Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. Price & Performance (PARR)

Thank you, Ashimi, and good morning, everyone. 2024 adjusted EBITDA was $239,000,000 and adjusted net income Operational performance was strong. With record refining throughput improvements in personal and process safety, and record logistics and retail adjusted EBITDA. The durability of our results in a challenging refining market reflects the benefits of our diversified business model, and the unique markets we serve. Importantly, I would like to recognize the strong performance our Hawaii refining business unit. Earlier this month, our Wyoming facility experienced an operational incident resulting in damage to the crude heater furnace. We are most thankful that no one was seriously injured during the event. I would like to commend the entire Wyoming team for their dedication and resilience in maintaining the facility in sub zero temperatures for nearly a week. The team is currently working diligently to restore the plant to full operations. Before Memorial Day. Richard will provide more details on our plans. Following nearly nine months of decline in refining margins, several factors are now contributing but more optimistic for finding outlook. Current supply and demand balances remain tight allowing for small events to drive outsized moves in margins. Higher European natural gas prices are contributing to an increased and encouraging a shift natural gas to oil.

Chinese policy continues to drive an inward focus resulting in the utilization rates of independent refiners dropping to the low 40% range. Additionally, operational challenges have reemerged on an impressive industry performance in 2024. Altogether, this creates a more encouraging backdrop the last nine months. I'd like to spend a few minutes on our Retail segment. This business continued to deliver exceptional results. 2024 adjusted EBITDA was up over 10% from 2023, Notably, our in store progress is starting to shine. In store gross margins grew 11% versus 2023 Par. And fuel volumes continued to expand. Driven by strong same store sales results in our legacy portfolio. Full year contributions were also bolstered our successful new to industry sites in Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest. We are focused on executing several key projects drive enhanced earnings power to the business. 2025 will be a busy year. Critical focus areas include executing the Montana FCC and Alki turnaround safely, on time and on budget, two, restarting the Wyoming units safely and on time three, successful startup of our Hawaii SAF unit in the second half of twenty twenty five and four, achieving the cost reduction targets we laid out last quarter. We are in the final stages of the billings turnaround preparation and remain focused on crisp execution.

This outage reflects Montana's last major plant turnaround It also signals the transition of our efforts Foundation of this business will always be safe and reliable operations. In Hawaii, SAF project construction is progressing on plan. Remains on schedule for startup in the second half of the year. The foundations have been poured and we anticipate deliveries of major equipment over the next two months. Commercially, we are observing strong interest in the project Our established network enables us to supply fuels to the Western markets benefiting from carbon incentive programs while simultaneously offering SaaS to the emerging Asia Pacific market. Our balance sheet remains well positioned allowing us to achieve our strategic objectives and invest through refined cycles. During the year, we repurchased nearly 5,000,000 shares, 9% of our outstanding shares at attractive prices. Strong balance sheet affords us the flexibility and the accretive capital allocation be demonstrated over the coming years. I'll now turn the call over to Richard to discuss our refining and logistics operations. Thank you, Will.

Refining and Logistics delivered twenty twenty four annual system wide throughput of 187,000 barrels per day, business unit contributed to excellent HSE and reliability performance. For the fourth quarter, Hawaii throughput was a strong 83,000 barrels per day and production costs were $4.42 per barrel. We are developing a low cost high return bottleneck project for execution during the 2026 turnaround. Washington throughput was 39,000 barrels per day and production costs were $4.34 per barrel. 2024, the team delivered on cost management, while maintaining safe operations. And we work to be the low cost producer in the challenging West Coast. Shifting to Wyoming, throughput was 14 barrels per day and production costs were $11.49 per barrel. Scheduled routine maintenance during the seasonally Par period contributed to low throughput. Finally, in billings, fourth quarter throughput was 52,000 barrels per day and production cost were $10.48 per barrel. Billings' operational availability continues to improve demonstrating the value of our reliability investments.

Some of our early low capital investments have had material impact on the reliability of billings generating targeted results in 2024. As Will referenced, Billings will be executing the FCC in unit turnaround beginning in early April. We will continue to operate the crude unit along with the balance of the processing units at reduced rates for the first half of the second quarter. Looking to the first quarter, let me begin by addressing the crude furnace incident that led to idling the Wyoming refinery on February 12. I'm most pleased that there were no injuries during the and following the event and the refinery was secured in a safe condition. The team did an exceptional job responding to event in the midst of extreme weather conditions. Based on our preliminary assessment, we believe that Thor refinery can restore partial operations targeting 50% utilization by mid April and full rates before Memorial Day and ahead of the summer driving season. On the broader operational front, we see incentives to increase throughput quarter due to improving market conditions, We expect Hawaii throughput between 161,000 barrels per day while they conduct planned maintenance on the reformer. Washington will operate between 76,000 barrels per day and Montana will operate between 100,000 barrels per day.

