Genesis Energy, L.P. (NYSE: GEL) today announced its second quarter results.

We generated the following financial results for the second quarter of 2019:

• Net Income Attributable to Genesis Energy, L.P. of $40.1 million for the second quarter of 2019 compared to Net Income Attributable to Genesis Energy, L.P. of $11.0 million for the same period in 2018.
• Cash Flows from Operating Activities of $81.6 million for the second quarter of 2019 compared to $64.5 million for the same period in 2018.
• Total Segment Margin in the second quarter of 2019 of $184.1 million.
• Available Cash before Reserves to common unitholders of $93.5 million for the second quarter of 2019, which provided 1.39X coverage for the quarterly distribution of $0.55 per common unit attributable to the second quarter.
• We declared distributions on our preferred units in the form of a cash distribution of $0.7374 for each preferred unit, which equates to a cash distribution of approximately $18.7 million and is reflected as a reduction to Available Cash before Reserves to common unitholders.
• Adjusted EBITDA of $174.1 million in the second quarter of 2019. Our bank leverage ratio, calculated consistent with our credit agreement, is 4.96X as of June 30, 2019 and is discussed further in this release.

Grant Sims, CEO of Genesis Energy, said, “We are pleased to announce a total Segment Margin of $184.1 million and a calculated bank leverage ratio of 4.96X for the second quarter. Despite several unexpected challenges over the previous twelve months, our diverse and market-leading businesses continue to perform, and we continue to naturally de-lever our balance sheet.

During the quarter, our offshore pipeline transportation segment saw consistent volumes across our asset footprint and continues to benefit from increasing activity in the deep water, including both in-field drilling and new standalone developments. The quarter was highlighted by first oil flow in late June from the LLOG operated Buckskin development. Buckskin is a subsea tie-back to the existing Lucius production platform and is 100% dedicated for the life of its lease term to our SEKCO system, our longest lateral in the Gulf of Mexico, and to our Poseidon system for ultimate transportation to shore. The development has an anticipated peak production rate of 30 kbd and we expect to see a meaningful financial impact as production ramps throughout the second half of 2019. Importantly, the Buckskin development required zero capital expenditures from us and highlights the significant operating leverage of our offshore footprint. It is also representative of the types of developments and opportunities we are seeing across our market leading asset base in the central Gulf of Mexico.

In early July, we experienced temporary throughput disruptions on our offshore systems as the producing community shut in production as Hurricane Barry made its way through the Gulf of Mexico. We experienced no permanent damage to our assets but do expect some negative financial impact to our third quarter results. Additional disruptions as we move through hurricane season could further negatively affect the third quarter.

Our onshore facilities and transportation segment performed as expected. Rail volumes delivered from Canada to our Baton Rouge complex resumed in April with increased volumes in May and June that exceeded the minimum take-or-pay volumes which allowed our main customer to utilize all of the pre-paid credits they accrued in the first quarter of 2019. We continue to monitor the easing of production curtailments by the government of Alberta and currently expect similar activity levels in the third quarter as we experienced in the second quarter. While there can be no guarantees, we believe based on current economic conditions, the incentive exists for rail volumes to return to fourth quarter 2018 levels by the end of 2019. The second quarter also benefited from a cash payment of $10 million associated with the resolution of a crude oil supply agreement.

Our soda ash operations experienced lower production volumes during the quarter due to a longer than anticipated planned move of our longwall mining machine. During the move, we proactively completed several additional debottlenecking projects and maintenance related items. The longwall move along with the additional work has successfully been completed and we are back running at full capacity. We remain on track in 2019 for our full year estimate in our soda ash business as we expect higher volumes along with stronger export pricing in the second half of the year. Our view of the international market supply/demand balance for the remainder of the year remains unchanged and we believe prices are likely to strengthen in the coming years. Our refinery services business performed as expected despite some unexpected challenges, including unplanned turnarounds and production issues at a number of our host refineries.

