CVR Energy Inc.

Greetings, and welcome to the CBR Energy First Quarter 2022 Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief 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 your host, Richard Roberts. Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis in Investor Relations. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

Thank you, Christine. Good afternoon, everyone. We very much appreciate you joining us this afternoon for our CBR Energy First Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. With me today are Dave Lamp, our Chief Executive Officer, Dane Newman, our Chief Financial Officer, and other members of management. Prior to discussing our 2022 First Quarter results, let me remind you that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements as that term is defined under federal securities laws. For this purpose, any statements made during this call that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. You are cautioned that these statements may be affected by important factors set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our latest earnings release. As a result, actual operations or results may differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except to the extent required by law. Let me also remind you that CVR Partners completed a one-for-ten reverse split of its common units on November 23, 2020. Any per-unit references made on this call are on a split-adjusted basis. This call also includes various non-GAAP financial measures. The disclosures related to such non-GAAP measures, including reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, are included in our 2022 first quarter earnings release that we filed with the SEC and Form 10-Q for the period and will be discussed during the call. That said, I'll turn the call over to Dave.

Thank you, Richard. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining our earnings call. Yesterday, we reported first quarter consolidated net income of $153 million and earnings per share of $0.93. EBITDA for the quarter was $278 million. We posted higher results in both segments on a year-over-year basis as fundamentals in refining and fertilizer sector continued to improve during the first quarter. We are pleased to announce that the Board has authorized the first quarter dividend of 40 cents per share, which will be paid on May 23rd to shareholders of record at close of market on May 13th. At yesterday's closing price, this annualized dividend would be $1.60 per share, representing the dividend yield of over 6%, which is currently the highest annual dividend yield among independent refiners. For our petroleum segment, the combined total throughput for the first quarter of 2022 was approximately 197,000 barrels per day, with Winniewood undergoing its planned turnaround during the month of March. This compares to 186,000 barrels per day for the first quarter of 2021, which was impacted by some weather-related outages. The planned turnaround at Winniewood began at the end of February and was completed on schedule in the first week of April We also completed the conversion of the hydrocracker to renewable diesel service. The renewable diesel unit has begun operations and is currently running at half rate as we work out the bugs and work towards certification of a renewable diesel product. Benchmark cracks increased through the quarter. The Group 3 2-1-1 crack averaged $22.20 per barrel in the first quarter as compared to $16.33 in the first quarter of 2021. Based on the high end of the proposed 2022 RVO levels, RIN prices averaged at approximately $6.11 per barrel in the first quarter, an increase of 13% over the first quarter of 2021. The Brent TI differential averaged $2.98 per barrel in the first quarter compared to $3.18 in the prior year period. Diesel cracks surged in March and averaged $39.25 per barrel for the month. Light product yield for the quarter was 99% on crude oil processed. Our distillate yield as a percentage of total crude throughput was 42%, and we continue to operate our refineries in max distillate mode. In total, we gathered approximately 114,000 barrels per day of crude oil during the first quarter of 2022, compared to 102,000 12,000 barrels per day for the same period last year. As we have stated, we have started to see an increase in drilling activities in our area, and our gathering rates have been above 120,000 barrels per day recently. Although supply chain issues remain a hurdle in increasing production quickly, it is encouraging to see producers starting to ramp up activity in the mid-comp. In the fertilizer segment, we faced some unplanned downtime at both plants during the quarter, with consolidated ammonia utilization coming in at 88%. During the upcoming turnarounds at both facilities this summer, we expect to address the issues that caused some of the unplanned outages over the last two quarters. Price realizations for the first quarter of 2022 increased again, reflecting the latest price increases that began in the fall with the onset of the energy crunch in Europe and Asia. The recent conflict in Ukraine has driven increased concern over global fertilizer and grain supply and has strengthened prices further and increased our confidence in the longevity of this ag cycle. Now let me turn the call over to Dane to discuss additional financial highlights.