The Company follows authoritative guidance regarding lease accounting, which requires entities that lease the use of property, plant and equipment to recognize on the balance sheet the assets and liabilities for the rights and obligations created by all leases, including leases classified as operating leases. The Company has elected to apply the following practical expedients provided in the authoritative guidance:

1.An election not to apply the recognition requirements in the new authoritative guidance to short-term leases (a lease that at commencement date has a lease term of one year or less);

The Company primarily leases building space and drilling rigs, and on a limited basis, compressor equipment and other miscellaneous assets. The Company determines if an arrangement is a lease at the inception of the arrangement. To the extent that an arrangement represents a lease, the Company classifies that lease as an operating or a finance lease in accordance with the authoritative guidance. The Company did not have any material finance leases as of September 30, 2023 or September 30, 2022. Aside from a sublease of office space at the Company’s corporate headquarters, which terminated April 30, 2022, the Company does not have any material arrangements where the Company is the lessor.

The Company enters into building and property rental agreements with third parties for office space, certain field locations and other properties used in the Company’s operations. Building and property leases include the Company’s corporate headquarters in Williamsville, New York, and Exploration and Production segment offices in Houston, Texas, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The primary non-cancelable terms of the Company’s building and property leases range from one month to sixteen years. Most building leases include one or more options to renew, generally at the Company’s sole discretion, with renewal terms that can extend the lease terms from one year to eighteen years. Renewal options are included in the lease term if they are reasonably certain to be exercised. The agreements do not contain any material restrictive covenants.

The Company enters into contracts for drilling rig services with third party contractors to support Seneca’s development activities in Pennsylvania. Seneca’s drilling rig arrangements are structured with a non-cancelable primary term of one year or less. Upon mutual agreement with the contractor, Seneca has the option to extend contracts with amended terms and conditions, including a renegotiated day rate fee.

The Company enters into contracts for compressor services with third parties primarily to support its gathering system in Pennsylvania. The primary non-cancelable terms of the Company's compressor equipment leases range from 9 months to 5 years. Most compressor equipment leases include one or more options to renew or to continue past the primary term on a month-to-month basis, generally at the Company's sole discretion. Renewal options are included in the lease term if they are reasonably certain to be exercised.

The Company uses judgment when determining whether or not an arrangement is or contains a lease. A contract is or contains a lease if the contract conveys the right to use an explicitly or implicitly identified asset that is physically distinct and the Company has the right to control the use of the identified asset for a period of time. When determining right of control, the Company evaluates whether it directs the use of the asset and obtains substantially all of the economic benefits from the use of the asset.

The Company uses a discount rate to calculate the present value of lease payments in order to determine lease classification and measurement of the lease asset and liability. In the absence of a rate of interest that is readily determinable in the contract, the Company estimates the incremental borrowing rate (IBR) for each lease. The IBR reflects the rate of interest that the Company would pay on the lease commencement date to borrow an amount equal to the lease payments on a collateralized basis over a similar term in similar economic environments.

The Company’s subsidiaries enter into long-term arrangements to both reserve firm transportation capacity on third party pipelines and provide firm transportation and storage services to third party shippers. The Company’s firm capacity contracts with third party shippers do not provide rights to use substantially all of the underlying pipeline or storage asset. As such, the Company has concluded that these arrangements are not leases under the authoritative guidance.

The authoritative guidance does not apply to leases to explore for or use natural gas resources, including the right to explore for those resources and rights to use the land in which those resources are contained. As such, the Company has concluded that its gas exploration and production leases and gas storage leases are not leases under the authoritative guidance.

Operating lease costs, excluding those relating to drilling rig leases that are capitalized as part of oil and natural gas properties under the full cost method of accounting as well as certain equipment leases related to construction projects, are presented in Operations and Maintenance expense on the Consolidated Statement of Income. The following table summarizes the components of the Company’s total operating lease costs (in thousands):


	Year Ended September 30
	2023		2022
Operating Lease Expense	$	7,484	$	4,909
Variable Lease Expense(1)	507		462
Short-Term Lease Expense(2)	1,694		461
Sublease Income	—		(166)
Total Lease Expense	$	9,685	$	5,666

Lease Costs Recorded to Property, Plant and Equipment(3)	$	24,018	$	19,839

(3)Lease costs relating to drilling rig leases that are capitalized as part of oil and natural gas properties under full cost pool accounting as well as certain equipment leases used on construction projects.

Right-of-use assets and lease liabilities are recognized at the commencement date of a leasing arrangement based on the present value of lease payments over the lease term. The weighted average remaining lease term was 6.1 years and 6.0 years as of September 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The weighted average discount rate was 5.48% and 3.92% as of September 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

The Company’s right-of-use operating lease assets are reflected as Deferred Charges on the Consolidated Balance Sheet. The corresponding operating lease liabilities are reflected in Other Accruals and Current Liabilities (current) and Other Liabilities (noncurrent). Short-term leases that have a lease term of one year or less are not recorded on the Consolidated Balance Sheet.


	Year Ended September 30
	2023		2022
Assets:
Deferred Charges	$	39,664	$	37,120

Liabilities:
Other Accruals and Current Liabilities	$	9,969	$	14,239
Other Liabilities	$	29,510	$	22,881

Cash paid for lease liabilities, reported in cash provided by operating activities on the Company’s Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows, was $9.7 million and $5.7 million for the years ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The Company did not record any right-of-use assets in exchange for new lease liabilities during the years ended September 30, 2023 or 2022.

The following schedule of operating lease liability maturities summarizes the undiscounted lease payments owed by the Company to lessors pursuant to contractual agreements in effect as of September 30, 2023 (in thousands):


	At September 30, 2023
2024	$	10,187
2025	8,791
2026	6,557
2027	5,809
2028	5,195
Thereafter	9,971
Total Lease Payments	46,510
Less: Interest	(7,031)
Total Lease Liability	$	39,479