Greetings, and welcome to the Valero first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Homer Bhullar, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Valero Energy Corporation's first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. With me today are Joe Gorder, our Chairman and CEO; Lane Riggs, our President and COO; Jason Fraser, our Executive Vice President and CFO; Gary Simmons, our Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, and several other members of Valero senior management team. If you have not received the earnings release and would like a copy, you can find one on our website at investorvalero.com. Also attached to the earnings release are tables that provide additional financial information on our business segments and reconciliations and disclosures for adjusted metrics mentioned on this call. If you have any questions after reviewing these tables, please feel free to contact our investor relations team after the call. I would now like to direct your attention to the forward-looking statement disclaimer contained in the press release.
In summary, it says that statements in the press release and on this conference call that state the companies' or management's expectations or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements intended to be covered by safe harbor provisions under federal securities laws. There are many factors that could cause actual results to differ from our expectations, including those we've described in our earnings release and filings with the SEC. Now I'll turn the call over to Joe for opening remarks.
Thanks, Homer, and good morning, everyone. We had another strong quarter with all of our segments performing well. Our refineries operated at 93% capacity utilization rate despite planned maintenance at several facilities. Our ability to optimize and maximize system throughput while undertaking maintenance activities illustrates the benefits from our long-standing commitment to operational excellence. Refining margins were supported by lower industry refining capacity in a backdrop of strong product demand. I'm also proud to report that the Port Arthur Coker project was completed in March and successfully started up in early April, which is a testament to the strength of our engineering and operations teams. The project is expected to increase the refinery's throughput capacity and ability to process incremental volumes of sour crude oils and residual feedstocks while also improving turnaround efficiency.
Our renewable diesel segment set another sales volume record in the first quarter with the continued ramp-up of DGD Port Arthur, which was started up in November 2022. In January, we announced that DGD approved a sustainable aviation project at Port Arthur, Texas. The DGD Port Arthur plant will have the capability to upgrade approximately 50% of its current 470 million gallon annual renewable diesel production capacity to sustainable aviation fuel or SAF. The project is expected to be completed in 2025 and is estimated to cost approximately $315 million, with half of that attributable to Valero. With the completion of this project, DGD is expected to be one of the largest manufacturers of SAF in the world.
In the ethanol segment, BlackRock and Navigator's carbon sequestration project is progressing. They expect to begin startup activities in late 2024. We expect to be the anchor shipper with eight of our ethanol plants connected to this system, which will allow us to produce a lower carbon intensity ethanol product and significantly improve the margin profile and competitive positioning of our ethanol business. We continue to advance other low carbon opportunities, such as renewable hydrogen, alcohol to jet, and additional renewable naphtha and carbon sequestration projects. All of our projects must meet a minimum return threshold to continue to progress through our gated review process. On the financial side, we continue to strengthen our balance sheet, reducing debt by $199 million in the first quarter and ending the quarter with a net debt to capitalization ratio of 18%.
In January, we announced an increase in our quarterly dividend on our common stock from $0.98 per share to $1.02 per share, demonstrating our long-standing commitment to stockholder returns. Looking ahead, we expect refining fundamentals to remain supported by low global light product inventories, tight product supply and demand balances, and continued increase in product demand as we approach peak air travel and summer driving season. In closing, our team continues to successfully execute a strategy that enables us to meet the challenge of supplying the world's need for reliable and affordable energy in an environmentally responsible manner. The tenets of our strategy, underpinned by operational excellence, deploying capital with an uncompromising focus on returns, and honoring our commitment to stockholders, have been in place for nearly a decade and continue to position us well for the future.
With that, Homer, I'll hand the call back to you.
