Operator
Welcome to Williams' third quarter earnings 2026 conference call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference I would now like to hand the conference over to Carolyn Sardelli, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us and for your interest in Williams. Yesterday afternoon, we released our earnings press release and the presentations that our President and CEO, Chad Zamarin, and our Chief Financial Officer, John Porter, will speak to this morning. Also joining us on the call today are Larry Larson, our Chief Operating Officer, and Rob Lingo, our Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategic Development. In our presentation materials, you'll find a disclaimer related to forward-looking statements. This disclaimer is important and integral to our remarks, so please review it. Also included in the presentation materials are non-GAAP measures that we reconciled with Thanks, Caroline.
And thank you all for joining us today. This was another strong quarter for Williams. We delivered record third quarter results, closed the momentum acquisition to enhance our premier position in the Haynesville, and placed four more expansion projects into service. And we are excited to announce that later this week, we are going to be able to enhance our We will bring the second phase of Socrates online. That's the story of this quarter, a team that delivers on commitments made while advancing the next set of opportunities. I and the management team are incredibly proud of how our teams are executing and building long-term value for shareholders. So starting with the numbers, third quarter adjusted EBITDA grew 6% over the third quarter of 2025 and 9% year-to-date, and achieving over $2 billion in EBITDA in Q3 sets an all-time record for third quarter earnings. Based on our performance through the first nine months of the year, we continue to track toward the upper half of our 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance, and we are well-positioned to deliver on the long-term growth target we raised last quarter to 11%-plus compound annual EBITDA growth through 2030. On September 3rd, we closed our acquisition of Momentum Midstream one month ahead of schedule, and the Momentum assets integrate seamlessly into our existing Haynesville position and tie into our Transco footprint along the Gulf Coast. Integration is well underway, and our teams are already moving on the growth this combination unlocks, starting with the Shelby Connector and Delta Access Pipeline projects, both of which will expand the delivery of Haynesville Gas into Transco for transport to power and LNG customers along the Gulf Coast. Also during the quarter, we successfully placed four expansion projects into service, Gillis West, Wharton West, the Huntington Connector, and the Rickman Creek Lateral. Together, adding over 400 million cubic feet per day of fully contracted, take-or-pay pipeline capacity. Projects like these may not make major headlines on their own, but the growth compounds. Each project strengthens the reach and reliability of our system, and together, they drive base business growth quarter after quarter. In our power business, you'll recall that last quarter, we brought the first phase of Socrates into full service in under 18 months from commercialization. Later this week, and again ahead of schedule and within budget, our teams will place the second and final phase of Socrates into service. Socrates shows that when customers need comprehensive energy solutions combined with speed to power, Williams is a partner that will deliver. And the Williams team continues to do things the right way, delivering pipeline and power projects in a way that benefits communities and customers. Our teams prove every day that we can do both. And Socrates serves as a blueprint for commercializing and scaling the next wave of power projects. On that note, we expect to announce one to two more power projects by year's end, so stay tuned. And we expect those projects to expand our customer base with additional high-quality counterparties, along with significantly longer contract tenures. Across our pipeline system, we continued to expand our growth runway during the quarter. On Transco, we announced a follow-on project to SESI, the Southeast Supply Enhancement Project. And recall, SESI will be the largest project in the company's history by earnings contribution. The follow-on project, creatively referred to as SESI-2, is a 150-plus million cubic feet per day expansion project. We also upsized our garden connector project to 144 million cubic feet per day, just one quarter after signing initial customer agreements. That's the power of the Transco footprint. Every expansion lays the foundation for the next. And now shifting to natural gas storage, as we've discussed, gas storage becomes increasingly valuable as natural gas demand continues to grow, especially as demand increases from LNG and power customers who need gas the moment they call for it. During the third quarter, we commercialized another gas storage expansion project, a 9.4 BCF expansion of our Mountain We continue to benefit from our advantage storage footprint, and we expect storage values to continue to increase and expansion opportunities to continue to commercialize. So to sum it up, the team delivered record third quarter results while executing on projects that will drive growth through the end of the decade and beyond with a growing backlog that now extends well into the 2030s. And with that, I'll turn it over to John for a deeper dive into the financials.
