Matthew C. Lucey
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. As we closed the box on last year, PBF achieved its second best financial year in 2023. Over the course of the year, we further enhanced equity value by reducing our debt by over $700 million and we returned $640 million directly to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. The company was able to purchase $150 million of our shares in the fourth quarter. I'm pleased to announce our Board of Directors has approved an incremental $750 million share repurchase authorization. This resets our program just over a $1 billion of remaining capacity. We ended the year with our balance sheet transformation complete and our strongest financial position ever. As we look at the quarter, the West Coast operations had clear challenges. Operations outside the West Coast were reasonable. Our East Coast and Gulf Coast systems performed well in their respective markets, with capture rates broadly in-line with prior quarters. While Toledo operated well, the Mid-Con market was certainly challenging. At times, gasoline cracks were at or near negative numbers. This phenomenon in the Mid-Con during the fourth quarter is not new and somewhat of a return to normal seasonality. Importantly, we've seen a recovery in the Mid-Con product cracks as February began. Our West Coast system underperformed largely to our overlapping planned and unplanned maintenance activities. This was an unfortunate convergence of circumstances where we had both assets undergoing maintenance. While not the plan, it was the reality. In Q4, we completed a major FCC turnaround at Torrance. And as mentioned last quarter, we experienced unplanned flexicoker downtime at Martinez. The FCC was delayed getting restarted and the coker work rippled through Martinez operations. The delayed restart of Torrance and the unplanned Martinez work costs us approximately $100 million in loss profit and an additional $32 million in operating expenses. And looking at our tariff sheets, you'll see that on West Coast, we consume less heavy crude as a percentage of input, which increased costs. Our production yielded less high value products, notably gasoline. As a result of the delays in downtime, we did build high priced crude inventory, which will be consumed in the first quarter. Again, while Q4 was clearly disappointing in California, I believe our West Coast system will be significant contributors to our results in 2024 as it has demonstrated over the last few years. Looking ahead to Q1 across the system, we have a Hydrocracker turnaround in Toledo beginning this month, and a FCC turnaround on the East Coast beginning in March. With industry maintenance across the refining space increasing, we have seen significant improvements in our market cracks in February. Indeed, the outlook for 2024 is constructive, and we are focused on positioning our assets to perform to their potential. Global refining capacity, including new additions and refined product demand remain tightly balanced. The refining industry has not been able to sustain product inventory builds and balances remain tight to historical levels with growing demand. Disruptions in historic trade flows and patterns are creating tension in the market that is accruing to U.S. refiners, specifically coastal U.S. refiners such as PBF. With this favorable market backdrop, PBF should continue delivering strong earnings and free cash flow and generating long-term value for our shareholders. On the regulatory front, we are pleased to report that we have reached an agreement with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. On a path forward with regards to Regulation 6-5, which will achieve the mutual goal of lowering particulate emissions. Consistent with expectations, we're able to reach a settlement where we will comply with Rule 6-5 without any mandated incremental investment when the rule goes into effect in July of 2026. Additionally, we do not expect any material changes to our operations or product yield as a result of the regulation. As we saw from activity earlier in the quarter, combined markets will continue to be volatile. The global refining system and PBF in particular will be nimble and adapting to market conditions. The focus will be, as always, on maintaining consistent operations, coupled with disciplined, rigorous capital allocation. Before turning the call over to Karen, I want to take a moment to publicly thank all of PBF's employees for operating safely. Last year, PBF recorded its best year in our history from a personal safety perspective. This is across all segments of our business, including our employees and the contractors who work in our facilities on a daily basis. The achievement of the lowest lost time incident rate in our history is a testament to the focus of each and every person in the company in executing their daily routines with the utmost professionalism and care. With that, I'll turn it over to Karen.