Good afternoon. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Westlake Chemical Partners Q3 2022 earnings conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen only mode. After the speaker's remarks, you will be invited to participate in a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, November 3rd, 2022. I would like now to turn over the call to today's host, Jeff Holy, Westlake Chemical Partners Vice President and Treasurer. Sir, you may begin.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Westlake Chemical Partners Q3 2022 conference call. I'm joined today by Albert Chao, our President and CEO, Steve Bender, our Executive Vice President and CFO, and other members of our management team. During this call, we refer to ourselves as Westlake Partners or the Partnership. References to Westlake refer to our parent company, Westlake Corporation, and references to OpCo refers to Westlake Chemical OpCo LP, a subsidiary of Westlake and a partnership which owns certain olefins assets. Additionally, when we refer to distributable cash flow, we are referring to Westlake Chemical Partners MLP distributable cash flow. Today, management is going to discuss certain topics that will contain forward-looking information that is based on management's beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to management.
These forward-looking statements suggest predictions or expectations and thus are subject to risks or uncertainties. We encourage you to learn more about the factors that could lead our actual results to differ by reviewing the cautionary statements in our regulatory filings, which are also available on our investor relations website. This morning, Westlake Partners issued a press release with details of our Q3 2022 financial and operating results. This document is available in the press release section of our webpage at wlkpartners.com. A replay of today's call will be available beginning two hours after the conclusion of this call. The replay can be accessed via the partnership's website. Please note that information reported on this call speaks only as of today, November 3rd, 2022, and therefore you are advised that time-sensitive information may no longer be accurate as of the time of any replay.
I would finally advise you that this conference call is being broadcast live through an internet webcast system that can be accessed on our webpage at wlkpartners.com. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Albert Chao. Albert.
Thank you, Jeff. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss our Q3 2022 results. In this morning's press release, we reported Westlake Partners' Q3 2022 net income of $15 million or $0.42 per unit. Consolidated net income, including OpCo, was $78 million for the Q3 of 2022. Westlake Partners' earnings stability is consistently demonstrated through our fixed margin ethylene sales agreement, which insulate us from market volatility and other production risks. This contractual arrangement continued to benefit us in the Q3 as we generated earnings and cash flow in line with our expectations despite challenging industry conditions. The associated high degree of stability in our cash flow, when paired with the predictability of our business, has enabled us to deliver the long history of reliable distributions and coverage.
This quarter's distribution is the 33rd consecutive quarterly distribution since our IPO, which has grown by 71% since the IPO and has never been reduced or cut. I would now like to turn our call over to Steve to provide more detail on the financial and operating results for the quarter. Steve.
Thank you, Albert, and good afternoon, everyone. In this morning's press release, we reported Westlake Partners' Q3 2022 net income of $15 million or $0.42 per unit. Net income, including OpCo's earnings, was $78 million on net sales of $415 million. The partnership had distributable cash flow for the quarter of $17 million or $0.48 per unit. Compared to the Q3 of 2021, net income for Westlake Partners increased by $2 million as OpCo benefited from higher production following the turnaround of Petro 2 in the Q2 of 2021, as well as a deficiency fee of approximately $14 million in the Q3 of 2022, resulting from lower planned offtake by Westlake of ethylene.
Distributable cash flow of $17 million for the Q3 of 2022 increased $4 million compared to the Q3 of 2021's distributable cash flow of $13 million, resulting from the higher earnings at OpCo. Compared to the Q2 of 2022, our net income for the Q3 decreased by $2 million. Due to lower third-party revenues as we optimize the benefits of our third-party sales and margins by electing to complete these sales in a period of higher margins in the Q1 and Q2 of 2022. Distributable cash flow decreased $3 million compared to the Q2 of 2022 as a result of the timing of these third-party sales and the recognition of the buyer deficiency fee.
Turning our attention to the balance sheet and cash flows at the end of the Q3, we had a consolidated cash balance and cash investments with Westlake through our Investment Management Agreement totaling $155 million. Consolidated debt at the end of the quarter was $400 million, of which $377 million was at the partnership and the remaining $23 million was at OpCo. As I mentioned in last quarter's call, in July of this year, OpCo and the partnership extended their revolving lines of credit with Westlake for a new five-year term. This is another example of Westlake demonstrating support for the partnership by providing ample liquidity for future capital needs. We maintained our strong leverage metrics with a consolidated leverage ratio below 1x. In the Q3, OpCo spent $13 million on capital expenditures.
