How does Black Stone Minerals' operating margin compare to its mid‑stream peers?

Answer

The news release you shared about Black Stone Minerals, L.P. (BSM) provides a snapshot of the partnership’s second‑quarter 2025 production volumes, net income, and an update to its 2025 guidance. However, the release does not include any figures or commentary on:

• Operating margin (e.g., operating income as a percentage of revenue or operating earnings per barrel of oil equivalent)
• Comparative operating‑margin data for mid‑stream peers (such as other gathering, processing, or transportation companies)

Because those specific metrics are absent from the provided information, I cannot directly compare Black Stone’s operating margin to that of its mid‑stream peers based solely on this news item.

What You can do next

1. Review the Full Earnings Release
   The Business Wire summary often truncates the detailed tables and commentary that appear in the full press release (or the accompanying Form 10‑Q/10‑K filing). Those documents typically contain:
   • A segment‑level operating income statement.
   • Operating margin calculations (operating income ÷ revenue) for the quarter and year‑to‑date.
   • Management discussion that may benchmark the partnership’s performance against peers.

You can locate the complete release on Black Stone Minerals’ investor‑relations website or on the SEC’s EDGAR system (e.g., the latest Form 10‑Q for Q2 2025).

1. Gather Peer Data
   
   To assess how Black Stone’s margin stacks up against mid‑stream peers, you’ll need comparable figures from other mid‑stream operators (e.g., Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), Kinder Morgan (KMI), Williams Companies (WMB), ONEOK (OKON), etc.). Their quarterly reports will include operating income and revenue, from which you can compute operating margins:
   [
   \text{Operating Margin} = \frac{\text{Operating Income (or EBIT)}}{\text{Total Revenue}} \times 100\%
   ]

2. Calculate the Ratio (if you obtain the numbers)
   
   Once you have Black Stone’s operating margin and the margins of the selected peers, you can:

   • Compare directly (e.g., “Black Stone’s Q2 2025 operating margin was 12.5%, versus 14.2% for Enterprise Products and 13.0% for Kinder Morgan.”)
   • Benchmark against the peer median or average to gauge relative profitability.

3. Consider Contextual Factors
   
   Operating margins in the mid‑stream sector can be influenced by:

   • Commodity price volatility (affects fee structures and processing margins).
   • Utilization rates (e.g., pipeline or processing plant capacity usage).
   • Contract mix (fixed‑fee vs. variable‑fee contracts).
   • Capital‑intensity and depreciation schedules (affecting operating expenses).

If Black Stone’s margin deviates significantly from peers, the management discussion in the full earnings release often explains the drivers (e.g., higher operating costs due to maintenance, lower utilization, or strategic pricing decisions).

Bottom Line

• From the excerpt you posted: No operating‑margin data is available, so a direct comparison cannot be made.
• To answer the question: Retrieve Black Stone’s full earnings statement (or SEC filing) for Q2 2025, compute its operating margin, and then pull the same metric for a set of mid‑stream peers from their quarterly reports. With those numbers, you can perform a side‑by‑side comparison and interpret any differences in light of operational or market factors.

If you can provide the missing operating‑margin figures (or a link to the full filing), I’d be happy to run the comparison and give you a detailed, data‑driven answer.