Atmos Energy Recognized With CIO 100 Award; Company Wins Award Three Times in Four Years.

DALLAS -- For the third time, Atmos Energy is among the companies recognized with CIO magazine's CIO 100 award. Every year, CIO magazine identifies and honors 100 organizations that have achieved distinction in a particular area. The award recognizes the most influential and forward-thinking organizations in the world who have created business value through the effective and innovative use of information technologies. Atmos Energy delivers natural gas service to about 3.2 million customers in the U.S.

According to Abbie Lundberg, editor in chief of CIO magazine, "Year after year, the CIO 100 award recipients serve as industry role models for business and IT excellence. This year's winners are particularly remarkable for their ability to translate IT innovation into business value and solid ROI."

"We are very pleased to have been selected as a recipient of the CIO 100 award," said Leslie H. Duncan, Atmos Energy chief information officer and corporate vice president. "Through innovative use of technology, Atmos Energy is able to redirect our employees' time from administrative tasks toward more valued customer service activities."

According to Duncan, creating business value from the implementation of new technology was not without challenges. The company has seven utility business units operating in 12 different states. This translates into seven sets of business requirements and numerous sets of regulatory requirements. A thorough review of each state's regulatory requirements was necessary to determine how best to capture relevant data and ensure that all needs were met.

Another significant challenge was the acquisition of TXU Gas by Atmos Energy, which nearly doubled the size of the company in the middle of the IT conversion project. The new acquisition forced the project team to refocus efforts around integrating TXU Gas requirements into the system, while also meeting an accelerated implementation deadline. This integration effort won Atmos Energy's IT department a CIO 100 award in 2005. The company was also recognized in 2003 as one of the Top 100 "Most Resourceful" IT organizations in mastering efficiency.

About Atmos Energy

Atmos Energy Corporation, headquartered in Dallas, is the country's largest natural gas-only distributor, serving about 3.2 million gas utility customers. Atmos Energy's utility operations serve more than 1,500 communities in 12 states from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the East to the Rocky Mountains in the West. Atmos Energy's nonutility operations, organized under Atmos Energy Holdings, Inc., operate in 22 states. They provide natural gas marketing and procurement services to industrial, commercial and municipal customers and manage company-owned natural gas storage and pipeline assets, including one of the largest intrastate natural gas pipelines in Texas. For more information, visit www.atmosenergy.com.