Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Tsakos Energy Navigation conference call on the third quarter 2023 financial results. We have with us Mr. Takis Arapoglou, Chairman of the Board, Dr. Nikolas Tsakos, President and CEO, Mr. Paul Durham, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. George Saroglou, Chief Operating Officer of the company. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session, at which time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. I must advise you that this conference call is being recorded today. I will now, I will now pass the floor to Mr. Nicolas Bornozis, President of Capital Link, Investor Relations Advisor of Tsakos Energy Navigation. Please go ahead, sir. Thank you very much, and good morning to all of our participants. I am Nicolas Bornozis of Capital Link, Investor Relations Advisor to Tsakos Energy Navigation. This morning, the company publicly released its financial results for the nine months and third quarter ended September 30, 2023. In case you do not have a copy of today's earnings release, please call us at 212-661-7566 or email us at ten@capitallink.com, and we will have a copy for you, emailed right away. Please note that parallel to today's conference call, there is also a live audio and slide webcast, which can be accessed on the company's website on the front page at www.tenn.gr. The conference call will follow the presentation slides, so please, we urge you to access the presentation slides on the company's website. Please note that the slides of the webcast presentation will be available and archived on the website of the company after the conference call. Also, please note that the slides are user-controlled, and that means that by clicking on the proper button, you can move to the next or to the previous slide on your own. At this time, I would like to read the safe harbor statement. This conference call and slide presentation of the webcast contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor Provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, which may affect TEN's business prospects and results of operations. And at this moment, I would like to pass the floor to Mr. Arapoglou, the Chairman of Tsakos Energy Navigation. Mr. Arapoglou, please go ahead, sir. Thank you, Nicolas. Good morning and good afternoon to all, and thank you for joining our third quarter results call today. Congratulations once again to Nikolas Tsakos and management for yet another set of excellent results. TEN is once again perfectly positioned to benefit from a buoyant market, a very strong market, despite a short slowdown earlier on. Typically, you have seen us gearing up, raising capital in weak markets in a countercyclical way to invest and position ourselves for better markets. When better markets arrive, we generate healthy equity, deleverage, sell all the tonnage, repay obligations, and invest for sustained growth in best-in-class state-of-the-art vessels. This model, successfully tested several times now, coupled with superior operating performance and efficiencies which you are familiar with, allows us to be able to maintain our unbroken record of paying dividends to reward our investors and to grow in a balanced and sustainable way. So once again, congratulations to Nikolas Tsakos and his team. That's it for me for now, and I pass the floor to our CEO, Nikolas Tsakos. Thank you. Well, thank you, Chairman, and good morning to all of you and good afternoon to those on this side of the globe. The nine-month 2023 has been a very, I would say, interesting year for our business, a year of development, a year of also growth and renewing our fleet. Looking at our results for the nine months, they are very strong, very impressive. We have been able to produce so far, and the year is not over, Paul, in excess of $8, $8.20 per share of net income. And I think we must be one of the few companies that we would be trading at twice, at twice net income. If we continue this way, hopefully, we will be able to have a much better multiple very soon. The traditional third quarter, the traditional weaker third quarter, was exactly the same this year. We had the, if you take, if you exclude the eight vessels that which we renewed our fleet with earlier in the year, we have the exact same results as we had a year ago with a time charter average both for the third quarter of 2022 and both and this year of approximately, averaging over the nine-month period and the third quarter period around the $31,000 per day per day mark. So I think the reduction in actual, I think, from quarter to quarter is actually the eight vessels missing, and I would say as well come an increase of interest rates that we are seeing in the market. However, soon after the end of the third quarter, the market has turned in a stronger than expected way. We are seeing right now spot market rates for every type of ship. This is the first time that every single type of vessel is earning approximately between $60,000 and $80,000 a day on the spot market. And we are very well diversified and position our fleet. We have, I would say, almost 50% vessels on the