Exhibit A

Forward Looking Statement Disclosure

Commentary on this conference call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. National Fuel Gas Company (the “Company”) is providing this cautionary statement to make applicable and take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 for any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the Company.

Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding future prospects, plans, objectives, goals, projections, estimates of gas quantities, strategies, future events or performance and underlying assumptions, capital structure, anticipated capital expenditures, completion of construction projects, projections for pension and other post-retirement benefit obligations, impacts of the adoption of new accounting rules, and possible outcomes of litigation or regulatory proceedings, as well as statements that are identified by the use of the words "anticipates," "estimates," "expects," "forecasts," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "projects," "believes," "seeks," "will," "may" and similar expressions. All forward-looking statements, whether written or oral and whether made by or on behalf of the Company, are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements.

The Company's expectations, beliefs and projections are expressed in good faith and are believed by the Company to have a reasonable basis, but there can be no assurance that management's expectations, beliefs or projections will result or be achieved or accomplished.

In addition to other factors, the following are important factors that, in the view of the Company, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements:

  1. Changes in laws, regulations or judicial interpretations to which the Company is subject, including those involving derivatives, taxes, safety, employment, climate change, other environmental matters, real property, and exploration and production activities such as hydraulic fracturing;
  2. Governmental/regulatory actions, initiatives and proceedings, including those involving rate cases (which address, among other things, target rates of return, rate design and retained natural gas and system modernization), environmental/safety requirements, affiliate relationships, industry structure, and franchise renewal;
  3. The Company’s ability to estimate accurately the time and resources necessary to meet emissions targets;
  4. Governmental/regulatory actions and/or market pressures to reduce or eliminate reliance on natural gas;
  5. Changes in economic conditions, including inflationary pressures, supply chain issues, liquidity challenges, and global, national or regional recessions, and their effect on the demand for, and customers’ ability to pay for, the Company’s products and services;
  6. Changes in the price of natural gas;
  7. Impairments under the SEC’s full cost ceiling test for natural gas reserves;
  8. The creditworthiness or performance of the Company’s key suppliers, customers and counterparties;
  9. Financial and economic conditions, including the availability of credit, and occurrences affecting the Company’s ability to obtain financing on acceptable terms for working capital, capital expenditures and other investments, including any downgrades in the Company’s credit ratings and changes in interest rates and other capital market conditions;
  10. Increased costs or delays or changes in plans with respect to Company projects or related projects of other companies, as well as difficulties or delays in obtaining necessary governmental approvals, permits or orders or in obtaining the cooperation of interconnecting facility operators;
  11. Changes in price differentials between similar quantities of natural gas sold at different geographic locations, and the effect of such changes on commodity production, revenues and demand for pipeline transportation capacity to or from such locations;
  12. The impact of information technology disruptions, cybersecurity or data security breaches;
  13. Factors affecting the Company’s ability to successfully identify, drill for and produce economically viable natural gas reserves, including among others geology, lease availability and costs, title disputes, weather conditions, water availability and disposal or recycling opportunities of used water, shortages, delays or unavailability of equipment and services required in drilling operations, insufficient gathering, processing and transportation capacity, the need to obtain governmental approvals and permits, and compliance with environmental laws and regulations;
  14. The Company’s ability to complete strategic transactions;
  15. Increasing health care costs and the resulting effect on health insurance premiums and on the obligation to provide other post-retirement benefits;
  16. Other changes in price differentials between similar quantities of natural gas having different quality, heating value, hydrocarbon mix or delivery date;
  17. The cost and effects of legal and administrative claims against the Company or activist shareholder campaigns to effect changes at the Company;
  18. Negotiations with the collective bargaining units representing the Company's workforce, including potential work stoppages during negotiations;
  19. Uncertainty of natural gas reserve estimates;
  20. Significant differences between the Company’s projected and actual production levels for natural gas;
  21. Changes in demographic patterns and weather conditions (including those related to climate change);
  22. Changes in the availability, price or accounting treatment of derivative financial instruments;
  23. Changes in laws, actuarial assumptions, the interest rate environment and the return on plan/trust assets related to the Company’s pension and other post-retirement benefits, which can affect future funding obligations and costs and plan liabilities;
  24. Economic disruptions or uninsured losses resulting from major accidents, fires, severe weather, natural disasters, terrorist activities or acts of war, as well as economic and operational disruptions due to third-party outages;
  25. Significant differences between the Company’s projected and actual capital expenditures and operating expenses; or
  26. Increasing costs of insurance, changes in coverage and the ability to obtain insurance.

Forward-looking statements include estimates of gas quantities. Proved gas reserves are those quantities of gas which, by analysis of geoscience and engineering data, can be estimated with reasonable certainty to be economically producible under existing economic conditions, operating methods and government regulations. Other estimates of gas quantities, including estimates of probable reserves, possible reserves, and resource potential, are by their nature more speculative than estimates of proved reserves. Accordingly, estimates other than proved reserves are subject to substantially greater risk of being actually realized.

Any forward-looking statements contained in this conference call speak only as of the date of this call. The Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this conference call. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 10-K and Forms 10-Q, available at www.investor.nationalfuelgas.com. You can also obtain these forms on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.


Exhibit A: Director Qualification Guidelines

The Board of Directors in considering qualifications of directors standing for re-election and candidates for Board membership will consider the following factors, in addition to those other factors it may deem relevant:

  1. Strong management experience, ideally with major public companies.
  2. Other areas of expertise or experience that are desirable given the Company’s business and the current make-up of the Board, such as expertise or experience in: the natural gas industry, information technology businesses, manufacturing, financial or investment banking, scientific research and development, senior level government experience, and academic administration or teaching.
  3. Desirability of range in age, so that retirements are staggered to permit replacement of directors of desired skills and experience in a way that will permit appropriate continuity of Board members.
  4. Independence, as defined by the Board.
  5. Diversity of perspectives, including all aspects of diversity, brought to the Board by individual members.
  6. Knowledge and skills in accounting and finance, business judgment, general management practices, crisis response and management, industry knowledge and leadership.
  7. Personal characteristics matching the Company’s values, such as integrity, accountability, financial literacy, and high performance standards.
  8. Additional characteristics, such as:
    1. willingness to commit the time required to fully discharge their responsibilities to the Board, including the time to prepare the Board and Committee meetings by reviewing the material supplied before each meeting;
    2. commitment to attend a minimum of 75% of meetings;
    3. ability and willingness to represent the stockholders’ long and short-term interests;
    4. awareness of the Company’s responsibilities to its customers, employees, suppliers, regulatory bodies, and the communities in which it operates; and
    5. willingness to advance their opinions, but once a decision is made by a majority of the Board, a willingness to support the majority decision assuming questions of ethics or propriety are not involved.
  9. The number of commitments to other entities, with one of the more important factors being the number of other public-company boards on which the individual serves.
  10. In order to qualify for election as a director, a nominee must be a stockholder of the Company.

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