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National Fuel Gas Co (NFG -1.95%)
Q1Â 2020 Earnings Call
Jan 31, 2020, 11:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Q1 2020 National Fuel Gas Company Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Ken Webster, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Kenneth E. Webster -- Director of Investor Relations
Thank you, Kenzie, and good morning. We appreciate you joining us on today's conference call for a discussion of last evening's earnings release. With us on the call from National Fuel Gas Company are Dave Bauer, President and Chief Executive Officer; Karen Camiolo, Treasurer and Principal Financial Officer; and John McGinnis, President of Seneca Resources.
At the end of the prepared remarks, we will open the discussion to questions. The first quarter fiscal 2020 earnings release and January investor presentation have been posted on our Investor Relations website. We may refer to these materials during today's call.
We would like to remind you that today's teleconference will contain forward-looking statements. While National Fuel's expectations, beliefs and projections are made in good faith, and are believed to have a reasonable basis, actual results may differ materially. These statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and you may refer to last evening's earnings release for a listing of certain specific risk factors.
National Fuel will be participating in the Scotia Howard Weil Energy Conference in March. If you plan on attending, please contact me or the conference planners to schedule a meeting with the management team.
With that, I'll turn it over to Dave Bauer.
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Ken, and good morning, everyone. Overall, the first quarter was a good one for National Fuel. Earnings were right in line with our expectations. And from an operations perspective, we continue to execute on the plans we've laid out in prior quarters.
At Seneca, production for the quarter was up nearly 20% over last year. Seneca continues to see excellent results from the Marcellus and Utica wells it brought on production in recent quarters. Our team has done a great job cracking the code on our Utica development program, both in the WDA and at Tract 007 in Tioga County.
It's also worth highlighting our California oil production, which was up about 5% over last year on the strength of our recent Pioneer and 17N development programs at Midway Sunset.
Lower Natural Gas prices are obviously a concern. Earlier this month, we dropped a rig and are currently operating two rigs in our Western Development Area. Given the challenging pricing environment, as we said in last night's release, we intend to make further reductions in Seneca's activity level in the coming quarters. John will have more to say on Seneca's program later on the call.
Our lower E&P activity level will also lead to reduction in Seneca-related gathering capital at NFG Midstream. Having said that, as you can see in last night's release, we're raising the midpoint of our gathering capital spending guidance for the year by $10 million. This increase is driven by capital expenditures related to a new gathering agreement with a third-party producer in the vicinity of our Trout Run system in Lycoming County. This is a nice little project. It is expected to add roughly $5 million to $10 million per year in third-party revenues starting in fiscal 2021.
It's a great example of how we can optimize our existing assets to generate new growth opportunities.
The first quarter was fairly routine for our regulated businesses. Utility segment continues to perform well with earnings up $0.01 a share over last year. In the fall, we wrapped up another successful utility construction season, and as we have for the past several years, we continue to allocate capital for the modernization of our system. For the calendar year, our modernization program replaced over 150 miles of older distribution pipeline, including 113 miles in New York where we have a regulatory tracking mechanism that provides us with timely recovery of this rate base investment.
The warmer weather we've experienced in the Northeast will likely lead to lower second quarter earnings in our Pennsylvania jurisdiction, where we don't have a weather normalization clause. On a consolidated basis, the impact shouldn't be overly significant. Our customers should see a real benefit from low natural gas prices. We expect winter heating bills will be more than 10% lower than last year.
In the Pipeline and Storage segment, though earnings were down due to the lingering effects of the KeySpan contract expiration, looking to next year and beyond, the outlook for this business is excellent. The Empire North and FM100 projects will add combined $60 million in incremental annual revenue over the next few years. Both projects are proceeding according to plan. Empire North is under construction and on track to be in service late summer or early fall of this year. If FERC stays on its expected timeline, we expect a certificate for the FM100 project later in the fiscal year.
Supply Corp. continues to work through its rate case before FERC. We've held multiple settlement meetings with parties, and I am optimistic we'll reach a settlement.
Our balance sheet is in great shape and our reduction in spending at Seneca will help ensure it stays that way. Just recently, S&P affirmed our investment grade credit rating and maintained a stable outlook on our credit. In the near term, we expect a modest outspend as we build the Empire North and FM100 projects, but beyond that we should be generating significant free cash flow.
2020 is looking to be a challenging year for natural gas producers, but National Fuel is well positioned. We're financially strong and our integrated yet diversified business model provides a large measure of stability to earnings and cash flows.
Looking to the future, though we're slowing the pace of our E&P program to match the reality of natural gas prices, our regulated segments remain on track to see meaningful growth.
