Westlake Chemical Partners LP

Good afternoon. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Westlake Chemical Partners second quarter 2023 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, 2023. I would now like to turn the call over to today's host. Jeff Pohle, Westlake Chemical Partners Vice President and Treasurer. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Westlake Chemical Partners second quarter 2023 conference call. I'm joined today by Albert Chow, our President and CEO, Steve Bender, our Executive 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 refer to our parent company, Westlake Corporation, and references to OPCO refer to Westlake Chemical OPCO LP, a subsidiary of Westlake and the partnership, which owns certain Olyphant's assets. Additionally, when we refer to distributable cash flow, we are referring to Westlake Chemical Partners MLP distributable cash flow. Definition 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. We encourage you to learn more about these factors that could lead our actual results to differ by reviewing the cautionary statements in our regulatory filings which are also available on our investor relations website. This morning, Westlake Partners issued a press release with details of our second quarter 2023 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. the replay can be accessed via the partnership's website. Please note that information reported on this call speaks only as of today, August 3rd, 2023, 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 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 Chow. Albert?

Thank you, Jeff. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss our second quarter 2023 results. In this morning's press release, we reported Westlake Park's second quarter 2023 net income of $12 million, or $0.34 per unit. As planned, these financial results WERE IMPACTED BY THE 30-DAY PLANNED MAINTENANCE TURNAROUND AT CALVER CITY THAT WAS COMPLETED IN MAY. AS A RESULT OF A CALVER CITY TURNAROUND, OUR PRODUCTION AND SALES VOLUMES WERE BELOW THE LEVELS OF BOTH THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2023 AND THE SECOND QUARTER OF 2022. CONSEQUENTLY, OUR SECOND QUARTER OF 2023 SALES, DEBT INCOME, AND DISTRIBUTABLE CASH FLOW WERE BELOW BOTH THE PRIOR QUARTER AND PRIOR YEAR LEVELS. IMPORTANTLY, THE CALVER CITY TURNAROUND WAS COMPLETED AS PLANNED, AND VOLUMES, SALES, AND CASH FLOW RETURNED TO EXPECTED LEVELS IN JUNE. LOOKING FORWARD, WITH OUR ONLY PLANNED TURNAROUND FOR THE YEAR BEHIND US, WE EXPECT FINANCIAL RESULTS TO IMPROVE IN THE THIRD AND FOURTH QUARTER OF 2023 from second quarter levels. The stability of Westlake Partners business model is consistently demonstrated through our fixed margin ethylene sales agreement, which minimizes market volatility and other production risks. The high degree of stability in cash flow when paired with the flexibility of our business has enabled us to deliver the long history of reliable distributions and coverage. This quarter's distribution is the 36th consecutive quarterly distribution since our IPO in the July of 2014, without any reductions. I will now like to turn our call over to Steve to provide more detail on the financial and operating results for the quarter.