ConocoPhillips

Welcome to the Q2 2022 ConocoPhillips Earnings Conference call. My name is Richard and I'll be your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. During the question and answer session, if you have a question, please press 01 on your touchtone phone. Again, that is 01 to ask a question. I will now turn the call over to Mark Keener, Vice President, Investor Relations. Mr. Keener, you may begin.

Thank you, Richard, and welcome to everyone joining us for our second quarter earnings call. First, let me introduce the members of the ConocoPhillips leadership team taking part in today's call. We have Ryan Lance, Chairman and CEO, Bill Bullock, EBP and Chief Financial Officer, Dominic Macklin, EBP of Strategy, Sustainability, and Technology, Nick Olds, EBP of Global Operations, Jack Harper, EBP of Lower 48, and Tim Lynch, Advisor to the CEO. On the call, Ryan and Bill will provide some opening comments, after which the team is available to take your questions. Before I turn it over to them, just a few quick reminders. In conjunction with this morning's press release, we posted supplemental materials that include second quarter earnings results and highlights, earnings and cash flow summaries, price realizations, sensitivities for estimating earnings and cash flow, and updated guidance for the third quarter and full year. During the call, we'll make forward-looking statements based on current expectations. Of course, actual results may differ due to the factors noted in today's release and in our periodic SEC filings. And finally, we'll make reference to some non-GAAP financial measures today. Reconciliations to the nearest corresponding GAAP measure can be found in this morning's release and on our website. With that, I'll turn it over to Ryan.

Well, thank you, Mark. And for those Mark has elected to retire, so I want to start off by really thanking him for more than 30 years of dedicated service to our company and wish him well in retirement. And at the same time, I'd like to warmly welcome Phil Gresh, who will be joining our team next month as Vice President of Investor Relations. Now, before I get into the results for the quarter, I'd also like to touch on a few things that continue to be top of mind for us. The ongoing tragic invasion in Ukraine and the residual implications from COVID have significantly impacted supply chains around the world, with shock waves driving both product shortages and elevated levels of volatility, including large swings in commodity prices. The combination of these factors has brought into sharp focus the critical importance of U.S. and global energy security and reliability. By fulfilling our triple mandate of responsibly and reliably meeting energy transition pathway demand, delivering competitive returns on and of capital, and progressing towards achieving our net zero operational emissions ambition, we're playing a key role in providing secure, dependable energy solutions that are clearly needed around the globe. The guiding principles of our triple mandate were key to our recent actions and announcements regarding global LNG supply capacity, as the use of natural gas in place of coal and refined products represents an opportunity for significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions around the world. We believe this reality is going to drive increasingly strong global LNG demand and related opportunities well into the future. As recently announced, we entered into an HOA with SEMPRA for a possible investment in the Port Arthur LNG project that's currently underway. The potential investment is designed to leverage our company's considerable strengths as one of the largest gas producers and marketers in North America while expanding our global LNG business. This potential investment is expected to be project financed and, if executed, would afford us the opportunity to participate in additional strategically located LNG projects, as well as to jointly pursue related emissions reduction opportunities. That announcement followed our recently completed 10% ownership increase in AP LNG, as well as our selection to participate in Qatar's Northfield East project, adding to our long, positive relationship with Qatar Energy. Our recent decision to join the OGMP 2.0 initiative is also in service to achieving our triple mandate, as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, is an imperative for our company and our sector. Applying the rigorous OGMP 2.0 reporting standard, which incorporates third-party verification, will be a vital step on our path to net zero operational emissions. Now, before I turn the call over to Bill to cover second quarter performance, let's discuss for a moment on the equally important returns element of our triple mandate. Looking at first state returns on capital, we generated a trading 12-month ROCE of 24% in the quarter, five points higher than the 19% we delivered last quarter. Turning next to our returns of capital, once again, we've increased our targeted 2022 distributions to shareholders. taking the total full-year expected returns to $15 billion. This represents a 50% increase from the target announced last quarter, with the $15 billion to be distributed across our three tiers of ordinary dividends, share repurchases, and VROC. At current strict prices, this represents a return to shareholders of slightly more than 50% of our projected CFO for the year. Our commitment to achieving our triple mandate is unwavering. And delivering competitive returns on and of capital to our shareholders through the cycles is a key component of that commitment. Now let me turn it over to Bill to cover our overall performance for the quarter.