Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to StealthGas Q4 2021 Results Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speakers presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] I now would like to turn the conference over to the CEO, Harry Vafias. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone and welcome to our fourth quarter and 12 months 2021 earnings conference call and webcast. This is Harry Vafias, the CEO of StealthGas. Joining me on the call today is our Finance Officer, Ms. Sakellaris. Before we commence our presentation, I would like to remind you that we will be discussing forward-looking statements which reflect current views with respect to future events and financial performance. At this stage, if you could all take a moment to read the disclaimer on Slide 2 of the presentation. Risks are further disclosed in StealthGas filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. I would also like to point out that all amounts quoted, unless otherwise clarified, are implicitly stated in U.S. dollars. Today, we released our earnings results for 2021, an indeed challenging year, governed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, energy price increases and overall inflationary pressures. Unfortunately, the Russian invasion in Ukraine has made our global reality even more challenging. As all we hope to prompt a peaceful resolution to this tension. During this call, we will discuss this matter as we will try to identify the short term and perhaps longer-term effects which geopolitical tension may have in broader shipping sector and particularly in the LPG market. On Slide 3, we summarize the highlights of our fourth quarter and full year 2021 results. On the fourth quarter '21, we faced an improved LPG market, particularly in Europe, hence, we took the opportunity and secured all of our vessels trading in the area on period charters. On the other hand, the market in Asia was softer where we had about five vessels trading spot. When compared to the third quarter of 2021, we marked an almost 10% reduction of both spot base and commercial off-hire and ended Q4 '21 with…

Thank you, Harry and good morning to everyone. I will discuss our financial performance for the fourth quarter and 12 months of 2021. As mentioned in the beginning of our call, year 2021 was governed by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic upon LPG demand but most importantly, the recent additions to our operating costs through the improved cost crew changes and safety restrictions. Moreover, in year 2021, we witnessed a surge in oil prices which impacted bunker costs. Let us turn to Slide 7 where we see the income statement for the fourth quarter of 2021 against the same period of the previous year. Voyage revenues came in at $36.1 million, marking a decrease of $1.2 million compared to the same period of last year, mainly due to lost revenues stemming from our [indiscernible] with Clean Thrasher and one of our semi-ref vessels, the Eco Freeze. In more detail, the Clean Thrasher balances towards a new area for its new period deployment while the Eco Freeze spend some idle time following its redelivery. This lost revenue that was in the region of $2 million was partially offset by the 16% increase over time charter revenues generated from our LPG vessels. Voyage costs decreased by $0.5 million compared to the same period of last year. This small decrease in voyage expenses was minimal when considering the decline of spot based by 56% and is attributed to the sharp price of daily bunker costs by almost $2,600. Based on all of the above, our net revenues for the period went in the order of $31.2 million. Running costs were up by $400,000 compared to Q4 '20 due to fewer vessels on bareboat, that's why bareboat base declined by 16%, along with a further increase of our daily crew cost due to…

Moving on Slide 11. We'll provide some insight on the LPG market. Needless to say that given the current geopolitical tensions in Ukraine along with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it's very difficult to foresee clearly our market performance. Based on [indiscernible] by Poten & Partners, LPG production is expected to increase all throughout '22 and '23, on the back of U.S. shale rising production and increased exports from the Middle East as OPEC continues to unwind production cuts. China will continue to be the demand driver in Asia due to several PDH expansion projects, the majority of which, about six million metric tons, will commence production in the second half of '22. India's LPG imports remained high as new LPG terminals on both the Western Coast and Eastern Coast will help growth in imports in the near term. In addition to this, LPG imports of Northwestern Europe are expected to increase in the years ahead on the back of a rising petrochemical demand. Factoring in the recent outbreak of war in Ukraine, this may have both direct and indirect impacts on LPG and pet-chem trade. The direct impact in the event of reduced LPG volumes from Russia could be a change in trade patterns in Europe. Increased oil prices may cause a further increase in bunker costs. We must be one of the important indirect negative effect. However, at the same time, the high oil price we currently witnessed may increase the use of LPG, particularly for industrial use. As things stand, the U.S., Europe and other nations have exempted Russian energy trade from sanctions. This is to prevent an already tight market from rallying further. However, even if this measure has failed as knock-on effects of other sanctions are already being felt all across the oil markets and the…

[Operator Instructions] We have the first question from Randy Giveans from Jefferies. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Howdy, team. How is it going?