spot or spot-related, and 50% vessels at very high fixed employments. We took advantage of the strong market on the beginning of the year, and we either rechartered or renewed or agreed new charters on 26 of our vessels with an average of 2.5 years, all of them at in excess of 50% higher than their previous earnings in that respect. So looking forward, we expect that the remaining of the year is going to be strong, and that's why we have also, at the same time, increased our dividend. Hopefully, being the major shareholders here, we will have a very similar situation, going forward for the remaining of the year and, and for 2024. The prospects in the market are good. Still a very small, new building order book, one of the smallest, I've seen in my career over 30 years. And on top of that, a lot of challenges in our business that make with the environmental issues that are coming ahead will require a lot of perhaps slow speeding, changings of routes going forward. At the same time, we're seeing issues that we don't other than the geopolitical issues. We're seeing global warming taking its toll in the Panama Canal, restrictions being placed, more vessels choosing to rather navigate to around the capes, rather than using the Panama Canal, which further increases the ton miles. So in general, we are expecting a positive environment for the near future. With that, I would like to ask Mr. Saroglou to give us a little bit more details. Thank you, Nikolas. Good morning to all of you joining our earnings call today. 2023, as you know, is the year we celebrate our 30th anniversary as a public company. This morning, we report the unaudited financial results for the third quarter, the nine months of 2023. We have experienced, as Mr. Tsakos said, the usual seasonal summer lull, but since September, the market rebounded, and as we speak, we continue to enjoy a strong freight market as a result of robust global oil demand growth, positive tanker market fundamentals, and changes in trade routes and growth in ton-mile demand. What started last year, we continue to see it. We experienced the largest change in trade flows to ongoing crude and oil product movements as a result of Western sanctions on Russian seaborne oil. As these changes appear to be permanent, because before the war in Ukraine, Europe was the biggest client of Russian oil. But as the war continues, Russian oil was replaced with oil from the United States of America, from West Africa, Guyana, Brazil, and the Middle East, creating positive ton mile multiplier effect for tanker demand and freight rates. At the same time, tanker new buildings continue to enjoy low single-digit growth numbers, with new orders being less than 7% of the existing fleet. Many yards report availability from 2026 onwards. Global oil demand continues to grow, boosted by the post-COVID global recovery and more recently, by strong summer air travel and increased oil used in power generation and surging petrochemical activity, mainly in China. The latest November forecast from the International Energy Agency has revised global oil demand growth for 2023 from 2.2 million-2.4 million barrels per day. As we are a month and a half before the end of the year, this demand growth figure suggests that we will reach an all-time high for global oil demand in 2023 of 102 million barrels per day. There are also global headwinds, like the high inflation, the tightening of global financial conditions. We might end up with higher interest rates for longer, the war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza, and the OPEC+ production cuts and voluntary cuts by Saudi Arabia on top of the initial production cuts, the voluntary cuts by Saudi Arabia and Russia until the end of the year and possibly into the first quarter of next year. However, the global economy is expected to continue growing in 2023. The forecast is for 3% growth and 2.9% in 2024. Oil demand is expected to continue growing in 2024, next year. This view is shared by both OPEC and the International Energy Agency, two main oil market prognosticators. Venezuela got a 6-month relaxation on U.S. sanctions and could be on a slow comeback road to increase production in international oil markets, while Latin America, Guyana, Brazil, and Suriname expand their oil production as they continue to develop offshore oil fields. Having growth in the Atlantic basin is very good because most of this oil is not just going to Europe, but also to Asia, and this has a multiplying effect on ton-mile growth. As we said, also, tanker fundamentals continue to favor a strong tanker market for the next two, three years. The company took delivery in September and recently in October of the company's first two dual-fuel Aframax tankers that open a new chapter for TEN, being the first two LNG powered conventional tankers in a new building order of four, that TEN operates for a significant European oil concern against long-term charters. If we move it to the slides of the presentation, starting with slide three, we see that since inception, we have faced five major crises, and each time the company came out stronger, thanks to its operating