TULSA, Okla., Aug. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ONE Gas, Inc. (NYSE: OGS) today announced its second quarter 2022 financial results and reaffirmed its 2022 financial guidance.

SECOND QUARTER 2022 FINANCIAL RESULTS & HIGHLIGHTS

• Second quarter 2022 net income was $32.1 million, or $0.59 per diluted share, compared with $30.1 million, or $0.56 per diluted share, in the second quarter 2021;
• Year to date 2022 net income was $131.0 million, or $2.42 per diluted share, compared with $125.7 million, or $2.35 per diluted share, in the same period last year;
• Actual heating degree days across the Company's service areas were 635 in the second quarter 2022, 6% warmer than normal and 15% warmer compared with the same period last year;
• The Company executed forward sale agreements for 591,736 shares of common stock under its at-the-market equity program; had shares been settled as of June 30, 2022, it would have generated net proceeds of approximately $48.3 million; and
• A quarterly dividend of $0.62 per share, or $2.48 per share on an annualized basis, was declared on July 18, 2022, payable on Sept. 1, 2022, to shareholders of record at the close of business on Aug. 15, 2022.

"Customer growth and continued economic development activity across our service area contributed to our second quarter financial results. Our capital program remains on track for the year, including system expansions to meet growing customer demand and planned system integrity investments," said Robert S. McAnnally, president and chief executive officer. "We also released our 2022 ESG report which includes new disclosures, updates on our programs to support customers and employees and our progress toward a cleaner energy future."

SECOND QUARTER 2022 FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

ONE Gas reported operating income of $58.6 million in the second quarter 2022, compared with $51.1 million in the second quarter 2021, which primarily reflects:

• an increase of $14.4 million from new rates; and
• an increase of $1.5 million in residential sales due to net customer growth in Oklahoma and Texas.

These increases were offset partially by:

• an increase of $5.8 million in outside service costs; and
• an increase of $0.7 million in employee-related costs, which reflects $3.3 million of higher labor and employee benefit costs, offset partially by a $2.7 million decrease in expenses associated with the change in our nonqualified employee benefit plan liabilities.

For the second quarter 2022, other expense, net, increased $4.4 million compared with the same period last year, due primarily to a $6.5 million decrease in the market value of investments associated with nonqualified employee benefit plans, offset partially by a decrease of $2.4 million in net periodic benefit cost other than service cost.

Income tax expense includes a credit for amortization of the regulatory liability associated with excess accumulated deferred income taxes (EDIT) of $3.0 million and $2.6 million for the three-month periods ended June 30, 2022, and 2021, respectively.

Capital expenditures and asset removal costs were $149.1 million for the second quarter 2022 compared with $129.4 million in the same period last year. The increase was due primarily to expenditures for system integrity and extension of service to new areas. 

YEAR TO DATE 2022 FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

Operating income for the six-month 2022 period was $199.3 million, compared with $181.4 million in 2021, which primarily reflects:

• an increase of $29.5 million from new rates;
• an increase of $4.1 million in residential sales due to net customer growth in Oklahoma and Texas;
• a decrease of $3.0 million in bad debt expense; and
• an increase of $1.2 million in late payment, reconnect and collection fees.

These increases were offset partially by:

• an increase of $9.5 million in outside service costs;
• an increase of $9.1 million in depreciation expense due to additional capital expenditures being placed in service; and
• an increase of $2.9 million in employee-related costs, which reflects $5.4 million of higher labor and employee benefit costs, offset partially by a $2.5 million decrease in expenses associated with the change in our nonqualified employee benefit plan liabilities.

For the six-month 2022 period, other expense, net, increased $8.2 million compared with the same period last year, due primarily to a $10.0 million decrease in the market value of investments associated with nonqualified employee benefit plans, offset partially by a decrease of $2.6 million in net periodic benefit cost other than service cost.

Income tax expense includes a credit for amortization of the regulatory liability associated with EDIT of $10.9 million and $10.7 million for the six-month periods ended June 30, 2022, and 2021, respectively.

Capital expenditures and asset removal costs were $272.0 million for the six-month 2022 period compared with $238.4 million in the same period last year. The increase was due primarily to expenditures for system integrity and extension of service to new areas.

