Gas News Release

December 10, 2001

Dominion East Ohio Secures Sufficient Winter Fuel Supplies; Lower National Gas Prices Point Toward Lower Bills

CLEVELAND, OH -- Dominion East Ohio expects to deliver sufficient natural gas supplies -- at significantly lower cost – to customers during the 2001-2002 winter heating season. Company officials note that natural gas costs have fallen significantly from last winter, when tight supplies and record cold temperatures forced national market prices to historically high levels.

Dominion East Ohio has filled its storage reservoirs in preparation for the heating season, so customers can set their thermostats with confidence this December and in January 2002. In addition to plentiful, reliable supplies of natural gas for heating, Dominion East Ohio customers can also count on paying 25 percent less for that gas than they paid during the same period a year ago. Under a gas cost recovery (GCR) decrease filed in October with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), Dominion East Ohio sales customers are paying $5.38 per thousand cubic feet (MCF), down 12.8 percent from the previous $6.17 per MCF and down 25 percent from the $7.18 per MCF they paid during the same quarter last year.

The GCR represents Dominion East Ohio’s actual cost of securing natural gas supplies for sales customers. Under state law, Dominion East Ohio does not make a profit on the GCR, which accounts for more than two-thirds of a customer’s bill. State law does allow the company to recover its gas costs on a dollar-for-dollar basis through the GCR mechanism. The company adjusts its GCR quarterly, passing along gas costs decreases or increases, depending on national market prices and other factors. Dominion East Ohio can earn a profit only on the delivery, or transportation, of natural gas to customers’ homes and businesses.

Company officials note that the lower gas costs reflect a significant decline in national natural gas market prices since the first quarter of this year. Consequently, Dominion East Ohio has reduced its GCR by 38.1 percent since prices peaked at the historically high level of $8.70 per MCF in February of this year. Nationally, an increase in drilling for new gas supplies, coupled with an economic slowdown and warmer-than normal fall temperatures, resulted in sharply lower market prices.

The gas cost reduction affects 640,000 Dominion East Ohio customers, who buy natural gas from the company at rates regulated by the PUCO.

Nearly 600,000 or about half, of Dominion East Ohio’s 1.2 million customers have opted to purchase natural gas from alternative suppliers, realizing $86 million in savings in the first year of the system-wide Energy Choice program expansion, company officials report. Under Energy

Choice, participating customers may choose to purchase natural gas from approved suppliers, while relying on Dominion East Ohio to continue delivering that gas to their homes or businesses. Dominion East Ohio customers also have the option of continuing to buy natural gas supplies from Dominion East Ohio at the current regulated cost.

Dominion East Ohio encourages customers to explore their options under Energy Choice. There is no deadline for choosing a different supplier. Energy Choice is an ongoing program. However, some suppliers may have deadlines for particular prices or offers.

Customers can receive information, such as the “Apples to Apples” chart, which provides information on participating Energy Choice suppliers and their current offers and prices, by calling the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio’s toll-free Gas Choice Infoline at 1-800-299-7271 or visiting their website at www.PUCO.ohio.gov. Residential customers can direct questions and receive free Energy Choice information by contacting the Ohio Consumer’s Counsel, toll-free, at 1-877-742-5622 or visit their website at www.state.oh.us/cons.

Dominion, headquartered in Richmond, Va., is one of the nation’s largest producers of energy, with a production capability more than 3 trillion British thermal units of energy per day. Its 22,000-megawatt generation portfolio is expected to grow to more than 28,000 megawatts by 2005. In addition to its more than 4.6 trillion cubic feet equivalent of natural gas reserves and more than 450 billion cubic feet equivalent of annual production, Dominion also owns and operates 7,600 miles of natural gas transmission pipeline with a delivery capability of 6.3 billion cubic feet per day. Dominion serves nearly 4 million retail natural gas and electric customers in five states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company’s web site at www.dom.com.