AGL Resources Begins Commercial Operation of New Natural Gas Storage Cavern in Texas

ATLANTA, Sept. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- AGL Resources (NYSE: AGL) today announced that the first natural gas storage cavern at its Golden Triangle Storage facility near Beaumont, Texas, has entered initial commercial operations. GTS anticipates commencement of full commercial service for approximately 6 billion cubic feet of working gas capacity upon completion of dewatering in December.

"Today – after two years of construction and cavern creation -- we began injecting natural gas into Cavern 1 for our customers," said Dana Grams, president of Pivotal Energy Development, a business unit of AGL Resources. "At the same time, we are on schedule to bring Cavern 2 into service early in 2012."

Construction of the surface facilities began in May 2008. Solution mining began in February 2009 and involved injection and removal of water from the well drilled nearly one mile deep into the salt of the famed Spindletop Dome – site of the world's first oil gusher. During the next 15 months, the water dissolved a cylindrical-shaped cavern in the salt tall enough to contain the Empire State Building.

Pivotal Energy Development is using the same process of solution mining, or leaching, to create Cavern 2. When the second cavern is completed, it is expected that the facility will be able to store enough natural gas to supply 250,000 households for one year – approximately 12 billion cubic feet of working gas capacity.

Cavern operations are supported by a 14,025-horsepower compressor system and dual 24-inch pipeline header interconnected to six measurement stations in Jefferson and Orange counties in Texas. The header and interconnect stations are bi-directional for injection and withdrawal by customers using the facility.

Grams emphasized the important role of storage caverns in the nation's energy infrastructure.

"Natural gas is becoming an increasingly important fuel as the United States looks for ways to balance our growing energy needs and a desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts," Grams said.

"The caverns at Golden Triangle Storage, along with the planned expansion of our facility at Jefferson Island in Louisiana, are vital infrastructure projects that will help our company ensure that Americans enjoy the benefits of clean-burning and domestically abundant natural gas for years to come," Grams said.

About AGL Resources

AGL Resources (NYSE: AGL), an Atlanta-based energy services company, serves approximately 2.3 million customers in six states. The company also owns Houston-based Sequent Energy Management, an asset manager serving natural gas wholesale customers throughout North America. As an 85-percent owner in the SouthStar partnership, AGL Resources markets natural gas to consumers in Georgia under the Georgia Natural Gas brand. The company also owns and operates two high-deliverability natural gas storage facilities: Jefferson Island Storage & Hub near the Henry Hub in Louisiana and Golden Triangle Storage in Texas. For more information, visit www.aglresources.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain expectations and projections regarding our future performance referenced in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve matters that are not historical facts, such as statements regarding our future operations, prospects, strategies, financial condition, economic performance (including growth and earnings), industry conditions and demand for our products and services. Because these statements involve anticipated events or conditions, forward-looking statements often include words such as "anticipate," "assume," "believe," "can," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "future," "goal," "indicate," "intend," "may," "outlook," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "seek," "should," "target," "would," or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include, without limitation, the statements regarding the anticipated completion dates of natural gas storage caverns, their expected capacity and their expected contribution to AGL Resources' operations. Our expectations are not guarantees and are based on currently available competitive, financial and economic data along with our operating plans. While we believe our expectations are reasonable in view of the currently available information, our expectations are subject to future events, risks and uncertainties, and there are several factors -- many beyond our control -- that could cause results to differ significantly from our expectations.

Such events, risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, changes in price, supply and demand for natural gas and related products; the impact of changes in state and federal legislation and regulation; the impact on cost and timeliness of construction projects by government and other approvals, development project delays, unexpected change in project costs, including the cost of funds to finance these projects; general economic conditions; the impact of natural disasters such as hurricanes on the supply and price of natural gas; acts of war or terrorism; and other factors which are provided in detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which we incorporate by reference in this press release. Forward-looking statements are only as of the date they are made, and we do not undertake to update these statements to reflect subsequent changes.

SOURCE AGL Resources