REGULATORY ACTIVITIES UPDATE

Securitization

The Company continues to make progress in its efforts to utilize securitization as a means to finance extraordinary costs associated with the February 2021 Winter Storm Uri. The following updates reflect the most recent securitization activity in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas.

The Oklahoma Development Finance Authority (ODFA) received a hearing before the Oklahoma Supreme Court and on May 24, 2022, the court validated the proposed bond issuance. On July 15, 2022, the ODFA began the marketing process for the bonds which are expected to be issued and proceeds received in the third quarter of 2022. At June 30, 2022, Oklahoma Natural Gas has deferred approximately $1.3 billion in extraordinary costs attributable to Winter Storm Uri.

On July 14, 2022, Kansas Gas Service, the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) Staff and the Citizens' Utility Ratepayer Board reached a settlement agreement for the issuance of a financing order allowing securitized utility tariff bonds to be issued in the amount of approximately $328 million plus issuance fees. The agreement provides for the issuance of bonds with a scheduled final maturity of between 7 and 10 years. The final amount to be securitized will be provided in the final Issuance Advice Letter. The KCC has until Sept. 27, 2022, to review the application and issue a financing order if it deems the issuance of securitized bonds to be appropriate. If the KCC approves the financing order, the Company can begin the process to issue the securitized bonds.

The Texas Public Finance Authority has begun the process to issue securitized bonds, which are expected to be issued in the fourth quarter of 2022. At June 30, 2022, Texas Gas Service has deferred approximately $246.7 million in extraordinary costs associated with Winter Storm Uri, including $48.5 million attributable to the West Texas service area which is being recovered through a separate surcharge over a three-year period that started in January 2022.

Other Regulatory Updates

In March 2022, Oklahoma Natural Gas filed its first annual Performance-Based Rate Change (PBRC) application following the general rate case that was approved in November 2021. The filing is for a calendar 2021 test year and includes a requested base rate increase of $19.7 million, an energy efficiency program incentive of $2.3 million and an estimated $9.1 million credit associated with EDIT. On May 27, 2022, the Public Utility Division (PUD) of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) filed responsive testimony supporting an increase of $19.6 million. On May 31, 2022, the Office of the Attorney General filed a statement supporting PUD's position. Pursuant to its tariff, Oklahoma Natural Gas placed new rates into effect on July 13, 2022, reflecting a base rate revenue increase of $19.6 million. These rates are subject to refund until approved by the OCC. A hearing is expected to be scheduled in September 2022.

In February 2022, Texas Gas Service made Gas Reliability Infrastructure Program (GRIP) filings for all customers in the Central-Gulf Service Area, requesting a $9.1 million increase to be effective in June 2022. All municipalities, and the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), approved the new rates or allowed them to take effect with no action.

In March 2022, Texas Gas Service made GRIP filings for all customers in the West Texas service area, requesting a $5.0 million increase to be effective in July 2022. On June 23, 2022, the city of El Paso denied the requested increase and assessed fees associated with its review of the filing. Texas Gas Service appealed the city's action to the RRC. All other municipalities, and the RRC, approved the new rates or allowed them to take effect with no action. Texas Gas Service implemented the new rates in July 2022, pending the outcome of the appeal.

In April 2022, Texas Gas Service made its annual Cost-of-Service Adjustment filings for the incorporated area of the Rio Grande Valley service area. In July 2022, the municipalities approved an increase of $2.5 million, and new rates will become effective in August 2022.

In June 2022, Texas Gas Service filed a rate case seeking to consolidate its West Texas, North Texas and Borger/Skellytown service areas into a single West-North service area and requesting a rate increase of $13.0 million. If approved, new rates are expected to take effect in early 2023.

2022 FINANCIAL GUIDANCE

ONE Gas reaffirmed its financial guidance issued on Jan. 18, 2022, with 2022 net income and earnings per share expected to be in the range of $215 million to $227 million, and $3.96 to $4.20 per diluted share. Capital expenditures, including asset removal costs, are expected to be approximately $650 million for 2022.