With that, I'll turn the call over to John for an update on Seneca's operations.
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
Thanks, Dave, and good morning, everyone. Seneca had a solid first quarter. We produced 58.4 Bcfe, an increase of around 19% compared to last year's first quarter, and a slight decrease quarter-over-quarter. While we continued to see strong operational results with drilling and completion activity on our recent pads coming in ahead of schedule, given the current natural gas price environment, we are reducing our fiscal '20 activity level and associated capital.
As Dave mentioned, this last week, we dropped one of our rigs after drilling a four-well Utica pad in Tioga County. We now have two rigs operating in the basin, both of which are in the WDA. Additionally, during last quarter's earnings call, we discussed the possibility of a further reduction in the activity, should prices not rebound during the winter. And obviously, prices have not rebounded, and in fact have continued to decline. As a result, we are now planning to drop a second rig this summer and defer some of our EDA completion activity into the next fiscal year.
We are lowering our fiscal '20 capex guidance around $42 million or 10% at the midpoint to now range between $375 million to $410 million. This reflects approximately $100 million reduction or 20% in Seneca's expected fiscal '20 capital expenditures versus 2019 levels. Because of this further activity reduction will occur relatively late in our fiscal year, we do not expect to see a significant production impact in fiscal '20.
As to production timing, last quarter, I had mentioned that we expected to see increases during our second and fourth quarters. We still expect to see increased production in our second quarter as we turned in line 12 wells in late January and expect to turn in line another six wells later next month.
However, by deferring some EDA completion activities into next year, we now expect to see flat to slightly declining production during our third and fourth quarters. Overall, our production guidance for fiscal 2020 remains unchanged with our strong first quarter results, largely offsetting our lower production expectations in Q4.
Moving to our marketing and hedging portfolio. We will remain well-positioned for the remainder of the year. We have approximately 102 Bcf or 60% of our remaining fiscal '20 East Division gas production locked in physically and financially at a realized price of $2.28 per Mcf. We have another 43 Bcf of firm sales providing basis protection to over 85% of our remaining forecasted gas production that's already sold.
In California, we produced around 6,000 barrels of oil during the first quarter, an increase of around 5% over last year's first quarter. This increase was due primarily to our recent drill activity in both Pioneer and 17N, both located within our Midway Sunset field. These properties are now producing around 800 barrels a day. And as we look out for the remainder of fiscal '20, we expect Q2 oil production to be down modestly from our Q1 production level and relatively flat thereafter. And finally, over 70% of our oil production for the remainder of the year is hedged at an average price of around $62 per barrel.
And with that, I'll turn it over to Karen.
Karen M. Camiolo -- Treasurer and Principal Financial Officer
Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. National Fuel's first quarter operating results were $1.01 per share, down $0.11 per share quarter-over-quarter. Lower natural gas price realizations were the largest driver of the decrease. In addition, the expiration of a significant contract on our Empire Pipeline late in last year's first quarter and an increase in our effective tax rate contributed to the drop in earnings.
Our higher effective tax rate was driven by two factors. As mentioned on previous calls, the enhanced oil recovery tax credit that was in place last year is no longer available due to the current crude oil prices. And second, the difference between the book and tax accounting rules and expensing of stock-based compensation grants can lead to effective tax rate impacts on the periods in which they struggle. Last year, we had a large favorable impact resulting from this, which did not recur this year.
Looking to the remainder of the year, our earnings guidance has been revised downward to a range of $2.95 per share to $3.15 per share, a decrease of $0.10 at the midpoint. This is primarily related to the reduction in our natural gas price outlook, which now reflects a $2.05 per MMBtu NYMEX price and $1.70 per MMBtu Appalachian spot price assumptions for the remainder of the year. This is partially offset by stronger first quarter pricing and production relative to our expectations.
The remainder of our major guidance assumptions are unchanged. Given that our earnings guidance range is based upon the forward strip at a given date and the recent volatility in commodity prices, I'll provide some earnings sensitivities for your reference. The $0.10 change in NYMEX pricing would change earnings by $0.04 per share, a $0.10 change in spot pricing would impact earnings by $0.02 per share, and a $5 change in WTI oil pricing would also impact earnings by $0.02 per share.
On the capital side, taking into account our reduced activity level, our new consolidated guidance is in the range of $695 million to $785 million, a decrease of approximately $33 million at the midpoint. With our revised earnings projections and lower capital spending planned for the year, we now expect our funds from operations and capital expenditures to be roughly in line with each other. Adding our dividend, we expect a financing need of approximately $150 million for the full year.
We started the year with nearly $700 million of liquidity available under our revolving credit facility, and we plan to use that as the first source of financing.
