Richmond, VA-based Dominion said it is conducting an open season in the first quarter of 2002 to seek customers for high deliverability storage service from its Hackberry storage facility in southwest Louisiana. Dominion said it plans to construct compressor facilities and natural gas pipelines to connect Hackberry’s existing salt caverns to several interstate pipelines in the area that carry supplies to the major U.S. markets.

“Dominion, the largest storage operator in North America with almost one trillion cubic feet of capacity, is enhancing its existing asset base by providing daily, even hourly, injection and withdrawal capability at Hackberry,” said Thomas E. Capps, CEO of Dominion. “This high deliverability storage service will meet the needs of power generators in and around the Midwest-Northeast-Mid-Atlantic quadrant of the U.S. that we serve.”

The existing caverns will have a total capacity of about 17 Bcf of natural gas and will deliver up to 800 MMcf/d. Dominion said additional caverns on the site could be developed in the future. Dominion expects to file an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by mid-2002 to ensure an in-service date in 2004.

The gas storage facility will be operated by Dominion Transmission Inc., Dominion’s natural gas transmission and storage subsidiary headquartered in Clarksburg, WV.

For additional information, contact Joe Kienle, director of business development, at (804) 819-2114.

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