caterpillars of the world, but it's not being fully realized, I don't think, by investors yet in the midstream side. And you're seeing very solid returns. And so they just talk to things like storage or LNG projects and renewals. You know, you're seeing low, mid-teen type returns for us. They're super attractive. And then even on the utility side, where you don't see the same type of returns, just in really quite phenomenal growth in rate base, which I just think a couple of years ago nobody saw. So it's not just, and we've been speaking a lot about the oil business. So it's not just one business. It's all of these businesses playing off the theme of everything from tech, which drives power, LNG, which is about security, oil, which is the refining complexes and industrial side, as well as on the expert side.

All the pieces that Enbridge have seem to have a really great macro backdrop.

So where I was going is it seems to me that investors haven't yet realized how beneficial and long run that will be. I mean, we're talking about through 2030 very comfortably in terms of if the growth folks see, which would be longer than what we saw in that 2012 to 16 period. So that's where I was going with that. And I think it soon will be recognized.

That's great. And maybe my one follow-up to that is, you know, as you, instead of looking backwards now, as you look forward beyond this 2030 horizon, you know, as you think about how customer demand requests are changing, are your four core franchises sufficient or are there incremental value chain additions that you're thinking is appropriate?

Yeah, it's a good question. We're always looking at that, either whether it's adjacencies or actually going further back. So, again, you know, you look at the super system that Colin and his team have built back into the Permian, obviously, and then on the export side. Same on the gas side that we've done in that neck of the woods. Obviously, our extension on the distribution side. and and the real element i see is there's no longer the discussion of again what color your molecule or is electron is it's how quickly can you get me electrons and molecules or barrels and i think if you look at our project list we're very focused on that the quick cycle stuff at the distribution company the relic actually quite quick cycle uh relative some other forms of power on the renewable side of things which is super attractive and again then the footprint we see on the gas distributions on the gas transmission side and the liquid side allows us to get there quicker than most people um and so i think the greenfield risk that we saw in prior periods is less relevant to enbridge today given our footprint that's already there so that's a that's really game on for growth uh from an enbridge perspective so appreciate the question i like us talking about uh you know more growth as opposed to less growth uh and the the removal from terminal value as and and more talking about are we really valuing these companies um given what's happening above and other parts of the com the economy that should be there so um as you can tell we're pretty excited about and we'll continue to bring projects forward i know Matthew, in the next couple of quarters. And it seems like every business unit, we're able to bring on some stuff each quarter to build that backlog. And that it builds EBITDA, which builds capacity, which allows us to continue to use both the internally generated equity and the balance

sheet to grow. That's definitely value to the incumbency. I agree with you. So thank you very

much. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Jeremy Tonette from JP Morgan. Your

line is open. Hi, good morning. Morning, Jeremy. I see there's more, you know, expansions on the gas storage side here and just wanted to get a feeling, I guess, for how big the opportunity set is there. We haven't, you know, necessarily had a lot of storage development in recent years and, you know, the gas market has grown. Just wanted to see your thoughts on that. And then at the same time, I guess, as an extension, further interest in LNG assets. Sure. Matthew.

Hey, Jeremy, it's Matthew. Yeah, we're very excited about our gas storage assets and our expansion program. Just looking at the fundamentals over the last 10 years, just the ratio of storage to production and demand in the U.S. has been cut in half. And actually, that kind of understates the gap between supply and demand, because things are getting a lot more peaky, which requires more storage. So we need to catch up on that. And the value of storage is on the rise. So, you know, as we've announced now with this new Trace Palacios expansion, we've got almost 50 BCF under construction in the Gulf Coast coming on over the next, you know, call it five years or so. And then also, just as a reminder, up in Canada, we've got 40 BCF under construction in Aiken Creek. So, you know, that is a great pipeline of growth for us. In addition to that, just capital expansion, we do see, as we roll contracts, higher storage rates. And so when you combine that, just given the fundamental trends I was talking about, with the expansion, we're definitely seeing double-digit type growth on those. You know, we've got this great program in front of us, over a billion dollars U.S. of expansion and storage now, if you add it all up, which is great. we'll build that out there's probably a little bit more we could do around the margins on that but those are probably the big ones for now and we like the organic type growth others have been we noticed acquiring stuff you know we think our returns i mean building stuff at book value is is definitely a huge advantage for us relative to those you know going out and paying multiples of that in the market so like our position great pipeline and we're very excited about this

