Genesis Energy LP (GEL) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Genesis Energy L.P. Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Dwayne Morley, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. Mr. Morley, you may begin.

您好，歡迎參加 Genesis Energy L.P. 2023 年第三季財報電話會議。 （操作員指示）謹此提醒，本次會議正在錄製中。現在我很高興向您介紹主持人，投資者關係副總裁德韋恩·莫利 (Dwayne Morley)。謝謝。莫利先生，您可以開始了。

Good morning. Welcome to the 2023 Third Quarter Conference Call for Genesis Energy. Genesis Energy has 4 business segments. The Offshore Pipeline Transportation segment is engaged in providing the critical infrastructure to move oil produced from the long-lived world-class reservoirs in deepwater Gulf of Mexico to onshore refining centers. The soda and Sulfur Services segment includes trona and trona-based exploring, mining, processing, producing, marketing and selling activities as well as the processing of sour gas streams to remove sulfur at refining operations. The Onshore Facilities and Transportation segment is engaged in the transportation, handling, blending, storage and supply of energy products, including crude oil and refined products. The Marine Transportation segment is engaged in the maritime transportation at primarily petroleum products. Genesis' operations are primarily located in Wyoming, the Gulf Coast states and the Gulf of Mexico.

早安.歡迎參加 Genesis Energy 2023 年第三季電話會議。 Genesis Energy有4個業務部門。海上管道運輸部門致力於提供關鍵基礎設施，將墨西哥灣深水世界級長期油藏生產的石油運送到陸上煉油中心。蘇打和硫服務部門包括天然鹼和基於天然鹼的勘探、採礦、加工、生產、行銷和銷售活動，以及在煉油作業中加工酸性氣流以去除硫。陸上設施和運輸部門從事能源產品（包括原油和成品油）的運輸、裝卸、混合、儲存和供應。海運分部主要從事石油產品的海運業務。 Genesis 的業務主要位於懷俄明州、墨西哥灣沿岸各州和墨西哥灣。

During this call, management may be making forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The law provides safe harbor protection to encourage companies to provide forward-looking information. Genesis intends to avail itself of those safe harbor provisions and directs you to its most recently filed and future filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We also encourage you to visit our website at genesisenergy.com, where a copy of the press release we issued today is located. The press release also presents a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures. At this time, I'd like to introduce Grant Sims, CEO of Genesis Energy L.P. Mr. Sims will be joined by Kristen Jesulaitis, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Legal Officer; Ryan Sims, President and Chief Commercial Officer; and Louis Nickel, Chief Accounting Officer.

在本次電話會議中，管理階層可能會做出 1933 年《證券法》和 1934 年《證券交易法》含義內的前瞻性聲明。該法律提供安全港保護，鼓勵公司提供前瞻性資訊。 Genesis 打算利用這些安全港條款，並引導您查看其最近向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件和未來的文件。我們也鼓勵您造訪我們的網站 genesisenergy.com，其中包含我們今天發布的新聞稿副本。新聞稿也提供了非公認會計原則財務指標與最具可比性的公認會計原則財務指標的調節表。這次我想介紹一下Genesis Energy L.P.的執行長Grant Sims。Sims先生將與財務長兼首席法務官Kristen Jesulaitis一起加入。 Ryan Sims，總裁兼首席商務官；和首席會計官路易斯·尼克爾。

Thanks, Dwayne. Good morning to everyone, and thank you for listening to the call. We have seen a steady increase in the number of registered participants for our earnings calls over the last few quarters, and we're encouraged that our story is generating interest from an increasing number of both fixed income as well as equity investors.

謝謝，德韋恩。大家早安，感謝您收聽電話。在過去的幾個季度中，我們看到獲利電話會議的註冊參與者數量穩步增加，我們的故事引起了越來越多的固定收益投資者和股票投資者的興趣，這讓我們感到鼓舞。

As we mentioned in our earnings release this morning, our financial results for the third quarter were ahead of our internal expectations and once again demonstrated the resilient earnings power of our diversified market-leading businesses. While our Offshore Pipeline Transportation segment continued to benefit from steady volumes across our existing footprint and the increase in volumes from BP's Argos facility.

