Phillips 66
Q1 2022 Earnings Call
Apr 29, 2022, 12:00 p.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Welcome to the first quarter 2022 Phillips 66 earnings conference call. My name is Erica, and I will be your operator for today's call. [Operator instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Jeff Dietert, vice president, investor relations.
Jeff, you may begin.
Jeff Dietert -- Vice President, Investor Relations
Good morning, and welcome to Phillips 66 first quarter earnings conference call. Participants on today's call will include Greg Garland, chairman and CEO; Mark Lashier, president and COO; Kevin Mitchell, EVP and CFO; Bob Herman, EVP refining; Brian Mandell, EVP marketing and commercial, and Tim Roberts, EVP midstream. Today's presentation materials can be found on the investor relations section of the Phillips 66 website, along with supplemental financial and operating information. slide two contains our safe harbor statement.
We'll be making forward-looking statements during today's call. Actual results may differ materially from today's comments. Factors that could cause actual results to differ are included here, as well as in our SEC filings. With that, I'll turn the call over to Greg.
Greg Garland -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
OK, Jeff. Thanks. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. In the first quarter, we had adjusted earnings of $595 million or $1.32 per share.
Our results were impacted by seasonally lower margins across our businesses. In March, we saw substantially improved operating earnings. In fact, March provided the majority of our first quarter earnings. Both gasoline and distillate inventories coupled with strong demand will provide momentum as we head into the summer driving season.
We generated strong operating cash flow of $1.1 billion during the first quarter and returned $404 million to shareholders in dividends. In April, we repaid $1.45 billion of debt. And earlier today, we announced that we'll restart our share repurchases under our existing $2.5 billion authorization. In addition, we remain committed to a secure, competitive and growing dividend and plan to resume our cadence of annual dividend increases.
Earlier this month, we announced that Mark Lashier will become President and CEO of Phillips 66 effective July 1. Mark will lead a company that has a solid strategy, strong leadership and outstanding employees. We're all confident that Mark will serve Phillips 66, our employees, communities and shareholders well as the right leader to position the company to thrive in the years ahead. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Mark to provide additional comments.