EARNINGS CONFERENCE CALL AND WEBCAST

The ONE Gas executive management team will conduct a conference call on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, at 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (10 a.m. Central Daylight Time). The call also will be carried live on the ONE Gas website.

To participate in the telephone conference call, dial 888-394-8218, passcode 2645252, or log on to www.onegas.com/investors and select Events and Presentations.

If you are unable to participate in the conference call or the webcast, a replay will be available on the ONE Gas website, www.onegas.com, for 30 days. A recording will be available by phone for seven days. The playback call may be accessed at 888-203-1112, passcode 2645252.

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ONE Gas, Inc. (NYSE: OGS) is a 100% regulated natural gas utility, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "OGS." ONE Gas is included in the S&P MidCap 400 Index and is one of the largest natural gas utilities in the United States.

Headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, ONE Gas provides a reliable and affordable energy choice to more than 2.3 million customers in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Its divisions include Kansas Gas Service, the largest natural gas distributor in Kansas; Oklahoma Natural Gas, the largest in Oklahoma; and Texas Gas Service, the third largest in Texas, in terms of customers.

For more information and the latest news about ONE Gas, visit onegas.com and follow its social channels: @ONEGas, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Some of the statements contained and incorporated in this news release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. The forward-looking statements relate to our anticipated financial performance, liquidity, management's plans and objectives for our future operations, our business prospects, the outcome of regulatory and legal proceedings, market conditions and other matters. We make these forward-looking statements in reliance on the safe harbor protections provided under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The following discussion is intended to identify important factors that could cause future outcomes to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements include the items identified in the preceding paragraph, the information concerning possible or assumed future results of our operations and other statements contained or incorporated in this news release identified by words such as "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "plan," "believe," "should," "goal," "forecast," "guidance," "could," "may," "continue," "might," "potential," "scheduled," "likely," and other words and terms of similar meaning.

One should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which are applicable only as of the date of this news release.  Known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Those factors may affect our operations, markets, products, services and prices. In addition to any assumptions and other factors referred to specifically in connection with the forward-looking statements, factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in any forward-looking statement include, among others, the following:

