Dominion News Releases

June 1, 2001

Dominion Exploration & Production, Inc. Announces Rocky Mountain Exploration Agreement with Northern Ute Tribe

HOUSTON, TX. – Dominion Exploration & Production, Inc., a subsidiary of Dominion (NYSE: D), announced today that it has entered into an agreement with the Northern Ute Partners LLC to explore for natural gas and oil in the Naval Oil Shale Reserve No. 2 (NOSR-2).

NOSR-2 is an area of approximately 83,000 contiguous acres in Utah located within the boundaries of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation of the Ute Indian Tribe (the "Northern Ute Tribe"). Dominion will be the operator of the project with a 50 percent interest.

Dominion Exploration & Production, Inc., formerly CNG Producing Company, is a longtime oil and gas operator in the Uinta Basin. Dominion has substantial acreage holdings there as well as other major geologic basins in the U.S. and Canada.

Northern Ute Partners LLC, whose members include the Northern Ute Tribe, Red Willow Production Company (the natural gas and oil operating company of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe), Contango Oil & Gas Company and a major financial institution, hold the remaining 50 percent of the exploration and development rights to NOSR-2.

The federal government reserved the NOSR-2 lands in 1916 as a strategic hydrocarbon reserve. There has been no exploration activity conducted in the area due to the federal government’s restrictions on the lands. The lands were transferred to the Northern Ute Tribe in January 2001 through legislation enacted by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in 2000.

The Northern Ute Tribe has historically played a passive role in the development of energy resources on its Reservation. The Tribe has taken this opportunity to assume an active role in the exploration for new energy resources by forming an exploration and development consortium to participate with Dominion in the acquisition of seismic data and the drilling of test wells on the lands over the next two years, with development to follow any successful discoveries.

According to Jerry Schuyler, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Dominion Exploration & Production, Inc.’s Onshore Business Unit, the Uinta Basin is one of Dominion’s core producing areas. Schuyler stated, "Dominion has an established track record of success in our exploration and development operations in the Uinta Basin. We are continuing to expand our extensive infrastructure in the area to drill more wells and to move more gas out of the basin. We are pleased to have the opportunity to work directly with the Northern Ute Tribe to explore for new reserves in this area."

Dominion, headquartered in Richmond, Va., is one of the nation’s largest producers of energy, with a production capability of 2.7 trillion British thermal units of energy per day. The company has a power generation portfolio of more than 21,000 megawatts, which is expected to grow to approximately 28,000 megawatts by 2005. Dominion is one of the largest independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in North America, with 2.8 trillion cubic feet of equivalent reserves. The company has 7,600 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline and a delivery capability of 6.3 billion cubic feet per day. In addition, the company operates the nation’s largest underground natural gas storage system, with over 950 billion cubic feet of storage capacity. Dominion serves nearly 4 million retail natural gas and electric customers. Dominion also has a managing equity interest in Dominion Fiber Ventures LLC, owner of Dominion Telecom. Dominion Telecom is expanding its fiber-optic network from 35,000 fiber miles (3,600 route miles) to more than 800,000 fiber miles (9,000 route miles). For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com.

###