On Monday, we announced a quarterly distribution of $0.4714 per unit with respect to the Q3 of 2022. Since the IPO in 2014, the partnership has made 33 consecutive quarterly distributions to our unit holders, and we have grown distributions 71% since the partnership's original minimum quarterly distribution of $0.275 per unit. Our distributable cash flow coverage for the twelve months ending September was 1.07x , which is slightly below our 1.1 target as expected due to the timing of the planned turnaround of Petro 2 at the end of last year. The partnership's Q3 distribution will be paid on November 28, 2022 to unit holders of record November 10, 2022.
We continue to evaluate our distribution policy and outlook while remaining mindful of the more volatile equity market conditions and looking to drive the value the partnership provides to our unit holders. Since our IPO in July of 2014, we've maintained a cumulative distribution coverage ratio in excess of 1.1x . With the partner stability in cash flows, we're able to sustain our current distribution without the need to access capital markets. As a reminder, for modeling purposes, we have no turnarounds planned for the Q4 of 2022, and our next planned maintenance outage is at our Calvert City ethylene facility in Calvert City, Kentucky, which is currently planned for the H1 of 2023. Now I'd like to turn the call back over to Albert to make some closing comments. Albert?
Thank you, Steve. Despite a currently challenging macroeconomic backdrop, the partnership's financial performance for the year is consistent with the stable fee-based cash flows it is designed to produce. Looking to 2023, while the global economy faces headwinds, we remain optimistic about the fundamentals of our business as our insulated ethylene sales agreement provides a predictable fee-based cash flow structure from our contract with Westlake for 95% of OpCo's production, which delivers stable and consistent cash flows and insulate us from potential volatility in the market. We maintain a strong balance sheet with conservative financial and leverage metrics.
As we continue to navigate market conditions, we'll evaluate opportunities via our four levers of growth in the future, including increases of our ownership interest of OpCo, acquisitions of other qualified income streams, organic growth opportunities such expansions of our current ethylene facilities, and negotiations of a higher fixed margin in our Ethylene Sales Agreement with Westlake. We remain focused on our ability to continue to provide long-term value and distributions to our unit holders. As always, we'll continue to focus on safe operations along with being good stewards of the environment where we work and live. Thank you very much for listening to our Q3 earnings call. Now I'll turn the call back over to Jeff.
Thank you, Albert. Before we begin taking questions, I'd like to remind you that a replay of this teleconference will be available two hours after the call has ended. We'll provide that number at the end of the call. Amber, we'll now take questions.
Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your phone and wait for your name to be announced. Please stand by while we compile a roster. Our first question is from Michael Leithead at Barclays. Michael, your line is now open.
Great. Thanks. Good morning, guys. Well, first question, morning, just high level, obviously, the world's pretty volatile. Interest rates have moved up a lot. Can you maybe just flesh out a bit more just kind of how you're thinking about the distribution policy or thoughts around maybe potentially ultimately kind of growing distribution in light of everything else?
Yeah, Mike, it's Steve. Good question. As you have heard Albert outline, we've got really four levers that allow us to grow. An increase in the ownership of OpCo, acquisition of other qualifying income streams, organic growth opportunities, negotiating that higher margin. As you can see, the market, and you noted, the market is very volatile. Capital inflows into any equity markets have been more challenged. We've seen through our third-party sales that margins have been challenged in some of the ethylene markets, which was why we moved those to occur in the Q1 and the Q2 this year to take advantage of those higher margins. We certainly stand ready to look for opportunities to grow the distribution in more in conditions that are more conducive to giving us the value that that would bring.
You can see from those four levers, we stand ready. It's just market conditions, I think, that has been the challenge that we see in the current situation. We certainly stand ready to make that happen when conditions prove to be more favorable.
Fair enough. That makes sense, Steve. Second, I think this quarter had about a $14 million buyer deficiency fee. I think maybe can you just remind us or refresh us kind of how the buyer deficiency mechanics work between Westlake Partners and Westlake Corporation?
Certainly. There is an obligation for Westlake to acquire 95% of the planned production in any given year. At any point in time, should there be an unplanned outage or any adjustment to production, that buyer deficiency makes up for any shortfall of production. That buyer deficiency therefore provides that stable income stream to the partnership, whether production was made as a result of an unplanned outage or any changes in production. That mechanism therefore works from a revenue recognition perspective. Ultimately, if they're unable to make up that production during the course of any given year, they're paid that shortfall, that buyer deficiency therefore at the beginning of the new year.
Got it. Makes sense. Thank you.
You're welcome.
At this time, the Q&A session has now ended. I'll now turn the call back over to Jeff Holy.
Thank you again for participating in today's call. We hope you will join us for our next conference call to discuss our Q4 and full year 2022 results.
Thank you for participating in today's Westlake Chemical Partners Q3 earnings conference call. As a reminder, this call will be available for replay beginning two hours after the call has ended and may be accessed until 11:59 PM. Eastern Time on Thursday, November 10th, 2022 . The replay can be accessed via the partnership website. Thank you.