正如我們在今天早上的財報中提到的，我們第三季度的財務業績超出了我們的內部預期，並再次證明了我們多元化市場領先業務的彈性盈利能力。同時，我們的海上管道運輸部門繼續受益於我們現有業務範圍內穩定的運輸量以及 BP 的 Argos 設施的運輸量的增加。

We also saw an uplift of some $8 million to $10 million as a result of 0 downtime associated with any weather-related events in the Gulf of Mexico, that would have otherwise caused our shippers to limit their production activities during the quarter. Our soda and Sulfur Services segment performed in line with our expectations, and our Marine Transportation segment continued to exceed our expectations, driven in large part by the continued tightness for Jones Act equipment. This strong financial performance resulted in our leverage ratio as calculated by our senior secured lenders ending the quarter at 3.92x and a coverage ratio for our current distribution to common unitholders at 4.84x.

由於墨西哥灣任何與天氣相關的事件相關的停機時間為零，我們還看到了約 800 萬至 1000 萬美元的增長，否則我們的托運人將在本季度限制其生產活動。我們的蘇打水和硫磺服務部門的表現符合我們的預期，我們的海運部門繼續超越我們的預期，這在很大程度上是由於瓊斯法案設備的持續緊張。這種強勁的財務表現導致我們的槓桿率（根據我們的優先擔保貸款人計算）在本季末達到 3.92 倍，而我們目前向普通單位持有人分配的覆蓋率為 4.84 倍。

As discussed in this morning's release, we expect the remainder of the year to consist of strong performance from both our offshore pipeline transportation and marine transportation segments, being somewhat offset by marginally weaker performance in our soda ash operations, driven in large part by some weakness in soda ash prices, primarily limited to our export markets. These expectations nonetheless should allow us to deliver full year results at or above the midpoint, if not approaching the top end of our full year guidance of adjusted EBITDA of $725 million to $745 million.

正如今天早上的新聞稿中所討論的，我們預計今年剩餘時間我們的海上管道運輸和海上運輸部門將表現強勁，但在一定程度上被我們的純鹼業務略有疲軟的表現所抵消，這在很大程度上是由於一些弱點所致在純鹼價格方面，主要限於我們的出口市場。儘管如此，這些預期應該使我們能夠實現全年業績達到或高於中點，即使沒有達到調整後 EBITDA 7.25 億美元至 7.45 億美元的全年指導上限。

While it is somewhat disappointing that the challenging macro conditions affecting our soda ash prices are cropping up here in the short term, it is important to remember that we are still going to deliver record annual adjusted EBITDA for the partnership along with record segment margin for our Offshore Pipeline Transportation segment at or near record segment margin from our Marine Transportation segment and still a near record contribution from our soda ash business in spite of the weakness in soda ash prices in the back half of the year.

雖然短期內出現影響我們純鹼價格的具有挑戰性的宏觀環境有點令人失望，但重要的是要記住，我們仍將為合作夥伴關係提供創紀錄的年度調整後 EBITDA 以及創紀錄的部門利潤率儘管今年下半年純鹼價格疲軟，但海上管道運輸部門的海上運輸部門利潤率仍達到或接近創紀錄水平，純鹼業務的貢獻仍接近創紀錄水平。

Importantly, we will also continue to expect to exit the year with a leverage ratio, as calculated by our senior secured lenders at or near our long-term target leverage ratio of 4x and a coverage ratio of our current distribution of more than 4.5x, all with clear visibility to increasing EBITDA in future periods. As we look ahead to next year, we expect to see continued growth offshore from Argos, along with additional volumes from new subsea tiebacks and continued infill drilling, combined with marginally increasing performance from our Marine Transportation segment.

