NGL Energy Partners LP (NGL): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

When you look at a midstream player like NGL Energy Partners LP, are you seeing just pipelines and storage, or the financial resilience of a company that turned its fiscal 2025 net loss into a $65.0 million income from continuing operations? This Master Limited Partnership (MLP) is strategically shedding non-core assets to focus on its dominant Water Solutions segment, which alone delivered a record $542.0 million in Adjusted EBITDA for the year. That kind of pivot shows a clear path, but what does their ownership structure-and a massive $3.47 billion in annual revenue-really tell you about their future in a volatile energy market? Stick with me, and we'll break down exactly how NGL operates and makes its money, giving you the clear, actionable perspective you need.

NGL Energy Partners LP (NGL) History

Given Company's Founding Timeline

NGL Energy Partners LP, structured as a Master Limited Partnership (MLP), didn't start with a single garage-based invention; it was an aggregation play, a roll-up of existing energy assets. This approach immediately gave it scale, but also a complex capital structure we've seen them work to simplify.

Year established

The company was established in 2010.

Original location

Its corporate headquarters are in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is still its base of operations.

Founding team members

The Partnership was formed through a series of strategic consolidations, not a single founding team in the traditional sense. Key leadership, like CEO Mike Krimbill, who has over two decades in executive roles across the propane industry, guided the early and subsequent expansion, shaping the firm's direction from the start.

Initial capital/funding

Initial capital details were not publicly disclosed, but the company's growth was fueled by multiple funding rounds, with the first occurring three years after its founding. This initial funding structure was typical for an MLP focused on rapid acquisition-led growth.

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The most transformative shift for NGL Energy Partners LP has been the pivot toward Water Solutions as the primary growth engine, coupled with an aggressive deleveraging strategy.

The Water Solutions segment achieved record performance in Fiscal Year 2025 (FY2025), which ended March 31, 2025, hitting an Adjusted EBITDA of $542.0 million. This segment now drives the partnership's value proposition.

Here's the quick math on the recent focus:

• Full-year FY2025 Adjusted EBITDA was $622.9 million.
• Total income from continuing operations for FY2025 was $65.0 million, a major turnaround from the prior year's loss.
• The partnership processed an average of 2.63 million barrels per day of produced water in FY2025, showing the scale of the Water Solutions business.

Also, the partnership executed significant non-core asset sales, including the May 2025 sales that generated approximately $270 million in proceeds. This cash is crucial for paying down debt and simplifying the balance sheet, a clear action for investors to track. You can read more about the financial health here: Breaking Down NGL Energy Partners LP (NGL) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

The core takeaway is that NGL has moved from a broad-based, acquisition-heavy midstream entity to a more focused, water-centric infrastructure player, prioritizing cash flow and capital structure improvement over simply maximizing gross revenue. That's a huge strategic change.

NGL Energy Partners LP (NGL) Ownership Structure

NGL Energy Partners LP's ownership structure is typical of a publicly traded Master Limited Partnership (MLP), where control is split between a General Partner and a diverse base of unitholders, with a significant majority held by the public and retail investors.

This structure means the firm is governed by NGL Energy Holdings LLC, its General Partner (GP), which is responsible for managing the partnership's affairs. The GP is itself owned by the NGL Energy GP Investor Group, a collective of 43 individuals and entities, creating a layer of concentrated control over the operational strategy, even with the majority of common units held publicly. This setup is key to understanding the firm's decision-making, particularly around distributions and asset sales, like the non-core asset sales that raised approximately $270 million in the first half of 2025.

Given Company's Current Status

NGL Energy Partners LP is a publicly held Master Limited Partnership (MLP), trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol NGL. As an MLP, it issues common units, not stock, and its fiscal year ends on March 31st.

The company's financial health saw a notable shift in the 2025 fiscal year, reporting an Income from continuing operations of $65.0 million, a significant turnaround from the prior year's loss. The firm's operational focus is clear: the Water Solutions segment achieved a record Adjusted EBITDA of $542.0 million for the full Fiscal Year 2025, driving the total Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations to $622.9 million. You can defintely see the pivot to water management paying off.

Given Company's Ownership Breakdown

As of November 2025, the majority of NGL Energy Partners LP's common units are held by a wide base of public and individual investors. This is a common characteristic of MLPs, but the influence of institutional holders remains substantial, especially with the General Partner retaining operational control.