Thanks, Jed. Our third quarter 26 EBITDA was up 6% over 25, and we also delivered 10% growth in both adjusted EPS and AFFO for the quarter. For EBITDA, we are now up 9% over 25 for the first nine months of the year. Bridging from last year's $1.92 billion to this year's $2.04 billion, our overall financial performance continues to be led by our transmission, power, and golf businesses, which improved $83 million, or about 9%. Growth in this segment was led by the initial contributions from our Socrates project and continued growth from our natural gas storage businesses and pipeline expansions. Our Northeast GMP business grew $37 million, or 7%, primarily due to higher volumes across our major liquids-rich and dry gas systems. The West grew $34 million, or about 9%, including initial contributions from the Momentum acquisition, which closed in early September, as well as other higher Haynesville results, including a full quarter from our Louisiana Energy Gateway pipeline and other Haynesville volume growth. Our sequent marketing business was a bit lower than last year, with continued seasonally lower opportunities for this business. Finally, our other segment, which includes our upstream businesses, was down about $28 million, primarily due to our divestiture of the upstream Haynesville assets, which closed in January of 26. So, again, third quarter EBITDA is up 6% with 10% growth in adjusted EPS and AFFO, and EBITDA now up 9% year-to-date. So, now I'll offer a few thoughts on how we expect to finish for 2026. Turning to the full-year outlook, our strong financial performance and execution on the Socrates project gives us confidence in updating the full-year outlook. For full year 2026 adjusted EBITDA, our existing businesses continue tracking toward the upper half of our $8.3 billion to $8.5 billion range. On leverage, excluding the impacts of any additional power innovation projects that we announced prior to year-end, we would expect year-end leverage to be around 3.75 times with the momentum acquisition on a full-year run rate basis. And as we've previously discussed, 3.75 times provides another $2 billion of incremental capacity versus our internal four-times leverage ceiling to cover the initial spend on any additional power projects we announce before year end. Most importantly, though, as we've previously discussed, the balance sheet leverage tightness is primarily an issue for 26 and 27 before the historic earnings growth we expect in 28 and beyond. But before we get to 28, we also expect to see sector-leading growth in 27. So ultimately, our financing plan for 27 will be guided by the scale and speed of our next power projects. In advance of those future announcements, our growth CapEx guidance remains unchanged. We're encouraged by the performance of our base business, our momentum acquisition, the ongoing strong execution across our project portfolio, and the continued commercialization of new business. And we feel well positioned with our flexibility to fund additional power innovation opportunities, which will fuel an expansion of our targeted 11% plus EBITDA CAGR through 2030. And with that, I'll turn it back over to Chad.
Thanks, John. Before we open the line for questions, I want to come back to the message on slide four. The Williams story is one of making commitments and delivering results. And while we focus on delivering a strong finish to 2026, We also remain laser-focused on driving our growth through the end of the decade and beyond. As discussed, we expect to finish 2026 in the top half of our guidance range, and we are entering the next chapter of growth from a position of strength. Natural gas remains our country's most important, most abundant, and most affordable domestic energy resource. And as a result, demand for natural gas continues to accelerate. LNG exports are growing along the Gulf Coast. Industrial reshoring is happening, and power demand is surging for the first time in decades. Our country's growth will continue to be fueled by our ability to produce low-cost, low-emissions, and highly reliable energy. Natural gas checks those boxes better than any other energy resource in America. And with the momentum acquisition, our expanding pipeline network, our growing storage portfolio, and our unique backlog of power projects, We have more ways to capture the demand for energy and translate it into value for our shareholders. None of this happens without the dedication of our people. To the Williams team, thank you for working safely, for serving our customers reliably, and for building infrastructure our country will depend upon for generations to come. And thank you to our customers, partners, and investors for your continued trust in Williams. And finally, since As today is Election Day, I want to encourage everyone on the call, including our Williams employees, if you haven't voted yet, I encourage you to make time to head to the polls. Decisions made at every level of government shape whether America can build the infrastructure it needs and whether energy will be reliable and affordable for the homes and businesses that depend on it. Our industry serves every community in this country, so all of us have a stake and should make our voices heard. And with that, we'll now open the line for questions.
Operator
Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. This question comes from the line of Jeremy Tonate from JPMorgan Securities. Please go ahead.
I just wanted to start off, I guess, talking about the behind-the-meter commercialization, as you discussed, and one to two more deals expected by year-end. How should we think about, I guess, customer conversations here? Is this broadening out your counterparties? I mean, would these customers be similar to who you've signed so far? I'm just wondering, I guess, about the opportunity set, if it's another large customer and if that leads to, you know, the potential for, you know, subsequent deals post-use.
Yeah, thanks, Jeremy. Yes, the answer to your question is we have been advancing opportunities with additional customers. We're only focused on, you know, really the highest quality hyperscalers and projects, you know, that we think fit really well within our strategic capabilities. I mentioned in the prepared remarks that we expect to expand and diversify the customer base. We'll continue to be large, high-quality customers, and we also expect contracts to significantly extend in term length. And importantly, I know we've been asked about timing of announcements. I think the market, I think our customers have seen the success of the team on Socrates. So I think we've got a very credible capability and solution. And we're also working on projects now that, in addition to the speed to power, also provide our ability to scale over time. And so, you know, part of what I would expect, you know, us to deliver are projects that not only look a lot like what we've announced so far, but provide more clarity into the length of the backlog and the scaling of projects over time.
Got it. That's helpful there. Maybe just continuing, you know, these are kind of some first-of-the-kind type of projects for Williams, and you've had Socrates running for a little bit here. Just wondering, I guess, any learning so far, your comfort here, and if you think about kind of expanding your, you know, solution offerings here, how you think about that?