Our marine transportation segment continues to perform as expected and segment margin increased slightly for the sixth quarter in a row. As previously discussed, we continue to remain optimistic that we have seen the bottom for the quarterly segment contribution from our entire fleet of assets, and recent strength in near term day rates and utilization rates is reflective of an improving market.

Our businesses generated financial results that provided 1.39X coverage to our common unitholders, inclusive of a full quarter of cash distributions paid to our preferred unitholders, and a sequentially decreasing leverage ratio below 5.00X to 4.96X. Our target coverage ratio, including all preferred cash distributions, remains 1.4X to 1.6X and we expect our quarterly distribution rate will remain at $0.55 per common unit for the foreseeable future.

As we look towards the second half of the year, it is likely we will end up towards the lower end of our previous Adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2019 of $685-$715 million. Notwithstanding generally non-recurring challenges which can arise in any given quarter, the long term fundamentals across our businesses are strong and appear to us to be getting stronger. Therefore, we remain confident that the growth anticipated from our existing businesses keeps us on track to naturally de-lever our balance sheet and achieve our long-term leverage target of 4.00X in the coming years.

As always, we intend to be prudent, diligent and intelligent in achieving and maintaining the financial flexibility to allow the partnership to opportunistically build long-term value for all our stakeholders without ever losing our commitment to safe, reliable and responsible operations.”

Financial Results

Segment Margin

Variances between the second quarter of 2019 (the “2019 Quarter”) and the second quarter of 2018 (the “2018 Quarter”) in these components are explained below.

Segment margin results for the 2019 Quarter and 2018 Quarter were as follows:

Offshore pipeline transportation Segment Margin for the 2019 Quarter increased $4.9 million, or 7%, from the 2018 Quarter, primarily due to higher volumes on our crude oil pipeline systems. These increased volumes are the result of: (i) the continued receipt of additional volumes on our CHOPS and Poseidon systems due to deliveries from a third party pipeline that had insufficient capacity to deliver its committed volumes to shore, and (ii) first oil flow in the second half of the 2019 Quarter from the Buckskin and Hadrian North production fields, both of which are fully dedicated to our SEKCO pipeline and further downstream, our Poseidon oil pipeline system. As the Buckskin and Hadrian North volumes began near the end of the 2019 Quarter, contributions to segment margin were minimal in the period. However, we expect the contributions to increase throughout the remainder of 2019 and beyond. These increased volumes during the 2019 Quarter more than offset the approximately $3.9 million in platform fees, related to our interest in Poseidon Oil Pipeline, LLC ("Poseidon"), that we received during the 2018 Quarter. These minimum bill payments ended during June 2018.

Sodium minerals and sulfur services Segment Margin for the 2019 Quarter decreased $6.8 million, or 11% from the 2018 Quarter. This decrease is primarily due to lower volumes during the 2019 Quarter, including both our soda ash business (our "Alkali Business") and refinery services business. Soda ash volumes in the 2019 Quarter were negatively impacted by longer than expected mine downtime due to hoist maintenance and repairs performed during the move of our longwall mining machine to a different section of our mine. Our refinery services business continues to perform as expected. NaHS volumes slightly decreased during the 2019 Quarter due to lower demand from certain of our international customers, primarily located in South America, and our domestic pulp and paper customers.

Onshore facilities and transportation Segment Margin for the 2019 Quarter increased $10.2 million, or 40% from the 2018 Quarter. This increase is partially due to increased volumes at our Raceland and Scenic Station rail facilities during the 2019 Quarter. Our main customer associated with our Baton Rouge infrastructure exceeded the minimum take-or-pay volumes, including rail, terminal and pipeline movements, during the 2019 Quarter to a level that utilized and exceeded 100% of the prepaid transportation credits that accumulated during the first quarter of 2019. We also received a cash payment of $10 million during the 2019 Quarter associated with the resolution of a crude oil supply agreement. Additionally, while the volumes on our Texas system increased during the 2019 Quarter, we were only able to recognize our minimum volume commitment because our main customer utilized some of its prepaid transportation credits. This was partially offset by the margin recognized during the 2018 Quarter associated with our previously owned Powder River midstream assets that were divested in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Marine transportation Segment Margin for the 2019 Quarter increased $2.0 million, or 17%, from the 2018 Quarter. This increase in Segment Margin is primarily attributable to higher inland and offshore barge utilization during the 2019 Quarter along with an increase in average day rates in the market that have been advantageous in both spot and term contracts. While we have seen a slight uptick in day rates, we have continued to enter into short term contracts (less than a year) in both the inland and offshore markets because we believe the day rates currently being offered by the market are still near cyclical lows. This was partially offset by an increase in operating costs during the 2019 Quarter relative to the 2018 Quarter due to an increase in dry-docking costs in both our inland and offshore fleet.