重要的是，我們還將繼續預計今年退出時的槓桿率（由我們的高級擔保貸款人計算）將達到或接近我們 4 倍的長期目標槓桿率，以及我們當前分佈的覆蓋率超過 4.5 倍，所有這些都對未來時期增加的EBITDA 具有清晰的可見性。展望明年，我們預計 Argos 的海上業務將持續成長，新的海底回接和持續的加密鑽探將帶來額外的產量，同時我們的海洋運輸部門的表現將略有成長。

While we have had limited conversations with our sodas customers for pricing under contracts that are open in 2024 we believe any continuing weakness in soda ash prices will likely be partially offset by the additional 750,000 new tons we have coming online from the Grainger expansion project and the corresponding reduction in our average operating cost per ton. Regardless of the makeup of our 2024 results and any uncertainty that might exist today, it is important to remember that the long-term outlook for Genesis remains intact and as strong as I've seen it during my tenure at the company.

雖然我們與純鹼客戶就 2024 年開放合約的定價進行了有限的對話，但我們相信純鹼價格的任何持續疲軟可能會被我們從 Grainger 擴建項目和我們每噸的平均營運成本相應降低。無論我們 2024 年的業績如何，以及今天可能存在的任何不確定性，重要的是要記住，Genesis 的長期前景仍然完好無損，並且與我在公司任職期間所看到的一樣強勁。

In fact, 2024 should really be viewed as a transition year for Genesis as we expect to complete our ongoing growth capital expenditures in mid- to late 2024 in advance of the significant step changes in offshore volumes and corresponding segment margin contributions beginning in late 2024 and accelerating into 2025 as the Shenandoah and Salamanca developments are expected to come online. The combination of these events will provide us with increasing amounts of cash flow after all of our cash obligations and generate increased financial flexibility to continue to simplify our capital structure, return capital to our stakeholders and ultimately allow us to continue to build long-term value for everyone in the capital structure for many years ahead.

事實上，2024 年確實應該被視為Genesis 的過渡年，因為我們預計將在2024 年中後期完成持續增長的資本支出，然後在2024 年末開始的離岸業務量和相應部門利潤貢獻發生重大變化之前，隨著 Shenandoah 和 Salamanca 的開發項目預計將投入使用，這一進程將加速到 2025 年。這些事件的結合將為我們在履行所有現金義務後提供越來越多的現金流，並提高財務靈活性，以繼續簡化我們的資本結構，將資本返還給我們的利益相關者，並最終使我們能夠繼續創造長期價值對於未來許多年資本結構中的每個人來說。

Now I'll touch briefly on our individual business segments. Our Offshore Pipeline Transportation segment performed ahead of our expectations, driven in large part by robust volumes across our system and our hurricane season where we saw no downtime during the quarter as a result of any weather event that would have otherwise impacted the production of our customers. We continue to see a steady increase in volumes from BP's Argos facility, which is fast approaching 90,000 barrels per day and strong volumes from our host fields and platform.

現在我將簡要介紹我們各自的業務部門。我們的海上管道運輸部門的表現超出了我們的預期，這在很大程度上是由於我們系統的強勁運量和颶風季節，我們在本季度沒有看到因任何天氣事件導致的停機，否則會影響我們客戶的生產。我們繼續看到 BP 的 Argos 設施的產量穩步增長，該設施的產量迅速接近每天 90,000 桶，並且我們的東道油田和平台的產量也強勁。

We continue to expect to see steady and increasing volumes from Argos over the balance of the year and into 2024 as BP further optimizes the facility and brings on additional wells towards its nameplate capacity of 140,000 barrels per day. In addition to the volumes from Argos, we are also seeing new volumes from additional subsea developments such as Woodside Shenzi North project and Quarternorth's Katmai project, both of which commenced production in the third quarter and will be online for a full year in 2024.

我們繼續預計，隨著 BP 進一步優化該設施並增加更多油井以實現其銘牌產能 140,000 桶/日，Argos 的產量在今年餘下時間和 2024 年將保持穩定和增長。除了 Argos 的產量外，我們還看到其他海底開發項目的新產量，例如 Woodside Shenzi North 項目和 Quarternorth 的 Katmai 項目，這兩個項目均於第三季度開始生產，並將於 2024 年全年上線。

These are yet again multiple examples of additional subsea tiebacks and/or development opportunities that were discovered at or near existing fields on active and valid leases in the Gulf of Mexico. While there remains decades and decades of these types of incremental opportunities on or around existing infrastructure and on active and valid leases in the Gulf of Mexico. I wanted to touch briefly on some of the direct and indirect efforts to not follow long-standing laws passed by Congress in attempting to inhibit oil and gas activity in the Gulf of Mexico.