Given the favorable conditions in the capital markets, we will remain opportunistic as it relates to long-term financing needs and nearer-term maturities.
As John and Dave said, operationally, things are moving along in line with expectations. While natural gas prices are challenged financially, we are in a good spot to weather this period of low commodity prices and remain flexible to take advantage of opportunities when they are available.
With that I'd like to turn the call over to the operator for questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Holly Stewart with Scotia Howard Weil. Your line is open.
Holly Stewart -- Scotia Howard Weil -- Analyst
Good morning all.
Karen M. Camiolo -- Treasurer and Principal Financial Officer
Good morning.
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Hi Holly.
Holly Stewart -- Scotia Howard Weil -- Analyst
Maybe to start, John, with the rig reduction and just help us think through. I think you mentioned in your prepared remarks about fiscal third quarter and fourth quarter sort of flat to declining volumes. Can you just -- or maybe give us a little bit of color on the one-rig program as we approach the end of fiscal 2020? I know you guys have a decent amount of DUC inventory, but maybe the balance between those two things, given that I don't believe that one rig could probably hold production flat.
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
No, you're right. It takes one to two rigs as in terms of how we view our maintenance mode. But you're right, Holly, as we have built up a DUC count. I think we're currently at 14 and we will -- by the time we drop that second rig, we will be just above 30 DUCs. And so we will...
Holly Stewart -- Scotia Howard Weil -- Analyst
Okay.
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
Yeah. Over the next year or so, depending on what gas prices do, we'll just pace that appropriately, which is why we're deferring some of our completion activity into next fiscal year.
Holly Stewart -- Scotia Howard Weil -- Analyst
Okay. So it wouldn't be appropriate then to just assume extrapolate, I guess, that one-rig program in fiscal '21?
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
No. Yeah, we've built up a fairly decent DUC count. And so we'll keep that one rig, we'll certainly look into fiscal '21. Depending on what gas prices do, we'll obviously begin to reconsider how we look going forward.
Holly Stewart -- Scotia Howard Weil -- Analyst
Yeah. Okay. Perfect. That's super helpful. And then maybe just generally about production shut-ins, is there anything in the 2020 guide for production shut-ins? I know that you guys have -- when gas prices have fallen significantly, have certainly pivoted quickly and shut in production volume. So, just trying to think through the guidance. And then how you're thinking about that currently?
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
Yeah. Our first quarter, we had a little bit of curtailment in October. I think it was 0.7 Bs[Phonetic] in that. In terms of our guidance, we do not -- we are not forecasting any other curtailments.
Holly Stewart -- Scotia Howard Weil -- Analyst
Okay. Okay. And then maybe just -- sorry -- one more for John. Maybe just, John, big picture, I know you and I have talked about your interest in M&A, given the market here today and assuming that Northeast PA is a potential target for you guys. As you think about that market and knowing NFG is a very integrated story are their positions in that area right now that are free of midstream commitments that would interest you?
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
I would -- from that perspective, there hasn't been a lot of change since the last quarter. But Holly, as we've talked many times, we're always looking for opportunities in the EDA. But we still see the same midstream attachments that we've seen historically.
Holly Stewart -- Scotia Howard Weil -- Analyst
Okay. Okay. That's all I had. Thank you, guys.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Gordon Loy from Raymond James. Your line is open.
Gordon Loy -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Hey, good morning all, and thanks for taking my questions.
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Gordon Loy -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Yes. So kind of the first question I had kind of following up on Holly was it seems like the one to two rig was kind of mentioned as like a maintenance level of activity spending. But that's -- and so I guess, given that, initially, you guys have -- currently have this buffer of DUCs. So would that kind of trend as far as maintenance level going forward be closer to a two-rig program? And then I guess I'm just trying to think about what that will translate to in terms of spending going forward?
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
Yeah. It's a bit early to be discussing fiscal '21. But having said that, we've just until recently been at three rigs, which has allowed us to build this DUC inventory. I do not view going into next year as a maintenance mode per se. We're looking to keep production generally flat, maybe capex that $350 million range, plus or minus. But I want to make sure or ensure that we're prepared when gas prices rebound that we'll be able to react quickly. So I really wouldn't call this a maintenance mode per se, but it's more just a pull back and wait till we see gas prices improve.
Gordon Loy -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Got it. That makes sense. And I guess just to kind of -- this maybe over simplistic, but -- and your previous guidance was assuming kind of a $2.40 NYMEX in the two-rig program, is that kind of where you guys would want to see gas recover to, to kind of go back to maybe two rigs?
