PBF Energy Inc.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the PBF Energy fourth quarter 2022 earnings conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions following management's prepared remarks. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Colin Murray of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, Kevin. Good morning and welcome to today's call. With me today are Tom Nimley, our CEO, Matt Lucey, our President, Karen Davis, our CFO, and several other members of our management team. Copies of today's earnings release and our 10-K filing, including supplemental information, are available on our website. Before getting started, I'd like to direct your attention to the Safe Harbor Statement contained in today's press release. Statements in our press release and those made on this call that express the company's or management's expectations or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements intended to be covered by the safe harbor provisions under federal securities laws. There are many factors that could cause actual results to differ from our expectations, including those we describe in our filings with the SEC. Consistent with our prior periods, we will discuss our results today, excluding special items. In today's press release, we described the non-cash special items included in our quarterly results. The cumulative impact of the special items increased fourth quarter net income by an after-tax amount of approximately $60 million, or 45 cents per share, related primarily to net changes in fair value of contingent consideration. Please note that our fourth quarter tax rate was elevated relative to prior quarters as a result of the activities and the quarter and fiscal year adjustments. For modeling purposes, please use 26% as an effective tax rate for 2023. Also included in today's press release is guidance information related to our operations for the year. For any questions on these items or follow-up questions after today's call, please contact Investor Relations. For reconciliations of any non-GAAP measures mentioned on today's call, please refer to the supplemental tables provided in today's press release. I'll now turn the call over to Tom.

Thanks, Colin. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. The fourth quarter capped off a transformative year for PBF. In 2022, our assets generated almost $3 billion of income and earned over $22 per share. PBF ended the year with cash in excess of debt. The market, with its tight supply and demand balance, provided tailwinds, and the operations of our refineries enabled us to capitalize on the opportunity. Our operations and the focus on strengthening our balance sheet over the course of 2022 allowed us to generate incremental returns for our investors. In addition to renewing our dividend at 20 cents per share for the third quarter of 2022, we announced the $500 million share repurchase program. Under that program, we have purchased just over 5 million shares for approximately 189 million. With favorable market conditions and a solid operating performance, we expect to be positioned to further reward shareholders with increasing returns. To deliver on these commitments, PPF remains focused on our operations and strengthening our financial position. Our assets require continual reinvestment to sustain high levels of safe, reliable operations to meet demand for our essential products. While remaining committed to our core refining business, we are also investing in and exploring new opportunities to produce low-carbon fuels. Refiners follow the markets and responds to demands of the consumer because we are price takers rather than price makers. In 2022, the market was telling us to provide as much refined products as possible. We did. 2023 has picked up where 2022 left off. We are going through normal seasonal gyrations when it comes to specific product demand across our regions, but overall, The market is continuing to call for refined products and as a result, requires high utilization rates from refiners. Many of the key themes that emerged throughout 2022 are continuing to set the stage for 2023. Global inventories of oil remain low, but are gradually building off a very low base. The market needs this to happen, but it has been proven difficult for inventories to rise to normal levels in the face of demand keeping pace with supply. This is true on the refining product side as well. Refineries are being called to run at high utilization to meet demand, and in 2023, this will be more of a challenge with higher than average industry-wide maintenance activity. Global trade patterns are continuing to adjust to the sanctions and embargoes of Russian crude oil and products. We are seeing the impacts of this on the crude side but have yet to witness how the market will accommodate disruptions on the product side. The prospect of China reopening has led to projections of increasing demand in the Asia-Pacific region that will have a knock-on impact globally. We remain constructive on product balances in the Atlantic Basin, especially as we look ahead to peak driving seasons. Global capacity additions are expected to commence operations throughout 2023, which should help meet rising demand. The cumulative effect of all this is that we are constructive on the refining environment in 2023. Notwithstanding the amount of work to be completed in our refining system, with safe and reliable operations, we expect to continue the improvement in our financial position and be in a position to potentially increase shareholder returns. PBF is also pleased to announce a partnership with ENI Sustainable Mobility in the St. Bernard Renewables project. We have been committed to the project from the outset and are proud to have a world-class partner joining us in this venture. Lastly, I want to thank all of our employees. The market demanded a lot from PBF in 2022. In turn, PBF asked a lot for our employees, and they delivered. The efforts of our employees to keep our assets running safely and tanks full of products constantly on the move to our customers enabled us to achieve this remarkable transformation. Thank you. And with that, I will turn the call over to Matt.