model. Recently, we came out of the COVID pandemic, and we continue to navigate the challenges created by the geopolitical war in Ukraine and elsewhere. The fundamentals, very low tanker order book, the aging fleet and post-COVID oil demand recovery, even without the tragic wars, were positive for the tanker industry. The Western sanction and price cap imposed on Russian seaborne oil as a result of the war, served as an additional catalyst to propel freight rates higher, as long-established trade routes were disrupted and voyage distances elongated. Almost all of the Russian volumes are now flowing long haul to India and China. At the same time, U.S. crude oil exports have gone up from averaging about 3.8 million barrels per day last year to about 4.8 million barrels per day now. In slide four, we see the company's fleet growth and capital market access since inception. We raise capital for growth, not at the top of the market, but at times when asset prices are usually low. In this slide, the numbers in the blue boxes present the company's common share offerings, and in red, the series of preferred share offerings since the company's New York Stock Exchange listing. The first three preferred series have totaling $188 million of par value, the series B, C, and D, plus a privately placed preferred instrument of $35 million initial par value, have been fully redeemed as we speak, saving the company excess of $18 million per year of coupon payments for all these retired preferred series. In the next slide, we see the fleet and its current fleet employment. We have an operational fleet of 60 vessels. 31 out of the 60 vessels, or 52% of the fleet in the water, has market exposure, a combination of spot and time charter with profit sharings. 46 out of the 60 vessels or 77% are in secured contracts, fixed-time charters and time charters with profit sharing. This means that TEN is well-positioned to continue capturing the positive tanker market fundamentals. Any divestment of early generation vessels, as we have done in the first quarter of the year, with the six 2005-built MRs and the two 2006-built Handysize product tankers, will be replaced and have been replaced with modern, eco-friendly, greener vessels. TEN has currently a new building program of eight tankers consisting of two shuttle tankers for delivery during 2025, two remaining dual LNG powered Aframaxes for delivery during the first quarter of 2024, two eco-friendly scrubber-fitted Suezmaxes for delivery also in 2025, and two scrubber-fitted MR tankers for delivery in early 2026. Except for the two Suezmaxes that will be delivered after two years and the two MR tankers, the rest of the company new buildings have been fixed forward against medium- to long-term time charters. Slide six presents the company's current and long-term clients. As you see, we have a blue-chip customer base consisting of four major global energy companies, refineries, commodity traders, with Equinor currently topping the list as our largest charterer with 11 vessels and two new buildings all on long-term time charters. The left side of slide 7 presents the all-in break-even cost for the various vessel types we operate in TEN. Our operating model is simple: we try to have our time charter vessels generate revenue to cover the company's cash expenses, paying for the vessel operating expenses, finance expenses, overhead, chartering costs and commissions. We let the revenue from the spot trading vessels contribute to the profitability of the company. Fleet utilization for the nine months amounted to 95.6%, which is a very strong number. Thanks to the profit-sharing element, for every $1,000 per day increase in spot rates, it has a positive $0.18 impact in annual EPS based on the number of 10 vessels that currently have exposure to spot rates. Debt reduction is an integral part of the company's capital allocation strategy. The company debt peaked in December of 2016. Since then, we have repaid $355 million of debt and redeemed $211 million in three series of preferred shares, plus a privately placed preferred instrument. In slide number nine, we see the historical performance of the company since 2004. I would like to highlight the revenue growth as the fleet increased during this period, the changes in EBITDA as the company navigated the ups and downs of the shipping market in this 20-year period, the bottom line profitability and the strong cash reserves that we have maintained. Last year was a record year for the financial performance of TEN. We expect an equally strong performance for 2023. In addition to paying down debt, dividend continuity is important for common shareholders and management. TEN has always paid a dividend irrespective of the market cycle. Our dividend policy is semi-annual. Following the June 2023 and October 2023 payments, the latter being a special dividend, as we previously announced, we will pay a dividend of $0.30 per common share on December 20 to holders of record as of December 14, 2023. This distribution reflects the second regular semi-annual payment in 2023, in line with TEN semi-annual dividend policy. Overall, for 2023, the