National Fuel Gas Company (NYSE:NFG) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

What benefits those is, they’re a little bit lower cost, they’re lower pressure, they’re a little shallower, so less money to drill. And the completion designs on those wells are a little bit less intense bringing the cost down. So, they’re both excellent targets for us. from an economic perspective, we’re happy to go to either one. And really, our development plan is guided by what makes the most sense collectively between Seneca and Midstream as we work to develop across that entire position. Ultimately, looking to deploy as few dollars as possible between the two entities and kind of marching through the acreage we have. And so that’s what really will guide it. Both targets, Marcellus and Utica are excellent. So, we’re going to keep working through all the inventory we have over the next many, many years.

Trafford Lamar: Perfect. Appreciate the color on that. And then one quick one on the two Bcf price-related curtailments. Was that largely via pipe maintenance, I’m assuming?

Justin Loweth: No. so, I’m not counting pipeline maintenance in that, that is purely, there were times in the last quarter, where gas prices were terrible, the in-basin gas pricing even below $1 and less. and there’s times when prices are very low like that. we will voluntarily curtail. So, we maintain a small portion of our overall production that is exposed to in-basin pricing that’s intentional. And so, like I spoke for ’24, we have about 90% of our production that has access to firm transport or firm sales that leaves about 10% in there. And so, when I talk about that two Bs, what I’m really getting at is that layer that doesn’t necessarily have a home if you will. if we see prices that are extremely depressed, call it, below $1 or in that vicinity.

we choose not to sell that gas and we will simply curtail the well, choke the wells back, shut them in for a period of time and then wait for better pricing like we’re starting to see now as we start to see the beginnings of winter and find that to be a far better economic answer for our company.

Trafford Lamar: Perfect. Appreciate that. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. At this time, there are no further questions in the queue. So, I will turn the call back over to Brandon for final remarks.

Brandon Haspett: Thank you, Kate. We’d like to thank everyone for taking the time to be with us today. A replay of this call will be available this afternoon on both our website and by telephone, and we’ll run through the close of business on Thursday, November 9th. To access the replay online, please visit our Investor Relations website at investor.nationalfuelgas.com and to access by telephone call 1-866-813-9403, provide access code 693074. This concludes our conference call for today. Thank you and goodbye.

Operator: That concludes today’s conference call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.