program. Hey, Jeremy, you also mentioned the LNG opportunities. So yeah, we're open to that. We like our model, though, of doing it in such a way that is lower risk and more toll-based, if you will. But we see those opportunities, and we'll look at that. I think that's some of the adjacencies. But we don't want to take on a bunch of commodity exposure. That's not our style from that perspective. But as Matthew says, even if we don't find those, given our position, We currently serve 100 percent of the Gulf Coast LNG, obviously involved with that in B.C. And billions of dollars being spent there, both on our on behalf of our customers, on our pipelines and storage. And so, yeah, we'll look at those opportunities as well. That sure doesn't look like it's it's moving away. And that's another example of some of the difficulties in the Middle East, meaning North America, And North America, whether it's the Gulf Coast or it's the West Coast of Canada, is a choice pays for consumers to be able to get a hold of LNG without taking on the risks that I think have become much more illustrated when they were there. So, yeah, we'll look at those two.

Got it. That's helpful. And then I just want to shift gears a little bit here. And as far as the power markets and as far as, I guess, you know, with the ISOs and regulation there, we've seen, I guess, some proposed changes and it seems like changes overall. I'm just wondering if that has impacted, I guess, the nature of your conversations with new gas fire generation or just any thoughts you could share there and where you see the greatest near-term opportunity as you talk about this $10 billion of near-term capital opportunities.

Hey, Jeremy, it's Matthew again. Yeah, so I think you're on to an important point. I mean, there's two kind of categories or maybe three of things going on here. One is, and this is, you know, really kind of a very current and present thing, which is just regulated utilities that have embedded power generation for utility load with pent-up demand, And we're seeing a lot of that across our entire system for power. Then there's the data center stuff, which, you know, is playing out. We have great conversations there on the power side for potential extensions. And I know Michelle has a lot of that in her business, too. And I think maybe the thing that's more directly on point to what you're talking about is, you know, can we start signing up some of these merchant power plants based on, you know, what's in the past been? kind of perverse disincentives, frankly, for them to sign up for long haul gas pipeline capacity, and whether that could change based on some rules. I think there's some good ideas floating around on that piece, it's early days, but certainly there's gonna be more potential for that. And a lot of these merchant guys are gonna end up direct drive into data centers. And so as they sign up for longer term contracts on the offtake, we think there's great potential for them to then go upstream on the gas pipeline side and we're having those conversations. So I think you're on to an important theme that's definitely going to be driving growth across our business.

Yeah, it seems like a multi-year capacity market could shake things up there. So thanks for the thoughts. Thanks, Jeremy.

Your next question comes from the line of Robert Quetzelier from CIBC. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, everyone. I wondered if you could elaborate on the comment in the presentation about affordable contracting and gas transmission. Does this relate to rates, term, or something else entirely? And which end markets are really driving this, I'm thinking, in terms of LNG, power, et cetera, and which geographies are most important to that trend?

On the contracting side, I'm not exactly sure which part you're referring to. But, look, I mean, well, you can look at it on the storage side to start with, right? what used to always be short-term contracts uh we're seeing and i think we've talked about this before uh you know half the capacity at aiken for example is 10 years uh very long-term contract similar to that uh for the new trace palachios uh uh 25bs we talked about today which i think just speaks to nobody wants to be caught out without actually having uh access to the product So I think it's just a general comment, Rob, with respect to whether it's storage, whether it's pipelines, and also our risk appetite, too. You know, we're not going to build pipelines with five-year contracts and get a little shaky at 10-year contracts, to be quite honest, as well. Storage is different. It's always been shorter. And you see the same kind of thing happening in Colin's business as well. as we've extended some of the contracts and the market facing pipes out into 2030s which is not something that i think you could have done a few years ago so i think it's i think it's less about regulatory more about on the customer side not wanting to be caught short in this opportunistically rich environment and obviously the enbridge traditional perspective on how much risk we're

really to take on okay just for a point of clarification i was referring to the gas transmission comment on page 11. but i'll move on to my my other question which has has to do with um um your rate case strategy particularly in ohio so obviously you filed for a red case there and i wonder how you can describe how your your um regulatory strategy in ohio has evolved since

that last rate case how come sure robert it's michelle here and yes that last uh that last rate case was filed late in 2023 by dominion and really what we're doing here is is the fact is we filed a new rate case in december and the fact is there have been some material changes that that just simply needed to be reflected since uh since things were in place back in late 2023 and based on the timing we what we're doing is we're seeking to recover our revenues that are Sufficient, of course, to pay for our current operating expenses, importantly, to service our debt. That's one of the biggest things that has shifted is the interest rates that were applicable back in 23 versus now. And then it's any investments and deferrals from the two big rider programs that you'd be familiar with. We have in Ohio, the CEP or the capital expenditure program and the pipeline integrity program. So those will get wrapped in to the end of June. and they're already being recovered on because of the short cycle nature of them and the monthly riders, but we sweep all that in. So it's in the discovery stage now with the staff's report is expected in July and we'd expect to enter into meaningful settlement negotiations then with the rates going into place in the first quarter of 2027. But we are really working hard to keep this one tight as simply an update on a lot of the numbers that I've changed materially that we had to update and ensure that we're recovering on.

