Calumet Specialty Product Partners, L.P. Q4 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

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2009-02-18 13:52:07.0

Tags: Crude Oil, Working Capital, Call Transcript, Agreement, Earnings, Crude Oil Price, Managerial Accounting, Finance, Seeking Alpha, Calumet Specialty Product Partners LP

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator instructions) And our first question will come from the line of Darren Horowitz with Raymond James. Please proceed.

Darren Horowitz - Raymond James

Good morning. Thanks. Jennifer, first question for you, you mentioned in your prepared commentary that you had experienced the impact of delayed purchases on volumes at the end of the year. Can you give us some color as to how much you think was due strictly to customers managing their inventories for accounting purposes at the end of the year versus actual demand declines?

Jennifer Straumins

We think the majority of it was due to customers managing their inventories at the end of the year. We have seen quarter patterns pick up during the first part of the year.

Darren Horowitz - Raymond James

Okay. Switching gears over to working capital, what was the absolute amount that you locked in on the January 26 supply agreement for Shreveport’s feedstock?

Pat Murray

The absolute amount, it varies by -- by confirmation that we enter into. But the anticipation it would be up to about 15,000 barrels per day, crude oil to be supplied to the Shreveport refinery.

Darren Horowitz - Raymond James

Okay. So when you look at both supply agreements in aggregate how much -- how much feedstock have you essentially locked in?

Pat Murray

Well, essentially we’ve -- with the related party, take 15,000 from the January 26 agreement and approximately 8,000 on the Princeton agreement. So about 23,000 barrels per day.

Darren Horowitz - Raymond James

Okay. So from a macro perspective, and Pat you touched on this, when you are looking at how volatile crude oil prices have been and you’re looking at the impact from a collateral perspective that might diminish your borrowing capacity, is that something that concerns you? From our expectations it doesn’t seem like you have a healthy CapEx where you’re going to need that to access your revolver. Is it purely a situation where you’re just trying to balance, essentially, inventory versus working capital needs?

Pat Murray

Yes. I mean I think that’s right. And the situation for us is if you have a sudden decline in crude oil prices it can have a fairly immediate impact on your borrowing base, which, for us, is tested on a frequent basis. Ultimately, the business can recalibrate to lower crude oil prices because if crude oil price comes down then support that we might have to counter parties on crude oil supply, those things reduce as well. So you can manage through it. Lower absolute amounts of working capital. But it’s a sudden -- sudden decline that provides some short term vulnerability on working capital. But, again, if crude oil prices come down you should be increasing margins especially on the specialty products side. So you can maintain stability over time. But it’s a short term issue. That’s one reason that we have entered into these types of agreements that, I think, further enhance our liquidity.

 

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