這些又是在墨西哥灣現有有效租約的現有油田或附近發現的額外海底回接和/或開發機會的多個例子。儘管在墨西哥灣的現有基礎設施或周圍以及活躍且有效的租賃上仍然存在數十年的此類增量機會。我想簡單談談一些直接和間接的努力，這些努力不遵守國會通過的長期法律，試圖抑制墨西哥灣的石油和天然氣活動。

As many of you might have seen in the news over the last few months, the Department of Interior's lease cell #261 was originally scheduled to occur on or before September 27. But in August, the current administration announced it would shrink the leasing area by some 6 million acres due to some perceived risk to an endangered species. After multiple lawsuits, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana blocked the restriction in order to sell to include 6 million acres in question.

正如你們中的許多人可能在過去幾個月的新聞中看到的那樣，內政部的#261 租賃單位原定於9 月27 日或之前進行。但在8 月，現任政府宣布將把租賃面積縮小由於認為對瀕危物種存在某種風險，因此佔地約 600 萬英畝。經過多起訴訟後，美國路易斯安那州西區地方法院阻止了這項限制，以出售涉及的 600 萬英畝土地。

The delay caused the Department of Interior to push the lease cell to November 8. Then in late October, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed near earlier order until it reaches a decision on the appeal of such order. In addition to challenges around lease cell #261, the administration is also trying to limit future lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico through the end of the decade to 3 lease sales versus the historical semiannual cells that are required in the Outer Continental sales land back passed by Congress in 1953.

這一延誤導致內政部將租賃單元推遲到 11 月 8 日。然後在 10 月下旬，美國第五巡迴上訴法院維持了先前的命令，直到就該命令的上訴做出決定。除了圍繞租賃單位 #261 的挑戰之外，政府還試圖將墨西哥灣未來的租賃銷售量限製到本世紀末的 3 個租賃銷售量，而不是外大陸銷售土地所需的歷史半年度單元數。1953 年國會通過。

While these efforts to impact federal leasing in the Gulf of Mexico are unfortunate, we do not believe they will play any significant role in impacting the short- to medium to long-term outlook for Genesis in the Gulf of Mexico. Given the tremendous amount of acreage that is already held by production and or held under existing and valid leases around our industry-leading footprint. We think it is interesting and important to understand the sheer size and scale of the Gulf of Mexico is a world-class hydrocarbon basin.

雖然這些影響墨西哥灣聯邦租賃的努力是不幸的，但我們認為它們不會對墨西哥灣 Genesis 的短期、中長期前景產生任何重大影響。鑑於我們行業領先的足跡周圍已經擁有大量生產面積和/或根據現有有效租賃持有的面積。我們認為了解墨西哥灣是世界級碳氫化合物盆地的龐大規模和規模是有趣且重要的。

According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, over 12.1 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico are held under active leases with over 68% of them being located in the deepwater. Of these 12.1 million acres, production has been established under only 2.7 million acres with the remaining 9.4 million acres under existing valid leases either held by production through unitization, which is commonplace in the Gulf sensors only 1 landowner and on royalty owner are under a primary 10-year lease term or under an already agreed extension of its primary lease term. To put this in perspective, the 9.4 million acres of leased but as yet undeveloped acreage is more than 6.5x the size of ExxonMobil's total gross acreage position in the Permian Basin post the recent acquisition of Pioneer.

