RICHMOND, Va., Sept. 2, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Four major
U.S. energy companies – Dominion (NYSE: D), Duke Energy (NYSE:
DUK), Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) and AGL Resources (NYSE:
GAS) – announced today the formation of a joint venture to build
and own the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The $4.5 billion to $5 billion, 550-mile natural gas
pipeline would run from Harrison County,
W. Va., southeast through Virginia with an extension to Chesapeake, Va., and then south through
central North Carolina to
Robeson County.
The partnership, called Atlantic Coast Pipeline LLC, will own
the pipeline initially proposed by Dominion as the Southeast
Reliability Project. It is designed in part to meet the needs
identified in requests for proposals last April by Duke Energy and
Piedmont, and in June by Virginia
Power Services Energy. It would deliver natural gas supplies to
growing markets for additional customers in Virginia and North
Carolina. The pipeline would provide a new route for direct
access to the burgeoning production in the Marcellus and
Utica shale basins of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The chief executives of the four sponsoring companies –
Thomas F. Farrell II of Dominion,
Lynn J. Good of Duke Energy,
Thomas E. Skains of Piedmont Natural
Gas and John W. Somerhalder II of
AGL Resources – issued the following joint statement:
"The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a transformational project for
our region. It will create thousands of construction jobs during
development and significant new revenue for state and local
governments throughout North
Carolina, Virginia and
West Virginia. The expanded source
of gas will also help fuel economic development across the region
as businesses and homes rely more on natural gas.
"Natural gas is increasingly important for advanced electricity
generation, contributing to significantly lower greenhouse gas and
other emissions. The project will also provide more reliable access
to new sources of natural gas, keeping consumers' energy costs down
– even during the coldest and hottest weather."
Dominion is to build and operate the Atlantic Coast Pipeline on
behalf of the venture. With more than 100 years of service,
Dominion is one of the nation's most-experienced operators of
natural gas pipelines. It operates nearly 8,000 miles of interstate
pipeline in six states as well as one of the nation's largest
natural gas storage systems.
The joint venture ownership stakes are: Dominion, 45 percent;
Duke Energy, 40 percent; Piedmont,
10 percent; and AGL Resources, 5 percent. Subsidiaries and
affiliates of all four joint venture partners plan to be customers
of the pipeline under 20-year contracts, pending regulatory
approvals. PSNC Energy also plans to be a customer of the pipeline
under a 20-year contract, pending regulatory approvals.
Dominion has begun surveying to determine the best route, one
that meets operational and reliability needs while minimizing the
impact on the environment as well as historical and cultural
resources. The company plans to make a pre-filing request with the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) this fall on behalf of
Atlantic Coast Pipeline. It expects to file its FERC application in
the summer of 2015, receive the FERC Certificate of Public
Convenience and Necessity in the summer of 2016, and begin
construction shortly thereafter.
The extensive FERC review process solicits input from numerous
local, state and federal entities, and private citizens. Public
safety, air quality, water resources, geology, soils, wildlife and
vegetation, threatened and endangered species, land and visual
resources, cultural and historic resources, noise, cumulative
impacts and reasonable alternatives are fully examined.
The main pipeline would have a 42-inch diameter in West Virginia and Virginia, reducing to 36 inches in diameter in
North Carolina.
In announcing their request for proposals, Duke Energy noted
increasing reliance on natural gas to generate electricity, and
Piedmont cited growing customer
demand. Currently, North Carolina
is served primarily by a single major wholesale interstate natural
gas pipeline that runs through the western portion of the state. A
related joint news release is available from Duke Energy at
http://www.duke-energy.com/news and Piedmont at
piedmontng.com/about/aboutpng/medialibrary/pressreleases.aspx.
Virginia has limited access to
supplies from the Marcellus and Utica shales and has a need for increased
infrastructure to support growing demand for natural gas-fired
generation, and to add supply diversity for reliability and price
stability.
More information about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is available
on the web at dom.com/acpipeline and on Facebook at
DominionAtlanticCoastPipeline .
About Dominion
Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers and
transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 23,600
megawatts of generation, 10,900 miles of natural gas transmission,
gathering and storage pipeline, and 6,400 miles of electric
transmission lines. Dominion operates one of the nation's largest
natural gas storage systems with 947 billion cubic feet of storage
capacity and serves utility and retail energy customers in 10
states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's
website at www.dom.com.
About Duke Energy
Duke Energy is the largest electric power holding company in
the United States with
approximately $115 billion in total
assets. Its regulated utility operations serve approximately 7.2
million electric customers located in six states in the Southeast
and Midwest. Its commercial power and international energy business
segments own and operate diverse power generation assets in
North America and Latin America, including a growing portfolio
of renewable energy assets in the United
States. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is a Fortune 250
company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK.
More information about the company is available at:
www.duke-energy.com.
About Piedmont Natural Gas
Piedmont Natural Gas is an energy services company primarily
engaged in the distribution of natural gas to more than one million
residential, commercial, industrial and power generation utility
customers in portions of North
Carolina, South Carolina
and Tennessee, including customers
served by municipalities who are wholesale customers. Our
subsidiaries are invested in joint venture, energy-related
businesses, including unregulated retail natural gas marketing, and
regulated interstate natural gas transportation and storage, and
regulated intrastate natural gas transportation businesses. More
information about Piedmont Natural Gas is available on the Internet
at http://www.piedmontng.com/.
About AGL Resources
AGL Resources is an Atlanta-based energy services holding company
with operations in natural gas distribution, retail operations,
wholesale services and midstream operations. AGL Resources serves
approximately 4.5 million utility customers through its regulated
distribution subsidiaries in seven states. The company also serves
approximately 630,000 retail energy customers and approximately 1.2
million customer service contracts through its SouthStar Energy
Services joint venture and Pivotal Home Solutions, which market
natural gas and related home services. Other non-utility businesses
include asset management for natural gas wholesale customers
through Sequent Energy Management and ownership and operation of
natural gas storage facilities. AGL Resources is a member of the
S&P 500 Index. For more information, visit
www.aglresources.com.
This news release includes certain "forward-looking
information." Examples include information as to our expectations,
beliefs, plans, goals, objectives and future financial or other
performance or assumptions concerning matters discussed in this
release. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from
those in the forward-looking statements may accompany the
statements themselves. In addition, our business is
influenced by many factors that are difficult to predict, involve
uncertainties that may materially affect actual results and are
often beyond our ability to control or estimate precisely, such as
estimates of future market conditions, access to and costs of
capital, the receipt of regulatory approvals for, and timing of,
planned projects and compliance with conditions associated with
such regulatory approvals, and the ability to complete planned
construction or expansion projects within the terms and timeframes
initially anticipated. We have identified and will in the future
identify a number of these factors in our SEC Reports on Forms 10-K
and 10-Q. We refer you to those discussions for further
information. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of
the date on which it is made, and we undertake no obligation to
update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or
circumstances after the date on which it is made.
SOURCE Dominion