Wyoming ran at approximately 13,000 barrels per day during the first six weeks of the year and will be down for the remainder of the first quarter. I'll now turn the call over to Sean to cover the financial results. Thank you, Richard. Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA and adjusted earnings were $11,000,000 and a loss of $43,000,000 or $0.79 per share. Full year adjusted EBITDA and adjusted earnings were $239,000,000 and $21,000,000 or $0.37 per share. Refining segment reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $22,000,000 in the fourth quarter, compared to adjusted EBITDA of $20,000,000 in the third quarter.

In Hawaii, the Singapore three twelve averaged $11.69 Par and the crude differential was $6.17 resulting in a Hawaii index of $5.52 per barrel.

Why margin capture was 133% including a product crack hedge gain of $2,000,000 and negative price lag impact of 5,000,000 Excluding these two items, Hawaii capture was 142% reflecting favorable yield and lower product imports driven by strong refinery utilization. Looking to the first quarter, the Hawaii crude differentials [indiscernible] In January, we published new market indices and benchmark Mainland refineries.

The new indices are designed to better reflect local product pricing, regional crude costs and other components of cost of sales. Our Wyoming index was $13.36 per barrel and capture was 83% including a negative FIFO impact of $2,000,000 Excluding the FIFO impact, CAPTCHA was 96% consistent with our guidance range.

In Montana, our index for the during the fourth quarter averaged $5.75 per barrel margin cash flow was 64% reflecting higher asphalt sales mix and seasonal discounting driven by record Par for refinery utilization in the back half of the year. Montana production costs reached a quarterly low of $50,000,000 or $10.48 per barrel. Looking ahead, we are encouraged by the improving clean product market in the Northern Rockies. Our Montana index in February has improved by over $10 per barrel compared to January Par.

Lastly, our Washington Index averaged negative $0.62 per barrel compared to adjusted gross margin of $10.05 Recent unplanned refinery outages combined with already tight clean product inventories have lifted West Coast margins in recent weeks. Our Washington Index in February has improved by approximately $7 per barrel compared to January Par. With additional upcoming plant maintenance activities in the Pacific Northwest, our low cost Tacoma system is well positioned to capitalize on potential margin volatility.

Moving to the Logistics segment, fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA of $33,000,000 was a quarterly record driven by higher system utilization in Hawaii and lower operating costs in Montana. Our Retail segment reported adjusted EBITDA $22,000,000 during the fourth quarter compared to $21,000,000 in the third quarter. Strong retail performance was driven by expanding fuel margins and lower operating costs in Hawaii. Corporate expenses and adjusted EBITDA were $22,000,000 in the fourth quarter or a $1,000,000 improvement compared to the third quarter. We launched our cost reduction initiatives in earnest during the fourth quarter and remain on track to achieve $30,000,000 to $40,000,000 in annual savings.

Total quarterly operating costs across all segments, including corporate, totaled $2.00 $6,000,000 or a $9,000,000 reduction compared the third quarter.

Moving to cash flows. Net cash used in operations during the fourth including a $20,000,000 working capital inflow and deferred turnaround expenditures of $16,000,000 Excluding these items, cash used in operations was $20,000,000 during the fourth quarter. Cash used in investing activities totaled $48,000,000 primarily related to capital expenditures. Full year deferred turnaround and CapEx totaled $2.00 $9,000,000 on a cash basis, and $234,000,000 on an accrued basis, in line with our original guidance of $220,000,000 to $250,000,000 Shifting to capital allocation, we repurchased $15,000,000 of common stock during the fourth quarter. Full year repurchases or 9% of total shares outstanding at year end In February, the Board of Directors reauthorized management to purchase to $250,000,000 of common stock We will continue to use this authority opportunistically adapting to changes to our cash flow and liquidity outlook. Gross term debt as of December 31 was $644,000,000 which remained below the midpoint of our term debt leverage target of three to four times retail and logistics EBITDA With total liquidity of $614,000,000 as of December 31, our balance sheet remains strong is well positioned to support our growth initiatives through margin cycles. This concludes our prepared remarks. Drew, we'll turn it back to you for Q and A. We will now begin the question and answer session.

To assemble our roster. The first question comes from Matthew Blair with TPH.

Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone.