Other Components of Net Income

In the 2019 Quarter, we recorded Net Income Attributable to Genesis Energy, L.P. of $40.1 million compared to Net Income Attributable to Genesis Energy, L.P. of $11.0 million in the 2018 Quarter. Net Income Attributable to Genesis Energy, L.P. in the 2019 Quarter benefited from an increase in segment margin of $10.3 million, positive changes in estimated abandonment costs for certain of our non-operating offshore gas assets of $15.7 million (which is included within "Offshore pipeline transportation operating costs" on the Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations), and an increase in equity in earnings of equity investees of $6.7 million. These were offset by higher depreciation, depletion, and amortization expense of $1.7 million and an unrealized loss from the valuation of the embedded derivative associated with our Class A Convertible Preferred units of $4.7 million during the 2019 Quarter compared to an unrealized loss of $0.2 million during the 2018 Quarter.

Earnings Conference Call

We will broadcast our Earnings Conference Call on Tuesday, August 6, 2019, at 8:30 a.m. Central time (9:30 a.m. Eastern time). This call can be accessed at www.genesisenergy.com. Choose the Investor Relations button. For those unable to attend the live broadcast, a replay will be available beginning approximately one hour after the event and remain available on our website for 30 days. There is no charge to access the event.

Genesis Energy, L.P. is a diversified midstream energy master limited partnership headquartered in Houston, Texas. Genesis’ operations include offshore pipeline transportation, sodium minerals and sulfur services, onshore facilities and transportation and marine transportation. Genesis’ operations are primarily located in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Wyoming and the Gulf of Mexico.

This press release includes forward-looking statements as defined under federal law. Although we believe that our expectations are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our goals will be achieved. Actual results may vary materially. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this press release that address activities, events or developments that we expect, believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future, including but not limited to statements relating to future financial and operating results and our strategy and plans, are forward-looking statements, and historical performance is not necessarily indicative of future performance. Those forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions concerning future events and are subject to a number of uncertainties, factors and risks, many of which are outside our control, that could cause results to differ materially from those expected by management. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, weather, political, economic and market conditions, including a decline in the price and market demand for products, the timing and success of business development efforts and other uncertainties. Those and other applicable uncertainties, factors and risks that may affect those forward-looking statements are described more fully in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other filings, including our Current Reports on Form 8-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement.

NON-GAAP MEASURES

This press release and the accompanying schedules include non-generally accepted accounting principle (non-GAAP) financial measures of Adjusted EBITDA and total Available Cash before Reserves. In this press release, we also present total Segment Margin as if it were a non-GAAP measure. Our Non-GAAP measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies because such measures may include or exclude other specified items. The accompanying schedules provide reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable financial measures calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (GAAP). Our non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered (i) as alternatives to GAAP measures of liquidity or financial performance or (ii) as being singularly important in any particular context; they should be considered in a broad context with other quantitative and qualitative information. Our Available Cash before Reserves, Adjusted EBITDA and total Segment Margin measures are just three of the relevant data points considered from time to time.

