National Fuel Gas Company

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to the National Fuel Gas Company second quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. I will now hand the conference over to Natalie Fisher, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Karina, 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 Chief Financial Officer, and Justin Lois, President of Seneca Resources and National Fuel Midstream. At the end of today's prepared remarks, we will open the discussion to questions. The second quarter fiscal 2026 earnings release, and April investor presentations have been posted on our investor relations website. We may refer to these materials during today's call. We'd like to remind you that today's teleconference will contain forward-looking statements. While National Fuels' 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.

Thank you, Natalie, and good morning, everyone. National Fuel had a solid second quarter with adjusted earnings per share of $2.71, an increase of 13% from last year. This continues our streak of double-digit EPS growth and keeps us on track to achieve our multi-year 10% plus average annual growth target. I'm also happy to report that during the quarter, we achieved additional milestones across the system that further bolster our long-term earnings outlook. Our second quarter was a prime example of the strong operational resiliency of our natural gas assets, particularly during severe weather events. In January and February, we experienced an extended cold snap across our operating footprint, where daily low temperatures in some of our regions were below freezing for 19 straight days. A big thank you to our dedicated workforce and contractors who worked through the elements to ensure that the gas continued to flow during this critical time. Overall, our systems held up extremely well with no notable issues at our utility and pipeline and storage businesses. On the non-regulated side, our production and gathering facilities performed very well with limited freeze-offs. This allowed us to take advantage of some of the strong prices we saw on the coldest days. We did, however, experience some regional road closures over multiple days due to heavy snowfall. During this stretch of weather, we slowed the pace of completions and delayed the flowback of a new pad, which had a modest impact on our production for the quarter and will similarly impact full-year production. On the drilling and completion side, we continue to focus on the optimization of our integrated development program. We've made substantial progress on the testing of both our Gen 4 well designs and our upper Utica locations and are seeing continued success, which further enhances our long-term outlook. With decades of core inventory locations, a growing marketing portfolio, and ongoing improvements in capital efficiency, our integrated upstream and gathering business is positioned to deliver meaningful production and free cash flow growth for years to come. Justin will provide additional details later in the call. Our outlook for the regulated businesses is also strong. Starting with the pipeline and storage segment, we continue to develop new expansion opportunities on our line-end system, which is well positioned to support both behind-the-meter generation that's co-located with data centers and the broader need for electric generation within PJM. Last week, we executed a preceding agreement on a new expansion opportunity that we're calling the Line-End System Upgrade Project. And this project has a dual benefit for us. First, it adds 94,000 decatherms a day of incremental transportation capacity, all of which was subscribed under a long-term contract with an investment-grade counterparty. And second, the project allows us to modernize a key six-mile portion of pipe, ensuring the continued reliability and integrity of that part of our system. The project has an estimated capital cost of $93 million, approximately 70% of which relates to the modernization component of the project. and it's expected to go in service in late calendar 2028. Also this quarter, construction commenced on our shipping port lateral and Tioga pathway expansion projects, both of which are on track to meet their November 2026 target and service dates. Lastly, today, Supply Corporation is filing a new rate case with FERC that seeks an approximately $95 million increase to our cost of service. In addition, our filing proposes a modernization tracker to support the ongoing investment in the safety and reliability of the system. We expect this proceeding to play out along the typical timeline and hope to reach a settlement sometime this fall, with new rates going into effect late in the calendar year. Collectively, between the rate case and two expansion projects, fiscal 2027 should be a period of significant growth at our pipeline and storage business. Moving to the utility, customer affordability remains top of mind, and we continue to work closely with our regulators to ensure we can continue to invest in the modernization of our system while keeping rates reasonable. Our delivery rates are the lowest in both states, and we're doing our best to keep it that way. In New York, we're in year two of our three-year rate plan, which runs through the end of fiscal 2027. As we look beyond 2027, we have over a decade of remaining modernization investments at our current replacement pace. Over the coming months, we'll be proactively working on a solution to recover these important future investments. In Pennsylvania, our rate case is progressing as expected. Testimony from staff and other intervening parties was filed a few weeks ago. We'll file rebuttal testimony in May and then expect to commence settlement discussions over the summer. Given our modest rate increase request, we're optimistic we'll reach a settlement by the fall. I expect discussions will be constructive. As I said, our rates are the lowest in the state and would continue to be the lowest even if we received the full $20 million increase we've requested. Turning to Ohio, the CenterPoint acquisition is on track for a calendar fourth quarter closing. In January, we made our HSR filing and the required waiting period has since passed. completing that regulatory process. In addition, we've given notice of the acquisition to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and expect an order from the commission in late spring or early summer. Tim will have more on the acquisition later in the call. Before closing, a quick word on energy policy in New York State, where we continue to see a growing recognition of the practical role natural gas must play in the state's energy future. While New York remains committed to its long-term climate objectives, Recent proposals from Governor Hochul and the adoption of the state energy plan reflect a more balanced, common-sense approach. Policymakers are increasingly focused on maintaining reliability, protecting affordability for customers, and ensuring the system can perform during peak demand periods, particularly during winter weather events. Those discussions underscore what we've long believed. The existing natural gas system remains essential to serving homes and businesses. and supporting electric grid reliability and will continue to be a critical part of New York's energy mix for decades. In closing, National Fuel is well positioned to deliver steady growth in earnings and cash flow in the years ahead. We have a great set of integrated upstream and gathering assets with multiple decades of high quality development inventory. Our midstream infrastructure is strategically located to provide key support to the significant growth in natural gas fired electric generation expected in the region. and we have a growing base of utility earnings that will be further enhanced with the completion of our pending Ohio LDC acquisition. Taken together, the national value proposition is as strong as it's ever been. With that, I'll turn the call over to Tim.