After closing the year with a record $4.6 billion profit, Houston-based midstream company Enterprise Products Partners LP is electing to adopt a co-CEO model.

In a Jan. 30 news release, Enterprise said the board of its general partner named current CFO W. Randall Fowler as co-CEO. In the new role, Fowler will serve alongside A. J. “Jim” Teague, who has headed the company since January 2016.

The adoption of the co-CEO model, which was effective immediately, is the result of a recommendation made by Teague, said Randa Duncan Williams, chairman of Enterprise’s general partner.

“Jim’s recommendation to transition to the co-CEO model in many ways reflects the manner in which Enterprise operates today,” Williams said in a statement on Jan. 30.

According to Williams, Teague and Fowler have been constants in Enterprise’s leadership and success since 1999. The new model will be driven by the pair’s complementary skill sets and diverse backgrounds as Fowler, in addition to his new title, is set to continue in his role as CFO of Enterprise.

“While they will jointly be responsible for all aspects of the partnership, Jim’s principal focus areas will continue to be the commercial, operations and engineering functions, while Randy’s will be the finance, accounting, information technology and risk management functions,” she added in her statement.

Teague and Fowler will also continue to serve as directors on the board of Enterprise’s general partner and members of the four-person office of the chairman, according to the company release.

Earlier on Jan. 30, Enterprise reported an adjusted EBITDA for fourth-quarter 2019 of about $2.019 billion, which analysts with Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. said was slightly ahead of Street and directly on top of the firm’s $2.017 billion estimate.

Additionally, the company said based on current expectations it plans to continue its recent 2.3% annual distribution growth for 2020 plus a roughly 2% of cash flow from operations being committed to buybacks during the year.

Enterprise printed a 6% increase in its cash flow from operations in 2019 to a record $6.5 billion compared to 2018. 

“We ended the decade with record performance in 2019 with all of our business segments reporting increased results, including 28 operating and financial records. ... The record cash flow we generated in 2019 allowed us to increase the distributions paid to our partners for the 21st consecutive year, while self-funding the equity portion of our growth capital expenditures,” Teague said in a statement regarding the company’s financial results.

Enterprise provides midstream energy services to producers and consumers in North America and is also one of the largest publicly traded partnerships, according to its release.

The company’s assets include about 50,000 miles of pipelines, 260 million barrels of storage capacity for NGL, crude oil, refined products and petrochemicals, and 14 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage capacity.

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