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
No. I think it would have to be a bit better than $2.40. I think we will begin to have that conversation if we saw the $2.50 to $2.75 range, and those were volumes that we could hedge. I think $2.40 would still be a bit light.
Gordon Loy -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Got it. And then -- sorry, just one more question. I guess -- so, we're trying to figure out -- you guys had previously mentioned like a 10% CAGR for the -- in terms of guiding revenue. And so we're just trying to figure out if there is any -- you guys have any adjustments to that, given kind of the shift in terms of your activity levels and what that will mean going forward?
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
Well, it should generally follow Seneca's production cadence, but then layer on top of that, the third-party opportunity that we had that again is in the -- call it $5 million to $10 million annual range.
Gordon Loy -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Okay. That makes sense then. That's all I had.
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
Yeah.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Chris Sighinolfi with Jefferies. Your line is open.
Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Hey, good morning guys.
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Hey, Chris.
Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst
I wanted to also follow up, I guess, previous questions. And if I look maybe to inform what I'm asking about, if I look at your -- the slide presentation, you guys published last night, Slide 8. On the right hand side of that, you have sort of the forecast of gross production trend and then built up with it the physical elements of your portfolio in terms of takeaway and security of flow. And so I am just curious, if we think about that then, is the sort of flattish line that we see throughout much of calendar '21 just that idea of completing those DUCs, but maybe keeping the one-rig program and using the DUC inventory to sort of pull that production?
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
Yeah. That's exactly right, Chris. If we didn't have the DUC count, we wouldn't be able to hold our production flat at a one-rig pace.
Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Right. And then, I guess, the 30 DUCs that you were talking about with Holly, having sort of anticipated to be in place by the time you dropped down to a one-rig program, just out of curiosity, how many pads is that broken across, because I'm assuming you'd make a decision around completion on a pad basis?
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
Yeah. Honestly, Chris, I don't know that answer. I can -- let me talk to Ken and we'll get that back to you. I'm not sure how many pads that includes.
Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Okay. And then is there anything, as I look at this, obviously, you've had the wedge here for a while or the idea was let's try and fill in some in-basin firm sales. If prices and those opportunities are appropriate, sort of further derisk our exposure. Obviously, the wedge is lower now with a lower production profile, but are there other things, John, you can do to maybe pull forward contracts that are in the future at different points, and as sort of your production profile not only is lowered, but maybe their location of it is shifted a bit?
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
Yeah. Some of our fixed price deals, we can certainly push those around depending on what type we need them on. But we're not going to be pulling forward, I guess, futures pricing into at least within this fiscal year. I just don't see us doing that.
Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst
In the fiscal '20? Yeah, yeah. Okay.
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Exactly.
Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst
But where that wedge exists perhaps in '21, that's an option you'll look to depending on what's available perhaps?
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
No, absolutely. Yeah.
Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Okay. And I guess, staying on this Slide 8 and following up on the previous question, if I look at the left side of the slide, we've had the reduction. The 2020 guidance obviously includes half the fiscal year at the two-rig program and you sort of noted what a rig costs on an annual basis. But I'm just curious, the completion side of it, are you seeing benefits there or as a lot of producers in the region scale back or should we just look at prior comments about completion cost and sort of extrapolate from there what the budget might be?
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
Yeah. Actually, in December, we saw a significant reduction both in our rig rates and our -- and what we're paying on the completion side. On the completion side, we saw almost up to 20% reduction, but those are baked into a lot of our guidance already. So I don't see us being able to drive that down further. I'm not sure I want to. I want to make sure we keep this rig crew busy and that they don't head out to another basin. But having said that, we've seen a lot of that reduction already, and we will keep a rig crew busy through the remainder of this year.
Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Okay. All right. And if I could, just one final question, Dave. You had mentioned the third-party gathering opportunity, I believe it was in the EDA, and modest amount of capital, which sort of implies that you're leveraging some iron in the ground or steel in the ground already. I'm just curious, I haven't seen this from you guys in a while. Just what's opportunity set like? Is that -- are your commercial teams out there sort of hunting across the basin for these opportunities? Is that something that sort of came to you, given installed capacity located close to where this operator is operating? Or can you just give us a sense of how it can be and what the opportunity set might be?
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. It's really both, right? We have -- we try to keep relationship with producers in and around our acreage and try to leverage our existing investment. In this case we were -- we're dealing with state lands and it was just far cheaper and efficient to build on to our system than to cut through the forest.
Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst
And then I guess the capital pickup -- modest capital pickup for fiscal 2018, does that have an extension into '21? Should we expect some spending modestly on this arrangement as well?
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. That will be -- it's really modest.
Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Okay. Well, thanks a lot for the time this morning guys. Appreciate it.
