Unidentified Company Representative
Management
0:04 [Starts Abruptly] Despite the dramatic increase in customer counts as discussed by Paul, our first quarter firm volumes were negatively impacted by the 7% warmer-than-normal weather that the Roanoke experienced. 0:17 As shown on Slide 4, residential volumes declined by 8% and commercial volumes declined by 5% due to the much warmer December 2021. In fact, it was 32% lower heating degree days in that month compared to normal. Overall, industrial volumes were down, primarily, due to the large customer that fuel switched to natural gas in 2020. Excluding this multi-fuel customer that switched its primary fuel from natural gas to coal, industrial volumes would have increased. 0:54 Transition to Slide 5 where we'll review our capital spending. Our capital spend during the first quarter of the current fiscal year is running slightly ahead of spending during the first quarter of fiscal 2021. The majority of this spending has been on customer growth and system expansion, including our continued investment in the Blue Ridge project, as Paul just mentioned. Paul also talked about our miles of main extensions and new customers a few minutes ago. In addition to these investments, we have spent approximately $1 million on a onetime gas supply infrastructure project. 1:31 Moving to Slide 6, where our condensed consolidated statements of income are shown. I'm going to separately review the financial results from our two operating segments, Roanoke Gas, our regulated utility and RGC Midstream. I want to start with the first quarter results for Roanoke Gas. Operating income for the first quarter of fiscal 2020 showed a modest decline compared to the prior year's quarterly results. Gross margins increased due to the SAVE rider and customer growth, which was offset by higher depreciation expense and receipt of CARES Act money in quarter one of fiscal year 2021. 2:12 Turning to RGC Midstream. Midstream continued with its significant quarterly year-over-year decline in equity and earnings from the Mountain Valley partnership. Equity and earnings declined by over $1.2 million quarter-over-quarter. For the trailing 12 months, Roanoke Gas operating income increased by 12% year-over-year which is a testament to the outstanding performance by our utility subsidiaries Paul just discussed. 2:40 Specifically, the increased margin is largely attributable to our SAVE program revenues and customer growth which, as we discussed, added -- as we discussed in an earlier slide related to our main extensions and new customer adds. The strong Roanoke Gas earnings were offset by a year-over-year $4.6 million decline in equity and earnings from Midstream's investment in the Mountain Valley pipeline, resulting in a $1.08 per share earnings on a consolidated basis compared to $1.38 for the prior 12 months. 3:15 I will now turn it back over to Paul, who will discuss the outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year.