total dividend distribution of $1 per common share is 4 times the $0.25 per common share distributed to the company shareholder in 2022. Following this year's last dividend payment in December, the company would have distributed in excess of $528 million to its common shareholder since the New York Stock Exchange listing in 2002. And if we add the dividends paid to the holders of the company's preferred shares since 2013, the year the first Series B was issued, then TEN has returned in excess of $800 million to both common and preferred shareholders of the company. Global oil demand continues to grow. Despite financial and geopolitical headwinds, the International Energy Agency expects global oil demand to grow by approximately 2.4 million barrels per day, reaching 102 million barrels per day, a record number in 2023. Most of the growth is coming from the Asia Pacific region, mainly China. On the supply side, most of the growth this year is coming from non-OPEC+ countries, Brazil, the United States of America, Guyana, Canada, Mexico, Norway. As global oil demand continues to grow, let's look at the forecast for the supply of tankers. The order book as of October 2023 stands at 356 tankers over the next three years or 6.7%, which is one of the lowest numbers in the last 20 years. At the same time, a big part of the fleet, almost 40%, is over for 15 years, and 661 tankers, or 12.4%, is currently over 20 years. The next slide shows the scrapping activity since 2018. For this year, scrapping is low, but with upcoming regulations and industry in the first phases of decarbonization and more than 12.4% of the fleet over 12 to over 20 years, we believe that scrapping is going to pick up. Overall, all these factors point to a very balanced tanker supply market for the next few years. And with that, I will ask Paul to walk you through the financial highlights of the nine months of the year. Paul? Thank you, George. I'll just add a few words relating to the nine months ending in September, in a year that has enjoyed considerable success for TEN and which continues to enjoy strong rates as the new year approaches. Net income for the nine-month period amounted to $272 million, while operating income for the nine years increased by 160%. EBITDA amounted to approximately $370 million adjusted, a significant increase by 90%. The average daily TCE for the nine months was over $37,000, up from $27,000 in the prior nine-month period, a substantial increase compared to the prior year period, helped by profit share arrangements, providing nearly $60 million in the nine months, and with almost every vessel fully employed, apart from 7 in dry dock. Voyage revenues amounted to nearly $700 million, a 13% increase over the prior year. Our overhead expenses per day per vessel continue to remain stable at only $1.6 million. Total finance costs in the nine-month period amounted to $73 million, an aberration due to interest rate hikes and to inflationary causes. Finally, our debt to capital was about 49%, a comfortable ratio, partially helped by scheduled loan repayments of $140 million and redeemed preferred shares totaling over $100 million. Our new buildings are on target to meet delivery and related financing has now been covered. Our current optimism relates partly to the forthcoming months, and this is supported by our significant cash reserves and a promising global decline in inflation. And now I'll give the phone back to Nikolas. Well, thank you for your good news, and it's good that everything is adding up in a positive way. I think as it was mentioned from our president and our CFO, the current market, the spot market, is, I would say, at an all-time strong high in all segments. So it's a surprising situation where both the smaller clean trading vessels, together with anything between Suezmax versus an Aframax, are earning between $60,000-$80,000 a day on the spot. And of course, this gives us a lot of comfort with our profit arrangements and our 50% spot exposure. So we're having right now 35 vessels in spot related markets. As George said, it's almost $0.20 every $1,000, it's $0.20 to our bottom line. The result up to now of $8.18, I think, is very, very positive and very soon this will be reflecting to our share price. Of course, it will give us more confidence to continue our dividend distributions. Looking back this year, we have already, other than the $30 million of dividend that will be paid in excess of $100 million, $108 million has been paid back to our preferred, buying back our preferred shares. That immediately brings to a bottom line a saving of $9 million for next year. So overall, we have returned more than $140 million back to our preferred and common shareholders. And of course, we maintain a very strong balance sheet that allows us to look at the possibilities of expanding our fleet with modern tonnage. We showed eight vessels. We have eight vessels coming; already took delivery of two. So out of our 10 environmentally friendly newbuildings. The prospects going forward, as our president said, we have a very low order book, increasing demand, a growing gray fleet that goes, you know, anywhere between 250-300 vessels that are not participating in the day-to-day market with the major oil companies. New legislation that is coming up, that is making slow steaming and restrictions on traveling of navigation positive in increasing ton miles. And of course, natural limitations like Panama Canal restrictions that are making many owners taking more ton miles and trading around the Cape. So in view, for sure, I think the fourth quarter this year is going to be our 30th year, is going to be another record year like last year was. And the prospects, at least for the next couple of years, considering the limited new building supply, are positive. And with that, I would like to open the floor in case anybody would like to ask some specific questions. Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you'd 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 key. And one please wait for questions. Thank you. Our first question is from Sherif Elmaghrabi with BTIG. Please proceed with your question. The first question. Earlier this week, we saw some VLCCs go on multi-year time charters at above the historical average rates. And obviously you've been active in the charter market. So I'm wondering if you're seeing much interest from charterers for three-year plus contracts, or is the opportunity there pretty thin? I would say as we are speaking, my phone actually is ringing with charterers here, getting messages from our chartering department, from our London office in Singapore, getting offers of this sort. There is a lot of appetite right now for three to five years on modern tonnage. As we have our two Suezmaxes that are being built there for next year, they're big contenders of very strong interest for those ships. So yes, you are right, there is an appetite. There is an expectation for major oil companies that we're going to be seeing stronger rates. I think what happened as result, as the seasonal third quarter, which is the weakest quarter, came to an end, as George said, we have seen a very strong market demand in all categories of ships. Usually, I mean, the clean started going about a month ago. The clean market started getting strong, and I think now the dirty market, when I say the larger ships are following up in a big way. So yes, you are right, there is a lot of demand for three to five-year employment for good quality operators and relatively modern tonnage. On the clean side, a few Middle Eastern refineries have been ramping capacity or are going to start ramping capacity this year and next. Has that started to shift trade flows for product tankers, or are you not seeing a shift in volumes there yet? Yes, I mean, we are seeing the larger capacity, Middle East... Sorry, Far Eastern refineries, you know, filling those gaps. And that's why perhaps, you know, you have seen the LR2s, which are not usually Far Eastern traders, earning very hefty rates, bringing refineries to either to Europe or even to refineries in the Middle East. That's helpful. Thanks for taking my questions. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question is from Omar Nokta with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question. Thank you. Hey, guys, just a couple from me. You know, perhaps just as a follow-up to the initial discussion on the time charters, I wanted to just sort of ask about fleet deployment from here. I know in the release you mentioned charters being more active, looking for long-term charters, which, you know, Nick, you just highlighted again. But clearly there's a, you know, with long-term contracts, there's a sign of conviction that this market is going to be elevated for some time. So in terms of how you deploy your fleet from here, you mentioned having the 35 ships on the spot market. But I guess as you think about this, as we move into 2024 and onwards, how do you want to deploy the fleet? Do you want to stay as spot exposed as you are currently? Do you want to shift more towards index linked, or do you prefer perhaps to secure long-term charters at fixed rates, you know, at elevated fixed rates? Well, it has to do with case by case, by the, you know, the quality. If we have a new charter or very quality with whom we do not have a very long relationship, we might consider doing a longer employment. But currently we are resisting long-term business on our existing fleet because, as you said, the market is quite good, and I think we have a very good buffer on the ships that we have right now, the 33 ships that are on time charter. And I mean, we're always looking at pooling and profit sharing arrangements, which we encourage. Okay, thank you. And then, you know, just perhaps maybe a little bit more random, but just looking at your fleet list, there's the Lisboa Suezmax, and if I recall, that's a shuttle tanker. It rolls off charter in the first half of 2025, so it's still a bit away, call it, say, a year or a year plus. But we just want to know in terms of how you think about that vessel in particular duties, do you think that that ship will continue operating as a shuttle tanker, or do you see it kind of trading as a conventional Suezmax once that