The fact that insiders, like Director James M. Collingsworth, have been buying units-such as the purchase of 100,000 shares in September 2025-can be a strong signal of management confidence in the near-term outlook. For a deeper dive into the major institutional players, see Exploring NGL Energy Partners LP (NGL) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Given Company's Leadership

The Partnership is steered by a seasoned management team, which is also part of the insider ownership base, aligning their interests with unitholder returns. The leadership is structured around the three core business segments: Water Solutions, Crude Oil Logistics, and Liquids Logistics.

• H. Michael Krimbill: Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors.
• Brad Cooper: Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
• Jennifer Kingham: Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO).
• Ryan Collins: General Counsel and Corporate Secretary.
• Doug White: Executive Vice President - Water Solutions. This is the firm's most profitable segment, so his role is critical.
• Don Robinson: Executive Vice President - Crude Oil Logistics.
• Larry Thuillier: Chief Accounting Officer.

This team's primary action point for 2025 was the strategic divestment of non-core assets to reduce debt, a move that is reshaping the balance sheet and focusing the company on its high-growth water infrastructure business.

NGL Energy Partners LP (NGL) Mission and Values

NGL Energy Partners LP's core purpose centers on being a vertically integrated, full-service provider in the midstream energy sector, balancing critical infrastructure delivery with a strong commitment to operational safety and environmental responsibility.

The company's cultural DNA is less about a single marketing phrase and more about tangible priorities: delivering essential logistics for crude oil and natural gas liquids, plus pioneering water solutions, all while aiming for significant financial stability.

NGL Energy Partners LP's Core Purpose

While NGL Energy Partners LP does not publish a single, universally branded mission statement, their operational focus and public actions define their core purpose: to provide comprehensive, reliable midstream services that create value for stakeholders through responsible asset management and strategic growth. This is a trend-aware, realist approach, recognizing that long-term returns depend on safe, consistent operations.

Here's the quick math on their focus: Water Solutions, their primary growth driver, generated an Adjusted EBITDA of $542.0 million in Fiscal Year 2025, which is a 6.6% increase over the prior year, showing where the core value creation lies.

Official mission statement

The Partnership's formal objectives, inferred from their strategic filings and operational priorities, reflect a commitment that goes beyond simple profit maximization.

• Provide comprehensive midstream services for crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and produced water.
• Ensure safe and reliable operations across all assets, minimizing environmental impact.
• Create value for unitholders through strategic investments and operational efficiencies.
• Maintain a strong financial position to support future growth and investment.

Vision statement

NGL Energy Partners LP's vision is to solidify its position as a leading, diversified midstream Master Limited Partnership (MLP) by aggressively expanding and optimizing its core assets, especially in water management. This vision is less aspirational and more pragmatic, focused on market dominance in key segments.

• Expand the infrastructure network to capitalize on growing energy production in key regions like the Permian Basin.
• Optimize existing assets for enhanced efficiency; for example, the company processed approximately 2.63 million barrels per day of produced water in Fiscal Year 2025.
• Diversify service offerings to meet evolving customer needs, including an increased focus on renewable energy projects.
• Execute on non-core asset sales-like the approximately $270 million raised from sales subsequent to March 31, 2025-to reduce debt and strengthen the balance sheet.

If you want to understand how these operational goals translate into balance sheet strength, you should check out Breaking Down NGL Energy Partners LP (NGL) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

NGL Energy Partners LP slogan/tagline

The company does not use a single, widely-publicized corporate slogan or tagline, preferring to communicate its mission through its business model and operational results. However, their actions highlight a functional mantra:

• Vertical integration enables NGL to be the full service provider for crude oil and water solutions.
• Their Water Solutions segment uses the phrase: Re-Defining S.W.D. (Salt Water Disposal).

This focus on 'full-service' and 're-defining' a core process is a defintely clear signal of their competitive strategy in a complex market.

NGL Energy Partners LP (NGL) How It Works

NGL Energy Partners LP operates as a diversified midstream energy partnership, primarily generating revenue through fee-based services for moving and managing essential energy commodities and byproducts. The company's core strategy, as of fiscal year 2025, is anchored in its Water Solutions segment, which provides stable, high-margin environmental services to oil and gas producers.

Honestly, the business is now less about commodity trading and more about infrastructure and service fees, which makes the cash flow much more defintely predictable.

