ConocoPhillips

Welcome to the fourth quarter 2023 ConocoPhillips Earnings Conference Call. My name is Liz, and I will 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 star 1 1 on your touch-tone phone. I will now turn the call over to Phil Gresh, Vice President, Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, Liz, and welcome everyone to our fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. On the call today are several members of the ConocoPhillips leadership team, including Ryan Lance, Chairman and CEO, Tim Leach, Advisor to the CEO, Bill Bullock, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Dominic Macklin, Executive Vice President of Strategy, Sustainability, and Technology, Nick Olds, Executive Vice President of Lower 48, Andy O'Brien, Senior Vice President of Global Operations. Kirk Johnson, Senior Vice President, Lower 48 Assets and Operations. And Will Drouot, Senior Vice President, Corporate Planning and Development. Ryan and Bill will kick it off with opening remarks, after which the team will be available for your questions. A few quick reminders. First, along with today's release, we published supplemental financial materials and a slide presentation, which you can find on the Investor Relations website. Second, during this call, we will make forward-looking statements based on current expectations. Actual results may differ due to factors noted in today's release and in our periodic SEC filings. We will make reference to some non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the nearest corresponding GAAP measure can be found in today's release and on our website. And third, when we move to Q&A after the prepared remarks, we'll be taking one question per caller. With that, I will turn it over to Ryan.

Thanks, Phil, and thank you to everyone for joining our fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. It was another strong quarter for ConocoPhillips as the team continued to execute on its commitment to deliver returns to our shareholders. Now, stepping back and looking at 2023, ConocoPhillips demonstrated solid execution across all aspects of our triple mandate. We reported record production and achieved several milestones across our global asset base. And we delivered a preliminary reserve replacement ratio of 123%, highlighting our ability to continue to replace reserves across our deep, durable, and diversified portfolio. We're also progressing several key strategic initiatives. We advanced our global LNG strategy through expansion in Qatar, FID at Port Arthur, and several offtake and regasification agreements. We FID'd the Willow Project in Alaska and have been ramping up construction this winter season. And we opportunistically acquired the remaining 50% of Sermont at an attractive price that fit our financial framework. We were able to accomplish all of this while delivering our returns-focused value proposition to our shareholders. We generated a trailing 12-month return on capital employed of 17% or 19% on a cash-adjusted basis. We also delivered on our plan to return $11 billion of capital to our shareholders, which was well in excess of our greater than 30% annual through-the-cycle commitment. Last spring, we further strengthened our GHG emissions intensity targets to a 50% to 60% reduction from a 2016 baseline. And we were recently awarded the Gold Standard Pathway designation by the Oil and Gas Initiative Methane Partnership 2.0. Now looking ahead to 2024, this morning, we announced a plan to distribute $9 billion to shareholders this year. We also announced a VROC of 20 cents per share for the first quarter. The remainder of our cash flow will be reinvested into the business as we continue to execute on our plan to grow earnings and cash flows as we outlined at our analyst and investor meeting last year. In conclusion, once again, I'm proud of the accomplishments of the entire organization. Our portfolio is well positioned to generate competitive returns and cash flow for decades to come. Now let me turn the call over to Bill to cover our fourth quarter performance and our 2024 guidance in more detail.