DEBT

6 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2018

9. DEBT

NJR and NJNG finance working capital requirements and capital expenditures through various short-term debt and long-term financing arrangements, including a commercial paper program, committed unsecured credit facilities and private placement debt shelf facilities.

Credit Facilities

A summary of NJR's credit facility and NJNG's commercial paper program and credit facility are as follows:



(Thousands)	March 31, 2018			September 30, 2017			Expiration Dates
NJR
Bank revolving credit facilities⁽¹⁾	$	425,000		$	425,000		September 2020
Notes outstanding at end of period	$	150,900		$	255,000
Weighted average interest rate at end of period	2.60		%	2.14		%
Amount available at end of period ⁽²⁾	$	263,326		$	156,601
Bank revolving credit facilities⁽¹⁾	$	100,000		$	—		April 2018
Amount available at end of period	$	100,000		$	—
NJNG
Bank revolving credit facilities ⁽¹⁾	$	250,000		$	250,000		May 2019
Commercial paper outstanding at end of period	$	—		$	11,000
Weighted average interest rate at end of period	—		%	1.13		%
Amount available at end of period ⁽³⁾	$	249,269		$	238,269


(1)	Committed credit facilities, which require commitment fees on the unused amounts.


(2)	Letters of credit outstanding total $10.8 million and $13.4 million for March 31, 2018 and September 30, 2017, respectively, which reduces amount available by the same amount.


(3)	Letters of credit outstanding total $731,000 for both March 31, 2018 and September 30, 2017, which reduces the amount available by the same amount.

On December 14, 2017, NJR entered into a four-month, $75 million revolving line of credit facility. On January 19, 2018, NJR amended the agreement to increase the available amount to $100 million. As of March 31, 2018, there were no borrowings against the facility. This facility expired on April 14, 2018.

Amounts available under credit facilities are reduced by bank or commercial paper borrowings, as applicable, and any outstanding letters of credit. Neither NJNG nor the results of its operations are obligated or pledged to support the NJR credit or debt shelf facilities.

Long-term Debt

NJNG

NJNG received $7.8 million and $9.6 million in December 2017 and 2016, respectively, in connection with the sale-leaseback of its natural gas meters. NJNG records a capital lease obligation that is paid over the term of the lease and has the option to purchase the meters back at fair value upon expiration of the lease. NJNG exercised early purchase options with respect to certain outstanding meter leases by making final principal payments of $1.1 million and $1 million during the six months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively.

In June 2015, NJNG entered into a treasury lock transaction to fix a benchmark treasury rate of 3.26 percent associated with the $125 million debt issuance expected in May 2018. This debt issuance coincides with the maturity of NJNG's existing $125 million, 5.6 percent notes due May 15, 2018. This treasury lock was settled on March 13, 2018. The resulting $2.6 million loss is recorded as a component of regulatory assets on the Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets and will be amortized in earnings over the life of the May 2018 debt issuance.

NJR

On January 26, 2018, NJR entered into a variable-for-fixed interest rate swap on NJR's existing $100 million variable rate term loan due August 16, 2019, which fixed the variable rate at 2.84 percent.