Hey, Robert, I'm sorry. I was not following what you were looking to. So I see what you were talking about. That's vis-a-vis the tailwinds that we see for the rest of the year. So we're seeing settlements on things like East Tennessee that are favorable. As you know, we've seen the same on Texas Eastern in the past. So that's what we were referring to that weren't there at the start of the year. And I mentioned that in my spoken comments, how that's being filed with the FERC.

Okay, thanks, Rick.

Your next question comes from a line of Ben Pham from BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning. You've reaffirmed the 5% growth rate beyond 2026. I'm wondering, when do you plan to update the market on guidance specifically beyond 26. I'm also curious, what do you think is the right duration timeframe for guidance for a North American pipeline company?

Yeah, well, just for clarity, what we said was 5% growth, 26 plus. So through 26, through the end of the decade, we feel very confident with that. So, you know, I think when we put that out was March of – 14 months ago, March of 2025. and we remain confident in that and I'm glad to hear the street looking to move up those numbers to that 5% type growth rate. We haven't looked beyond, we look beyond 2030, we haven't set out any numbers beyond 2030 but you know I expect either in the fall or early spring we'll end up having another investor day and update you at that time. Just as a reminder and I think sometimes it gets lost just since that investor day which again was about 14 months ago we have added 17 billion dollars to our sanctioned backlog uh so if we continue to see that type of stuff and you know all that is growth uh through uh now through uh 2030 and even a bit into 20 uh 31 and 32 if you look at some of the of the uh activity so yeah it's not just for 26 it's for uh 26 plus right

through 2030 and look i think this environment in this environment uh you know giving you guidance

out to three years i think be pretty good but actually giving you something right at through the end of the decade uh i would i would think is uh is very helpful to investors as as well as analysts to come up with their views on the company okay i think god thanks for clarifying

i always thought it was more of a post 2026 guys i wasn't uh i was a bit confused and on the end end point of that so that's all the way through 2030 then thank you that's that's good um um and then uh the 50 billion of unsanctioned uh opportunity i know you mentioned uh very similar numbers in the past on that and you've then inserted the 10 to 20 billion last quarter next two years could you bridge that for us and i'm assuming that that's always included that that 50 billion but is there a mixed in of some early stage projects in there as well uh yeah

and we're always adding to this right so you're you're right i mean you make a good point uh in march of 25 it was about 50 billion dollars we've sanctioned 17 which just tells you how the hopper

in that time has uh easily filled in there right and you know everything from higher rate based growth on most of our businesses to power opportunities uh that backlog just gets bigger uh and i think again as attitudes change around energy security and the power of north america for exports, I'll be surprised actually if that opportunity set doesn't even get bigger. So that's where we're drawing those sanctioned projects from, but it's filling up at least at the same rate by which we're sanctioning projects.

Yeah, so maybe just to add to that, like $50 billion is the environment that we're in, the opportunities that we have, as Greg said, $50 billion a year ago, it's still $50 billion, even though we've secured a bunch of projects. The $10 billion to $20 billion that we talked about kind of over the next 24 months, I guess now 22 months, is really what we plan to FID in that period of time to give you a sense of what you should see on a rateable basis from us from a FID perspective, pulling from that $50 billion opportunity set, if that helps to clarify it.

Yes, that's very useful caller. Thank you.

Your next question comes from a lineup. Patrick Kenney from National Bank. Your line is open.

Thank you. Just back on the robust outlook for crude exports out of the Gulf Coast, I guess the longer this Middle East conflict lasts and the longer prices at the pump remain elevated in the U.S., the higher the risk of political intervention related to banning or at least capping export levels. so i'm just wondering if you might be taking any steps over the near term to protect your franchise operationally um and also if you could remind us of any commercial protections you might have

financially within your contracts at angleside yeah i'll let colin speak to that i would be very clear that at least twice um the secretary of energy has said that is not something they're looking at uh even as we've seen this run up so i think that's a really important uh perspective um and then of course we've just successfully contracted uh on on gray oak um which is an important protection as well obviously but colin do you want to speak further today

