Good morning and welcome to the Northwest Natural Gas Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions]. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions]. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Nikki Sparley, Investor Relations Manager. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Andrew. Good morning, everyone and welcome to our fourth quarter 2015 earnings call. As a reminder some of the things that will be said this morning contains forward-looking statements. They are based on management's assumptions, which may or may not come true. You should refer to the language at the end of our press release for the appropriate cautionary statements and also our SEC filings for additional information. We expect to file our 10-K later today. As mentioned, this teleconference is being recorded and will be available on our website following the call. Please note these conference calls are designed for the financial community. If you are an investor and have questions, please contact me directly at (503) 721-2530. Media may contact, Melissa Moore, at (503) 220-2436. Speaking this morning are Gregg Kantor, Chief Executive Officer and Greg Hazelton, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer. Mr. Kantor and Mr. Hazelton have some opening remarks and then will be available to answer your questions. Also joining us today are other members of our executive team, who are available to help answer any questions you may have. With that, I will turn it over to Mr. Kantor for his opening remarks.

Thanks Nikki, good morning everyone and welcome to our fourth quarter and year-end earnings call. I will start today with highlights from the year and then I will turn it over to Greg Hazelton to cover our 2015 financial performance. Finally I will wrap up the call with a look forward. In 2015 Northwest Natural successfully navigated a number of challenges while still achieving our key financial and operational goals. Our financial challenges came early in the year with Oregon experiencing the warmest winter on record. The impact was substantially mitigated by our weather normalization mechanism which has been place since 2003. However, we experienced lower volumes and revenues as about 20% of our customer base is not covered by the mechanism. In addition in February 2015, the Oregon Commission approved a mechanism that allows us to recover, prudently incurred environmental clean-up cost allocated to Oregon associated with our historic manufactured gas operations. We began collection of our environmental expenditures through this mechanism known as the SRM in November of last year. However, as part of the February 2015 order, the OPUC disallowed environmental expenses totaling $15 million based on the application of an earnings test for past years when the company earned above its allowed rate of return. As a result, we took an after tax charge of $9.1 million in the first quarter of 2015. In response to the warm winter and the disallowance, management instituted a number of temporary cost saving measures. Through these targeted efforts we reduced budgeted O&M levels by approximately $5 million or about $0.11 per share. And I am proud of our employees whose hard work and commitment allowed us to accomplish this while still remaining dedicated to exceptional service and safety. Despite the financial headwinds our core utility performance remained solid with…

Thank you, Gregg and good morning everyone. Today I’ll start with a review of the fourth quarter results, followed by a discussion of our annual performance, and close with 2016 earnings guidance including key assumptions for the year. For the fourth quarter we reported improved consolidated results with net earnings of $1.08 per share or $29.7 million compared to $1.04 per share or $28.5 million for the same period last year. Consolidated results were driven by higher utility margin and other income, partially offset by increased O&M expense. Looking at our segment results, for the quarter our utility segment net income increased $1.1 million based on a $2.6 million increase in utility margin and then $1.8 million increase in other income, offset by a $2.4 million increase in O&M expense. The utility margin -– the increase in utility margin was predominantly driven by customer growth with over 3,300 new meter sets installed in the fourth quarter, which is nearly 1% higher than the prior year. In addition, utility margin benefited from the gas cost sharing gains as a result of lower actual gas prices than rates in Oregon -– in the Oregon purchase gas adjustment mechanism. Utility O&M for the quarter increased primarily reflecting higher incentive compensation, retirement, and healthcare costs. During the quarter, our gas storage segment earnings improved slightly reflecting some positive trends. Our Mist gas storage facility continues to perform well and operating results remained strong and comparable to the prior year. Gill Ranch realized an uptick in revenues reflecting higher contract prices for both firm and optimization contracts. Additionally, operating expenses decreased as we managed the business to a lower cost structure which we expect to benefit from in 2016. Also in December we redeemed the remaining Gill Ranch note, prior to its November 2016 scheduled…

Thanks Gregg, as we turned to 2016 we continued to focus on our regulatory agenda and on growing our company. On the regulatory front we were pleased to reach conclusion on the implementation of our environmental mechanism with the commission's order this January. Although the additional charge in 2016 is disappointing, this was a complex docket and we believe the mechanism provides a good path forward for all stakeholders. This year we will continue working with the commission and other gas utilities in Oregon on the policy docket exploring commodity hedging. This includes what role gas reserves could play in a balanced natural gas supply portfolio. We've also been working with the Oregon Commission and stakeholders on a carbon solutions program under Oregon’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Legislation. As we've discussed before, Senate Bill 844 allows the OPUC to incent natural gas utilities to undertake projects that will reduce emissions. Our first proposal was submitted in June and is designed to further the use of combined heat and power in Oregon. We filed our last briefs a few weeks ago and expect a decision from the commission in the next few months. On the customer growth side, we are working hard on expanding our multi -– our market share in the multi-family housing sector. As I mentioned, the Portland area housing market has seen an upturn, particularly in multi-family apartments. To further our efforts, we have created a cross-functional team to evaluate every aspect of the apartment rental market, a market that is typically underserved with natural gas. Results of a recent market study show that 80% of renters in Portland prefer natural gas entities. This shows a clear gap between what renters want and what's available and we've begun developing a comprehensive marketing program targeting apartment developers. We view rental…

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions].

Looks like people are ready for the weekend I guess.

Okay, well this concludes our question-and-answer session, I would like to turn the conference back over to Gregg Kantor, Chief Executive Officer for any closing remarks.

Well thank you everyone. Thank you again for your interest in our company and for taking the time out this morning to listen in and have a great weekend.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.