Vertex Energy, Inc

Good morning or good afternoon and welcome to the Vertex Energy third quarter earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your questions, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to John Ragazzino. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, and welcome to Vertex Energy's third quarter 2022 results conference call. Leading the call today are Chairman and CEO Ben Cowart, Chief Financial Officer Chris Carlson, and Chief Operating Officer James Rehm. Also attending the call are Chief Strategy Officer Alvaro Ruiz, Vice President Bart Rice, and Vice President of Black Oil Operations John Strickland. I want to remind you that management's commentary and responses to questions on today's call may include forward-looking statements which, by their nature, are uncertain and outside of the company's control. Although these forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs, actual results may differ materially. For discussion of some of the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ, please refer to the risk factor section of Vertex Energy's latest annual and quarterly filings with the SEC. Please note that you can find reconciliations of the historical non-GAAP financial measures discussed during our call in the press release issued today. Today's call will begin with remarks from Ben Cowart, followed by an operational review from James Rain and financial review from Chris Carlson. At the conclusion of these prepared remarks, we'll open the line for questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Ben.

Thank you, John, and good morning to those joining us on the call today. This morning, we issued a press release detailing our financial and operating results for the third quarter 2022. Simply put, we're not pleased with the full results for the quarter, largely due to previous hedges that were in place, which did not expire until September 30th. This was a slight 17% quarter over quarter improvement in hedge impacts, along with an additional 22% improvement on inventory charges related to backwardation. However, the impact of these items, in conjunction with a few non-recurring items, resulted in consolidated necessity, but that totaling $1.7 million for the quarter, which is below expectations. Chris Carlson, our Chief Financial Officer, will address financial results in greater detail momentarily. All things considered, we are glad to be out of our previous hedge positions, and we look forward to showcasing the true value of our mobile asset moving forward. As for the remainder of the results, we're very pleased with our operating performance during the quarter. We have continued to transition operations, continued steady progress on our RD project, and made significant improvements to the assets while doing so safely and reliably. Our team continued to execute safely on all fronts. demonstrating operational agility and flexibility in constant changing market conditions, of which I'm incredibly proud of their performance. We each continue to work extremely hard to effectively manage and, more importantly, adapt and learn from each of the individual challenges and organizational gaps we encountered along the transformational journey. Operationally, we reported throughput volumes in line with our prior expectations, achieving better than forecasted operating expense per barrel results. Our product yield profile and resulting capture rate was also on target, generating attractive refining profitability per barrel on an adjusted basis. Beyond prioritizing safe and reliable operations, we focused on optimizing our refining assets, expanding our core capabilities, and increasing our knowledge and expertise. We did this in three ways. First, we prioritized the maintenance and optimization of our mobile facility to best position Vertex for the fourth quarter ahead of anticipated robust market fundamentals concurrent with the roll-off of our previous hedge positions. Second, we grew and developed our employee base focused on key areas such as accounting, marketing, communications, and risk management. We pursued and began engagements with industry leading consulting groups to help us develop strategic business processes and expand our expertise on an accelerated timeline. Although we have used this quarter to cover a lot of ground and build momentum, each of these initiatives reflect our drive towards continuous improvement, serves to help us maintain a clear view of the road to a successful future. With that, I'd like to hand the call over to James Raine, our Chief Operating Officer, who will provide a detailed update on our operations during the quarter, including an update on the status of our renewable diesel conversion project at the Mobile facility. James.