Dave Lamp
Analyst · Citigroup. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Jay, and good afternoon everyone, and thank you for joining us on our earnings call. Hopefully, you had the opportunity to listen to the CVR Partners earnings call earlier today. Yesterday, we reported the first quarter consolidated net income of $102 million, as compared to $93 million in the first quarter of '18. EBITDA for the first quarter of '19 was $230 million, compared to $205 million for the previous year, driven by safe reliable operations wide Brent TI differentials, rising crude prices, hedging gains, lagging crude oil differentials, and improved fertilizer pricing. We also announced the first quarter dividend of $0.75 per share, which will be paid on March 13 to stockholders of record on May 6th. On an annualized basis, our current dividend yield of $3 per share represents an industry-leading dividend yield of approximately 7% based on yesterday's closing price. Now I'll speak to some of the first quarter highlights from each of our business segments. For the Petroleum segment, both plants ran well, and we safely completed the planned turnaround at Wynnewood on time and under budget. Combined total throughput for the first quarter of 2019 was approximately 213,000 barrels per day, as compared to 190,000 barrels per day in the first quarter of 2018. As a reminder, the first quarter of '18 was impacted by downtime associated with the cat cracker at Coffeeville, while the Wynnewood turnaround affected the current quarter. Total liquid yield for the quarter was 98% consistent with prior year period. Our distillate yield as a percentage of total crude oil throughputs was 44% in the first quarter of 2019, also consistent with the prior year period. Our distillate yield consistently ranks in the top quartile among the U.S. independent refiners. In total, we gathered approximately 119,000 barrels per day of crude oil during the first quarter of 2019 as compared to 113,000 barrels per day for the same period last year. As we continue to shift our slate to crude oils gathered in our own backyard, we have increased our SCOOP gathering by approximately 40% relative to the first quarter of 2018, while decreasing our gathering activities in other regions. Now, turning to the fertilizer business, during the first quarter, CVR Partners had strong reliable operations at both facilities. Coffeyville's ammonia unit operated at 96% utilization for the first quarter, consistent with the utilization for the first quarter of 2018. At East Dubuque, the ammonia plant operated at 69% utilization, compared to 90% in the prior year adjusted for turnarounds. We lowered the ammonia rate at East Dubuque during the first quarter to manage storage capacity levels at the plant due poor fall weather. The Board of Directors of CVR Partners' general partner declared a first quarter 2019 distribution of $0.07 per common unit, which we've paid on May 13 to unitholders of record of May 6. As CVR Energy owns approximately 34% of the common units of CVR Partners, we will receive a proportionate cash distribution of approximately $3 million. Now, let me turn the call over to Tracy to discuss some of our financial highlights.