Delek US Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DK) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Nicolette Slusser: That’s very helpful color. Thank you. And then the follow-up here is unrelated, but just wanted to ask about shareholder return and the $25 million of share repurchases seen here subsequent to quarter end. Can you share any thoughts around the buyback cadence and what you may be seeing from either the macro or in the current share price that is contributing to the repurchase levels?

Avigal Soreq: Yes, Nicolette, I will give more broader view around capital allocation. So, we see a dividend, first of all, competitive and sustainable to the cycle, and we are planning to maintain it and to hold that and — or if we have opportunity in the future, even to upgrade that, so that’s something we are looking at pretty, pretty consistently. Obviously, we gave guidance for buyback and if there are opportunities, we’ll absolutely execute them, but we have also balanced approach between buyback and the dividend — and the debt reduction. So, again, we are seeing a constructive in 2023, which allow us to have a good return to investors in all the three ways that I mentioned.

Nicolette Slusser: Great. Thank you.

Operator: The next question is from Doug Leggate with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Doug Leggate: Thanks. Good morning.

Avigal Soreq: Morning.

Doug Leggate: Avigal or Joe, I’m not sure who wants to take this, but, Joe, you you’ve been there now for — I guess you’d be you’ve been there for about four months now. You’ve had, obviously, a pretty good chance to take a look at the operations by asset. I just wonder if you could share your high level thoughts on what you might do differently going forward? What have you seen that provides margin opportunities, cost reduction opportunities, or maybe even portfolio high grading opportunities, any color you could offer from your observations? And I’ve got a follow-up, please.

Avigal Soreq: So, Doug, that’s a great question for Joseph. He’s excited about it. Thanks for joining us today. Please Joseph.

Joseph Israel: Thank you, Doug and I’ll take the operations angle of it. So, we spoke about the two events in Big Spring this quarter, right? So, we made the appropriate repairs and we moved on. But I think more importantly, we have shifted gears with a much more proactive reliability approach here and we are fully, fully focused on three key aspects of our operations; people, processes, and the equipment. With regards to people, we were able to fill key positions in the past couple of months with really strong industry talent and with more people around to understand what good looks like. The foundation is very sound, to really build on it, right? Procedures, training, very important, especially with the young force — workforce.

And really lastly, equipment. In our prepared remarks, we discussed the $2.3 per barrel spent in 2Q under mechanical integrity. Most of the scope is — has been around inspections and eliminations of the racks tools really to mitigate our risk. The plan is to continue in this second half of 2023 with approximately $1 per barrel. of budget to knock the high priority items out really of the lease. When you look back Delek has gone through a similar program in El Dorado in the past with really good result. El Dorado really ranks well these days. In case of mechanical availability has trended up in the past couple of years and you can see, high rates, more consistently. I personally ran Big Spring as a Chief Operating Officer 15 years ago under the different company and I know what Big Spring and its workforce are capable of.

So, take everything together, Doug, I’m very confident about our direction here and I’m sure liability and capture will follow.