Spectra Energy Honors Exemplary Employees with Summit Awards, Recipients Recognized for Exhibiting Pinnacle Examples of Company's Core Values

HOUSTON, May 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Spectra Energy Corp (NYSE: SE) has selected recipients of its 2012 Summit Awards, an annual awards program established to recognize extraordinary individual and team accomplishments by Spectra Energy employees and contractors who have gone beyond the call of duty.

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Nominated by colleagues and selected by a committee of peers, award recipients must clearly demonstrate more than success or achievement; their efforts must epitomize Spectra Energy's values of stewardship, integrity, respect, high performance, safety, win-win relationships and initiative.

"The Summit Awards are the company's highest honor bestowed upon deserving employees and contractors who live our values every day. It's because of these men and women, and their ongoing efforts, that Spectra Energy continually earns the respect of shareholders, customers, peers and communities," said Greg Ebel, president and chief executive officer, Spectra Energy.

The 2012 Recipients:

New England Cottontail Habitat Restoration Team

Employees at Spectra Energy's Eliot Compressor Station in Eliot, Maine, converted an empty field next to the station into a habitat for the endangered New England Cottontail. New England Cottontails are small brown rabbits that only live in the northeastern region from New York to Maine and have declined by over 80 percent during the past 50 years, primarily due to loss of habitat. They rely on dense, young forest and shrubs, sometimes called "thickets," to survive.

The Eliot Compressor Station employees collaborated with an environmental consultant, the State of Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. They performed a wildlife inventory, noting 28 species of plants, 27 types of birds, three mammals, eight invertebrates and two amphibians, as well as native and invasive plants. After the assessment, station employees planted 575 native plants and created thick, brushy habitats with the waste branches from the invasive plants they had eradicated. These activities will help not only the New England Cottontail, but also many birds, pollinators and other declining wildlife species.

Station employees received a letter of commendation from the Department of the Interior, which recognized their restoration and conservation efforts.

Members of the New England Cottontail Habitat Restoration Team

Union Gas Emergency Response F3 Tornado Team

On Sunday, August 21, an F3 tornado with winds of 185 miles per hour struck Goderich, Ontario, a small community of about 7,000 residents. The storm injured 40 people, caused one fatality, and knocked out gas service to more than 3,000 Union Gas customers. Union Gas, a major Canadian natural gas storage, transmission and distribution company based in Ontario, is a Spectra Energy subsidiary.

Union Gas employees activated the company's Emergency Response Plan and based on an initial assessment of the situation, quickly determined that the safest option was to turn off gas service to the entire town. They divided the town into 16 prioritized sectors. In close coordination with other emergency responders, including the fire department, power companies and public works, Union Gas set about making systematic repairs, one sector at a time.

Union Gas' Emergency Response Plan remained activated for 11 days, a company record. Crews worked round-the-clock, even going from home-to-home to safely relight appliances once gas service was restored.

After the event, Union Gas donated $10,000 to the Canadian Red Cross, which established an emergency shelter in Goderich, and matched employee donations to the organization. In addition, Union Gas donated $5,000 to the Salvation Army, which provided food to hungry residents and Union Gas employees after the storm. Members of the community sent numerous letters of thanks to Union Gas employees to express their gratitude and appreciation.

Members of the Union Gas Emergency Response F3 Tornado Team

In keeping with the company's commitment to the communities it serves, Summit Award recipients are presented with a $1,000 check to be donated to a non-profit organization of their choice. An awards luncheon honoring the 2012 recipients was held this week in Houston.

Spectra Energy Corp (NYSE: SE), a FORTUNE 500 company, is one of North America's premier natural gas infrastructure companies serving three key links in the natural gas value chain: gathering and processing, transmission and storage, and distribution. For more than a century, Spectra Energy and its predecessor companies have developed critically important pipelines and related infrastructure connecting natural gas supply sources to premium markets. Based in Houston, Texas, the company's operations in the United States and Canada include more than 19,000 miles of transmission pipeline, approximately 305 billion cubic feet of storage, as well as natural gas gathering and processing, natural gas liquids and local distribution operations. The company also has a 50 percent ownership in DCP Midstream, one of the largest natural gas gatherers and processors in the United States. Spectra Energy is a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability World and North America Indexes and the U.S. S&P 500 Carbon Disclosure Project's Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index. For more information, visit www.spectraenergy.com.

SOURCE Spectra Energy Corp