It’s safe to say the nation’s largest midstream players in 1Q took home the bacon and most of the honey-glazed hog. To that, we say congrats and when’s the barbeque?

Reese Energy Consulting today is following the latest midstream showoff, this time from Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, which opened its earnings presentation with a cinematic intro to set the stage for what was to come. The video begins with shots of someone scaling a perilously tall and jagged rock formation, what appears to be a Space-X rocket launch, and of course, the ubiquitous animation of evolving technology that’s then followed by a natural gas flame. It’s all very high drama, culminating with three ETP field employees walking toward camera, hands planted on hips, in a silent expression of “Bring it, dude.”

And in the first three months of 2024, Energy Transfer did just that. Following last year’s $9 billion in acquisitions, the company is reaping big-time rewards—and its appetite for more midstream assets is far from satiated.

ETP in 1Q reported adjusted EBITDA of $3.88 billion compared with $3.43 billion in the same quarter last year, along with distributable cash flow of $2.36 billion vs $2.01 billion in 2023. The company check-marked increases across the whole oil and gas and NGL enchilada to include gathering, transportation, terminal, and export volumes—highlighting a whopping 44% increase in crude oil transportation volumes alone and setting an all-high record.

Energy Transfer operates across 44 states with 125,000 miles of pipelines, storage assets, terminals, and NGL fractionation. The company also owns the Lake Charles LNG Company, in addition to interests in Sunoco and USA Compression Partners. Hands on hips indeed.