Yeah, thanks, Jeremy. I'll start, and I'm going to let Larry fill in. I tell you, we are just so proud of the team. You know, Williams has a long history. I mean, a company for almost 120 years has been building complex, critical infrastructure, solving, you know, Frankly, some of the world's most challenging energy problems, and the team did a great job building this business. The nice thing is it is a pretty clean extension of our existing capabilities, but, yes, the team is learning every day. I mean, I've said this before. We're somewhat solving a new challenge, a new problem with existing technology, so every project will get more efficient. Every project will become more optimized, and we're taking those lessons learned from every element of every project and deploying those to the next. But I'll let Larry speak to some of what he's seen.
Yeah, thanks, Jeremy. This is Larry. Yeah, I mean, as Chad said, really proud of the team. They've done some amazing work to be able to deliver these projects. I mean, they are complex, some of the first of its kind, be able to work with our customers on, be able to manage the load following, and it's been great to see these projects deliver exactly the way that we anticipated. We've now had some run time with Plato South, and we've seen that ramp up in utilization, and it's performed exactly the way we want to. And really excited for the team to get through the final commissioning this week on Plato North and have the facility fully up and operational. As Chad mentioned, there's always lessons learned as we go through these, both on how we commission and execute the projects, and we're taking those efficiencies into the next phase of projects, even the ones that we've commercialized to continue to further. provide a better solution for our customers, and so I think you'll see that continue to play into the solutions we provide for the next wave of projects we're commercializing, and I think the great thing is, is counterparties are out there looking for people to work with. I think our ability to continue to deliver on projects at this scale, the speed, the complexity, and navigate through all of the different things that come up on these types of projects, it's just continuing to demonstrate William's ability, And I think that's helping on the commercial front.
Got it. That's helpful. I'll leave it there. Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes in line of Praneeth Satish from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning. So I guess with Election Day here upon us, you know, when you look across your power backlog, particularly the projects that are closer to commercialization, I guess how sensitive is the timing of those projects to the elections and specifically the governor races, I guess? And I'm really curious about Texas, given the size of the opportunity there and whether that has any bearing on your timelines and backlog.
Yeah, I wouldn't say that that's a gating issue for any of the discussions that we've been having. I think everybody's keeping an eye on the election and looking forward, I'd say, to getting through an election cycle. But I do believe at the end of the day, places like Texas are going to be important for our country. You know, we've got a very large energy resource. We've got a place where, you know, there's a lot of land available, and so we do think that Texas will be an important part of the infrastructure story for data centers, but just in general, I mean, you know, the Permian Basin, West Texas is our, you know, obviously one of our most important energy resources in the country, but we also, you know, spend a lot of time making sure we're focused on places where we can build with supportive communities. We can build projects that fit right, you know, within our existing kind of capability set, and so we feel really good about the projects that we're advancing, and we don't see the election being a gating item. Again, we've just been focused on making sure we can properly scope and design and optimize the projects that we're going to bring to market.
Got it. And maybe switching gears, on SESI 2, can you talk about maybe the potential to upsize this project over time and how large it could ultimately become? And then I guess from a capital efficiency standpoint, should we think about the economics of SESI 2 similar to SESI 1, which I think was something like a three to four times build multiple, if I remember correctly, could this get to that level as well? Thanks.
Yeah, Praneet, this is Larry. Thanks for the question. Yeah, as we've announced right now, we've got 150 a day contracted on that, which is with the high credit utility counterparty. We did have a binding open season on that that articulated the scope up to 390. We do have an additional customer for the remaining capacity on that. We've got some things to work through with that customer to firm up. So ideally, we think there's a project that makes a lot of sense in that 390 range. Could it be expanded down the road? Definitely. But I think that would be done in a future phase of the project from maybe a SESI phase three if we stay creative with our naming convention. But as far as returns, I mean, these are pretty capital-efficient projects. I would assume you would see this in a similar type of range that we've talked about in the four to six times build multiple. But a lot of that's going to be dependent on once we finalize the scope and capital for this next phase of the project as we work through that final commercial contract.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line from Spiro Downitz from Citi. Please go ahead.
Thanks, operator. Morning, everybody. I want to start with the compensation framework, this new disclosure in the 10Q. You seem to point to a 10% EBITDA CAGR through 2030. So first, great to see alignment there on some of these targets you set. That low end is congruent with the 11% plus target, but I wanted to dig in a little bit more on that high end of 16%. I suspect that's a deliberate and achievable target by 2030. So I wanted to understand what it would take to achieve that, how much M&A is contemplated versus organic. And then, John, on the leverage side, this compensation target also requires leverage to be added below four times. Can you just maybe talk through the rank order of tools available to fund growth while keeping leverage in check?
