Seneca Output Slips 7% as NFG Readies Spin, Retools Well Design
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), the Buffalo-based utility, pipeline and drilling company that plans to spin off its Seneca Resources drilling subsidiary as a separate public company in the second half of 2027, issued its fiscal fourth-quarter (Jul-Sep) and full-year 2026 update this week. (NFG’s fiscal year runs Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.) The parent company had a very good year, with adjusted earnings up 9%. Seneca, not so much. Seneca’s production dropped 7% in the quarter to 104 Bcf (about 1.13 Bcf/d). Full-year output of 419.5 Bcf came in below even the lowered guidance, and Seneca expects fiscal 2027 production to be roughly flat. Management blamed three things: a dud Marcellus pad in Lycoming County, so-so Upper Utica results, and “frac interactions” (better known as frac hits) between Lower Utica wells in Tioga County. The good news is that Seneca thinks it knows what went wrong, and it expects growth to resume in fiscal 2028. Read More “Seneca Output Slips 7% as NFG Readies Spin, Retools Well Design”
National Fuel Gas (NFG) is laying more pipe in Tioga County. Its gathering subsidiary, NFG Midstream Covington, has asked the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for a stream-and-wetland crossing permit for two natural gas pipelines, 24-inch and 20-inch, running side by side through Farmington, Deerfield, and Chatham townships. The notice also mentions a 16-inch water line. The filing comes just 10 days after NFG’s board approved splitting the company in two, and it strongly suggests NFG’s Seneca Resources drilling arm is gearing up for more Utica production in Tioga County. 
It’s a go. Yesterday, one day ahead of its own October 15 deadline, National Fuel Gas Company’s (NFG) board approved a plan to split the 124-year-old company in two. Seneca Resources and the NFG Midstream gathering business will spin off as a new, publicly traded Marcellus/Utica driller. The company is calling it “IUG” for now (short for Integrated Upstream and Gathering) because it doesn’t have a real name yet. Seneca president Justin Loweth will be the CEO. NFG shareholders will get the new shares tax-free. Don’t hold your breath, though. The split isn’t expected to close until the second half of 2027. 
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) — the Williamsville, NY company that drills (Seneca Resources), pipes (NFG Supply Corporation, Empire), and sells gas at the meter (NFG Distribution Corp) — issued its fiscal third quarter update Wednesday evening and talked it over with analysts Thursday morning. NFG’s fiscal year ends September 30, so their “third quarter” is everyone else’s second quarter (April–June). There’s a lot in here for Marcellus/Utica watchers, but two items stand out: Supply Corporation more than tripled the size of its Line N System Upgrade Project, and Seneca is about to start writing big checks to landowners in Tioga County. 
National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), headquartered in Buffalo, NY, is the parent company for Marcellus/Utica driller Seneca Resources and the parent of midstream company NFG Midstream (and subsidiary Empire Pipeline). In November 2023, MDN first reported on NFG Midstream’s Tioga Pathway project, an estimated $90 million modernization and expansion project that will add 190,000 Dth per day (190 MMcf/d) of firm transportation takeaway capacity from northwest Tioga County, Pennsylvania (see 
One month ago, National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) CEO David Bauer confirmed that his company had given up after battling for 10 years to build the Northern Access Pipeline, a 97-mile pipeline from McKean County in Pennsylvania into and through Allegany, Cattaraugus, and Erie counties in New York that would have flowed Marcellus gas into New York State (see 
Two different subsidiaries of National Fuel Gas Company (NFG), Seneca Resources (shale driller) and National Fuel Gas Midstream Company (gathering pipelines), were certified by two different certification authorities, MiQ and Equitable Origin, respectively. Yesterday, NFG announced both companies have been recertified by their respective authorities. Everyone is still responsible. 🙂