You just mentioned the $250,000,000 share repurchase authorization Could you talk about how you expect the balance and what the considerations are additional share repurchases in 2025 compared to incremental debt reduction? Thank you. Sure, Matt. This is Will. I think first, the reauthorization is really just I think opening up additional capacity for us. We had consumed the majority of the prior $250,000,000 authorization. So, I wouldn't read too much into that. That said, I think we will be continuing a dynamic approach to this. I would say we're comfortable with our balance sheet today and I think are clearly watching the forward margin outlook and ultimately the liquidity cushion that we'd like to have as we think about balancing repurchases versus other alternatives Again, as we think about our balance sheet, we are well hedged on our inventory and continue to think that the ABL is an attractive way to finance our working capital. Sounds good. And then regarding the SaaS project in Hawaii, we have seen some other SAF projects that have been canceled recently Could you talk about what's given you the confidence to continue moving forward here And is there anything you can share on the expected mix between potential long term contracts at a fixed margin compared to spot SaaS sales?

Sure, Matt. I think the key things about our project that make it competitive through the cycle and over the long term, I would say, despite a lot of uncertainty in the renewable space as it exists, really come down to this is really inside the fence line of the refinery. So our operating costs are very low.

Relative to, I would say, co located or greenfield sites. So I think that's one important factor. The second is when you really think about our logistics here, we've got a substantial advantage and that is in two fronts. So one is our ability to utilize our existing marine freight and distribution with really no incremental cost is very attractive here. And then I think our pipeline and distribution network in Hawaii allows us to distribute to the point of sale blended sap and other materials. So I think we have a substantial advantage on both those fronts. And the other part just comes down to capital. Right? At the end of the day, it's a $92,000,000 project and it's inside of $1.5 per gallon. And so again, I think as we look across the space, Those are the things that drive us to continue ahead I think commercially, we're in a unique spot to have the flexibility to monetize the product into the West Coast our own system While we are in more merchant negotiations, for SAP placement with airlines both domestic and international We've got two great alternatives to work from. The key things that we think about in the project.

And really what will drive I think the forward value there in the earnings Great.

Thank you.

The next question comes from John Royal with JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question.

I think you had mentioned on the last call that you had some turnaround work at Wyoming that's scheduled for '26. Does this outage present an opportunity to get some of that worked on now while you're down? And then part two is thinking about your month or two of running at 50%. What are the units that are going to take a little bit longer to restart or just a little more color on that ramp in April, May would be helpful? Sure, John. This is Richard Kremer.

We are taking a look at the turnaround coming up in 2026 in Wyoming to see if there's opportunities to pull work scope forward into this outage. Little early yet say definitively the impact that that's going to have We do have some catalyst life issues that planning an outage in 2026. I don't think it takes us away from the need for that. The second question On the unit ramp up Yes, the ramp in April, May from 50% to full. [indiscernible] Yes. Yes. That Par, we expect to be able to start up the crude unit at reduced rates and maintain that at 50%. That will allow us to continue to run all of our other process units, although at reduced rates And then the continued work to get us from April through May is rebuilding the heater, the main heater for the crude unit. Which would allow us to get up to the full rate. So we would expect to be able to operate the refinery in its full condition at the May and reduced rates beginning in the April.

Great. Thank you. And then my follow-up is on Laramie. You've talked about potentially monetizing that asset before. We're now in a time where there's something of a bull case kind of forming around gas and maybe the market finds gas a bit more interesting than it did say a year ago. Is now a good time to be thinking about potentially divesting and monetizing that asset?

John, this is Will. I think first and foremost, I mean, we're pleased with how the business is performing. You can see their balance sheet is in a very good place. We gave you that information and they're in a net debt position that's about $90,000,000 producing about 100,000,000 cubic feet a day. And Laramie really has some attractive attributes to it. To think about, right? So it's got ongoing cash flow it's got a very deep inventory of locations. So I agree with your comments that the macro conditions here are more favorable than they've been in some time. Laramie still remains non core to our business. I think a key focus for us is aligning with our partners really to maximize unitholder value there over time. So I would say we are seeing increased interest in the region and then the [indiscernible] We're seeing capital opportunities come in on less than 100% interest on some of the drilling locations that we've got. And I think are encouraged by the capital formation and interest in the gas business today. Certainly better than I've seen it in the last five years.

So still remains non core to us, but it doesn't mean it's not valuable. And ultimately, I think we're working with our key partners there to to drive a unified corporate decision and to maximize value.

Thank you. The next question comes from Jason Gabelman with TD Cowen.

Please go ahead.

Yes, morning. Thanks for taking my questions.

