Segment Information

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2013

Segment Reporting [Abstract]

Segment Information [Text Block]

4. SEGMENT INFORMATION

We operate in two primary reportable business segments, local gas distribution and gas storage. We also have other investments and business activities not specifically related to one of these two reporting segments, which we aggregate and report as “other.” We refer to our local gas distribution business as the “utility,” and our “gas storage” and “other” business segments as “non-utility.” Our utility segment also includes NWN Gas Reserves, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Energy Corp, and the utility portion of our Mist underground storage facility in Oregon (Mist). Our gas storage segment includes NWN Gas Storage, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NWN Energy, Gill Ranch, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NWN Gas Storage, the non-utility portion of Mist, and all third-party asset management services. Our “other” segment includes NNG Financial and NWN Energy's equity investment in PGH, which is pursuing development of a cross-Cascades pipeline project. See Note 4 in our 2012 Form 10-K for further discussion of our segments.

The following table presents summary financial information concerning the reportable segments. Inter-segment transactions are insignificant:

	Three Months Ended September 30,
In thousands	Utility			Gas Storage		Other			Total
2013
Operating revenues	$	80,705		$	7,434	$	56		$	88,195
Depreciation and amortization	17,118			1,619		—			18,737
Income (loss) from operations	(7,293		)	3,556		(50		)	(3,787		)
Net income (loss)	(9,605		)	1,407		(35		)	(8,233		)
Capital expenditures	30,805			427		—			31,232
2012
Operating revenues	$	79,901		$	7,544	$	56		$	87,501
Depreciation and amortization	16,661			1,620		—			18,281
Income (loss) from operations	(8,439		)	3,624		19			(4,796		)
Net income (loss)	(12,174		)	1,255		40			(10,879		)
Capital expenditures	38,577			751		—			39,328

	Nine Months Ended September 30,
In thousands	Utility		Gas Storage		Other			Total
2013
Operating revenues	$	474,307	$	23,295	$	168		$	497,770
Depreciation and amortization	51,617		4,857		—			56,474
Income (loss) from operations	72,372		11,138		(8		)	83,502
Net income (loss)	27,083		4,495		(46		)	31,532
Capital expenditures	85,327		960		—			86,287
Total assets at September 30, 2013	2,502,688		287,317		15,908			2,805,913
2012
Operating revenues	$	478,744	$	22,219	$	168		$	501,131
Depreciation and amortization	49,477		4,853		—			54,330
Income from operations	76,072		9,567		70			85,709
Net income	27,424		3,185		23			30,632
Capital expenditures	99,019		1,861		—			100,880
Total assets at September 30, 2012	2,381,659		287,687		15,802			2,685,148
Total assets at December 31, 2012	$	2,505,655	$	291,568	$	15,897		$	2,813,120

Utility Margin

Utility margin is a financial measure consisting of utility operating revenues less revenue taxes and the associated cost of gas. Cost of gas purchased for utility customers is generally a pass-through cost in the amount of revenues billed to regulated utility customers. By netting costs of gas from utility operating revenues, utility margin provides a key metric used by our chief operating decision maker in assessing the performance of the utility segment. The following table presents additional segment information concerning utility margin. The gas storage and other segments emphasize growth in operating revenues and net income as opposed to margin because these segments do not incur commodity cost of sales like the utility and, therefore, use operating revenues and net income to assess performance.

	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
In thousands	2013		2012		2013		2012
Utility margin calculation:
Utility operating revenues	$	80,705	$	79,901	$	474,307	$	478,744
Less: Utility cost of gas	33,655		37,570		235,156		241,823
Utility margin	$	47,050	$	42,331	$	239,151	$	236,921