CVR Refining Announces Minimal Investment Required to Meet EPA Proposed Tier III Standards

CVR Refining, LP

today announced that the proposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tier III sulfur regulations will have no impact on the company's previously announced full year 2013 distribution guidance of $5.50 to $6.50 per common unit. The midpoint of this guidance represents a distribution yield of 19 percent based on the company's closing common unit price on April 2, 2013, of $31.47. Further, the company also announced that estimated costs to meet Tier III standards are less than $20 million. The full amount of this upgrade was reserved as cash on the company's balance sheet at the close of its IPO on Jan. 23, 2013. CVR Refining's 70,000 barrel per day Wynnewood refinery currently has the capability to meet Tier III standards without further investment. The company's 115,000 barrel per day Coffeyville refinery will require an approximate $20 million upgrade to its ultra-low sulfur gasoline unit. This project is expected to be completed during the refinery's next scheduled turnaround in 2016. Operating cost increases as a result of the higher desulfurization levels of gasoline are not expected to be material to the company's performance. EPA has proposed regulations that gasoline contain no more than 10 parts per million of sulfur on an annual average basis by Jan. 1, 2017.