Vertex Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:VTNR) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Ben Cowart: We have a whole value no difference than our renewable capacity we’re bringing online. We’re going to look at the best value we add to our shareholders as you said.

Michael Hoffman: And then lastly on the legacy — sorry go ahead No, no go ahead.

Ben Cowart: And the legacy business is no different than that. And we believe we got a line on how that will play out. But we — as we’ve handled inquires and things we continue to look at what’s in our best interest and that’s leading the decisions that we’ve made so far.

Michael Hoffman: Okay. Well, you anticipated my last question which is I would suspect given — you’ve got a great VGO business in Marrero, but there are other pieces of legacy that maybe aren’t all that relevant going forward that we could continue to see cleaning up of that portfolio and we may end up with just the Marrero processing that 60 million gallons of used oil in the VGO and tying that into the 20,000 barrels a day that you’re going to sell out of Mobile?

Ben Cowart: We will continue to look at each piece of the business with hold values that we’ve already started to assign to each one of them and the answer is yes. That’s going to be our approach.

Michael Hoffman: Okay, cool. Thanks for making the time for me.

Ben Cowart: Thank you, Michael.

Operator: And our next question today comes from Eric Stine of Craig-Hallum.

Eric Stine: Good morning. I’ll just sneak with you here at the end.

Ben Cowart: Good morning Eric.

Eric Stine: Hey good morning. I’m hoping we can go back to capture rate. And I can appreciate first quarter obviously, with the hydro treater offline or is part of the RD expansion. But I know you don’t guide but any thoughts on what we should think about for the capture rate in 2Q and beyond?

Chris Carlson: I think the best way to think of it is we’re not going to be €“ even though our crude rate may be slightly higher, it will not be that much different than it is today in the first quarter that we provided guidance on. We will continue to try to creep the capture rate. However, that €“ if you had asked me, I would tell you would be in that the range of where we are for the first quarter for the rest of the year.

Eric Stine: Okay. And then maybe just longer-term I mean, where can that go obviously, we saw it in this quarter and the capture rate is a huge driver not necessarily by the end of 2023. But as you look longer-term for this business, where do you think that can go? And what are some of the steps that you might take to get there?

Chris Carlson: Yes, that’s a great question because one of the things that we’ve really unlocked at Mobile is the ideas that our people have had there to improve the profitability of the site. And so far every single time that we’re there, they’re looking at what the next opportunity is and where can we do that cost competitively. I would tell you that we are right now I can’t even predict it because I see some projects in front of us that may take us several years to go execute. But they will continue to creep that. My goal is to recover back to where we were in the fourth quarter and beyond and I see that coming from the people. They have been sitting there in a site that was not strategic to now being in a strategic site with a lot of focus in an extremely strong market. And they’re coming forward with ideas daily.

Eric Stine: Got you. Very helpful. I guess I’ll take the rest offline. No need to ask five, six questions. Thank you.

Chris Carlson: Thank you, Eric.

Eric Stine: Appreciate all your work Bart.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question comes from Noah Kaye with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.