Dorian LPG Ltd.

Greetings, and welcome to the Dorian LPG fourth quarter 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Additionally, a live audio webcast of today's conference call is available on Dorian LPG's website, which is www.dorianlpg.com. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ted Young, Chief Financial Officer. Thank you, Mr. Young. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Christine. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining us for our fourth quarter 2021 results conference call. With me today are John Hadjibateris, Chairman, President, and CEO of Dorian LPG Limited, John LaCouris, Chief Executive Officer of Dorian LPG USA, and Tim Hansen, Chief Commercial Officer. As a reminder, this conference call webcast and replay of this call will be available through May 26, 2021. Many of our remarks today contain forward-looking statements based on current expectations. These statements may often be identified with words such as expect, anticipate, believe, or similar indications of future expectations. Although we believe that such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot assure you that any forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, as well as general economic conditions. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions or estimates prove to be incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those we expressed today. Additionally, let me refer you to our unaudited results for the period ended March 31, 2021 that were filed this morning on Form 8-K. In addition, please refer to our previous filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, where you'll find risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements. Finally, please note that we expect to file our full 10-K in the first week of June. With that, I'll turn over the call to John Hadjibateris.

Thank you, Ted. Good morning from Stanford, where John, Ted, and I are speaking from. Tim Hanson is calling from Copenhagen. Thank you for joining us this morning to discuss our fourth quarter and fiscal year 2021 results. Rates made a high in January, followed by a steep drop to lows in March and have now recovered to healthy levels. Confronted by the COVID pandemic, fiscal 2021 brought considerable challenges which we navigated safely and successfully towards some major accomplishments. Thanks to the dedication and extraordinary efforts of our seafarers and shoreside staff, our ships and the company continue to operate smoothly. Highlighting our commitment to returning shareholder capital, we completed our self-tender, which we upsized from 100 million to 113 million. We have now returned over 200 million since our IPO in 2014. Our dry docking and scrubber upgrade program is nearly complete. We expect the last two ships to leave the shipyards within this month. In total, we will have installed 10 scrubber systems since the summer of 2019. Twelve of our 22 owned ships will be capable of operating with hybrid scrubbers, enhancing their earning potential and commercial flexibility. We contracted for delivery first quarter 2023 a dual fuel shallow drafted 84,000 cubic meters state-of-the-art ship to be built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries. As with all recent VLGC new buildings, she will be capable of burning either fuel oil or LPG. She will be financed in a Japanese leased bare boat structure. Since we commissioned a feasibility study with the American Bureau of Shipping in 2018, we have been evaluating LPG as fuel. The prospect of LPG as fuel is an exciting one, decreasing emissions while potentially lowering overall fuel and financing costs. Vessel emissions are coming to the forefront, and the International Maritime Organization is set to revise its greenhouse gas strategy in 2023. Environmental awareness features increasingly prominently in the minds of shipping investors and all stakeholders in maritime economy. Eight of our ships are candidates for conversion to dual fuel propulsion. Looking forward, we have reason to remain optimistic. Supply concerns in the U.S. are exaggerated from our perspective. Spare infrastructure capacity is in place to facilitate both production and export growth over the near and medium term. Many forecasters continue to revise production estimates higher, reflecting the bullish sentiment heard from U.S. producers over this earnings cycle. OPEC Plus is expected to push more tons into the market, increasing tons which will supply growing global demand, especially in Asia, as the market continues to grow steadily and healthily, particularly in the petrochemical sector. The fleet growth in 2022 will be the lowest since 2018. There are currently 42 ships built prior to 2000, which in some form may be less competitive and therefore candidates for removal in due course. We believe that expanding trade volumes should absorb the current order book of 61 to 62 ships. Nevertheless, it would be foolish to deny the risk which continued ordering at the recent pace could pose. We would like to believe that the bulk of it is now done. LPG supply demand growth, along with heavy maintenance of the global fleet this calendar year, should continue to support healthy market conditions. Back to you, Ted.