Yeah, thanks, Bureau. This is Chad. I'll start and let John then fill in the rest. First thing, yeah, I mean, you picked up on, you know, we as a management team and the board are very focused on aligning the entire organization with the goals that we've articulated. And, you know, what we think will be the sector leading growth and delivery of shareholder value. And so, you know, the compensation structures are set to do that. And we've talked about, you know, that doesn't change our existing compensation structures as well, which return on invested capital is the single most important metric that we measure for executive compensation. And so when you think about our growth, you know, those numbers, I think, reflect what we do believe is achievable. If you look at the business and you look at how we've grown over the last five years, we've had, you know, 9% compound annual growth in earnings over the last five years, and we've done that with high return projects, that creates a tremendous amount of capacity to invest capital over the next five years and beyond. And so I think if you run the model on Williams, we've built a platform that can invest capital at attractive returns and can, you know, generate the type of growth that we're guiding towards. And so we feel really good about that range. And, you know, I would just say that we and the board have made sure that the entire organization, you know, that's obviously we disclosed what was required for the officers. But the entire organization, you know, we are making sure is highly focused on delivering, you know, the commitments that we're making to our shareholders. And, John, you want to fill in?
Yeah, thanks for the question, Sparrow. I'm really excited about the financial flexibility we've got for this pathway to 2030 and all of this growth that we're chasing. You know, for one, we've talked about it. Our targeted leverage is three and a half to four times. So you see in the new goal that there's no payout if our balance sheet is over four times. So we have to land a sub four times in our range that we're trying to navigate to is three and a half to four times. And we've talked about this before, that we do have some tightness up against that four times leverage, primarily in 26 and 27. But, you know, importantly, I think as you get beyond 27, we see enormous capacity that opens up. Chad just mentioned it as a result of all the projects that are coming online and the earnings growth that we're going to see. I mean, we're going to start seeing pretty great earnings growth even in 27, but it picks up even from there. So I think, you know, when you think about capacity and flexibility, we're going to have a lot of internally generated cash flow, and we're going to have a lot of balance sheet capacity to continue to fuel additional growth. And as we chase that 16% high end, I tell you, everybody on our management team is super focused on winning at a 16% level. And, you know, it could include some bolt-ons along the way, but I think, you know, as we focus in on our plan, we're most focused in on our backlog and winning, you know, more than our fair share of the backlog, primarily in the, you know, pipes and power parts of the business. We think we've got really good line of sight into enough of an opportunity set to win, you know, again, more than our fair share in those spaces and achieve that 16%. We do have things in terms of financial flexibility. You know, the Blackstone deal proved out that there's tremendous appetite to partner with us. So if along the way we need to bring in partners, we can certainly do that as well. So we've got a lot of financial flexibility. We've got, you know, I think big backlog. As Chad mentioned, you know, we're going to stay super focused, though, on the cash returns on invested capital. We don't want to get to the end of this and find that we've lost any ground in terms of the great track record we've had on cash returns on invested capital. So we're going to have the growth. We're going to have the balance sheet strength. And that's going to be because we've generated really strong cash returns on the capital we're investing.
Got it. It's great to hear. I appreciate the color on that front. The second question, just going back to power innovation and maybe sticking with the theme of some data points from the 10Q, it looks like it pointed out almost $6 billion of long-lead equipment purchases for projects not sanctioned yet. And so I'm trying to reconcile what that means with respect to your six gigawatt-plus opportunity set, how to think about delivery timeframes for this equipment, and maybe the conversion rate so far on what's gone from an order turning into a sanctioned project.
Yeah, thanks, Spiro. Yeah, those 10Q disclosures can be sometimes a little murky. In this case, I think you're talking about the $5.9 billion that's referred to in terms of commitments. And that does sort of pick up the aggregate. Yeah, the aggregate sort of overall commitments that have been made around equipment that we would use to commercialize additional projects. I would say there's, again, murkiness around those kinds of disclosures because some of those have cancellation fees and things like that, and so we're not absolutely committed. And that kind of plays into the way we've described how we've been able to build this really strong inventory of equipment. We've done it with backstop agreements. We've done it without really exposing the company to the risk of loss associated with that equipment. As far as the direct sort of relationship between the $5.9 billion and the six gigawatts, I wouldn't think that there's, or six gigawatts plus, I don't think there's a real strong connection between those two.
Yeah, and I would just add that those layer in, you know, our equipment that is on order, and John, you know, did a good job Describing how we've done that. We've worked collaboratively with customers to secure equipment, and frankly, you know, I think we've said that we've got enough equipment secured on order in partnership with customers that would support the entire backlog that we've guided to and even a bit more. And those deliveries would layer in from now, frankly, until call it the early 2030s, which when we've talked about our backlog, we've kind of guided towards that being the targeted timeline for projects, layering in projects in a disciplined way so that we've got predictable growth through the end of the decade. Now we're even seeing those opportunities crystallize into well into the 2030s and doing it in a way where we can be efficient in moving talent and capabilities from project to project. And so that's how we think about the equipment that's on order and the backlog that we have guided towards.
Great. I'll leave there. Thank you, everyone.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Elvira Scotto from RBC Capital Market. Your line is now open.
