Excelerate Energy, Inc.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Accelerate Energy Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Bruno, and I will be the operator of today. During the presentation, you can register to ask a question by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I will now hand over to your host, Craig Hicks, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Yesterday afternoon, we released our fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings press release, along with the presentation that our President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Kobos and our Chief Financial Officer Dana Armstrong will speak to this morning. I would like to remind everyone that we will be making forward-looking statements on this call that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements, and we make no obligation to update or revise them. During the call, we'll also discuss several non-GAAP financial measures. We have provided a reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures at the back of the presentation. With that, it is my pleasure to pass the call over to Stephen Kobos.

Thanks, Craig, and thank you all for joining us this morning. Accelerate Energy delivered strong financial results in the fourth quarter. This capped off an impressive year as we continued to demonstrate the strength of our business model. Our proven ability to deliver consistent earnings growth across market cycles gives us even more confidence in our plan to maximize value for shareholders. As this past year has shown, having flexible access to cleaner and more reliable energy has never been so critical. At Accelerate, we play a unique role in delivering essential energy solutions for our customers, while at the same time supporting the decarbonization efforts of countries across the globe. build on this momentum and capitalize on the increased demand for LNG. You're seeing this play out with our recently announced 20-year LNG sales and purchase agreement with Venture Global, with the commencement of downstream gas sales in Europe, and with the extension of our agreement with the Dubai Supply Authority. Material progress we are making on LNG procurement and downstream gas sales This syncs well with the timing of our new build FSRU order with Hyundai Heavy Industries, and we're currently marketing that ship as part of an integrated infrastructure offering. The 2023 financial guidance, which we announced yesterday, Dana's going to cover this in more detail, but it reflects the confidence we have in the business and our value creation strategy. On this morning's call, I want to focus my remarks on our strategic growth outlook and the progress we are making on our commercial opportunities. As a global energy company, we are focused on enhancing energy security and accelerating the transition to a clean energy future. Our strategic goals at Accelerate include operating a profitable and growing fleet of FSRUs, growing our existing regasification business, expanding our downstream gas sales and our customer base in existing markets, while leveraging our global presence to enter new markets and managing a diversified portfolio of LNG supply. We are executing this strategy and we're doing it in markets across our global footprint. Since 2022, this clearly includes Europe, a region that we expect to influence the LNG supply and demand balance through the end of this decade and beyond. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and in response to the increased focus on energy security and the FSRU asset class, we quickly pivoted our near-term commercial focus to Europe. In doing so, we expanded our total addressable market, and we rebalanced our customer portfolio to include Finland and Germany, two highly rated counterparties. Our charter agreement with GasGrid Finland commenced on October 1st, and we deployed our FSRU exemplar to the port of Enku on December 28th. The arrival of the vessel was an important milestone for Finland as it seeks to enhance its energy security. In October 2022, we signed an agreement with the German government to charter our FSRU Excelsior for five years. the Germany charter hire commenced at the end of February 23. With our new FSRU presence in Europe, we have an opportunity to expand our gas marketing business in the region. For example, in conjunction with the deployment of the FSRU exemplar to Finland, Accelerate secured commissioning capacity at the MQ terminal. These sales in late 22 and an early 23 represent an important first step towards securing future gas sales opportunities in Finland and the Baltic Sea region. Through our Finnish gas marketing entity, Accelerate can help bridge the gap between the LNG market and the needs of end users in the region. In other parts of Europe, we're continuing to look at additional integrated opportunities that will allow us to sell natural gas downstream of our terminals. Now let's turn to South America. In South America, Xcelerate currently has three of our 10 FSRUs in operation. We have two in Brazil and one in Argentina. In Brazil, Xcelerate has provided regasification services for Petrobras at the Guanabara Bay Terminal since 2012. Our FSRE Sequoia has been supporting our gas sales business at the Bahia Regasification Terminal since December 21. Turning to Argentina, Accelerate has reliably provided regasification services at the G&L Escobar Terminal since 2011. We have also provided regasification services at the Bahia Blanca gas port terminal in Argentina during multiple winter seasons dating back to 2008. Today, we are pleased to announce that we've secured a new seasonal agreement to provide regasification services at the Bahia Blanca terminal. Our FSRU Excelsior, which is currently being chartered by the German government, will be placed temporarily on a suspension agreement while it is deployed to Bahia Blanca during the Argentina winter. Immediately after the Argentina winter season, the Excelsior will snap back and resume its original charter with the German government. This is going to occur in the third quarter of 2023. Together with Germany, We are being good corporate citizens by deploying the Excelsior to help Argentina. Argentina, after all, is one of Accelerate's valued markets. Our actions in South America underscore our longstanding commitment to regional energy security and to meeting the changing energy needs of our customers. Justifiably, Europe dominates energy security headlines. However, South America is also facing significant gas supply disruptions. In the case of South America, this is driven primarily by the rapid decline of Bolivian natural gas sales to both Brazil and Argentina. In Brazil, we are committed to partnering with Petrobras over the long-term to strengthen security of supply. We believe that our continued presence at the Bahia and Guanabara Bay terminals will help ensure reliable and sustainable energy for all Brazilians. Meanwhile, in Argentina, the ongoing support we provide to the country's energy sector strengthens our leadership position in South America. And this provides us with attractive development opportunities in one of the most dynamic energy markets in the world. Now let's turn to the Asia Pacific region, or APAC, a region where almost every country with a coastline has plans to introduce or expand LNG usage in their energy mix. Long-term fundamentals for this region remain robust. This is underpinned by rapidly growing economies, large-scale fuel switching to meet net zero targets, and in many instances, dwindling domestic gas reserves. LNG is forecast to comprise a significant portion of South and Southeast Asia's energy mix over the long term. Our approach to regional growth will be driven by the development of integrated infrastructure and LNG supply solutions. In Bangladesh, LNG quite simply remains an integral part of the country's economy. This is evidenced by the government's recent decision to restart spot LNG purchases. In fact, I'm pleased that Accelerate was successful in selling a spot LNG cargo to Petro-Bangla just last week. With domestic gas supply declining rapidly, LNG imports need to increase over time to displace those volumes and maintain natural gas as a critical part of Bangladesh's energy mix. In 2023, the government also plans to sign new long-term LNG supply agreements to secure more affordable, reliable, and predictable LNG pricing. We are continuing to advance the development of our planned PIRA project. PIRA has the potential to effectively double Bangladesh's LNG import capacity. In addition to finalizing term sheets with Petro Bangla, Our team is evaluating financing options and is in discussions with potential partners for the project. A critical part of our downstream strategy is to take a very deliberate and structured approach to sourcing LNG supply. As we gain access to new downstream gas sales markets, we believe that there are benefits from having a diversified LNG supply portfolio. Last month, we took our first step towards achieving the strategic goal when we announced the execution of a 20-year LNG sales and purchase agreement, or SPA, with Venture Global, a top U.S. LNG exporter. Under the terms of the SPA, Accelerate will purchase 0.7 million tons per annum of LNG supply for 20 years starting in early 27. This offtake will come from Venture Global's Plaquemines LNG Phase 2 expansion. Plaquemines Phase 2 reached FID earlier this month. This SPA is the first long-term LNG supply agreement in our company's history. This transformational agreement supports our plan to vertically integrate our business and become the virtual pipeline for the world. I will now turn the call over to Dana, and she's going to walk through our fourth quarter and full year 2022 results and our outlook for 23.