Thanks, Joe. For the first quarter of 2023, net income attributable to Valero stockholders was $3.1 billion, or $8.29 per share, compared to $905 million or $2.21 per share for the first quarter of 2022. First quarter 2023 adjusted net income attributable to Valero stockholders was $3.1 billion or $8.27 per share, compared to $944 million or $2.31 per share for the first quarter of 2022. For reconciliations to adjusted amounts, please refer to the earnings release and the accompanying earnings release tables. The refining segment reported $4.1 billion of operating income for the first quarter of 2023, compared to $1.5 billion for the first quarter of 2022.
Refining throughput volumes in the first quarter of 2023 averaged 2.9 million barrels per day, which was 130,000 barrels per day higher than the first quarter of 2022. Throughput capacity utilization was 93% in the first quarter of 2023, compared to 89% in the first quarter of 2022. Refining cash operating expenses were $4.78 per barrel in the first quarter of 2023, lower than guidance of $4.95, primarily attributed to higher throughput and lower natural gas prices. Renewable diesel segment operating income was $205 million for the first quarter of 2023, compared to $149 million for the first quarter of 2022.
Renewable diesel sales volumes averaged 3 million gallons per day in the first quarter of 2023, which was 1.3 million gallons per day higher than the first quarter of 2022. The higher sales volumes in the first quarter of 2023 were due to the impact of additional volumes from the start-up of the DGD Port Arthur plant in the fourth quarter of 2022. The ethanol segment reported $39 million of operating income for the first quarter of 2023, compared to $1 million for the first quarter of 2022. Ethanol production volumes averaged 4.2 million gallons per day in the first quarter of 2023, which was 138,000 gallons per day higher than the first quarter of 2022.
For the first quarter of 2023, G&A expenses were $244 million, and net interest expense was $146 million. Depreciation and amortization expense was $660 million, and income tax expense was $880 million for the first quarter of 2023. The effective tax rate was 22%. Net cash provided by operating activities was $3.2 billion in the first quarter of 2023. Excluding the unfavorable change in working capital of $534 million in the first quarter and the other joint venture members' share of DGD's net cash provided by operating activities, excluding changes in DGD's working capital, adjusted net cash provided by operating activities was $3.6 billion.
Regarding investing activities, we made $524 million of capital investments in the first quarter of 2023, of which $341 million was for sustaining the business, including costs for turnarounds, catalysts, and regulatory compliance, and $183 million was for growing the business. Excluding capital investments attributable to the other joint venture members' share of DGD, capital investments attributable to Valero were $467 million in the first quarter of 2023. Moving to financing activities, we returned over $1.8 billion to our stockholders in the first quarter of 2023, of which $379 million was paid as dividends and $1.5 billion was for the purchase of approximately 11 million shares of common stock, resulting in a payout ratio of 52% of adjusted net cash provided by operating activities.
With respect to our balance sheet, as Joe mentioned, we completed additional debt reduction transactions in the first quarter that reduced Valero's debt by $199 million through opportunistic open market repurchases. We ended the quarter with $9 billion of total debt, $2.4 billion of finance lease obligations, and $5.5 billion of cash and cash equivalents. The debt-to-capitalization ratio net of cash and cash equivalents was 18% as of March 31st, 2023. We ended the quarter well-capitalized with $5.4 billion of available liquidity excluding cash. Turning to guidance, we expect capital investments attributable to Valero for 2023 to be approximately $2 billion, which includes expenditures for turnarounds, catalysts, and joint venture investments. About $1.5 billion of that is allocated to sustaining the business and the balance to growth.
For modeling our second quarter operations, we expect refining throughput volumes to fall within the following ranges: Gulf Coast at 1.73-1.78 million barrels per day, Midcontinent at 405,000-425,000 barrels per day, West Coast at 250,000 barrels-270,000 barrels per day, and North Atlantic at 450,000 barrels-470,000 barrels per day. We expect refining cash operating expenses in the second quarter to be approximately $4.60 per barrel. With respect to the renewable diesel segment, we expect sales volumes to be approximately 1.2 billion gallons in 2023. Operating expenses in 2023 should be $0.49 per gallon, which includes $0.19 per gallon for non-cash costs such as depreciation and amortization.
