Piedmont Natural Gas Increases Dividend for 33rd Consecutive Year

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Mar 04, 2011, 12:04 ET

CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) today approved an increase in the Company's dividend for the 33rd consecutive year. At its regularly scheduled meeting, the Board declared a quarterly dividend on Common Stock of 29 cents per share, a 3.6 percent increase over the previous quarterly dividend of 28 cents per share. The increased dividend is payable April 15, 2011, to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 25, 2011. Also, at today's Annual Meeting of Shareholders, four members of the Board of Directors were re-elected: Malcolm E. Everett III, Frank B. Holding, Jr., Minor M. Shaw, and Muriel W. Sheubrooks.

At today's meeting, Piedmont Chairman, President and CEO, Thomas E. Skains, announced the retirement of Jerry W. Amos from the Board of Directors pursuant to the Company's director retirement policy. Mr. Amos had been a member of Piedmont's Board since 1978. Mr. Amos began representing Piedmont in 1964 as outside counsel and later became the Company's general counsel in 1973, a position he held until 2003. Commenting on Mr. Amos' retirement, Mr. Skains said, "Jerry Amos has provided the Company and its shareholders with 33 years of dedicated service on our Board of Directors and 47 total years of service to the Company in a variety of important capacities. He has always served with distinction and integrity. On behalf of our Board and all of our employees, I wish him the very best in his retirement."

Conference Call

Piedmont Natural Gas will conduct its 2011 first quarter conference call, broadcast live over the internet on Monday, March 14, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Hosting the conference call will be Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas E. Skains. Simply log on to the web at www.piedmontng.com and click on Investors, then on Presentations. The conference call will be archived on the website.

About Piedmont Natural Gas

Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) 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 52,000 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. More information about Piedmont Natural Gas is available on the internet at http://www.piedmontng.com.

SOURCE Piedmont Natural Gas