Cardinal Pipeline Project Placed Into Service.

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 1, 1999--

Cardinal Pipeline Company, LLC today announced that it has successfully placed its pipeline extension project into service. The pipeline will transport additional natural gas supplies to serve the growing natural gas demand for customers served by Piedmont Natural Gas Company Inc. (Piedmont), Public Service Company of North Carolina (PSNC) and North Carolina Natural Gas (NCNG).

Cardinal Pipeline is a North Carolina limited liability company whose members are wholly owned subsidiaries of Williams, PSNC, Piedmont and NCNG.

The $98 million project, which has a total capacity of 270,000 dekatherms per day, extended the existing 37-mile, 24-inch diameter Cardinal Pipeline by an additional 67 miles from Burlington, N.C., to a point southeast of Raleigh, N.C. The original Cardinal Pipeline originates in Rockingham County, N.C., and extends to the southeast of Burlington. The project included the longest 24-inch horizontal directional drill in the world (6,041 feet), completed in January 1999 under Lake Jordan in Chatham County.

About Williams (NYSE:WMB)

Williams, through its subsidiaries, is one of the nation's largest volume transporters of natural gas and provides a full range of traditional and leading-edge energy and communications services. Williams information is available at http://www.williams.com.

About Piedmont (NYSE:PNY)

Piedmont, the second-largest natural gas distribution company in the Southeast, is primarily engaged in the transportation and sale of natural gas to more than 650,000 customers in the Carolinas and Tennessee. The Company and its non-utility subsidiaries and divisions are also engaged in acquiring, marketing, transporting and storing natural gas for large-volume customers and in the sale of propane to over 50,000 customers in the Company's three-state service area. An unregulated subsidiary of the Company is an equity participant in a new venture that is marketing natural gas to an additional 440,000 customers in Georgia, the first state in the venture's eight-state southeastern market to open to retail competition for natural gas.

About PSNC (NYSE:PGS)

Public Service Company of North Carolina Inc. (PSNC) is an energy company primarily engaged in the distribution of natural gas to a 31-county franchised service territory. PSNC has approximately 343,000 winter-peak customers in 95 cities and communities in the north central, Piedmont and western part of North Carolina. PSNC, through various subsidiaries and a multi-state joint venture, also participates in nonregulated businesses such as natural gas brokering and supply services and the conversion and fueling of natural gas vehicles. PSNC information is available at http://www.psnc.com

About NCNG (NYSE:CPL)

North Carolina Natural Gas Corporation (NCNG), a subsidiary of Carolina Power and Light, with general offices located in Raleigh, N.C., is in the business of providing natural gas and propane related services to 178,000 customers in southcentral and eastern North Carolina. The Company's primary business is the sale and transportation of natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers located in 90 towns and cities and on four municipal gas distribution systems. Its nonutility division serves propane gas customers and sells and offers natural gas marketing and supply services. NCNG information is available at http://www.ncng.com

Portions of this document may constitute "forward-looking statements" as defined by federal law. Although the company believes any such statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there is no assurance that actual outcomes will not be materially different. Any such statements are made in reliance on the "safe harbor" protections provided under the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. Additional information about issues that could lead to material changes in performance is contained in the company's annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.