Our ethanol segment is expected to produce 4.2 million gallons per day in the second quarter. Operating expenses should average $0.40 per gallon, which includes $0.05 per gallon for non-cash costs such as depreciation and amortization. For the second quarter, net interest expense should be about $145 million, and total depreciation and amortization expense should be approximately $670 million. For 2023, we expect G&A expenses excluding corporate depreciation, to be approximately $925 million. That concludes our opening remarks. Before we open the call to questions, please adhere to our protocol of limiting each turn in the Q&A to two questions. If you have more than two questions, please rejoin the queue as time permits to ensure other callers have time to ask their questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question at this time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. The confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question is coming from the line of Manav Gupta with UBS. Please proceed with your question.
Congrats on a very good result. I'm not sure if there are many other refiners out there who can show this kind of capture with such heavy turnaround, so congrats on that. I have two quick questions, and I'll ask them upfront. We keep seeing DOE data, which is prone to revisions, which sometimes doesn't actually make too much sense. Joe, in your system across various products, what are you seeing in terms of demand for various products in your system? The second and related question is, help us understand a little bit what's going on in the diesel market. Are we suddenly oversupplied? Is the demand weak? If you could just talk through those diesel dynamics. Thank you.
No, Manav. We're happy to do that. Thanks for your comments. Gary, you wanna give him some insight?
Sure. You know, so far, our seven-day average in our wholesale system, our gasoline sales are up 16% year-over-year. Our diesel volumes are up 25% year-over-year. Our wholesale team continues to do a great job. In March, we set a record at 998,000 barrels a day. In April, the volumes are trending right around, right along those levels. Demand seems very strong in our system. Even the DTN data for the wholesale racks across the industry is very strong as well. You know, in terms of your question on diesel weakness, we're just not seeing it.
You know, I can tell you in addition to the wholesale volumes, today, there's domestic ARBs that are open from Pad 3 into Pad 2, as we're seeing a surge in agricultural demand that's going along with planting season. You also have a domestic ARB open to ship from Pad 3 to Pad 1. We see strong waterborne premiums to go to Latin America. The Transatlantic ARB is open to Europe. For us, you know, these fundamentals look pretty good.
Thank you for taking my questions.
Thank you. Our next question is coming from the line of Theresa Chen with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.
Good morning. Can you comment on your outlook for Gulf Coast capture from here? Clearly, the startup of the Port Arthur coker should be a tailwind. We've also seen differentials come in. Net-net, how do you view the profitability of your Gulf Coast system, both near term and longer term?
Theresa, this is Lane. I'll say some general comments about capture rates. You know, to sort of compare our first quarter capture rate to a second quarter capture rate. Holding all things equal, we'll blend less butane. You know, everything, you know, holding everything equal, our capture rates will actually fall just due to butane. As you alluded to, you look at feedstocks. What's the trajectory of feedstocks? They're lower. On the other side of it, you know, we're seeing big RBOB premiums versus CBOB. To the extent that, you know, that's not captured in our capture rate, that's actually a positive. There are several things you just gotta look at.
What you gotta focus on are the, some of the drivers that may not be in our formula for our, you know, our crack attainment and how those change relative to things they're sort of tied to. An example would be Maya versus WCS or like I said, RBOB versus CBOB. Those are the things you guys kind of key on and try to predict maybe how our crack attainment looks.
Thank you. On a related note, how do you see the VGO situation evolving, in terms of your Gulf Coast consumption as well as the global supply following the EU embargo on Russian products as well as the Saudis exporting less after Jazan brought on its conversion unit?
I'll start on at least our system and let Gary kind of look at and talk about the supply. You know, the startup of our Port Arthur coker goes a long way to shoring up our VGO position. You know, essentially, that's what it is. It's taking resid and heavier crudes and cracking into a sort of into distillate and essentially a VGO boiling range of material. It allows us to. Our requirement for importing VGO has fallen post the new coker startup.