Hey, good morning. I want to pivot to the momentum acquisition that closed ahead of schedule in September. Can you share some early integration learning, any unexpected synergies or challenges you've encountered, and just how integration is progressing relative to your original plan?
Yeah, sure. Thanks for the question, Elvira. No, I mean, look, integration is off to a really strong start. Really no surprises after the first two months of ownership. The performance of the business has been tracking with expectations. You know, it's still early, but we are starting to capture synergies ahead of what we modeled, and commercial and business development engagement is off to a strong start, both with existing and potential customers. Look, we've got lots of experience with acquisitions and integrating, and we've worked out the bugs over the years. And so far, I'd say everything is going as planned.
Okay, great. And then my next question, I'm going to pivot here again. So it looks like there's a bigger call on USLNG, especially, you know, given sort of security of supply. Obviously, you benefit on the pipeline side through your Hainesville assets, but this should also increase the value of that 1.5 million ton per annum SPA you entered into with Woodside, the Louisiana LNG facility. How are you thinking about that capacity now as we kind of, you know, move closer to that start date?
Yeah, look, I mean, when we took that capacity as part of the Woodside investment, you know, we did it for a couple reasons. One, because we like the pairing of that with the pipeline and the marketing piece of the deal. We felt like the capacity was really going to be something that we could help bring additional volumes through our midstream system, and that's how we've been approaching it. And, you know, with the momentum acquisition, it really puts us in an even stronger position to be able to interface with customers and offer international pricing as a service offering. And so, you know, we've already heard and seen interest from producers in the basin that want international exposure. And so one of the things we're doing is talking about pairing that with gathering and compression and those types of services.
Yeah, and I'll just add, I think Rob said it well. We've got time. We can be patient. I think the project is on track. I know some of the team here actually went out to the Woodside project and got to go to site, and Woodside's doing a great job on the LNG side. Our team is well underway on the pipeline side of the project, but we're going to be patient and disciplined, but I would expect, again, yes, that that capacity has certainly increased in value, But our strategy will likely be to term out that capacity, make sure we capture fixed margin. We're not, I think we've made it clear, you know, that is not an attempt to create a large international price exposure position. But I think Rob said it well. It's really a tool that allows us to offer more opportunity, a window into international markets for some of our producer customers that might not otherwise be able to access it. I don't know, Larry, anything you want to add on line 200 and how projects are going?
Yeah, I mean, right now, everything's moving as planned. As the project's moving forward, we've gotten through all the permitting. Construction is online to be targeted for end of 2028 timeframe. So on that front, everything's going well, and I think now you'll see further opportunities for us to, as you think about our Haynesville position, continue to do further expansions as we see additional LNG demand grow within that corridor. We do see additional interest. We announced the Shelby Trough Connector Project last quarter, and obviously we're seeing a lot of additional interest on that. So I think you'll see not only with Line 200 and the Woodside LNG facility, but as we see additional LNG demand grow in that corridor, we're seeing definitely a lot more interest to get molecules from the Haynesville down into that corridor, which we're excited is going to really, I think, play into the advantage of the premier Haynesville position that we built up.
Great. Thank you for that.
Operator
All right. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of John McKay from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hey, team. Thank you for the time. I appreciated the comments on SESI Phase 2 earlier, but just wondering if you could talk broadly about kind of the remaining expansion capacity on TransGo as a whole. You kind of talked about, you know, potential later phases. Just anything you can frame up, timing, or maybe ultimate sizing would be helpful. Thank you.
Yeah, I think that we've highlighted before. I mean, the expansion opportunity on Transco, it's almost limitless. I mean, there's so many different opportunities that you're seeing us continue to commercialize projects across the footprint on Transco, and not even just on Transco, across all of our pipeline assets, as we've obviously just announced the storage expansion on Mountain West. Earlier this year, we did the silver spur expansion on Northwest Pipeline. So I think on Transco, the SESI phase two is just another example of ways that we can continue to optimize as our customers' demand grows in those regions. And we have very strategic, bolt-on, brownfield expansions that can continue to serve those markets. So we've definitely got more projects in the backlog that we're working on, optimistic that we'll see additional projects commercialized as we go into 2027. And there'll be probably a myriad of some of them smaller scale, like we've seen, like with Lighty Access that we commercialized earlier this year, to potentially some larger scale, larger capital expansions that the team is working on as well.
Yeah, one of the nice things I've been mentioning to folks, and Larry mentioned it, we will continue to see some of the nearer terms, smaller projects that can be delivered between now and the end of the decade, but we're already having really encouraging discussions regarding the next wave of large expansion projects that will help fuel growth, frankly, well beyond 2030, as we've seen a next wave of power projects that we expect our utility customers to need to supply. with natural gas. You know, Transco is the nation's most important artery for supplying utilities along, you know, along that corridor, both Gulf Coast, Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, up into the Northeast. And then LNG demand, you know, we've been watching to see kind of the next wave of capacity. And again, we're seeing, you know, really strong signs that a next round of projects will commercialize. And so not only do we feel really good about the growth through the end of the decade, But we're starting to see projects and focus a lot of energy with the team on projects into the 2030s.
