Is Current Oil Price Favorable for Enterprise Products' Business?

The price of West Texas Intermediate is currently hovering around the $60-per-barrel mark. In its latest short-term energy outlook, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected the spot average West Texas Intermediate price at $52.21 per barrel for 2026 and $50.36 per barrel for the next year. Thus, EIA’s projection for low oil prices, due to rising inventories, could hurt the businesses of many energy companies. But, unlike most energy players, Enterprise Products Partners LP’s EPD business is not highly vulnerable to the fluctuations in commodity prices.

This is because Enterprise Products Partners is a leading midstream player, and therefore, it has a resilient business model. EPD has a pipeline network that spans more than 50,000 miles, transporting oil, natural gas, refined products and other commodities. Thus, the partnership generates stable fee-based revenues from the midstream assets, irrespective of the volatility in commodity prices, as the assets are booked by shippers for a long term.

Due to the resilience of its business model, the partnership has been able to return capital to unitholders on an ongoing basis. Since its IPO, Enterprise Products has returned billions to unitholders through repurchases and distributions.

KMI & ENB Also Have Stable Business Models

Kinder Morgan Inc. KMI and Enbridge Inc. ENB are two other midstream energy majors. By the very nature of their businesses, both KMI and ENB also have predictable cash flows. This is because KMI and ENB generate stable fee-based earnings from their respective midstream assets.

As of the September-end quarter of 2025, KMI’s project backlog was $9.3 billion. ENB, in contrast, mentioned that it has secured a capital program of billions of Canadian dollars. Thus, both Kinder Morgan and Enbridge have secured additional cash flows.

EPD’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Units of Enterprise Products have jumped 4.5% over the past year against the 7.7% decline of the composite stocks belonging to the industry.

From a valuation standpoint, EPD trades at a trailing 12-month enterprise value to EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) of 10.69X. This is below the broader industry average of 10.82X.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for EPD’s 2026 earnings has seen upward estimate revisions over the past seven days.

Enterprise Products currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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