i don't know if there's a lot to add i agree with everything you're saying we've uh you know we're in regular contact with the administration we've we're you know we're well attuned to the alternatives in play here and uh uh support and subscribe to the notion that you know constraining uh global exports will will hurt not not help the situation here as it's a global commodity so as greg mentioned we've we've got fairly robust contract provisions uh

around the export facilities it's a really interesting dynamic right because the united states government i think has not been shy about projecting power off the gulf coast by being to export uh crude and remember much of that permian crude is what gets exported because the u.s refiners like the heavier products which is what we provide uh out of canada so importantly um and you're even starting to see some more exports of canadian crude modestly uh off the uh gulf coast as well so i it there's no doubt there's a consumer voter element here uh but i just don't see this administration changing their view of being able to use energy frankly as a geopolitical tool um despite the current conflict over and above military uh power yeah that's great i

appreciate your comments on that um and then just on the balance sheet i guess that you but uh sitting at the top end of your your target range just wanted to confirm if you're still expecting to remain within the range through 2026 or you know is there now potential um given the sanctioning of more growth apex as you've outlined to see leverage perhaps hop over five times temporarily um and if so the timing of when you might expect to come back down to say closer to the midpoint of

that four and a half to five times range yeah thank thanks pat uh i think it's fair to say that we're still comfortable with the four and a half to five range at the top this quarter for a couple reasons one is um the fx plays a little bit of a role in that in that you know it was 137 all quarter but then popped right at the end of the other quarter there to be 140. so that moved it a little bit uh we also expected to be a little bit higher at the front end this year given that uh the vast majority of our projects come in in the back end of the the year the big projects things like uh tennessee ridgeline t north aspen um some of the sequoia easter type projects so i think we're still pretty comfortable with it you know for when is it going to come down closer to the midpoint i think i said a couple quarters ago that we'll probably be in that upper half for the next couple years just because we've got this large build in front of us but of course maybe the capital we're putting in near the end of 27 here and then a pretty large capital coming in 28 that should really help to bring those ratios back to kind of that middle point of it so we're still feeling very comfortable and um and you know the low risk business model helps with that all the growth we've been talking about lines up perfectly with that risk return that we discipline that we've had as an organization you know i like the fact that when we're talking about these capital opportunities they are you know long-term contracted gas transmission assets long-term contracted liquids pipelines so not having to step outside of our risk reward view uh to continue to grow the organization so feeling very comfortable about where we are from a financing perspective that's great thanks pat thanks everybody

and your final question comes from a line of manav gupta from ubs your line is open

um hi i have two quick questions first can you talk about your growing partnership with meta not many midstream companies are out there with one gigawatts of capacity with meta So if you could talk a little bit about that. And second, there were some news articles floating yesterday that CARNI is looking to make easier for projects to proceed in Canada. Sonovus and CNQ have already talked about some of these things on their earnings calls. And basically what they're saying is you can't hold back Canada in the current environment where the world needs crude and oil. And I was wondering if you have any views on any policy changes that could expedite projects in Canada to speed up the development of oil and gas projects over there.

Yeah, well, on the Meta piece, I think you'll continue to see that relationship grow. Alan, do you want to speak to that? And then I'll come back on the oil's front.

Yeah, so thanks for the question, Manad. So on on Meta, they've come out and said that they want to be net zero by 2030 and that 100 percent of our operations powered by renewables. So really opens the door for for folks with long term relationships, them to do more with them. And and so, you know, we do expect to see more with Meta. We really are excited about the relationship. And I'll just say that I think we've developed a really good trust relationship with them. and that's the foundation for future opportunities so feel really good there and hopefully we'll see

more opportunities going forward yeah and on the project front look i think there's been a lot of positive words uh in canada and some concrete actions that have been taken um you know we uh we got a very quick turnaround from the federal government on the final approval for sunrise which is critical to LNG. Obviously, there's the major project office there and projects in the national interest. So I think that's great news. And I'm hoping and expecting and taking the government that's where it's even going to find ways to shrink down some of those timeframes even for projects like Sunrise. But that being said, I'm perfectly aligned with our customers on the other issues that they raise. Yeah, Canada has an obligation, I think, to serve the world, and has the ability to serve the world if it wants to be an energy superpower. And I think they're focused on the right P. We often focus on the pipeline P, but what has to come first is the production P, the permitting P, and then you get the pipelines. So I think they're pointing out and making sure that all the policy makers are aware that without production growth, the infrastructure is kind of irrelevant.

Thank you. Thank you.

And that concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Marlon Samuel for closing remarks.

Great. Thank you, and we appreciate your ongoing interest in Enbridge. As always, our investor relations team is available following the call for any additional questions that you may have. Once again, thank you, and have a great day.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.