That's great. Thanks for that. Second one for me, can you just catch us up on where Nessie stands right now, kind of next steps to watch, how you're feeling about the timeline? Thank you.
Yeah, thanks for the question. This is Lane Wilson. I'm sure everybody's aware the Third Circuit remanded our New Jersey certificate. There's nothing in that remand that has really jeopardized the project, so we're re-evaluating right now the direction we're going to take, but there's, as I said, there's nothing in that opinion that we think jeopardized that project. It's probably going to depend more on the level of cooperation we get from New Jersey, and we're working with them right now to figure out the next steps.
Yeah, I would just say I think this reinforces the importance of permitting reform. I think had we seen the bill that is hopefully going to make it to the floor of the Senate, and Lane can give an update on that if we want to provide additional color, but that would have addressed what happened with this Third Circuit decision, and frankly, what this does is it's not going to have an impact on us from a financial forecasting perspective. We feel really good about the need for the project, but it could put at risk our ability to get it online in time for next winter and, again, won't have a material impact on us, but will have an impact on affordability in New York and in that region. And so, you know, we are hopeful that the Senate is successful in voting on the bill, the Bipartisan Affordable Affordability and Jobs Act, the Baja bill. And I don't know, Lee, if you want to give a quick update on that, but it has some really strong provisions that would address, I think, a lot of the challenges that we've seen and would bring a lot more certainty and predictability to permitting projects.
Yeah, I just don't think there's any doubt that had the Baja been in effect at the time the Third Circuit considered our permit, we'd still have that permit. So this is really critical for the country from all avenues in terms of energy, no matter where you look at it. There's a vote scheduled for November 9th, a cloture vote in the Senate. I think it's going to get more than 60 votes. How many more than 60 votes it gets probably determines how quickly it makes it through the House. So, we're optimistic. This is as good a chance as we have ever had to get meaningful permitting reform kind of across the full scale of infrastructure in this country. There are Democrats and Republicans that have come out in favor of this, and we think it's going to happen.
I appreciate all that, guys. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Julian DeMoulin-Smith from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, team. Thank you guys for the time and the opportunity. Look, maybe to take a couple different directions here. First, going back to where we started at the top of the call, as it pertains to the project coming, just the size of the projects contemplated, are we seeing an increase or is it just more about the cadence here and getting one to two before the end of the year? And then related within that, some discussion out there about just obtaining the adequate gas lateral easements, etc. Just where are you in just executing against that side of the equation across the portfolio of projects underway today? If you can just update us briefly.
Yeah, thanks, Julian. First, on the size of projects, I think I alluded to the fact that, you know, we are taking some time with the next round of projects to not just scope and commercialize the front-end speed-to-power components, similar to the size and scale and scope of what you've seen so far out of the five projects that we have announced. But we are taking some time on several of our projects to plan the further phasing and scaling of those projects. Look, I think, you know, should even mention that on the first five projects we've announced, Larry was speaking to kind of the optimization lessons learned. There is also significant upside opportunity at each of those projects to unlock more capacity and scale those projects. You know, we sanction those projects based on very conservative assumptions to make sure that we can deliver the front end speed to power, but there's a lot that we can unlock and scale over time. Now, as we look at projects where we have the time to plan additional phases, I think you can expect that some of the projects in the backlog, you know, will have larger scale and will have phasing of capacity over time. Your question about easements, maybe just expand on that a little bit. Was that on pipeline projects that you were referring to?
Or just the laterals for the willpower side of the equation, right, in as much as you have a litany of these underway. Just if there's any issues, if you could be able to secure everything thus far.
Yeah, I would just say that our team does a great job of when we're siting, we're working very collaboratively. I think one of the capabilities that's really important that we bring, You know, and Rob has showed a slide before that shows the extent of the sequin footprint. Obviously, we've got an incredible, you know, core business footprint. I think one of the unique capabilities we bring is helping hyperscalers site projects in locations where we have high confidence that we can deliver gas supplies. And so, you know, we feel really good about the projects that we've been developing, and teams had a lot of success. That has not been an issue that, you know, has prevented us from advancing projects, and, you know, when I think about the projects that are in the backlog, all of them, you know, are cited in locations where we have high degree of confidence. Either we've got, you know, a location that is rightly situated or we've got what we need or would expect to need from a pipeline capacity perspective.
Excellent. And just to say it even more directly, you would contemplate, to the extent to which these are announced, that the larger, the future scope and phases would be announced simultaneously, such that we could see overall a larger project announcement, to the extent to which these have been a little bit longer in the wait. They should indeed at least initially be announced as a longer duration, but also larger scope and project at the outset.
Yeah, not every project, but I think that, you know, I would expect that you will see projects from us that crystallize, commercialize a larger portion of the backlog and show larger scale phases within a single project. So, yes.
Got it. And just to clarify, even amidst the backdrop, you feel confident on return staying the course here on these larger scope projects as defined earlier?