When evaluating our performance and making decisions regarding our future direction and actions (including making discretionary payments, such as quarterly distributions) our board of directors and management team have access to a wide range of historical and forecasted qualitative and quantitative information, such as our financial statements; operational information; various non-GAAP measures; internal forecasts; credit metrics; analyst opinions; performance, liquidity and similar measures; income; cash flow; and expectations for us, and certain information regarding some of our peers. Additionally, our board of directors and management team analyze, and place different weight on, various factors from time to time. We believe that investors benefit from having access to the same financial measures being utilized by management, lenders, analysts and other market participants. We attempt to provide adequate information to allow each individual investor and other external user to reach her/his own conclusions regarding our actions without providing so much information as to overwhelm or confuse such investor or other external user.

AVAILABLE CASH BEFORE RESERVES

Purposes, Uses and Definition

Available Cash before Reserves, also referred to as distributable cash flow, is a quantitative standard used throughout the investment community with respect to publicly traded partnerships and is commonly used as a supplemental financial measure by management and by external users of financial statements such as investors, commercial banks, research analysts and rating agencies, to aid in assessing, among other things:

(1) the financial performance of our assets;

(2) our operating performance;

(3) the viability of potential projects, including our cash and overall return on alternative capital investments as compared to those of other companies in the midstream energy industry;

(4) the ability of our assets to generate cash sufficient to satisfy certain non-discretionary cash requirements, including interest payments and certain maintenance capital requirements; and

(5) our ability to make certain discretionary payments, such as distributions on our preferred and common units, growth capital expenditures, certain maintenance capital expenditures and early payments of indebtedness.

We define Available Cash before Reserves ("Available Cash before Reserves") as Adjusted EBITDA as adjusted for certain items, the most significant of which in the relevant reporting periods have been the sum of maintenance capital utilized, net cash interest expense, cash tax expense, and cash distributions paid to our Class A convertible preferred unitholders.

Disclosure Format Relating to Maintenance Capital

We use a modified format relating to maintenance capital requirements because our maintenance capital expenditures vary materially in nature (discretionary vs. non-discretionary), timing and amount from time to time. We believe that, without such modified disclosure, such changes in our maintenance capital expenditures could be confusing and potentially misleading to users of our financial information, particularly in the context of the nature and purposes of our Available Cash before Reserves measure. Our modified disclosure format provides those users with information in the form of our maintenance capital utilized measure (which we deduct to arrive at Available Cash before Reserves). Our maintenance capital utilized measure constitutes a proxy for non-discretionary maintenance capital expenditures and it takes into consideration the relationship among maintenance capital expenditures, operating expenses and depreciation from period to period.

Maintenance Capital Requirements

Maintenance Capital Expenditures

Maintenance capital expenditures are capitalized costs that are necessary to maintain the service capability of our existing assets, including the replacement of any system component or equipment which is worn out or obsolete. Maintenance capital expenditures can be discretionary or non-discretionary, depending on the facts and circumstances.

Initially, substantially all of our maintenance capital expenditures were (a) related to our pipeline assets and similar infrastructure, (b) non-discretionary in nature and (c) immaterial in amount as compared to our Available Cash before Reserves measure. Those historical expenditures were non-discretionary (or mandatory) in nature because we had very little (if any) discretion as to whether or when we incurred them. We had to incur them in order to continue to operate the related pipelines in a safe and reliable manner and consistently with past practices. If we had not made those expenditures, we would not have been able to continue to operate all or portions of those pipelines, which would not have been economically feasible. An example of a non-discretionary (or mandatory) maintenance capital expenditure would be replacing a segment of an old pipeline because one can no longer operate that pipeline safely, legally and/or economically in the absence of such replacement.

As we exist today, a substantial amount of our maintenance capital expenditures from time to time will be (a) related to our assets other than pipelines, such as our marine vessels, trucks and similar assets, (b) discretionary in nature and (c) potentially material in amount as compared to our Available Cash before Reserves measure. Those expenditures will be discretionary (or non-mandatory) in nature because we will have significant discretion as to whether or when we incur them. We will not be forced to incur them in order to continue to operate the related assets in a safe and reliable manner. If we chose not make those expenditures, we would be able to continue to operate those assets economically, although in lieu of maintenance capital expenditures, we would incur increased operating expenses, including maintenance expenses. An example of a discretionary (or non-mandatory) maintenance capital expenditure would be replacing an older marine vessel with a new marine vessel with substantially similar specifications, even though one could continue to economically operate the older vessel in spite of its increasing maintenance and other operating expenses.