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
You bet.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Tim Winter with Gabelli. Your line is open.
Tim Winter -- Gabelli -- Analyst
Good morning, guys, and thanks for taking my question.
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Tim Winter -- Gabelli -- Analyst
Going back to big picture, with the political challenges in the state and sort of the view toward natural gas in New York and now surrounding states, you guys considered branching out into other states or maybe getting into the renewable development business or evolving some of the business into some business with less political challenges?
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yes. Certainly, if you look at the way we're spending our capital on the pipeline side, most of our future spending is in Pennsylvania as opposed to New York. And as we've said on other calls, we're always looking at different opportunity sets, whether it be on the gas side or other businesses. I guess at this point, I don't really have anything to comment on beyond that, but we're always mindful of other opportunities.
Tim Winter -- Gabelli -- Analyst
Okay. Okay. Has the change in drilling activity and the sort of the ongoing low gas prices impacted your interest or the economics of building the Northern Access pipeline?
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Well, the biggest challenge we face on Northern Access in the near term is on the litigation front. We're going to wait for that to play itself out. Right now, the DEC has sued FERC in U.S. Court and that proceeding is going to play out in the, call it, the middle to second half of 2021. So that's, in the near term, the biggest challenge. But then, I mean, you're certainly right with prices where they are and the reduction in Seneca's program having a delay in that project is not the worst thing in the world.
Tim Winter -- Gabelli -- Analyst
Okay. Thank you.
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
You bet.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Ryan Levine with Citi. Your line is open.
Ryan Levine -- Citi -- Analyst
Good morning.
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning.
Ryan Levine -- Citi -- Analyst
What are your current thoughts around your leverage targets in this environment as you go out a couple of years? And then what's your plans around the refinancing in two years to three years?
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. So our intent is to remain investment-grade credit. Our leverage ratios are well within the yardsticks or goalposts, whatever analogy you want to use of what the agencies have laid out for us. With bringing Seneca's spending in, that business should be -- it is not going to be generating any sort of outspend, so the the growth in leverage over time is going to be linked mostly to our -- the pipeline side of our business. And so we have two good-sized projects that will be dealt this year. And then next year, that will cause our leverage to tick up modestly, and then after that, even at strip pricing, we should be generating really meaningful free cash flow thereafter.
Ryan Levine -- Citi -- Analyst
If production or gas prices were to deteriorate further, what levers would you be prioritizing to achieve that investment grade?
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Well, I think it would be mostly on the E&P capital side further scaling back our activity.
Ryan Levine -- Citi -- Analyst
Okay. And then I guess last one on that side is in terms of the distribution or dividend policy. What are the longer-term outlook there and how you can continue to reiterate it stable and growing dividend in your press release and presentation? Should we read into anything with that?
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. So as we've said in the past, we generally view our dividend in light of our -- the earnings of our regulated businesses. And so if you look over time between the modernization programs and modest customer growth on the utility side and the bigger pipeline projects on the FERC-regulated jurisdictions, we'd see earnings in those businesses continue to grow and continue to fund an increase in our dividend.
Ryan Levine -- Citi -- Analyst
Okay. And then last question for me. In terms of the gathering capex increase, could you comment on build multiple associated with that spend?
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. For competitive reasons, I guess, I prefer not to. It's really not a large amount of capital as you can see from the release, and we gave you the revenue guidance.
Ryan Levine -- Citi -- Analyst
Okay. I Understand. Thank you.
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. You bet.
Operator
This concludes the Q&A session for today. I will now hand the call back to Ken Webster for closing comments.
Kenneth E. Webster -- Director of Investor Relations
Thank you, Kenzie. We'd like to thank everyone for taking the time to be with us today. A replay of this call will be available at approximately 3:00 PM Eastern Time on both our website and by telephone and will run through the close of business on Friday, February 7. To access the replay online, please visit our Investor Relations website at investor.nationalfuelgas.com, and to access by telephone call 1-800-585-8367 and enter conference ID number 8154487. This concludes our conference call for today. Thank you, and goodbye.
Operator
[Operator Closing Remarks].
Duration: 31 minutes
Call participants:
Kenneth E. Webster -- Director of Investor Relations
David P. Bauer -- President and Chief Executive Officer
John P. McGinnis -- National Fuel Gas Company
Karen M. Camiolo -- Treasurer and Principal Financial Officer
Holly Stewart -- Scotia Howard Weil -- Analyst
Gordon Loy -- Raymond James -- Analyst
Chris Sighinolfi -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Tim Winter -- Gabelli -- Analyst
Ryan Levine -- Citi -- Analyst
