Westlake Chemical Partners LP

Good afternoon. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Westlake Chemical Partners Second Quarter 2021 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 a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, August 3rd, 2021. I would now like to turn the call over to today's host, Jeff Holley. Westlake Chemical Partners Vice President and Treasurer. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, Tamika. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Westlake Chemical Partners second quarter 2021 conference call. I'm joined today by Albert Chow, our President and CEO, Steve Bender, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, 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 to Westlake Chemical Opco LP, a subsidiary of Westlake Chemical and the partnership, which owns certain Olison 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, actual and proposed governmental regulatory actions, competitive products and pricing pressures, the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme weather conditions, our ability to borrow funds and access capital markets at a reasonable cost, and other risk factors as discussed in our SEC filings. This morning, Westlake Partners issued a press release with details of our second quarter 2021 financial and operating results. This document is available in 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. This replay may be accessed by dialing the following numbers. Domestic callers should dial 855 859-2056. International callers may access the replay at 404-537-3406. The access code is 321-6579. Please note that information reported on this call speaks only as of today, August 3rd, 2021, and therefore you're advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay. I would finally advise you that this teleconference 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 Chow. Albert?

Thank you, Jeff. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss our second quarter 2021 results. In this morning's press release, We reported Westlake Partners' second quarter 2021 net income was a record of $25 million, or 71 cents per unit. Ethylene production in the second quarter was strong, contributing to Opco's record quarterly net income of $120 million. During the quarter, we saw a strong demand for a very broad range of ethylene derivatives as a result of the current economic recovery and expansion. The strong ethylene derivative demand drove ethylene prices higher in the second quarter, benefiting our third-party sales. On June 25th, 2021, Opco's Patcher 1 facility experienced an unplanned outage, and we resumed normal operations on July 19th. As a result of this unplanned outage, Opco declared force majeure under Opco's ethylene sales agreement. Pursuing to the ethylene sales agreement, Westlake is obligated to purchase and pay for a minimum amount of ethylene from Opco each calendar year. Thus, we are insulated from impact of such outages. Under this agreement, Westlake Chemicals ethylene purchase obligation including cost plus a fixed margin per pound. These protected provisions allow Opco and in turn Westlake partners to maintain consistent cash flows during unplanned events. Westlake Partners' financial results in the second quarter continue to demonstrate the stability generated from our fixed margin ethylene sales agreement for 95 percent of annual planned production each year, thus insulating us from market volatility and other production risks. This certainty, combined with our investment-grade sponsor, Westlake Chemical, produces predictable earnings and stable 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 quarter. Steve?