In summary, as we continue to expand certain non-pipeline portions of our business, we are experiencing changes in the nature (discretionary vs. non-discretionary), timing and amount of our maintenance capital expenditures that merit a more detailed review and analysis than was required historically. Management’s recently increasing ability to determine if and when to incur certain maintenance capital expenditures is relevant to the manner in which we analyze aspects of our business relating to discretionary and non-discretionary expenditures. We believe it would be inappropriate to derive our Available Cash before Reserves measure by deducting discretionary maintenance capital expenditures, which we believe are similar in nature in this context to certain other discretionary expenditures, such as growth capital expenditures, distributions/dividends and equity buybacks. Unfortunately, not all maintenance capital expenditures are clearly discretionary or non-discretionary in nature. Therefore, we developed a measure, maintenance capital utilized, that we believe is more useful in the determination of Available Cash before Reserves. Our maintenance capital utilized measure, which is described in more detail below, constitutes a proxy for non-discretionary maintenance capital expenditures and it takes into consideration the relationship among maintenance capital expenditures, operating expenses and depreciation from period to period.

Maintenance Capital Utilized

We believe our maintenance capital utilized measure is the most useful quarterly maintenance capital requirements measure to use to derive our Available Cash before Reserves measure. We define our maintenance capital utilized measure as that portion of the amount of previously incurred maintenance capital expenditures that we utilize during the relevant quarter, which would be equal to the sum of the maintenance capital expenditures we have incurred for each project/component in prior quarters allocated ratably over the useful lives of those projects/components.

Because we did not initially use our maintenance capital utilized measure, our future maintenance capital utilized calculations will reflect the utilization of solely those maintenance capital expenditures incurred since December 31, 2013.

ADJUSTED EBITDA

Purposes, Uses and Definition

Adjusted EBITDA is commonly used as a supplemental financial measure by management and by external users of financial statements such as investors, commercial banks, research analysts and rating agencies, to aid in assessing, among other things:

(1) the financial performance of our assets without regard to financing methods, capital structures or historical cost basis;

(2) our operating performance as compared to those of other companies in the midstream energy industry, without regard to financing and capital structure;

(3) the viability of potential projects, including our cash and overall return on alternative capital investments as compared to those of other companies in the midstream energy industry;

(4) the ability of our assets to generate cash sufficient to satisfy certain non-discretionary cash requirements, including interest payments and certain maintenance capital requirements; and

(5) our ability to make certain discretionary payments, such as distributions on our preferred and common units, growth capital expenditures, certain maintenance capital expenditures and early payments of indebtedness.

We define Adjusted EBITDA (“Adjusted EBITDA”) as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (including impairment, write-offs, accretion and similar items, often referred to as EBITDA) after eliminating other non-cash revenues, expenses, gains, losses and charges (including any loss on asset dispositions), plus or minus certain other select items that we view as not indicative of our core operating results (collectively, "Select Items"). Although, we do not necessarily consider all of our Select Items to be non-recurring, infrequent or unusual, we believe that an understanding of these Select Items is important to the evaluation of our core operating results. The most significant Select Items in the relevant reporting periods are set forth below.

The table below includes the Select Items discussed above as applicable to the reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA and Available Cash before Reserves to net income:

SEGMENT MARGIN

Our chief operating decision maker (our Chief Executive Officer) evaluates segment performance based on a variety of measures including Segment Margin, segment volumes where relevant and capital investment. We define Segment Margin as revenues less product costs, operating expenses, and segment general and administrative expenses, after eliminating gain or loss on sale of assets, plus or minus applicable Select Items. Although, we do not necessarily consider all of our Select Items to be non-recurring, infrequent or unusual, we believe that an understanding of these Select Items is important to the evaluation of our core operating results.

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