National Fuel Gas Company (NYSE:NFG) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 3, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Brandon Haspett - Director, Investor Relations

Dave Bauer - President and CEO

Karen Camiolo - Treasurer and Principal Financial Officer

Justin Loweth - President, Seneca Resources and National Fuel Midstream

Conference Call Participants

John Abbott - Bank of America

Trafford Lamar - Raymond James

Umang Choudhary - Goldman Sachs

Operator

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the National Fuel Gas Company Q1 FY 2023 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Drew, and I'll be your operator today. [Operator instructions]

I'd now like to turn the call over to Brandon Haspett, the Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Brandon Haspett

Thank you, Drew, 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 Justin Loweth, President of Seneca Resources and National Fuel Midstream. At the end of the prepared remarks, we will open the discussion to questions.

The first quarter fiscal 2023 earnings release and February 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 they are made, and may refer to last evening’s earnings release for a listing of certain specific risk factors.

With that, I will turn it over to Dave Bauer.

Dave Bauer

Thanks, Brandon, and good morning, everyone. National Fuel's fiscal year started off with a great first quarter. Adjusted operating results were $1.84 per share, an increase of 24% versus last year, with each of our four business segments contributing to the increase.

Starting with our Upstream business, production in Appalachia increased by 11%, which when combined with the $0.50 per Mcf improvement in our natural gas price realizations, led to a 29% increase in EBITDA. This increase is particularly impressive, given that last year's EBITDA includes the benefit of our California assets, which we sold last summer.

Seneca's production growth also contributed to a 6% increase in gathering EBITDA. The combination of our valuable transportation and marketing portfolio, along with great operational execution by our team, drove the improved performance of our nonregulated businesses during the quarter. Justin will add more details on these results in a few minutes.