據海洋能源管理局稱，墨西哥灣超過 1,210 萬英畝的土地處於有效租賃狀態，其中 68% 以上位於深水區。在這 1,210 萬英畝土地中，僅 270 萬英畝土地已建立生產，其餘 940 萬英畝土地根據現有有效租約由生產單位持有，這在海灣地區很常見。10 年租賃期或根據已商定的主要租賃期延期。從長遠來看，這 940 萬英畝的已租賃但尚未開發的土地面積是埃克森美孚最近收購先鋒公司後在二疊紀盆地總面積的 6.5 倍以上。

Suffice it to say, there is a tremendous resource in the Gulf of Mexico that has yet to be explored under existing and valid leases, and it should undoubtedly provide for decades and decades of drilling inventory and future production volumes, a large percentage of which should find our way to our industry-leading infrastructure in the Central Gulf of Mexico. Furthermore, a study conducted by researchers at the University of California Davis and Louisiana State University published in May of 2023, found that more than 4.4 million oil and gas wells have been drilled in the United States.

可以說，墨西哥灣有大量資源尚未根據現有有效租約進行勘探，毫無疑問，它應該可以提供數十年的鑽探庫存和未來的產量，其中很大一部分應該用於找到通往墨西哥灣中部行業領先基礎設施的道路。此外，加州大學戴維斯分校和路易斯安那州立大學的研究人員在 2023 年 5 月發表的一項研究發現，美國已鑽探了超過 440 萬口油氣井。

Of those, only approximately 113,000 of these wells were located offshore or in coastal waters. And yet, according to the EIA, production from federal offshore wells have averaged approximately 21% of total U.S. production over the last 2 decades. The sheer size and scale of the resource in the Gulf of Mexico being produced from such a relatively small percentage of the existing and valid leases, its proximity to the Gulf Coast refinery complexes and its industry-leading low greenhouse gas footprint is extraordinarily impressive and fascinating to us.

其中，只有大約 113,000 口井位於近海或沿海水域。然而，根據 EIA 的數據，過去 20 年聯邦海上油井的產量平均約占美國總產量的 21%。墨西哥灣資源的巨大規模和規模是由現有有效租約中相對較小的比例生產的，其鄰近墨西哥灣沿岸煉油廠綜合體及其行業領先的低溫室氣體足跡令人印象深刻和迷人對我們來說。

And some of us have been working this basin from an infrastructure point of view for well over 30 years. All of these attributes provide further evidence as to why we have seen a number of operators turning their focus away from onshore shale basins as these basins have seen or will soon see peak production, and they have instead started to focus on the Gulf of Mexico, where production is increasing. There is a vast swath of undeveloped acreage and countless new large-scale developments, both sanctioned and yet to be sanctioned on the horizon.

我們中的一些人從基礎設施的角度一直在這個盆地工作 30 多年。所有這些屬性都提供了進一步的證據，說明為什麼我們看到許多業者將注意力從陸上頁岩盆地轉移，因為這些盆地已經或即將出現產量高峰，而他們開始關注墨西哥灣，產量不斷增加的地方。有大片未開發的土地和無數新的大型開發項目，無論是已批准的還是尚未批准的。

Along these lines, we have successfully laid the 105 miles of the sync lateral and remain on schedule and importantly on budget with this project and our CHOPS expansion project, both of which we expect to be ready for service in the second half of 2024. The contracted Shenandoah and Salamanca developments and their combined 160,000 barrels of oil per day of incremental production handling capacity remain on schedule and will be additive to our then base volumes in 2024.

沿著這些思路，我們已經成功鋪設了105 英里的同步支線，並且該項目和我們的CHOPS 擴建項目均按時完成，重要的是符合預算，我們預計這兩個項目都將在2024 年下半年投入使用。已簽訂合約的 Shenandoah 和 Salamanca 開發項目及其每天合計 160,000 桶石油的增量生產處理能力仍在按計劃進行，並將在 2024 年增加到我們當時的基本產量中。

These 2 new projects, combined with our study based volumes and increase in inventory of identified subsea tiebacks provides us with the visibility to generate north of $500 million per year of segment margin starting in 2025. All of this is to say, we remain well positioned to deliver steady, stable and growing cash flows from our Offshore Pipeline Transportation segment for many years to come. Turning now to our soda and Sulfur Services segment. Our soda ash business generally performed in line with our expectations during the quarter, despite continued weak economic data out of China and the continued increase in new natural production from Inner Mongolia.

