Alliance Resource Partners, L.P.

I just did check. He is. Brian got me ready.

Greetings and welcome to the Alliance Resource Partners LP third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Brian Cantrell, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Darrell, and welcome, everyone. Earlier this morning, Alliance Resource Partners released its third quarter 2021 financial and operating results, and we'll now discuss these results as well as our perspective on market conditions and outlook. Following our prepared remarks, we'll open the call to your questions. Before beginning, a reminder that some of our remarks today may include forward-looking statements subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are contained in our filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are also reflected in this morning's press release. While these forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to us, if one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if our underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those we projected or expected. In providing these remarks, the partnership has no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, unless required by law to do so. Finally, we'll also be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. Definitions and reconciliations of the differences between these non-GAAP financial measures and the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are contained at the end of ARLP's press release, which has been posted on our website and furnished to the SEC on Form 8K. With the required preliminaries out of the way, I'll begin with a review of our results for the quarter and then turn the call over to Joe Kraft, our Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer for his comments. The exceptional performance delivered by Alliance through the first half of the year continued into the 2021 quarter. As we reported earlier this morning, ARLP again posted sequential increases to total revenues, net income, EBITDA, and free cash flow. Strong performance from both our coal operations and our royalty segments led total revenues higher by $53 million to $414.4 million with net income increasing $13.5 million to $57.5 million, or 44 cents per unit, and EBITDA climbing $17.3 million to $135.9 million. Free cash flow also rose during the 2021 quarter, increasing $40.3 million to $119.7 million. ARLP's strong cash flow performance during the 2021 quarter allowed us to return $12.7 million to unit holders through the quarterly distribution we paid in August and further improve our balance sheet as total leverage fell to 0.95 times, a 12% reduction from the sequential quarter, and liquidity increased $102.1 million to $602.6 million. ARLP's financial and operating results for the 2021 quarter and the first nine months of 2021 were also much improved compared to the 2020 quarter and period. Compared to the 2020 quarter, total revenues increased 16.8% as a result of higher coal sales volumes and significantly higher oil and gas prices, while net income jumped 111.4% and EBITDA climbed 14.4%. Compared to the 2020 period, coal sales volumes increased 15% during the 2021 period, driving total revenues higher by 14% to $1.1 billion. Coal production volumes also increased during the 2021 period, jumping 20.1% to 23.5 million tons, compared to 20.1 million tons during the 2020 period. Increased coal production and the benefits of ongoing cost control and efficiency initiatives that are mining operations drove segment-adjusted EBITDA expense per ton sold lower by 11.1% to $28.82 per ton during the 2021 period, compared to $32.43 per ton for the 2020 period. Net income increased $290.5 million to $126.3 million reflecting higher revenues and lower depreciation in the 2021 period and $157 million of non-cash impairment charges in the 2020 period. Excluding these impairment charges, net income of $126.3 million for the 2021 period compares to an adjusted net loss of $7.2 million for the pandemic impacted 2020 period. EBITDA for the 2021 period increased 31.5% to $348.9 million, compared to adjusted EBITDA of $265.3 million in the 2020 period. Turning from our consolidated results, let's now take a closer look at the performance of ARLP's business segments. Reflecting strong coal demand, which led to higher sales tons and price realizations at our coal operations, Coal sales revenues rose 11.1% to $362.3 million during the 2021 quarter compared to the sequential quarter. Segment adjusted EBITDA expense increased modestly to $28.95 per ton sold as inflationary pressures are beginning to impact our coal operations. Increased revenues more than offset higher per ton operating expenses driving segment-adjusted EBITDA for our coal operations up by 10.9% to $126.3 million. AROP's royalty businesses also performed well during the 2021 quarter. For our oil and gas royalties, segment-adjusted EBITDA during the 2021 quarter rose 24.1% to $19.1 million as sales volumes and price realizations improved compared to the sequential quarter. Benefiting from increased revenues and royalty tons sold during the 2021 quarter, ARLP's coal business, coal royalties business delivered $9.2 million of segment-adjusted EBITDA, an increase of 35.6% compared to the sequential quarter. The strong performance of both of these businesses resulted in ARLP's total royalty segment hosting a record $28.3 million of segment-adjusted EBITDA during the 2021 quarter. And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Joe for his comments. Joe?