John W. Gibson - Chief Executive Officer of ONEOK, Inc. and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ONEOK Partners, L.P.
Analyst
Thank you, Jim. Excuse me. Before I turn the call over to Curtis and Jim to review ONEOK's third quarter operating performance, I'd like to make a few comments about energy services, where we are and where we're headed. We are not satisfied with energy services results and lower earnings guidance. While this business generates attractive returns, we always understood that its earnings and working capital needs have swings to them. Although, these results in our lowered earnings guidance are a reflection of the market conditions, as Jim will explain further, we are working to limit this segment's exposure to those conditions, and the resulting uncertainty regarding its earnings. Let me highlight the changes we are making to reduce those earnings swings and volatility, in order to create more value for our shareholders and for our customers. We will continue to focus on our demand business, which is primarily with local distribution companies, keeping and growing those contracts with customers that create the most value, and letting those contracts that don't expire. We are evaluating our lease storage and transport positions, and will reduce or eliminate capacity that does not align with our core business of marketing natural gas to our customers. We remain committed to improving this business and we remain committed to our customers. As a result of our efforts, this segment will have more predictable and less volatile earnings and reduced working capital requirements, ultimately rewarding our shareholders and customers. These efforts are underway with the benefits of our efforts becoming more apparent next year. We remain focused on providing our customers with the quality service they expect from us, especially during the upcoming heating season. As I reflect on these challenges facing energy services, and in particular the earnings volatility, I see relevant similarities between it and our natural gas gathering and processing segment, earlier this decade. As you know, with that business, we recognized early on the need to reevaluate the business, which in that case, led to restructured contracts and the sale of certain assets, and we did all that. Today, the natural gas gathering and processing segment has significantly reduced its exposure to the natural gas processing spread and is less sensitive to downside market pressures, while being able to capture upside opportunities. This took time and a lot of hard work, but our unitholders, our shareholders and our customers are better for it. We are committed to doing the same with energy services and believe we have the right strategies in place to achieve this goal. Now, let's turn to Curtis Dinan, who will review ONEOK's third quarter financial highlights. Curtis?