Atmos Energy Corporation

Thank you for standing by. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Atmos Energy Corporation Fiscal 2024 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All lines will be placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone pad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Dan Mazur, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Adam. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us, for joining our fiscal 2024 first quarter earnings call. With me today are Kevin Akers, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Chris Forsythe, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our earnings release and conference call slide presentation, which we will reference in our prepared remarks, are available at atmosenergy.com under the Investor Relations tab. As we review these financial results and discuss future expectations, please keep in mind that some of our discussion might contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act and the Securities Exchange Act. Our forward-looking statements and projections could differ materially from actual results. The factors that could cause such material differences are outlined on slide 26 and are more fully described in our SEC filings. With that, I will turn the call over to Kevin Akers, our president and CEO. Kevin?

Thank you, Dan, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate your interest in Atmos Energy. I want to begin today's call by thanking all 5,000 Atmos Energy employees for their exceptional effort and dedication to serving our customers under very challenging weather conditions recently. And thank you for all that you do for our customers and our communities every day. You are truly the heart and soul of Atmos Energy. Our first quarter results reflect that effort, dedication, and focus as we continue modernizing our natural gas distribution, transmission, and storage systems on our journey to be the safest provider of natural gas services. Yesterday, we reported fiscal 24 first quarter net income of $311 million, or $2.08 per diluted share. And our first fiscal quarter capital spending was $770 million to support continued system modernization and growth across our service territories. For the 12 months ended December 31st, 2023, we added over 58,000 new customers with over 44,000 of those located here in Texas. And the Texas Workforce Commission reported in January that the seasonally adjusted number of employed reached a new record high at over 14.1 million. Texas once again added jobs at a faster rate than the nation over the last 12 months, adding nearly 370,000 jobs in calendar 2023, representing a 2.7% annual growth rate. Additionally, we added 11 new industrial customers which, when fully operational, we anticipate consuming approximately 2.5 BCF of gas annually. That is volumetrically equivalent to 45,000 residential customers. Commercial customer growth remains solid as well, with over 1,000 commercial customers connecting to the system during the first quarter. This growing demand from all of our customer classes demonstrates the value and vital role natural gas plays in economic development across our service territories. In APT, we completed several projects that will enhance the safety, reliability, versatility, and supply diversification of our system and support the continued growth we are seeing in the local distribution companies behind APT's system. During the quarter, we placed in service Line PC, which connected the southern end of APT's system with a 42-inch Kinder Morgan Permian Highway line that runs from Bwaha to Katy. Our 22-mile, 36-inch line PC supports the current demand and forecasted growth to the north of Austin in both Williamson and Travis Counties located in Texas, as well as increases supply diversity in this service area. Additionally, we placed in service phase three of our four phase 104 mile line s2 project as a reminder line s2 brings supply from the haynesville and cotton valley shell place to the east side of the growing dallas fort worth metro place this third phase replaced 22 miles of 14 inch and 20 inch pipeline with 36 inch pipeline the final phase of this project is scheduled to be completed by the end of this calendar year And we completed the first phase of our line WA loop project, 24 miles of 36-inch pipeline. This multi-phase project will fortify APT system that serves the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex by installing approximately 80 miles of 36-inch transmission pipeline. Our customer support associates and service technicians continue their exceptional customer service and once again received a 98% satisfaction rating from customers during the first quarter. Our customer advocacy team and customer support agents continued their outreach efforts to energy assistance agencies and customers during the first quarter. Through those efforts, the team helped nearly 17,000 customers receive over $5 million in funding assistance. As a reminder, during fiscal 23, our energy assistance teams helped over 60,000 customers receive over $29 million of financial assistance to help with their monthly bills. Before I turn the call over to Chris, I want to comment on an incident that the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. The incident occurred at a Jackson, Mississippi residence on January 24th and resulted in one fatality. Atmos Energy is working with the National Transportation Safety Board and other federal and state regulators to help determine possible causes. We want to thank the first responders and emergency responders for their support and assistance. Our hearts, our thoughts, and our prayers have been and continue to be with the family.