At Seneca, production for the quarter was up nearly 20% over last year.
Our team has done a great job cracking the code on our Utica development program, both in the WDA and at Tract 007 in Tioga County.
It's also worth highlighting our California oil production, which was up about 5% over last year on the strength of our recent Pioneer and 17N development programs at Midway Sunset.
Lower Natural Gas prices are obviously a concern.
Having said that, as you can see in last night's release, we're raising the midpoint of our gathering capital spending guidance for the year by $10 million.
It is expected to add roughly $5 million to $10 million per year in third-party revenues starting in fiscal 2021.
Utility segment continues to perform well with earnings up $0.01 a share over last year.
For the calendar year, our modernization program replaced over 150 miles of older distribution pipeline, including 113 miles in New York where we have a regulatory tracking mechanism that provides us with timely recovery of this rate base investment.
We expect winter heating bills will be more than 10% lower than last year.
The Empire North and FM100 projects will add combined $60 million in incremental annual revenue over the next few years.
We produced 58.4 Bcfe, an increase of around 19% compared to last year's first quarter, and a slight decrease quarter-over-quarter.
We are lowering our fiscal '20 capex guidance around $42 million or 10% at the midpoint to now range between $375 million to $410 million.
This reflects approximately $100 million reduction or 20% in Seneca's expected fiscal '20 capital expenditures versus 2019 levels.
We still expect to see increased production in our second quarter as we turned in line 12 wells in late January and expect to turn in line another six wells later next month.
We have approximately 102 Bcf or 60% of our remaining fiscal '20 East Division gas production locked in physically and financially at a realized price of $2.28 per Mcf.
We have another 43 Bcf of firm sales providing basis protection to over 85% of our remaining forecasted gas production that's already sold.
In California, we produced around 6,000 barrels of oil during the first quarter, an increase of around 5% over last year's first quarter.
These properties are now producing around 800 barrels a day.
And finally, over 70% of our oil production for the remainder of the year is hedged at an average price of around $62 per barrel.
National Fuel's first quarter operating results were $1.01 per share, down $0.11 per share quarter-over-quarter.
Lower natural gas price realizations were the largest driver of the decrease.
Looking to the remainder of the year, our earnings guidance has been revised downward to a range of $2.95 per share to $3.15 per share, a decrease of $0.10 at the midpoint.
This is primarily related to the reduction in our natural gas price outlook, which now reflects a $2.05 per MMBtu NYMEX price and $1.70 per MMBtu Appalachian spot price assumptions for the remainder of the year.
The remainder of our major guidance assumptions are unchanged.
The $0.10 change in NYMEX pricing would change earnings by $0.04 per share, a $0.10 change in spot pricing would impact earnings by $0.02 per share, and a $5 change in WTI oil pricing would also impact earnings by $0.02 per share.
On the capital side, taking into account our reduced activity level, our new consolidated guidance is in the range of $695 million to $785 million, a decrease of approximately $33 million at the midpoint.
Adding our dividend, we expect a financing need of approximately $150 million for the full year.
We started the year with nearly $700 million of liquidity available under our revolving credit facility, and we plan to use that as the first source of financing.

Summary:
Lower Natural Gas prices are obviously a concern.
Lower natural gas price realizations were the largest driver of the decrease.
Looking to the remainder of the year, our earnings guidance has been revised downward to a range of $2.95 per share to $3.15 per share, a decrease of $0.10 at the midpoint.
The remainder of our major guidance assumptions are unchanged.