We do. Team's done a great job. Yeah, I do think we expect return framework to hold. I will say that one of the nice things about scaling projects is you can layer in larger equipment and more efficient power, and over time, the speed-to-power units can become more of your peaking units, and so you can also drive down the cost for the customer, preserve return, become more efficient. And, you know, as Larry discussed, bring the lessons learned from every project we're delivering. So, you know, the goal is to keep driving down the cost for the customer while, you know, preserving returns, expanding the customer base, and extending contract duration.
Excellent. Glad to hear it, Chad and team. Good luck. We'll see you soon. All right. Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Robert Catalier from CIBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning. Maybe a question here for John. I just wondered what the ability and appetite is to use the joint venture structure for future power projects. I asked the question because maybe the market's moved a tiny bit since the first agreement, so I'm curious about the level and the depth in the market, given prices may have moved a little bit.
Yeah, thanks, Robert. Definitely, prices have moved to bed from the 6.35% that we got on the deal with Blackstone back in July, and just the underlying movement in the 10-year treasuries has caused there to be a shift in the cost of capital for that kind of arrangement. So we'll keep an eye on it. It certainly remains an option. We definitely hear all the time that there's very strong demand. We ran a very competitive process. I think we could reboot something like that fairly quickly as well and, again, drive toward the lowest available cost of capital for that kind of financing. But whether we decide to do that or not, I think just depends on, again, on the size and scale and speed of the next power projects that we are commercializing. And definitely could be something that we do again, but it's just one of several options. Including just, you know, perhaps running the balance sheet a little bit hotter for a short period of time before all the earnings kicks in. But we have a lot of options. The insurance capital will continue to be something we'll be definitely looking at.
Okay, and maybe just a quick follow-up here on Momentum Midstream. It looks like it's off to a pretty good start on a small sample size. But what do you see the most upside, the most strategic upside when you look at how it interfaces with LAG, Transco, and some of your other U.S. Gulf Coast footprint?
Yeah, I mean, look, I think the inventory and the break-even prices and the price at which producers are going to act, I mean, 75% of the inventory behind that system is economic. And virtually all of it's economic at $3.75, so we don't need $4 gas prices to support growth there. So, you know, as you see LNG and you see power demand continue to come online over the long term, we think that demand is going to provide a signal to bring that economic inventory into production. So it's really the strength of the inventory behind the system combined with the demand from LNG and power that we see over the long term.
Yeah, and this is Larry. I'll add to it. I mean, obviously, we've only got a couple months under our belt, but, I mean, we do a very good job of integrating those operations teams. The commercial team is really under the hood now and really looking at the broader opportunity set in front of it. And I would say with this combined footprint and asset mix that we have across the Haynesville, both in eastern Texas and western Louisiana, I mean, it's creating a lot of opportunities, not only on just winning new dedications and opportunities to expand, whether that's LEG or NG3, to be able to serve that growing demand, but it's also creating some great opportunities to optimize across the footprint we have. We've got several projects right now, both on our legacy system and momentum, that are ramping up for growth going into next year. And so right now everything is really positive. It's still early, only a couple months in, but the integration with the teams, operations, organization is going extremely well, and the opportunities that the commercial team is seeing is really robust. And so I think there's some great upside that will then, I think, layer into some hopefully downstream expansions as well, As you think about Transco and the Adult Access Project that hopefully will continue to upsize.
Yeah, I'll just add credit to the team. There is a large team working the integration. Rob mentioned earlier we're pretty conservative when we plan bolt-on transactions. We had assumed that synergies would start to materialize in 2028, but I can tell you the team is focused on capturing every ounce of that now and as early as possible to synergy capture. But, you know, we've got a very large cross-functional team working every day on that integration, and then also on unlocking those additional commercial opportunities. And I think we've been really excited to see, you know, see the possibilities start to emerge.
Okay, that's helpful. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Manav Gupta from UBS. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Can you talk more about Clay Basin and your outlook for further storage expansions, please?
Yeah, Heymanav, this is Larry. Thanks for the question. Yeah, Clay Basin, I mean, this has been a nice expansion opportunity that the team's been working on through the course of this year. Obviously, we've highlighted that we feel like storage capacity has lagged development over the last decade, And we're really starting to see additional interest in storage. This is a nice project out on Mountain West System. We do have some additional projects that we're working on in the Gulf region, and I think we'll see some additional announcements on that in the upcoming quarters as the team's working through commercializing additional expansions in that space. But I think we've seen a really strong response since we've done the acquisition of the Gulf Storage business and Nortex. Contracted rates continue to go up as demand for storage is increasing, and that's helping us facilitate some of these expansion projects.