Yeah. In terms of supply, I think, you know, we were concerned that the ramp-up in sanctions against Russia would limit VGO exports and cause VGO tightness. Far, it looks like, you know, the Russian barrels are continuing to flow, and so we're not nearly as concerned about VGO supply as we were earlier in the year.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is coming from the line of Doug Leggate with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, good morning, everybody. This is Kalei for Doug. Thanks for taking the question. I've got a follow-up to Theresa's question, and it really goes to the availability of heavy sours that are in the market. There's a perception that that length is getting shorter with the OPEC cuts and that increased demand from new projects such as your coker and perhaps MPC's resid hydrocracker are squeezing the market for those kinds of supplies. Can you talk about what you guys are seeing and if the phase startups of the new refineries where not all the units are online could help alleviate that situation?
I'll go through. We have seen, you know, during the first quarter, we saw the supply demand balances around heavy sour get tighter. Some of it's supply. You also saw Chinese refinery utilization ramp up, which, you know, put more demand in the system. Going forward, I think there are some bullish factors. You know, Platts is reporting 500,000 barrels a day of Canadian crude production is offline due to maintenance. We'll get that production back. Venezuelan production is forecasted to grow, and our view is that more Chevron production from that region will make its way into the Gulf as we progress through the year. At some point in time, you know, all indications are that the LyondellBasell refinery will come down, which will kick more heavy sour back to the market.
Then if the demand, you know, the supply demand balances that are currently being forecasted are correct, at some point in time you'll need that OPEC production back on the market, which again is bullish to differentials.
Got it. A quick follow-up to that. Can you talk about what you're seeing for new refining capacity that's supposed to come online like Dangote and Dos Bocas in Mexico?
Yeah. I really can't make a lot of comments. We don't, you know, we don't have a lot of insight into either one of those refineries.
All right. I appreciate it, guys. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thank you. Our next question is coming from the line of John Royall with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, guys. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to start on the return of capital side. You guys returned above your 40%-50% range again this quarter, I think second quarter in a row. What's your way to thinking on where you wanna be in that range of returns to shareholders, you know, given your balance sheet's very strong, but you know, fundamentals appear to be ticking down, and you can see that in your indicators.
Yeah. No, that's right. This, this is Jason. You're right, our balance sheet's in good shape right now. We've got over $5.5 billion of cash. We feel pretty strong there. Got our net debt to cap ratio down into a good spot around 18%, which is well at the lower end of our range. We feel like we're in a pretty good spot with regard to any potential recessionary conditions. As far as our target for where we wanna be in our range, we'll continue to target the 40%-50%. When we have strong results, of course, we'll be looking at the upper end of that.
We ended at 45% last year, paid out 52% this quarter, actually with the extra cash we had, we did kind of an all of the above strategy. We're able to build our cash by $600 million, pay out at 52% and also even pay back a little more debt. It'll just depend on how the year plays out to where we fall in the range, right in the payout range.
Great. Thank you. Was hoping you could also touch on the regulatory changes out in California and how you expect those to play out and the potential impact on both your business and maybe just the broader refining market in California?
This is Rich. I can start out with just sort of the regulatory climate. You know, I mean, California's always been a tough regulatory climate for operations. I'm assuming you're talking about the California SB X1-2, you know, rulemaking that's out there. You know, what we would just say is that the bill does have some burdensome reporting requirements in it. Then obviously it kicks, you know, basically a profit tax or over to this California Energy Commission to implement it. We'll stay active and engaged in that rulemaking process and watch what develops out of the agency there. It's unclear what price cap, if any, they'll ultimately put in place.
I would point out that the rulemaking on that, the standard that the agency is supposed to use, is they're supposed to determine that the benefits to consumers are outweighed by the potential cost to consumers. You know, it goes without saying that, you know, attempts by governments to artificially limit commodity prices has never been really good for the economy, and it ultimately ends up hurting consumers. We'll just have to see how that all plays out.
