CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) today announced an agreement with Progress Energy Carolinas (NYSE: PGN) to provide natural gas delivery service to the electric utility's recently announced state-of-the-art power generation facility to be built at Progress Energy Carolinas' Wayne County, N.C., energy complex. The plans call for Piedmont to construct 38-miles of 20-inch pipeline along with additional compression facilities to provide natural gas delivery service to the plant by July, 2012. Piedmont's investment in the pipeline and compression facilities is estimated at $85 million and is supported by a long-term service agreement with Progress Energy Carolinas.

Progress Energy Carolinas announced its plan for the new power plant August 18. The plan includes retiring three existing coal-fired units at the adjacent H.F. Lee Plant in Wayne County once the new gas-fueled units come online. Progress Energy Carolinas expects the new combined-cycle natural gas plant to increase the amount of electricity produced at the site while reducing overall emission rates for carbon dioxide by an estimated 60 percent, mercury rates by 100 percent, sulfur-dioxides by nearly 100 percent and nitrogen oxides by more than 95 percent.

Piedmont Natural Gas Chairman, President and CEO, Thomas E. Skains commented on the agreement, "We're excited about this opportunity to work with Progress to deliver clean and efficient natural gas to their new power generation facility. In addition to the environmental benefits associated with using natural gas at this new plant, the construction of the natural gas pipeline for this project will also add to our natural gas infrastructure in the eastern part of North Carolina and enhance future opportunities for additional economic growth and development."

Progress Energy Carolinas CEO and President, Lloyd Yates said, "We are pleased that our project is moving forward and that it will be the catalyst for extending natural gas supply more deeply into Eastern North Carolina. This is an important milestone for our customers and our company, as we bring a cleaner electricity generation technology to the region."

Forward Looking Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and information currently available and are believed to be reasonable and are made in good faith. However, the forward-looking statements are subject to future events, risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the statements. Factors that may make the actual results differ from anticipated results include, but are not limited to, rate of customer growth, new legislation and regulations and application of existing laws and regulations, economic and capital market conditions, the cost and availability of labor and materials and other uncertainties, all of which are difficult to predict and some of which are beyond our control. For these reasons, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements when making investment decisions. The words "expect," "believe," "project," "anticipate," "intend," "should," "could," "will," "assume," "can," "estimate," "forecast," "future," "indicate," "outlook," "plan," "predict," "seek," "target," "would," and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are only as of the date they are made and we do not undertake any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement, either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. More information about the risks and uncertainties relating to these forward-looking statements may be found in Piedmont's latest Forms 10-K and 10-Q, which are available on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov.

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 and industrial utility customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, including 61,000 customers served by municipalities who are wholesale customers. Our subsidiaries are invested in joint venture, energy-related businesses, including unregulated retail natural gas marketing, interstate natural gas storage and intrastate natural gas transportation. Additional information about Piedmont is available on the Internet at http://www.piedmontng.com.

SOURCE Piedmont Natural Gas