National Fuel Gas Company (NYSE:NFG) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call May 2, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Natalie Fischer - Director of Investor Relations
David Bauer - President and Chief Executive Officer
Timothy Silverstein - Treasurer and Principal Financial Officer
Justin Loweth - President-Seneca Resources and National Fuel Midstream

Conference Call Participants

Zach Parham - JPMorgan
Neil Mehta - Goldman Sachs

Operator

Hello, everyone and welcome to the National Fuel Gas Company Q2 Fiscal 2024 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Charlie and I'll be coordinating the call today. You will have the opportunity to ask a question at the end of the presentation. [Operator Instructions]

I'll now hand over to our host Natalie Fischer, Director of Investor Relations. Natalie, please go ahead.

Natalie Fischer

Thank you, Charlie 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; Tim Silverstein, 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 second quarter fiscal 2024 earnings release and may 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.

With that, I'll turn it over to Dave Bauer.

David Bauer

Thank you, Natalie. Good morning, everyone. Last night National Fuel reported solid second quarter results that are yet another great indicator of the strong long-term outlook for the company. Adjusted operating results were a $1.79 per share, an increase of 16% from the prior-year's second quarter.

The combination of significant growth in our regulated businesses, which delivered a 36% increase in earnings per share, along with double-digit growth in Seneca's production and the gathering segment's throughput drove the increase. While natural gas prices were a headwind during the quarter, our longstanding hedging program helped mitigate this impact. Tim and Justin will hit on the details of the quarter and the near-term outlook, but I want to take a few minutes to highlight the long-term opportunity set for National Fuel.