John, this is Joe. Just let me bolt on something to what Rich said. It's, you know, we have a great team operating both of our refineries on the West Coast. Great teams are running those plants. We have been very consistent and clear in our approach to the California business, and that is we aggressively manage the capital. We invest to maintain safe and reliable operations out there, but we haven't invested capital in growing that business for many years now. Historically, you know, California in a normal operating environment isn't a strong contributor to our earnings. We've always viewed it as an option on periodically strong margins. If the margin caps are set at levels that remove the upside, the opportunity to earn a return isn't there the way it's been in the past, and we'll have to evaluate our options.
Right now, Rich and his team are communicating to the California Energy Commission and others the concerns that we have, and we're just gonna have to wait and see what happens out there.
It is a, an environment that is a difficult operating environment. I would not even take a shot at stating what might happen to the overall refining environment out there. I can just tell you that from our perspective, we're just gonna have to watch it and see, and then we'll evaluate our options.
Thank you very much.
Mm-hmm.
Thank you. The next question is coming from the line of Paul Sankey with Sankey Research. Please proceed with your question.
Hi, everyone. Could you repeat the wholesale sales demand number that you just gave and explain how come, if I heard you right, that's growing so massively?
Yeah. Our wholesale on the gasoline side, we're up 16% year-over-year. On distillate, we're up 25% year-over-year. March, we set a sales volume record 998,000 barrels a day. April, you know, the volumes are trending about like they did in March. Certainly when you look at the broader DTN wholesale volume data, it's not as significant growth as what we're seeing. You know, it indicates we're doing a good job of capturing market share.
There's no structural change, it's just better wholesale performance?
Yes.
Okay. I'm not counting that as a question, Joe. On the
Yeah. Paul, we could talk all day. Go ahead.
On the... I'm in D.C., actually. On the IRA, what's your latest thinking on how that could impact your business, you know, in terms of the regulatory environment? We've dealt with the California one, I think, on the call already. If you've got any, you know, latest thoughts on how things in Washington are shifting? The other one, I guess, is a big deal here, obviously, is carbon capture and how you're thinking about that? Thanks.
You bet. Well, this is Rich Walsh again. I guess I'll take an effort to respond on that in terms of, I think you're probably alluding to some negotiations that are going on right now. You know, just this morning, I think the Republican bill has been revised to include some of the credits to be back in that they were proposing to pull out. You know, we're looking at, you know, the clean energy tax credits being put back in, and so the things that help us on our renewable side and then some of our sequestration projects back in. You know, they also have grandfathered those that have already made, you know, investment decisions on these.
You know, our you know, while SAF is out, the projects that have been announced on SAF are back in. You know, that means our projects would be, you know, still eligible for the, for the proper treatments on that.
Yeah, got it. I think, you know, the SAF is definitely a very interesting one. Okay. Generally speaking, the market, we've seen margins come off an awful lot, which is a bit odd seasonally. Is there anything that you can observe about, especially given what you're saying about your wholesale margins, your wholesale deliveries, you know, the big sell-off that we've seen here somehow doesn't seem to be entirely supported by fundamentals. We had a great gasoline demand number, for example, this week in the DOE. Any, any thoughts on how Q2 is gonna shape out? I'll leave it there. Thanks a lot, guys.
Thanks, Paul.
Yeah, Paul, our view is, you know, whenever inventory is as low as it is today, it just puts you way out on the margin curve to where the slope is really steep, and any type of market news can have a significant impact on prices and margins. Early in the year, you know, the market headlines were all about losing Russian supply with the ramp-up in sanctions, and it drove the market up. Today, I think people are generally comfortable that the Russian barrels will continue to flow, and then a lot of concern on the economy and what happens with demand in the future. As I've said, you know, we're not seeing any indication of demand weakness today, but I think that's a concern, is what happens in the future.
