CVR Energy Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the CDR Energy, Inc. first quarter 2023 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 Vista Relations. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

Thank you, Christine. Good afternoon, everyone. We very much appreciate you joining us this afternoon for our CVR Energy First Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. With me today are Dave Lamp, our Chief Executive Officer, Dan Newman, our Chief Financial Officer, and other members of management. Prior to discussing our 2023 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 in 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. 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 2023 first quarter earnings release that we filed with the SEC and form 10Q 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 $259 million and an earnings per share of $1.94. EBITDA for the quarter was $401 million. Our strong results for the quarter were driven by high gas and diesel cracks in the refining segment and record high production volumes in the fertilizer segment. We are pleased to announce that the board of directors has authorized the first quarter dividend of 50 cents per share, which will be paid on May 22nd to shareholders of record on the close of the market on May 15th. Our annualized dividend yield of approximately 7% based on yesterday's closing price remains best in class among independent refiners. In our petroleum segment, Combined total throughput for the first quarter of 2023 was approximately 196,000 barrels per day, and light product yield was 100% on crude oil processed. We began the planned Coker turnaround at Coffeyville at the end of February, and work was completed in early April. Benchmark cracks remain elevated during the first quarter with Group 3-211 averaging $34.16 per barrel. The distillate crack remained above gas crack in the first quarter, although gas cracks have improved significantly recently. While the incentive in the group is still to operate refineries in max distillate mode, we have the ability to swing production from distillate to gasoline by approximately 5% to 10% if economics dictates. RIN prices declined slightly from the fourth quarter, but remained stubbornly high at $8 per barrel. On our last earning call, I highlighted that we filed petitions with the Fifth Circuit seeking judicial review of EPA's ridiculous and misguided denial of Winnie Wood small refinery exemptions for 2017 through 2021. I am pleased to announce that the Fifth Circuit recently ruled to stay Winnie Wood's compliance obligation after noting EPA's June 2022 small refinery exemption denial was likely contrary to law. Small refineries across the country have filed similar lawsuits with compliance days being granted so far for certain small refineries in the Fifth, Eleventh, and D.C. circuits. As we have stated many times in the past, the RFS regulation was written to protect small refineries like Winnewood from disproportionate economic harm caused by absurdly high rent prices. And we will continue to fight for our rights that we believe Winnewood is entitled to. We continue to increase throughput rates at our Winnewood renewable diesel unit in the processing approximately 22 million gallons of vegetable oil feedstock. The hobo spread improved by approximately 30 cents per gallon from the fourth quarter, and the combination of higher throughput volumes and improved hobo spread drove improved results for the first quarter of 2023 relative to the fourth quarter of 2022. As a reminder, our renewable diesel business is currently reported in our corporate and other segment. In the fertilizer segment, both facilities ran well during the quarter with record consolidated ammonia utilization of 105%. Fertilizer prices declined during the first quarter. However, we posted another quarter of strong results since we sold more than half of our first quarter production in the fourth quarter of 2022 before prices began to decline. We continue to expect healthy demand for fertilizer in the planting season due to strong grain prices and farmer economics. Now let me turn the call over to Dane to discuss our financial highlights.