Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE:ATO) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Ryan Levine: I want to follow up on the O&M getting a little more granular. In terms of the outlook, it’s more on an annual basis. But can you speak to maybe the seasonality attributes of the O&M outlook. Should we look to — this most recent fiscal year as indicative of seasonality trends on a go-forward basis? Is there anything else to call out?

Christopher Forsythe: Yes, there’s that. On the O&M, there is some element of seasonality. It’s difficult to predict because we are managing our O&M over the entire fiscal year. So for example, like last fiscal year, where we had — at the start of the year, we had crews in place, kind of doing some in-line inspection work at APT at the end of fiscal ’22. It made good business sense to go ahead and continue that work into fiscal ’23, although it had been planned originally to be in the back end of fiscal ’23, rather than to demobilize the crews and remobilize 6 or 9 months later, we needed budget, we decided to go ahead and discontinue forward. So that was an operating decision that we made that we thought was in the best interest of the company and our customers.

And so we make those decisions on a day in and day out basis. So it’s difficult to predict. Certainly, those larger expenses when those could occur within a quarter. But certainly, we’re managing to our full fiscal year results. Same thing on line locates. Kevin talked about seeing some moderation right now that we’re seeing, but 6 months from now, we can be in a different environment and line locating may pick up for any number of reasons. And we, again, try to manage that on a full fiscal year basis. But quarter-by-quarter, we’re not as focused on how to get this work done in a quarter unless there’s a specific time requirement. But again, we are well ahead of our compliance deadlines which gives us the opportunity to manage from a full fiscal year basis.

Kevin Akers: Yes, Ryan, the other thing I’d say, Chris, is spot on with that is, we do — given the economic growth that we’ve seen across our service territory, there are times when jurisdictions would want to pull forward projects, whether they’re water, sewer related or there’s fiber things going on, fiber projects out there that we’ll have to move and adjust to as well based upon their time line. It may not be seasonably ratable, but it may be in a quarter it may show up. So again, we have to get the work done when we need to get the work done and work with our communities to make sure we’re in concert with their projects as well.

Ryan Levine: Great. And maybe just one other. In terms of within Texas with the Railroad Commission, is there any discussion around consolidating jurisdictions or regulatory constructs as you negotiate outcomes on a go-forward basis?

Christopher Forsythe: Yes. We’re aware of some filings that are out there kind of looking at that opportunity. We’re looking at those right now and seeing at that, would make — potentially makes sense for us. But we’re aware of what others are trying to do at this point in time.

Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Dan Meziere for some closing remarks.

Daniel Meziere: We appreciate your interest in Atmos Energy, and thank you again for joining us this morning. A recording of this call is available for replay on our website through December 31. Have a great day.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. You may disconnect.

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