NW Natural Reports on 2014 Results at Annual Meeting of Shareholders

PORTLAND, OR--(Marketwired - May 28, 2015) - Northwest Natural Gas Company, dba NW Natural (NYSE: NWN) today reported on its 2014 results.

"In 2014, we continued to operate safely, reliably, and efficiently while advancing several important longer-term priorities," said Gregg Kantor, President and CEO. "Our utility delivered solid margin growth, bare steel removal efforts left us with just three remaining miles system-wide, the company's annual customer growth rate increased for the third year in a row, and we advanced a potential expansion of Mist, our underground storage facility. Finally, we once again won honors in the J.D. Power Gas Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Survey."

2014 highlights reported on at the meeting included:

• Reported net income of $59 million or $2.16 per share, compared to $61 million or $2.24 per share in 2013.
• Earned the highest customer satisfaction score among large utilities in the West in the 2014 J.D. Power Gas Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study.
• Increased our investment in gas reserves, bringing the total amount invested since 2011 to $188 million.
• Received insurance settlements totaling $103 million in 2014, which brought cumulative recoveries for environmental costs to approximately $150 million.
• Increased our annual customer growth rate to 1.4 percent, adding our 700,000th customer.
• Leveraged our new online customer portal, converting to natural gas 25 percent of those consumers that inquired about gas availability through the online tool.
• Launched enhancements to the portal, providing new self-service features for builders and contractors, and automating new construction and conversion work orders.

As a final highlight, the company noted it has increased dividends paid on common stock for 59 consecutive years, one of the longest dividend increase records of any company on the NYSE. The company's current annual indicated dividend rate is $1.86 per share.