Understood. Thank you all.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is coming from the line of Roger Read with Wells Fargo. Please proceed with your question.
Yeah, thanks. Good morning.
Good morning, Roger.
Guess I'd like to follow up. Hey, Joe. I'd like to follow up on the comments or how you're looking at the diesel and gasoline markets. I mean, there's a ton of ways to track demand and shortfalls of supply, but one we pay attention to is, you know, each end of the Colonial Pipeline, and it shows clear stress in the gasoline market. I guess I'd like to dig into maybe what you see in the Atlantic Basin, particularly between New York and Northwest Europe in terms of just outright gasoline supply, or is it a component issue or what exactly is going on there?
I think there's several factors that come into play there, Roger. You know, historically, we see an incentive to store summer grade gasoline or components in New York Harbor. This winter, the market structure really made it to where it wasn't economic to do that. We didn't build inventory for that. Then again, typically in the first quarter, you see a lot of volume going across the Atlantic from Europe into New York Harbor early in the year, and the strikes that occurred in France kind of minimized those volumes as well. We've come into driving season with, you know, 10 million barrels below where we were last year on gasoline inventory. Especially summer grade gasoline is very tight and it is gonna stress the colonial system as we move into driving season.
Yeah. I mean, it's early in the quarter, but, we really haven't seen the gap quite this large at this time of the year before. Definitely shows stress. Follow-up question, if I could, on the SAF. Obviously, you mentioned there are some opportunities in terms of what's moving forward legislatively. If you weren't to see, let's call it, you know, fundamental support for SAF margins, do you want to make SAF? I mean, what's the driver to do that versus renewable diesel, which obviously already enjoys support as well as LCFS programs?
Yeah. Hey, Roger Read, this is Eric. I think, you know, we still see a big demand for SAF in the future. The EU just talked about mandating it beginning in 2025 and at an increasing percentages as you get to 2030 and 2050. You know, the IRA isn't the only driver for SAF. I think, you know, between what we see in different jurisdictions starting to obligate jet and make it a mandatory requirement, as well as just the internal commitments that a lot of the airlines and cargo carriers have made, from a corporate standpoint. We still see that SAF is going to be a strategic growth area for renewables.
All right, I'll leave it there. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is coming from the line of Ryan Todd with Piper Sandler. Please proceed with your question.
Yeah, thanks. Good morning. Maybe I'll stick for one follow-up on the low carbon fuel side. Can you talk a little bit about a couple of the low carbon possibilities that you mentioned earlier in the call? You mentioned renewable hydrogen and alcohol-to-jet. What would either of those projects look like in your current operations? Are there further changes in product prices or regulatory support that would be required to make either of those businesses make sense?
Well, I think, you know, This is Eric again. in particular to say, well, you know, we'll start with ethanol to jet. assuming the Navigator project goes forward, that will lower the carbon intensity of our ethanol to a point where it will qualify as a feedstock into SAF. If you look at that as the precursor project, that would then enable an ethanol-to-jet SAF project, that's one of the things we're looking at. That's, you know, years out from, you know, anything we would talk about, you know, in any sort of detail. Conceptually, that's kind of what would line up that possibility from a project standpoint.
Renewable hydrogen, that's another sort of horizon opportunity that as you look at your low carbon platforms, if you can make blue or green hydrogen, it's just another way to further lower your CIs on your, on your low carbon, on your low carbon operations.
Great. Thanks. Maybe just a quick follow-up on the Port Arthur Coker. Congratulations on getting that started up. Is there any sort of ramp associated with operations there? How should we expect, you know, kind of contributions from that in the second quarter? Any kind of updates or thought on what you think the annualized EBITDA contribution is in the current environment?
