N@N

NW Natural Increases Dividend for 55th Consecutive Year

^{Published on 2010-10-04 04:10:59 - Market Wire}
 

PORTLAND, Ore.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--The Board of Directors of Northwest Natural Gas Company (NYSE:NWN), dba NW Natural, has increased the quarterly dividend on the company's common stock to 43.5 cents from 41.5 cents per share, an increase of 5 percent. The dividends will be paid Nov. 15, 2010, to shareholders of record on Oct. 29, 2010.

NW Natural will have paid $1.68 per share in dividends on its common stock in 2010, the 55th consecutive year in which the company's dividend payments have increased. The indicated annual dividend rate is now $1.74 per share.

About NW Natural

NW Natural is headquartered in Portland, Ore., and served more than 670,000 residential and business customers in Oregon and southwest Washington at the end of the company's second quarter on June 30th. The company has approximately $2.4 billion in total assets, which includes approximately 16 Bcf of underground gas storage capacity within its service territory at Mist, Ore., a 75 percent interest in the 20-Bcf capacity Gill Ranch Storage underground natural gas facility near Fresno, Calif., and a pipeline project in Oregon. As noted, NW Natural has increased its dividends paid on common stock for 55 consecutive years, one of only a handful of public companies to achieve this mark.