Primarily a natural gas distributor, the company services residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Western Oregon and Southwest Washington in the Pacific Northwest.

[4] They also operated as agents for Pacific Mail Steamship Company and exported goods to the Hawaiian Islands and Asia.

[4] Green died in 1885, and Leonard sold the Portland Water Company franchise to the city in December 1886.

[10][11] Due to issues including the bankruptcy of PGE parent Enron, the proposed merger was abandoned in May 2002.

[10] For a fifth straight year Business Ethics magazine named NW Natural to its list of 100 Best Corporate Citizens, ranking 47th.

[12] In 2003, the board of directors announced the creation of a charitable fund at the Oregon Community Foundation to honor retiring CEO Richard G. Reiten.

[14] In 2005, the company began removing tar from the site of a former plant that had polluted the Willamette River[15] and were later fined for actions related to that clean-up.

It serves customers along the Oregon Coast, in the Willamette Valley, the Columbia River Gorge, and the Portland metropolitan area.

[22] These former wells allow the company to purchase the gas when prices are lower and store until needed during peak consumption times during the winter.