這兩個新項目，加上我們基於研究的數量和已確定的海底回接庫存的增加，使我們有機會從2025 年開始每年產生超過5 億美元的細分利潤。所有這一切都表明，我們仍然處於有利地位未來許多年，我們的海上管道運輸部門將提供穩定、穩定且不斷增長的現金流。現在轉向我們的蘇打水和硫磺服務部門。儘管中國經濟數據持續疲軟且內蒙古新自然產量持續增加，但本季純鹼業務的表現總體符合我們的預期。

The combination of these factors is contributing to an increase in apparent export volumes from China, which in turn is applying downward pressure on soda ash prices in these export markets in Asia. In addition to weaker economic data in Asia, we have started to see slowing economic data, both in Europe and in the U.S., most notably in the container glass industry. Given these factors and the anticipation of additional volumes from China, one might reasonably expect to see some level of supply rationalization sooner rather than later as higher-cost synthetic production becomes increasingly uneconomic in Europe and China at today's prices.

這些因素的綜合作用導致中國表觀出口量的增加，進而對亞洲這些出口市場的純鹼價格施加下行壓力。除了亞洲經濟數據疲軟之外，我們也開始看到歐洲和美國的經濟數據放緩，尤其是容器玻璃產業。考慮到這些因素以及對中國產量增加的預期，人們可能會合理地預期，隨著以目前的價格計算，歐洲和中國的高成本合成生產變得越來越不經濟，遲早會出現某種程度的供應合理化。

Alternatively, a recovery in global economic activity and a return to historical growth levels with a focus on the domestic market in China -- when combined with the green shoots from the growing demand from lithium and solar panel customers could also help the soda ash market to balance much quicker than in prior periods of oversupply. It is likely going to be a combination of both supply and demand responses that will help the soda ash market return to a more balanced market than what we've seen in the last 6 months.

另外，全球經濟活動的復甦以及以中國國內市場為重點的恢復到歷史增長水平，再加上鋰和太陽能電池板客戶需求不斷增長帶來的萌芽，也可能有助於純鹼市場與先前的供應過剩時期相比，平衡速度快得多。這可能是供需反應的結合，將有助於純鹼市場恢復到比過去 6 個月更平衡的市場。

The ultimate timing of a recovery is somewhat uncertain, and it could conceivably take 12 to 18 months to become tight again, but it undoubtedly will. Accordingly, it remains increasingly important to be at the lower end of the global cost curve during periods of price uncertainty. All natural producers of soda Etch, which only supply approximately 28% of global demand enjoy this advantage with operating costs of about half of the cost of synthetic producers which supply the other 72% and in general, a significantly smaller environmental footprint relative to synthetic producers.

最終復甦的時間有些不確定，可以想像，可能需要 12 到 18 個月的時間才能再次收緊，但毫無疑問會的。因此，在價格不確定時期，處於全球成本曲線的低端仍然變得越來越重要。蘇打蝕刻的所有天然生產商僅供應全球約28% 的需求，都享有這一優勢，其運營成本約為供應其他72% 需求的合成生產商成本的一半，而且總體而言，相對於合成生產商，其環境足跡要小得多。

Furthermore, those natural producers with solution mining operations have the absolute lowest cost of production and thus to continue to have a competitive advantage over all producers during periods of excess supply and/or lower demand. Increasing our exposure to low-cost solution remain was a central investment thesis in our Granger expansion project. And once fully ramped, roughly half of our total production capacity will be from solution mining. Our combination of both dry ore mining and solution mining provides us with a U.S. industry-leading cost structure that will continue to allow us to run at full utilization and sell every ton we can safely produce to optimize our fixed cost for this year and in many years ahead regardless of the broader economic and pricing environment.

