Westlake Chemical Partners LP

Good afternoon. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Westlake Chemical Partners First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's remarks, you will be invited to participate in the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, May 4, 2020. I'd now like to turn the call over to today's host, Jeff Hawley, Westlake Chemical Partners Vice President and Treasurer. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Westlake Chemical Partners first quarter of 2020 conference call. I'm joined today by Albert Chao, our president and CEO, Steve Bender, our senior vice president and CFO, and other members of our management team. During this call, we refer to ourselves as Westlake Partners or the partnership. References to Westlake or Westlake Chemical refer to our parent company, Westlake Chemical Corporation, and references to Opco refer refer to Westlake Chemical Opco LP as subsidiary of Westlake Chemical and the partnership, which owns certain Oliphant's assets. Additionally, when we refer to distributable cash flow, we are referring to Westlake Chemical Partners MLP distributable cash flow. Definitions of these terms are available on the partnership's website. Today, management is going to discuss certain topics that will contain forward-looking information that is based on management's beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management. These forward-looking statements suggest predictions or expectations and thus are subject to risks or uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially based upon many factors including operating difficulties, the volume of ethylene that we are able to sell, the price at which we are able to sell ethylene, changes in the prevailing economic conditions, The COVID-19 pandemic, our ability to borrow funds and access capital markets at a reasonable cost, and other risk factors discussed in our SEC filings. This morning, Westlake Partners issued a press release with details of our first quarter 2020 financial and operating results. This document is available on the press release section of our webpage at wlkpartners.com. A replay of today's call will be available beginning two hours after the conclusion of this call. That replay may be accessed by dialing the following numbers. Domestic callers should dial 855-859-2056. International callers may access the replay at 404-537- The access code for both numbers is 647-0789. Please note that information reported on this call speaks only as of today, May 4, 2020, and therefore you are advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay. I would finally advise you that this conference call is being broadcast live through an internet webcast system that can be accessed on our webpage at wlkpartners.com. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Albert Chao. Albert?

Thank you, Jeff. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us to discuss our first quarter 2020 ESOP results. Before we talk about the quarter, I would like to recognize this is a very challenging time and our thoughts are with those affected by COVID-19. I will highlight some of the ways we are responding to COVID-19 and thoughts on the current situation. Our operations were deemed essential by both the Department of Homeland Security and various local authorities, which have permitted us to operate during the state and local state at home orders. In managing each of our facilities We have followed recommendations and instructions of those national, state, and local health authorities. Safety of our employees has always been our number one priority in response to the threat posed by COVID-19. We have implemented a variety of initiatives and actions to protect our employees, including ensuring personal spacing and providing personal protective equipment conducting temperature screenings and entrances to our plants, postponing or canceling all non-critical business activities and travel, increased cleaning and disinfecting of all facilities, and having as many employees who can work remotely do so. In addition to protecting our employees, by supporting the communities where we operate, our parent, Wesley Chemical, in connection with the Ting Sun and Wei Fang Chao Foundation, contributed a combined $1 million to the Greater Houston COVID-19 Recovery Fund. As a business deemed essential, the partnership makes the ethylene feedstock that our parent Wesley Chemical uses in a wide range of life enhancing products that benefit lives every day, many of which are particularly important in today's environment, including ethylene that goes into polyethylene that's used in medical applications and food packaging and PVC that's used in medical equipment and a variety of construction and infrastructure uses such as for fresh and wastewater piping. Once again, I want to thank our employees who are producing and supporting the production of these products that are critical to society's needs and safety in today's environment. This morning's press release reported Consolidated Net Income including up-cost earnings of $94 million for the first quarter of 2020. Westlake Partners' first quarter net income was $18 million. In the first quarter of 2020, we achieved strong financial performance driven by continued strong operations of our facilities. Our ethylene facilities consistently ran well and above industry operating rates and delivered solid financial performance. This consistent production, when combined with the Ethylene Sales Agreement, which is designed to insulate us from commodity price risk, combined with our investment-grade rated sponsor, Wesley Chemical, produces predictable cash flows. I would now like to turn our call over to Steve to provide more detail on the financial and operating results for the first quarter.