Just so that everyone kind of knows, Clay Basin is the largest storage asset in the Rockies, and Larry mentioned it's part of our Mountain West system. Mountain West really serves as a gateway between the Rockies and Western markets. You know, there's really just no longer production when you go west of the Rockies, but there's tremendous demand. And that storage asset provides an incredibly important function as really a gateway between production and market. And so, you know, we think we'll continue to see the Mountain West asset's been a great asset. That team's done a great job. We've integrated those operations with our Northwest pipeline, so we gain a lot of synergies there. We can add additional services for customers, and then, as Larry mentioned, we still see strong value and growth across the Gulf Coast and the remainder of our storage assets. So, we would expect to continue to see these projects commercialized over time.
Thank you. And how are you thinking about your remaining gathering portfolio post the devastation of the Coquille gathering assets?
Yeah, I'll let Rob speak to it, but I think we really like it. So I think you mentioned we had a couple of small divestitures that show up, I think, in the reports throughout the course of the year. I think we recorded a gain or two as a result of those sales. But those were really small, I would say almost off-system, non-strategic divestitures. You know, Rob and the team are always looking at portfolio optimization, but I think we feel really good about where we sit today from a gathering footprint perspective. You know, we're talking about 40 percent, 35 to 40 percent demand growth for natural gas over the next 10 years. That's going to drive a tremendous amount of supply response that's going to be required. And so, you know, I think the team's done a really good job of making sure we've got the right assets in the right locations.
Operator
Thank you. All right. Our next question comes from the line of Jason Giebelman from TD & Cohen. Your line is now open.
Hey, hey, morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Two on the power innovation side, if I could. The one to two projects by the end of the year, does that indicate that you have a much higher degree of confidence in one project than another? Or is that more, you know, just timing and one can slip into the beginning of 2027?
Yeah, I think importantly, thank you. That's a good question, because, you know, we don't time announcements based on earnings call dates or even, you know, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. But, you know, we feel pretty good about our ability to commercialize projects, you know, over the course of the next few months. And, you know, I think at the end of the day, that doesn't mean the projects aren't still moving. We kind of, you know, we don't like to get public with our announcements until we have a fully signed and executed commercial agreement. And also with our customer partners until we're permit ready and we've made sure we've got sites secured and we've got a lot of the de-risking of the project already complete. And I think we've continued to say we expect one or two of those to hit the finish line by the end of the year. But I think that that also means that you will see additional projects we would expect commercialized into 2027 and beyond. And so we're not just specifically targeting a date. Those projects continue to advance. But we do feel pretty good that one or two of those will likely be signed by the end of the year.
Great. Thanks for clarifying that. My other is just on the financing of these projects. And, you know, it sounds like you're evaluating different options and the right balance sheet size. But to the extent that you do think that financing or additional capital inflows are necessary to move projects forward, should we expect that to be announced concurrent with positive FIDs on new power innovation projects, or is it something that we should expect after projects are sanctioned, similar to what happened with the financing earlier this year? Thanks.
Yeah, this is John. Thanks for the question. And I think a little bit of it depends on, you know, the specific size, again, and scale and speed associated with the particular projects. But in a case where we're talking about a large-scale project that maybe scales over time, we'll definitely be trying to give some color about how that project scales over time. We'll also be trying to give some real clarity about, generally speaking, how we plan to finance the project. You know, can't say how specific that would be at the time, but we'll definitely try to give you a good sense of how we're thinking about financing, especially around the bigger projects.
Great. Thanks for the answers.
Operator
Thank you. Our last question comes from Craig Shear from TUI Brothers. Your line is now open.
Hi. Thanks for taking the question. Just wanted to briefly dig into a little further the sustained five times EBITDA economics for new power innovation projects. So the legacy projects were overengineered, and the PPAs themselves have five times EBITDA economics outside of synergies with other assets and the ability to monetize the excess generation capacity. Is it fair to think about the potential new project announcements with much longer-term tenors as significantly de-risking the assets because of longer tenors, but also, to some small degree at least, minimizing some of the upside beyond five times because the excess capacity is called for?
Uh, thanks, Craig, for the question. No, I, I think that, you know, we're going to target maintaining economics through efficiency, but at the end of the day, our business is making sure we've got predictable fee-based taker pay, uh, cash flows that are the foundation for the returns that we're sanctioning. And then we look to create upside beyond that. So, um, we're not, We're not embedding kind of extrinsic speculative upside into the base economics of a project, but we are working hard to drive efficiency, drive down the cost for the customer, make the project a much more optimized design and scope and scale. But I would still expect that with each of these projects, we're creating a platform upon which we're going to find, you know, additional upside and opportunity.
Maybe I could just quickly ask it slightly differently. On these longer-term scaling projects, prospective opportunities, would they be as proportionally over-engineered as the legacy projects?
Okay. No, I think that's a good question. I do think we'll learn over time how to be more efficient with excess capacity, so, you know, I do think that is an opportunity for us to, as we operate and learn load profiles, you know, we may be able to have less of a redundancy from an efficiency perspective, so I do think that that is a fair, you know, observation. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call over to Chad for closing remarks.
Great. Thanks, Haley. And thank you, everyone, for your participation in today's call. Have a great day, and we look forward to seeing you soon.
Operator
Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.