此外，那些進行溶液採礦作業的自然生產者俱有絕對最低的生產成本，因此在供應過剩和/或需求較低期間繼續比所有生產者俱有競爭優勢。增加我們對低成本解決方案的接觸是我們格蘭傑擴建計畫的核心投資主題。一旦全面投產，我們總產能的大約一半將來自解決方案採礦。我們將乾礦開採和溶液開採相結合，為我們提供了美國行業領先的成本結構，這將使我們能夠繼續充分利用並銷售我們可以安全生產的每一噸，以優化我們今年和許多年的固定成本。無論更廣泛的經濟和定價環境如何，未來幾年。

As stated in our earnings release, we have recently started the commissioning activities with our Granger expansion project and expect this work to continue over the remainder of 2023. Starting in early 2024, we expect the expansion to be fully online and ultimately adding approximately 750,000 tons a year with a very attractive marginal operating cost per ton to our supply capabilities in 2024. That will both increase our sales volumes and lower our operating cost per ton at Grainger and throughout our entire soda ash operations. Pro forma for the Grainger expansion, we continue to believe our 4.7 million to 4.8 million tons of soda of annual soda ash production capacity will provide us with the cost structure and scale to be successful across all economic cycles. Despite some expected near-term volatility in soda ash prices, we remain extremely bullish on the long-term fundamentals of the soda ash business and believe we are well positioned for the future.

正如我們在財報中所述，我們最近開始了Granger 擴建項目的調試活動，預計這項工作將在2023 年剩餘時間內繼續進行。從2024 年初開始，我們預計擴建項目將全面上線，最終增加約75萬噸產能到 2024 年，我們的供應能力每噸邊際營運成本將非常有吸引力。這將增加我們的銷量，並降低固安捷以及整個純鹼業務的每噸營運成本。對於 Grainger 的擴張計劃，我們仍然相信我們 470 萬噸至 480 萬噸純鹼的年產能將為我們提供在所有經濟週期中取得成功的成本結構和規模。儘管預計純鹼價格近期會出現一些波動，但我們仍然對純鹼業務的長期基本面極為看好，並相信我們為未來做好了充分準備。

Our Marine Transportation segment continues to meet or exceed our expectations as market conditions and demand fundamentals continue to remain steady. As mentioned in the release, we continue to operate with utilization rates at or near 100% of available capacity for all classes of our vessels as the supply and demand outlook for Jones Act tanker tonnage remains structurally tight. This structural change in market dynamics has been driven by a combination of steady and robust demand, the continued retirements of older equipment and effectively 0 new construction of our types of marine vessels.

隨著市場狀況和需求基本面持續保持穩定，我們的海運部門持續達到或超越我們的預期。正如新聞稿中所提到的，由於《瓊斯法案》油輪噸位的供需前景仍然結構性緊張，我們繼續以所有級別船舶可用運力的 100% 或接近 100% 的利用率運作。市場動態的這種結構性變化是由穩定而強勁的需求、舊設備的持續退役以及我們類型的船舶實際上為零的新建共同推動的。

This lack of new supply of marine tonnage combined with strong demand continues to drive spot day rates and longer-term contracted rates in both of our fleets to record levels. To provide some additional context, we, along with other industry participants continue to believe that current day rates that are still not yet high enough to justify the construction of new marine equipment. In addition to the significant cost of a new vessel, the long construction period, which can be 3 to 4-plus years, in some cases, for larger vessels, the lack of available shipyards to build a new vessel and the need to keep day rates elevated through the construction period and for a prolonged period of time once on the water to justify the construction all point to a market that should remain structurally tight for the foreseeable future.

缺乏新的船舶噸位供應加上強勁的需求繼續推動我們兩個船隊的現貨日費率和長期合約費率達到創紀錄的水平。為了提供一些額外的背景信息，我們以及其他行業參與者仍然認為，當前的日費率仍然不夠高，不足以證明建造新海洋設備的合理性。除了新船成本高昂之外，建造週期長（在某些情況下，大型船舶可能長達 3 至 4 年以上）、缺乏可用的造船廠來建造新船以及需要保持日照。在整個施工期間，以及在開工後的很長一段時間內，費率都在上漲，以證明施工的合理性，所有這些都表明，在可預見的未來，市場應該保持結構性緊張。

These broader fundamentals, combined with our increasingly termed out contracted portfolio, including the new 3.5-year contract for the American Phoenix we announced last quarter that starts in January, all lead me to believe our marine transportation is well positioned to deliver growing and steady earnings over the next few years. As we look ahead, we continue to remain focused on completing our growth capital program within the next 12 months, all while not losing focus on our leverage ratio. As I mentioned earlier, and we'll reiterate again, the long-term story for Genesis has never been brighter and remains intact. We are comfortably positioned to generate significant cash flows starting at the end of 2024 and accelerating into 2025, which will provide us with the tremendous flexibility to further optimize our capital structure and return capital to all of our stakeholders.