Wanted to go back to the Wyoming outage. And I was wondering if your what your insurance coverage is lost profit and then cost to fix the asset if you're fully covered on both those fronts. And then also if you have to go out into the market and buy some product to cover ever whatever contractual shortfalls you may have. Hey, Jason, it's Sean. I'll cover the first question. I think we won't get into the specifics around our insurance policy, but what I can say is we have adequate property and PI coverage that will Par out above certain thresholds. I think importantly, we intend to manage the incremental costs within our CapEx guidance that we've previously [indiscernible] of $210,000,000 to $240,000,000 for the full year I think ultimately, lost profits will depend on how the market responds over the coming weeks and the simplest way to think about impact of foregone margins is just by taking our Q1 throughput guidance. Richard mentioned that we ran 13,000 barrels a day through the February 12, that implies about 6,000 barrels a day for Q1. Now that's probably 7,000 to 9,000 barrels below our typical run rates for for Q1 quarter And so that will give you a sense of the loss production And then we've provided capture guidance of 90% to 100% against the Wyoming index.

And so that's the simple math of the value of that loss production and how we're thinking about it. The same math will apply as we ramp up in Q2. Commercially, Jason, I would say we're comfortable meeting all of our contractual obligations and don't see any concerns on that front.

All right, great. That's helpful. And My other question is just on capture kind of diverging trends at Hawaii and Washington.

Hawaii has been really strong This year, above guidance levels, wondering if there's something structural driving that? Is it just kind of measuring capture over a lower base crack or are you able to do or have you been able to do something in the asset to generate more value and then conversely in Washington, which has been a weak earner the past few quarters, Just some more color around what's driving that weakness and if you see any green shoots given the outages on the West Coast? Yes, Jason, great question. I'll start with Hawaii Par.

I think our normalized capture guidance is 100% to 110% since the refi in June.

Maybe if you looked at our capture since then, we're averaging in the 120% range, so certainly above the stated guidance. I think key driver there is clean product freight, We look at the Singapore to West Coast which is averaging $5 to $5.5 a barrel If you compare that to a longer term average, it's in the sort of $350 to $4 range. And I think as long as we continue to see support by clean product freight, given our contractual structure in Hawaii I think it's reasonable to assume that we can maintain capture above the $110,000,000 level I think in Washington, keep in mind, we updated our regional index in January We provided refresh guidance of 85% to 95% against that new index.

Asphalt continues to be weak a lot of this has to do with overall paving demand and seasonality. And then just general weakness in the West Coast, but feel confident that given our low cost structure there, and both unplanned and planned maintenance in PADD four in the Pacific Northwest, we're well positioned to take advantage of volatility and over the coming months.

Great. That's helpful. Maybe if I could just sneak another one in quickly.

Just thoughts on M and A. Obviously, the company has a track record of growing through acquisitions. Curious what you're seeing across [indiscernible] areas of operation on M and A opportunity? Jason, it's Will.

I think overall most of our focus this year is really internal. We Par really focused on execution and I think that's the key to driving shareholder value and I think ultimately we look at any opportunity that's presented to us, but given our current cost capital and where our shares price, it would need to be a truly spectacular opportunity to compete with our alternatives right now.

So again, I think it continues to be something we look at, but I would just say it's a very high bar to clear at the moment.

Understood. Thanks for the answers.

The next question comes from Manav Gupta with UBS.

Please go ahead.

Good morning. I just kind of wait quick clarification. I think you I heard you say that the Washington index is about up $7 in February. Since obviously the start of the downtime at the competitor asset, if you could first confirm that? And then also how do you see the tightness on the West Coast play out just in this scenario, I mean, if the California refinery could be down six months or so. So how would that benefit overall the the PAD5 dynamics and could be a tailwind for you guys if you could talk about it?

Yes, Manav, I'll cover the first question. That is correct. We'll put out sort of full February average index pricing over the next week or so, but month to date in February, we're up $7 versus January.

And I mean, Manav on the West Coast supply and demand Again, I think there's heavy maintenance already [indiscernible] At some of the larger refiners both in the Pacific Northwest and also down in Southern California. And again, I think depending on the duration of the downtime, that's unplanned, again, I think it does have some potential impacts to keep the market tight through the summer. So again, I think you're going to test the limits of arbitrage volumes in for car gas and I think unplanned is always very difficult to sort of get supply chain built quickly enough to solve the problems. So Lots of uncertainty on what the timeline looks like there, but certainly something that is worth watching closely over the coming weeks.

Thank you so much. I'll turn it over.

This concludes our question and answer session.

I would like to turn the conference back over to Will Par Thank you, Drew.

We're encouraged by the improving market backdrop and remain focused on execution. As the key to driving shareholder value this year. Thanks for joining us today.

The conference has now concluded.

Thank you for attending today's presentation.