Given Company's Product/Service Portfolio

Given Company's Operational Framework

The company's operational framework is built on vertical integration (owning assets across the value chain) within its three distinct segments, minimizing third-party reliance and maximizing fee capture.

Here's the quick math on value creation:

• Water Solutions: Value comes from high-volume throughput on its integrated pipeline system. In Fiscal Year 2025, the segment processed an average of 2.63 million barrels per day of produced water. This is a critical, non-discretionary service for producers.
• Crude Oil Logistics: The segment buys crude oil from the wellhead and transports it via its own assets-like the Grand Mesa Pipeline-to major trade hubs or refineries, securing a margin on the logistics and marketing services. Contracts often include minimum volume commitments (MVCs) to ensure stable cash flow.
• Liquids Logistics: This segment focuses on arbitrage and supply chain efficiency, using its terminals and rail fleet to move NGLs and refined products from supply points to demand centers in the US and Canada. The goal is to manage price exposure using back-to-back physical contracts.

The strategic asset sales, which raised approximately $270 million in Fiscal Year 2025, show a clear pivot to simplify operations and focus capital on the most stable, fee-based assets.

Given Company's Strategic Advantages

NGL Energy Partners LP's market success is increasingly tied to its dominance in the environmental midstream sector, which insulates it from some of the volatility of pure commodity businesses.

• Water Midstream Market Leadership: The Water Solutions segment is the largest integrated water management business in the Delaware Basin, operating over 800 miles of large-diameter produced water pipelines. This scale creates a significant barrier to entry for competitors.
• Massive Permitted Capacity: The company holds approximately 5.1 million barrels per day of permitted disposal capacity in the Delaware Basin. This massive capacity is a strategic asset that can handle future production growth from dedicated acreage.
• High-Quality, Fee-Based Cash Flow: The Water Solutions segment contributed a record Adjusted EBITDA of $542.0 million in Fiscal Year 2025, representing the vast majority of the Partnership's total Adjusted EBITDA of $622.9 million. This shift toward a higher percentage of fee-based revenue reduces overall financial risk.
• Contractual Stability: A significant portion of the Water Solutions and Crude Oil Logistics revenue is secured by long-term, minimum volume commitment (MVC) contracts with investment-grade or high-quality counterparties, ensuring predictable cash flows regardless of short-term volume fluctuations.

If you want to understand the underlying stability of the business, you need to look at Breaking Down NGL Energy Partners LP (NGL) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors, focusing on that segment's contribution to total EBITDA.

NGL Energy Partners LP (NGL) How It Makes Money

NGL Energy Partners LP primarily makes money by providing essential midstream services to the energy sector, but its financial engine is rapidly shifting from high-volume, low-margin commodity sales to stable, fee-based water disposal and recycling services.

The company generates revenue through three main segments: Water Solutions (fee-for-service disposal of produced water), Liquids Logistics (sales of natural gas liquids and refined products), and Crude Oil Logistics (transportation and storage of crude oil). The key takeaway for investors is that while liquids and crude sales inflate top-line revenue-totaling $3.47 billion in Fiscal Year 2025-the vast majority of the company's profit comes from the Water Solutions segment.

NGL Energy Partners LP's Revenue Breakdown

The company's revenue structure is a classic example of a midstream business transitioning away from volatile commodity price exposure toward a more predictable fee-for-service model. Here is the approximate revenue breakdown for Fiscal Year 2025 (ended March 31, 2025), which highlights where the cash flow stability is coming from versus where the sheer volume of sales is recorded.

Business Economics

You need to look past the top-line revenue number to understand the true financial health of NGL Energy Partners LP. The Liquids Logistics and Crude Oil Logistics segments operate on a high-volume, low-margin model, meaning they have massive sales figures but a small percentage of that revenue translates into profit. Water Solutions, on the other hand, is the company's high-margin, stable cash cow.

