After becoming overextended during the oil price downturn from 2014 to 2016, midstream companies have placed greater emphasis on reducing leverage to a more comfortable and sustainable level. Lower leverage provides increased flexibility to withstand challenging market environments and lays the foundation for companies being able to grow their dividend or buy back shares. Today, we examine leverage metrics from 2016 to 2018 for the current North American midstream universe. Whose positioning has improved, who has seen leverage increase and what are the broad implications of leverage reduction? Keep reading to find out.