A day after showing an increase in third-quarter income partly thanks to acquisitions over the last year, ONEOK (OKE) announced the closing of its latest deal to buy Medallion Midstream for about $2.6 billion.

ONEOK announced the pending $5.9 billion deal for Medallion and EnLink Midstream in August. The $3.3 billion EnLink acquisition closed on Oct. 15 following the federally required Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period.

Medallion’s crude pipeline network will complement ONEOK’s existing gathering and long-haul pipelines, said Sheridan Swords, ONEOK executive vice president for commercial liquids and natural gas gathering and processing, during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Oct. 30.

"With the acquisition of Medallion, the largest privately-held crude gathering and transportation system in the Permian's Midland Basin, we continue our demonstrated track record of intentional and disciplined growth," said Pierce H. Norton II, ONEOK president and CEO, in a press release on Oct. 31.

The Medallion acquisition will continue to boost the company’s revenue, which already saw a boost in the third quarter due to the continued integration of previous acquisitions.

ONEOK completed its acquisition of Magellan Midstream, one of the largest midstream companies in the U.S., in September 2023. The company is still identifying synergies from the merger, Norton said. In 2024, before adding EnLink and Magellan, ONEOK added an NGL pipeline network from Easton Energy in southeast Texas and expanded a refined products pipeline to the Denver area in July.

The additional assets brought in extra revenue. ONEOK’s net income from July to September was $693 million, a 52.6% increase by $239 million year-over-year.

The company said the increase was driven by commercial strength in the Rockies, increased natural gas transport and the addition of a new refined products and crude segment.

In the Rockies, the company reported a 7% increase in NGL raw feed throughput and a 5% increase in natural gas processed. Overall, the natural gas pipeline segment saw a 22% increase in EBITDA.

ONEOK’s increased gas pipeline traffic shows the difference between basin production. Natural gas traffic out of the crude-focused Permian, where ONEOK is connected, rose in 2024 as E&P businesses focused on oil. But in the gas-focused Appalachian shales, most E&Ps have curtailed or flattened production since the beginning of 2024. 

Analyzing the quarter, Truist Securities rated ONEOK stock a “hold,” adding that the acquisitions and synergy implementation provided an expected upside in 2025. Truist noted that the recent acquisitions have contributed to ONEOK facing higher-than-average leverage. The company reported a 3.5X leverage ratio at the end of the third quarter.

“While we had upside for the new assets in our model, we did not appreciate nearly enough the potential near-term volume growth and total synergies of these assets, along with how these assets can benefit the organic business,” Truist wrote in the analysis.

Comments