RICHMOND, Va., Dec. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Dominion (NYSE: D) today announced the Gathering Enhancement Project, a $253 million expansion of its natural gas gathering, processing and liquids facilities in West Virginia. The project is designed to increase the efficiency and reduce high pressures in its gathering system, thus increasing the amount of natural gas local producers can move through Dominion's West Virginia system.

"This is a good project for West Virginia and its natural gas industry," said Gary Sypolt, chief executive officer of Dominion Energy. "Dominion will increase its investment and local producers will increase their production, thereby aiding the state's economy through job creation and increased property, severance and other taxes."

Dominion will complete three compression units currently under construction and, over the next three years, add nine new units. Approximately 25 miles of replacement or new pipeline will be constructed at various places in its gathering system to address bottlenecks and increase delivery. Two new gas processing plants will be added, increasing Dominion's processing capacity from approximately 230 million cubic feet per day to 280 million cubic feet per day. The project is expected to be complete by fourth quarter 2012 and will be paid for by producers in their rates.

The project includes:

• Nine planned units totaling approximately 7,000 horsepower to be installed over the next three years in Harrison, Doddridge, Lewis, Gilmer and Kanawha counties
• A 10 million cubic feet per day processing plant in Pleasants County
• A 40 million cubic feet per day processing plant in Lewis County
• A 60,000 gallon per day expansion of the Hastings Extraction Plant in Wetzel County

Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of more than 27,500 megawatts of generation, 1.1 trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas reserves, 14,000 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline and 6,000 miles of electric transmission lines. Dominion operates the nation's largest natural gas storage system with 975 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves retail energy customers in 12 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at http://www.dom.com/.

SOURCE: Dominion

Web site: http://www.dom.com/