• our ability to recover costs (including operating costs and increased commodity costs related to Winter Storm Uri in February 2021), income taxes and amounts equivalent to the cost of property, plant and equipment, regulatory assets and our allowed rate of return in our regulated rates or other recovery mechanisms;
• cyber-attacks, which, according to experts, have increased in volume and sophistication since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, or breaches of technology systems that could disrupt our operations or result in the loss or exposure of confidential or sensitive customer, employee or Company information; further, increased remote working arrangements as a result of the pandemic have required enhancements and modifications to our IT infrastructure (e.g. Internet, Virtual Private Network, remote collaboration systems, etc.), and any failures of the technologies, including third-party service providers, that facilitate working remotely could limit our ability to conduct ordinary operations or expose us to increased risk or effect of an attack;
• our ability to manage our operations and maintenance costs;
• the concentration of our operations in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas;
• changes in regulation of natural gas distribution services, particularly those in Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas;
• the economic climate and, particularly, its effect on the natural gas requirements of our residential and commercial customers;
• the length and severity of a pandemic or other health crisis, such as the outbreak of COVID-19, including the impact to our operations, customers, contractors, vendors and employees, the effectiveness of vaccine campaigns (including the COVID-19 vaccine campaign) on our workforce and customers and the effect of other measures or mandates that international, federal, state and local governments, agencies, law enforcement and/or health authorities implement to address the pandemic or other health crisis, which could (as with COVID-19) precipitate or exacerbate one or more of the above-mentioned and/or other risks, and significantly disrupt or prevent us from operating our business in the ordinary course for an extended period;
• competition from alternative forms of energy, including, but not limited to, electricity, solar power, wind power, geothermal energy and biofuels;
• adverse weather conditions and variations in weather, including seasonal effects on demand and/or supply, the occurrence of severe storms in the territories in which we operate, and climate change, and the related effects on supply, demand, and costs;
• indebtedness could make us more vulnerable to general adverse economic and industry conditions, limit our ability to borrow additional funds and/or place us at competitive disadvantage compared with competitors;
• our ability to secure reliable, competitively priced and flexible natural gas transportation and supply, including decisions by natural gas producers to reduce production or shut-in producing natural gas wells and expiration of existing supply and transportation and storage arrangements that are not replaced with contracts with similar terms and pricing;
• our ability to complete necessary or desirable expansion or infrastructure development projects, which may delay or prevent us from serving our customers or expanding our business;
• operational and mechanical hazards or interruptions;
• adverse labor relations;
• the effectiveness of our strategies to reduce earnings lag, revenue protection strategies and risk mitigation strategies, which may be affected by risks beyond our control such as commodity price volatility, counterparty performance or creditworthiness and interest rate risk;
• the capital-intensive nature of our business, and the availability of and access to, in general, funds to meet our debt obligations prior to or when they become due and to fund our operations and capital expenditures, either through (i) cash on hand, (ii) operating cash flow, or (iii) access to the capital markets and other sources of liquidity;
• our ability to obtain capital on commercially reasonable terms, or on terms acceptable to us, or at all;
• limitations on our operating flexibility, earnings and cash flows due to restrictions in our financing arrangements;
• cross-default provisions in our borrowing arrangements, which may lead to our inability to satisfy all of our outstanding obligations in the event of a default on our part;
• changes in the financial markets during the periods covered by the forward-looking statements, particularly those affecting the availability of capital and our ability to refinance existing debt and fund investments and acquisitions to execute our business strategy;
• actions of rating agencies, including the ratings of debt, general corporate ratings and changes in the rating agencies' ratings criteria;
• changes in inflation and interest rates;
• our ability to recover the costs of natural gas purchased for our customers, including those related to Winter Storm Uri and any related financing required to support our purchase of natural gas supply, including the securitized financings currently contemplated in each of our jurisdictions;
• impact of potential impairment charges;
• volatility and changes in markets for natural gas and our ability to secure additional and sufficient liquidity on reasonable commercial terms to cover costs associated with such volatility;
• possible loss of local distribution company franchises or other adverse effects caused by the actions of municipalities;
• payment and performance by counterparties and customers as contracted and when due, including our counterparties maintaining ordinary course terms of supply and payments;
• changes in existing or the addition of new environmental, safety, tax and other laws to which we and our subsidiaries are subject, including those that may require significant expenditures, significant increases in operating costs or, in the case of noncompliance, substantial fines or penalties;
• the effectiveness of our risk-management policies and procedures, and employees violating our risk-management policies;
• the uncertainty of estimates, including accruals and costs of environmental remediation;
• advances in technology, including technologies that increase efficiency or that improve electricity's competitive position relative to natural gas;
• population growth rates and changes in the demographic patterns of the markets we serve, and economic conditions in these areas' housing markets;
• acts of nature and the potential effects of threatened or actual terrorism and war, including recent events in Europe;
• the sufficiency of insurance coverage to cover losses;
• the effects of our strategies to reduce tax payments;
• the effects of litigation and regulatory investigations, proceedings, including our rate cases, or inquiries and the requirements of our regulators as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017;
• changes in accounting standards;
• changes in corporate governance standards;
• existence of material weaknesses in our internal controls;
• our ability to comply with all covenants in our indentures and the ONE Gas Credit Agreement, a violation of which, if not cured in a timely manner, could trigger a default of our obligations;
• our ability to attract and retain talented employees, management and directors, or a shortage of skilled labor;
• unexpected increases in the costs of providing health care benefits, along with pension and postemployment health care benefits, as well as declines in the discount rates on, declines in the market value of the debt and equity securities of, and increases in funding requirements for, our defined benefit plans; and
• our ability to successfully complete merger, acquisition or divestiture plans, regulatory or other limitations imposed as a result of a merger, acquisition or divestiture, and the success of the business following a merger, acquisition or divestiture.

These factors are not necessarily all of the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any of our forward-looking statements. Other factors could also have material adverse effects on our future results. These and other risks are described in greater detail in Part 1, Item 1A, Risk Factors, in our Annual Report. All forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under securities laws, we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement whether as a result of new information, subsequent events or change in circumstances, expectations or otherwise.

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SOURCE ONE Gas, Inc.