David Bauer
Analyst · Holly Stewart from Howard Weil. Please proceed
Thanks Matt, and good morning everyone. As you read in last night's release National Fuel reported a net loss for the fourth quarter of $2.22 per share. There were three items of note in the quarter that impacted earnings. First, as expected, the decline in commodity prices led Seneca to record another non-cash ceiling test charge of $2.83 a share. Going in the other direction Seneca had a few adjustments to deferred income taxes that improved earnings by $0.15 a share. The most significant of these adjustments related to Seneca’s capacity on the Northern Access 2015 project which will transport its production into Canada. As its Canadian sales increase, less of Seneca’s revenues will be allocated to its Pennsylvania income tax return, which will reduce future tax liability. Lastly, as a result of the net loss we experience this year the restricted stock grants made to our executive team for the three-year cycle that ended September 30 will not vest. Therefore we reversed about $8 million or $0.6 per share of long-term incentive comp expense, which was also a benefit to earnings. Excluding these three items results on operating basis were $0.41 per share. So down from the prior year mostly due to the decline in crude oil prices in the E&P segment. Our consolidated operating results for the quarter were right in line with our expectations. At Seneca both production and per unit cash operating costs were right down the middle of our guidance ranges. Per unit DD&A expense was actually below our guidance range thanks to the continued improvement in Seneca’s finding and development costs the Ron and Matt described earlier. Earnings at our midstream businesses were relatively flat compared with last year. At the gathering business earnings were down his overall volumes and revenues track Seneca’s production. At the regulated pipeline of storage companies continue demand for transportation services on our system cause revenues to grow by about $2.4 million. Looking ahead fiscal 2016 should be a good year for our midstream businesses. Gathering revenues will track Seneca’s production in the three projects Ron described earlier we had about $25 million in incremental revenues in the pipeline and storage business in fiscal 2016. However, keep in mind that as I said on the last call a portion of that increase will likely be offset by a variety of smaller items including typical re-contracting on both pipeline systems and an assumed return to normal weather in our service territory. In addition, this past quarter Supply Corporation reached a new rate settlement with the chippers. As part of that agreement supply agreed to reduce its base rate by 2% effective November 1, 2015. An additional 2% reduction will be made effective November 1, 2016 for a cumulative reduction of 4%. The expected impact fiscal 2016 revenues as a result of the settlement is about $3 million. The agreement also contains a comeback provision whereby supply agreed to file a general rate case no sooner than September 30, 2017 and no later than December 31, 2019. Turning to guidance, we now expect fiscal 2016 consolidated earnings will be in the range of $2.85 to $3.15 per share excluding ceiling test impairment charges. At the midpoint this is a decrease of $0.15 from our previous guidance. Substantially all of the changes attributable to a decrease in the commodity price assumptions reflected in the forecast. Specifically we are now assuming NYMEX natural gas prices averaged $2.75 per MMBtu, down $0.50 from the previous forecast. We’re also lowering our NYMEX crude oil assumption to $50 a barrel down $5 in the previous forecast. Going in the other direction is an improvement in our DD&A rate. Thanks to strong reserve bookings at year-end and continued improvement in F&D costs, we now expect DD&A expense will be below the midpoint of our $1 to a $1.10 per Mcfe guidance. Seneca’s production forecast has been updated to reflect some new farm sales agreements that were executed in the last three months. The new ranges is 161 to 232 Bcfe, this is wider than normal range which reflects the uncertainty around Appalachian gas pricing and our ability to sell spot volumes and an acceptable price. Our guidance reflects the full range of potential outcomes if we saw 100% of our spot volumes will be at the high end of the range if we don’t sell any spot volumes will be at the low end. All of our remaining major assumptions for next year with respect Seneca and the rest of the businesses remain the same. As Matt indicated earlier we have a great hedge book for next year with a significant portion of our production hedged at prices well above current market levels. In total we have hedges covering 120 Bcf of gas sales at 3.45 per Mcf and 1.4 million barrels of crude oil at 88.24 per barrel. At the midpoint of our production guidance were better than 65% hedge for gas and about 50% for oil. Turning to capital spending we made some small changes to the budgets of the individual segments, but our overall consolidated capital budget is still $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion. Seneca’s updated budget of $400 million to $450 million reflects the expected benefit of the new frack contract Matt mentioned earlier. Utilities budget was updated to a range of $90 million to $210 million to reflect the timing of spending on our new customer billing system. There were no changes to the gathering our pipeline and storage businesses capital budgets. And all the details on our capital spending by segment can be found in the new IR deck on our website. Based on our updated forecast we still expect an outspend in fiscal 2016 in the range of $500 million to $600 million. As you can see from our balance sheet, we had $113 million in cash on hand at year-end, which will cover some of that outspend, but we will need to raise capital to cover the rest. As we’ve said on prior calls, we’re evaluating a number of financing alternatives including a master limited partnership and other alternatives that could take advantage of the large amount of private capital it’s waiting on the sidelines in the energy space. But we don't have anything new to report on this call, the process is still ongoing and we will keep you up-to-date as we move through the year. In terms of the timing of the financing need most all of our outspend in fiscal 2016 is tied to the Northern Access 2016 project. Assuming we receive our certificate to construct it by the Spring, we'll start making significant construction expenditures early next summer and continuing through late fall. Thus we do have a little bit of time to make the financing decision. Our short-term credit facilities give us the flexibility to access the capital markets when it makes the most sense. This past September we increased the size of a credit facilities by $500 million. In total we now have access to $1.45 billion of short credit substantially all of which is undrawn. As of yesterday we had about 25 million of commercial paper outstanding. So in closing our low commodity prices will make fiscal 2016 challenging for producers, but National Fuel’s integrated structure, long-term vision and pragmatic approach to hedging and capital deployment has us well-positioned to endure what may be trying times ahead in the industry. With that, I’ll close and ask the operator to open the line for questions.