Hi, Randy.

All right. A couple of questions. First, it appears the headline rates, as you mentioned, continued to slowly improve or above pre-COVID levels. Can you provide some details on where the pricing currently is for the market? Maybe your outlook for 2022. And then more specifically, what's the average rate for the three recently signed one year charters you have?

Yes. I can give you some general numbers because, obviously, with the Ukraine crisis, this might go up or down. So I will give you the numbers prior to the Ukraine war, 3,500 [ph], I would say, around [indiscernible]; I would say around 9.5 and 7.5 [ph]. I would say, region 11.5 [ph].

Nice. And then you're saying more recently with the conflict, that's down a little bit, 5%, 10%? Can you sensitize that?

It's too early to judge, Randy. I mean it might end up to be a positive thing. But as you know, we don't like to say too much. Let's wait and see how long it will last and what other sanctions Europe and the U.S. will take against Russia. And then we can really discuss this.

That's fine. And then how do those 1-year charter rates compare to the kind of spot rates for like the...

The recent fixed rates were 5% to 10% above the last -- the previously fixed rates, not the spot rates.

Nice. Okay. And then in terms of your vessel sales, the gas inspiration, when is that going to be delivered to the buyers? And then any additional plans for selling some of the other assets?

As you know, since we're trading to a big discount to NAV, selling assets at NAV is always in the back of our minds. That's why we did these two deals that will not only reduce our debt but also increase our cash. The Eco Loyalty was delivered in the end of February and the inspiration will deliver either in March or beginning of April.

Go it. Got it. Okay. And then you brought it up there. Selling assets at NAV is certainly accretive, especially if you're buying shares at the discount to NAV. Obviously, you didn't buy any this quarter. Balance sheets improved, outlook is pretty good. Clearly, there's some uncertainty with Russia-Ukraine. But any thoughts on the share buybacks?

We have discussed this, Randy, many times. You know that we've done many, many share repurchases in the past and the tender offer that we did when COVID begun. I will repeat it for one more time. As soon as we have COVID still around, the Board will not authorize us to buy back shares. So we have to see the end of COVID before we deploy capital and buying more shares.

Got it. That seems to be waning but -- all right. I'll give you a few more months to have a...

I agree with you. I agree with you. But as you know, unfortunately, is not out yet.

Sure. We'll get Dr. Fauci [ph] on the line to declare victory but until then we'll wait. Last quick question, I don't want to hijack the call here but just for OpEx and G&A, that clearly upticked during the quarter. Is that kind of a new run rate? Was that based on some of the one-off events like the spin-off, just for our modeling purposes?

You already replied the question yourself. I mean, OpEx has been affected by the crew changes and COVID regulations with quarantine and so on which obviously pushes costs up. We hope that this will not be the new run rate. So you should run basis those numbers for as long as COVID is around, as we just said. And yes, of course, G&A, you know we have one of the lowest G&A around. Obviously, we had an increased G&A because of the extra expenses connected with the spin-off which, by the way, the StealthGas shareholders have got the IMPP common shares and pref shares, should have done a very good job multiplying their investments.

Got it. All right. Well, that is all for me. Thanks again, Harry.

Thank you, Randy.

Thank you for your question. There are no further questions at the moment. [Operator Instructions]

As there are no further questions, we would like to thank you for joining us on our conference call today. We look forward to having you with us again at our next call for our Q1 results in May. Thank you very much.

That concludes the conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.