contract is over? Well, as we speak today, and we have a big team of our, you know, a big part of our team looking at the markets, the South American markets are not only, I think there's a big appetite for shuttle tankers to continue their business as shuttle tankers. However, the ships we have built can operate perhaps as efficiently and as profitably as Suezmaxes. But I believe that the ship will continue trading at this very demanding shuttle market that are growing right now. Okay, good. And then just final one for me is that, you know, on the 2 MRs that you ordered recently, you know, those deliver in 2026, or they're scheduled to. Just wanted to ask, do you have options that came with those orders? And then is there any detail you can give in terms of, you know, when you need to exercise those or what type what delivery time frames we would be looking at if you did exercise them? Yeah, I mean, we have options for those ships, and we have options for in the first half of next year of dual-fuel versions of those ships also. So, you know, this is what our technical department is analyzing together with our clients. Okay, and delivery time frame, because if I recall, when you placed those orders, there was a pretty attractive delivery slot in the early part of 2026. But do you still get delivered in 2026, if you were to- Later part, later part of 2026, if someone is interested for a later part of 2026, yes. Yeah. Okay, good. Well, well, well, thank you, sir. That, that's it for me. I'll turn it over. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question is from Climent Molins with Value Investor's Edge. Please proceed with your question. Good morning or afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to start by asking about your fleet renewal efforts. You've been clear on your intention to continue to sell older vessels and reinvest proceeds on modern tonnage. However, there haven't been that many transactions on the eco side of the fleet. Do you expect liquidity to increase going forward? And secondly, how do you think about the trade-off between higher asset pricing and the need to renew the fleet? Well, that's a very, very good question, because what you usually say in shipping is that you should not be selling at the same time that you are buying. And so I think your point is very, very, very, you know, very well timed. However, we are a client-driven organization. We're more of an industrial play owner. We've sold at least eight vessels since the beginning of the year at very hefty prices. And then we decided instead of buying vessels in the spot market to order our future with a very modern ship. So, I mean, as long as we are able to have good employment, cover for the vessels that we will be buying, that will have very good returns going forward and amortize those ships, we will still continue with this model, selling older vessels at this market and looking at good quality, perhaps dual-fuel or other vessels, with short employment that will first of all reduce significantly our age profile, which is already young, and reduce our footprint. That's helpful. Thank you. I also wanted to ask about operating expenses on a per day basis, which increased quite a bit quarter-over-quarter. As we think about the run rate going forward, should we expect them to trend to closer to $9,000 or $9,500 per day? And secondly, could you give us some commentary about where the biggest drivers behind the increase? Yes, and Paul can take you more into details, but I will give you the basic ideas. First of all, is that we are right now running a fleet of much larger vessels. So I mean, that has the last year's fleet, we had our vessels were eight vessels of the Handysize, that brought our daily operating expenses lower. This year we had the dry dockings of our larger ships in Portugal. And of course, we are running a fleet of much larger vessels. So the average naturally will go higher, but it will normalize, I think within the year. Makes sense. That's all for me. Thank you for taking my questions. Thank you. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I will hand the floor back over to Dr. Nikolas P. Tsakos for any closing comments. Well, first of all, thank you, thank you very much for asking. I know you're all very, very busy wrapping up for a very exciting and hopefully peaceful family Thanksgiving. And thank you for taking the time to be with us today. We're looking forward to report even better results and a very exciting full year in sometime early in the first quarter. We are happy to have a Christmas holiday dividend for everybody in December, that our president has said on the 20th of December. And with that, I will ask also our chairman, thankyou, for your closing remarks, and I wish everybody a very happy Thanksgiving. Thank you. Thank you, Nicolas. As you said, in view of the continued buoyant market, we expect to have very strong results for the year and equally strong results going forward. I hope that all these good prospects described today will soon be reflected in our stock price. Best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving to all. Thank you.