This is Wayne. We started it up on April 5th. I would say actually this week, we've sort of ramped up most of the refinery up to where we're running close to fuel to full. We're, you know, sort of from now through the rest of the quarter, you will see at least the benefit of being in Coker. It was a clean startup, as Joe alluded to earlier in his comments. It was done really well by our team. It's working just as we had indicated. In terms of the contribution on EBITDA, when you take sort of the current volume metrics and use forward pricing on it's nominally about a half a billion dollars a year is the benefit.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is coming from the line of Jason Gabelman with TD Cowen. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, morning everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to ask one on market structure. I think there's some concern because there's headlines around Asia, cutting refining runs 'cause margins are low there, and there's some concern that that could permeate into The U.S. The question is, how should the market kind of take that in-indicator? Should they think that, well, Asia margins are falling and so U.S. will follow 'cause there's global weakness? Conversely, because Asian margins are falling, U.S. cracks are, you know, around the levels they are probably closer to a floor because of the structural, kind of tailwinds that are out there and Asia is kind of absorbing all of the throughput declines related to global demand issues.
I know it's a bit of a complex question, but I guess give it a shot. Thanks.
I think the way we would view it is much like you said, we would view it as it's kind of telling us that we're a floor on margins. It's not just Asia, but you know, in Europe, hydro skimming margins are negative. A lot of that is the distillate weakness. We still see diesel inventory very, very low. You know, but we view that some of that capacity should actually be running. It's kind of telling you we're at a floor on where margins are.
Okay, thanks. That's helpful. The follow-up on DGD. Where are we in terms of the DGD distribution? Have you received one yet? Is that coming soon? How are you thinking about that cash being moved up to the partners moving forward? Thanks.
We've looked at the DGD cash flow, and we would still say we see a distribution in the back half of this year becoming an opportunity for the partners.
Okay. Any idea around the quantity?
No, we're not gonna, you know, give a number, like that out. It does look positive through the end of the year.
Okay. Thanks guys.
Jason.
Thank you. Our next question is coming from the line of Matthew Blair with Tudor, Pickering Holt. Please proceed with your question.
Hey, good morning, everyone. Joe, could you help us understand the Q1 refining capture, the strong figure a little bit more? I think Lane mentioned, you know, butane blending was a tailwind. What else drove it up? I guess specifically, were product exports, more of a supporting factor than normal? Then also, was there any impact from turning in the 2021 RINs? Like, any sort of mark to market as you submitted the 2021 RINs in March of 2023?
Matt, this is Lane. I'll start out with the first part of it. Things that are contributing factors were we had, you know, backwardation sort of flattened out on the market on feedstock. That's always one you got. Market structure plays into capture rates in a big way. It flattened out some. You had wider differentials in the first quarter versus the fourth quarter on all the crudes that we run. Finally, there were pretty good jet premiums versus distillate in the first quarter. Those were the other things driving our capture rates. With respect to the other item you mentioned.
I don't think the RIN had anything to do with it.
Yeah, no.
I wouldn't say exports had any kind of material impact on capture rates either.
Great. Thanks for the color. On the Q2 refining guidance, it looks like it implies about 90%-93% utilization. You already did 93% in Q1, so I guess I'd be surprised if it ticks down. Should we think of that as just a conservative number, or are there other major turnarounds that we should be aware of that's pulling down your Q2 expected run rates?
We sort of have a policy of not really commenting directly on our turnaround activity. You know, I would just take the guidance to be, you know, kind of where we think it's gonna be.
Yeah, Matthew, I mean, you know our history and our tendency. I mean, we're not gonna oversell anything. We'll just, we'll see how the markets look, and Lane's right. We'll operate as appropriate.
Great. Thank you very much.
You bet.
Thank you. We have no additional questions at this time. I'll pass the floor over to management for any additional closing remarks.
Thanks, Jesse. We appreciate everyone joining us today. Obviously, feel free to contact the IR team if you have any questions. Have a great week. Thank you, everyone.
Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude our call and webcast. You may disconnect your lines at this time. We thank you for your participation.