這些更廣泛的基本面，再加上我們日益到期的合約投資組合，包括我們上個季度宣布的從1 月份開始的美國鳳凰號新的3.5 年合同，所有這些都讓我相信我們的海運處於有利地位，可以實現不斷增長和穩定的收益在接下來的幾年裡。展望未來，我們將繼續專注於在未來 12 個月內完成我們的成長資本計劃，同時不會失去對槓桿率的關注。正如我之前提到的，我們將再次重申，《創世紀》的長期故事從未如此光明，並且保持完整。我們完全有能力從 2024 年底開始並加速到 2025 年產生大量現金流，這將為我們提供巨大的靈活性，以進一步優化我們的資本結構並將資本返還給所有利益相關者。

In advance of this additional cash flow, we have utilized a portion of our available liquidity this year to opportunistically repurchase $75 million of our Series A preferred equity at a discount to the contracted call premium as well as purchased 144,900 of our common units at an average price of $9.09 per unit. As we have stated in the past, we will continue to be opportunistic in acquiring any security across our capital structure to the extent we feel they remain mispriced in the market. As we have an increasingly clear line of sight to generating roughly $200 million to $300 million or more per year of free cash flow starting in 2025.

在獲得這筆額外現金流之前，我們今年已利用部分可用流動資金，以低於約定贖回溢價的折扣價回購了 7,500 萬美元的 A 系列優先股，並平均購買了 144,900 個普通單位。每單位價格為9.09 美元。正如我們過去所說，我們將繼續機會主義地收購我們資本結構中的任何證券，只要我們認為它們在市場上定價仍然錯誤。我們的目標越來越清晰，從 2025 年開始，每年產生約 2 億至 3 億美元或更多的自由現金流。

We will continue to evaluate the various levers we could pull to return capital to our stakeholders, including paying down debt, raising our common distribution, repurchasing additional amounts of our corporate preferred security are continuing to purchase our common unit or mispriced debt securities, all while maintaining an appropriate level of liquidity and of course, maintaining a focus on our long-term leverage ratio. Finally, I'd like to say the management team and the Board of Directors remain steadfast in our commitment to building long-term value for all of our stakeholders, and we believe the decisions we are making reflect this commitment and our confidence in Genesis moving forward.

我們將繼續評估可以利用的各種槓桿，將資本返還給利益相關者，包括償還債務、提高我們的共同分配、回購額外數量的公司優先證券、繼續購買我們的普通單位或定價錯誤的債務證券，同時保持適當的流動性水平，當然也要注意我們的長期槓桿率。最後，我想說，管理團隊和董事會仍然堅定不移地致力於為所有利益相關者創造長期價值，我們相信我們所做的決定反映了這一承諾以及我們對 Genesis moving 的信心向前。

I would once again like to recognize our entire workforce for their individual efforts and unwavering commitment to safe and responsible operations. I'm extremely proud to be associated with each and every one of you. With that, I'll turn it back to the moderator for questions.

我想再次表彰我們全體員工的個人努力以及對安全和負責任運營的堅定承諾。我非常自豪能夠與你們每一個人建立聯繫。這樣，我會將其轉回給主持人提問。

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) One moment, please, will be for questions -- thank you. I would like to turn the floor back over to CEO, Grant Sims for any closing comments.

謝謝。我們現在將進行問答環節。 （操作員說明）請稍等一下，我們將提問－謝謝。我想請執行長 Grant Sims 發表結束評論。

Okay. Well, again, thanks, everybody, for listening in, and we look forward to talking to you individually or as a group again in 90 days or so. Thanks very much.

好的。好吧，再次感謝大家的收聽，我們期待在 90 天左右的時間內再次單獨或以小組形式與你們交談。非常感謝。

Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. You may now disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。