Piedmont Natural Gas Increases Dividend for 31st Consecutive Year

CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Board of Directors of Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) today approved an increase in the Company's dividend for the 31st consecutive year. At its regularly scheduled meeting, the Board declared a quarterly dividend on Common Stock of 27 cents per share, a 3.8% increase over the previous quarterly dividend of 26 cents per share. The increased dividend is payable April 15, 2009, to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 25, 2009.

At today's annual meeting of shareholders four members of the Board of Directors were re-elected: E. James Burton, John W. Harris, Aubrey B. Harwell, and David E. Shi. Shareholders also ratified the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the Company's auditors for 2009, but did not approve a proposed amendment to the Company's Articles of Incorporation that would have eliminated the classified structure of the Board of Directors. The Company's proposal to eliminate the classified structure of the Board of Directors did not receive the requisite vote of 80% of all outstanding shares. As a result, the Board of Directors will continue to be divided into three classes, each having the same number of Directors and elected for three year terms.

About Piedmont Natural Gas

Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) is an energy services company primarily engaged in the distribution of natural gas to more than one million residential, commercial and industrial utility customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, including 62,000 customers served by municipalities who are wholesale customers. Our subsidiaries are invested in joint venture, energy-related businesses, including unregulated retail natural gas marketing, interstate natural gas storage and intrastate natural gas transportation. More information about Piedmont Natural Gas is available on the Internet at http://www.piedmontng.com.

SOURCE Piedmont Natural Gas