• Water Solutions' Fee-Based Model: This segment operates largely on fixed-fee contracts and acreage dedications with minimum volume commitments (MVCs). This structure means NGL Energy Partners LP gets paid a set fee per barrel of produced water disposed of, regardless of commodity price volatility. This is where the company earned the bulk of its profit, contributing approximately 87.0% of the total Adjusted EBITDA in Fiscal Year 2025.
• Logistics' Commodity Risk: The Liquids and Crude Oil Logistics segments are heavily involved in the sale of commodities like propane, butane, and crude oil, which introduces significant working capital needs and exposure to price fluctuations. The company's strategic divestment of non-core assets, including 17 natural gas liquids terminals and its wholesale propane business, aims to reduce this price volatility and seasonality.
• Growth Driver: Water Solutions processed an average of 2.63 million barrels per day of produced water in Fiscal Year 2025, an 8.6% increase over the prior year, driven by the expansion of systems like the Lea County Express Pipeline (LEX II). This is the defintely the future of the business.

The goal is a lower, more stable revenue base that generates a higher proportion of fee-based earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), which is a key metric for midstream companies. Breaking Down NGL Energy Partners LP (NGL) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors

NGL Energy Partners LP's Financial Performance

Fiscal Year 2025 (FY 2025) marked a significant inflection point for NGL Energy Partners LP, showing a move toward profitability and a stronger balance sheet, despite the overall revenue decrease from asset sales.

• Adjusted EBITDA Growth: Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations for FY 2025 was $622.9 million, an increase from $593.4 million in the prior year. This growth, despite lower total revenue, underscores the success of the shift to higher-margin businesses.
• Net Income Turnaround: The company reported income from continuing operations of $65.0 million for the full FY 2025, a substantial turnaround from a loss of $157.7 million in Fiscal Year 2024. This is a critical sign of operational improvement and deleveraging efforts taking hold.
• Deleveraging Focus: NGL Energy Partners LP used proceeds from asset sales, which raised approximately $270 million, to pay down debt and address preferred unit arrearages. This focus on the capital structure is crucial for long-term sustainability.
• Liquidity Position: As of March 31, 2025, total liquidity (cash plus available capacity on the ABL Facility) was approximately $385.7 million. The company has no significant current debt maturities before February 2029, providing a clear runway for executing its strategic plan.

NGL Energy Partners LP (NGL) Market Position & Future Outlook

NGL Energy Partners LP is fundamentally shifting its business mix, moving from a diversified midstream operator to a focused leader in the high-growth Produced Water Solutions segment. The company successfully executed a turnaround in fiscal year 2025 (FY2025), posting income from continuing operations of $65.0 million, a significant reversal from the previous year's loss. This pivot, coupled with debt reduction, positions the company for more predictable, fee-based cash flows, even as its overall annual revenue decreased to $3.47 billion in FY2025 due to non-core asset sales.

The future hinges on the Water Solutions segment, which delivered a record Adjusted EBITDA of $542.0 million in FY2025, and continued volume growth, averaging 2.63 million barrels per day of produced water processed for the year. The near-term outlook is driven by organic growth in the Permian Basin and a relentless focus on strengthening the balance sheet. Frankly, the market is rewarding this focus, which is defintely the right move for a smaller Master Limited Partnership (MLP).

Competitive Landscape

In the broad US midstream space, NGL Energy Partners LP is a niche player, specializing in produced water management, which is a key differentiator against the massive scale of its competitors. While its overall market share is small, its dominance in the Delaware Basin's water infrastructure gives it a competitive moat.

Opportunities & Challenges

The company's strategic initiatives for the near term (Fiscal 2026) are clear: double down on the high-margin Water Solutions business and aggressively manage debt. They are projecting a Fiscal 2027 Adjusted EBITDA in excess of $700 million, which is a bold target that relies heavily on the success of their core segment's growth.

Industry Position

NGL Energy Partners LP's standing is defined by its strategic focus. It is not a midstream giant like Enterprise Products Partners or Energy Transfer Partners, but it is a dominant force in a critical, specialized niche: produced water management, especially in the Permian's Delaware Basin. This focus is providing a clear path to profitability.

• Own the largest integrated network of large-diameter wastewater pipelines and disposal wells in the Delaware Basin.
• Water Solutions Adjusted EBITDA of $542.0 million in FY2025 makes this segment the primary driver of earnings.
• The market is recognizing this momentum; the stock has shown high momentum, but this also brings the risk of being technically overbought, as seen with a high Relative Strength Index (RSI) in November 2025.
• The strategy is to shed volatile businesses (like the sale of 17 natural gas liquids terminals) to become a pure-play water infrastructure provider.

If you want a deeper dive into the institutional money backing this shift, check out Exploring NGL Energy Partners LP (NGL) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?