Historic Louisiana

DOMINION
EXPLORATION &
PRODUCTION,
INC.
Dominion Exploration & Production, Inc.’s
roots extend through Consolidated Natural Gas
Company’s (CNG) lengthy oil and gas history—
back a century to John D. Rockefeller’s Standard
Oil Company and the earliest days of the natural
gas business. For this leader of independent
natural gas and oil exploration, it all started with
the search for oil.
As a by-product of oil exploration, Standard
Oil was quick to translate large discoveries of
Appalachian gas in the 1800s into commercial
opportunity. Over a thirty-year period, Standard
formed, merged, and acquired companies to
explore for gas throughout the Appalachian
Basin and pipe it to growing industrial cities
such as Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Akron. By
1911 an integrated network of gas production,
transmission and distribution facilities had been
assembled under Standard’s umbrella. The final
component was in place in 1930 when Standard
organized a pipeline to supply non-affiliated
utilities in New York State. In 1943, to avoid
being declared a public utility holding company,
Standard chose to spin off five of its companies
as a single and totally independent entity. Thus,
Consolidated Natural Gas was born.
During the boom of the 1950s, CNG became
one of the first utilities to join the move to the
Gulf of Mexico, first as a partner in drilling
ventures, then, in 1962, as a lease owner. CNG’s
successes in exploration and production in the
Gulf led to the establishment of operations in
New Orleans in 1966. Developing and maturing
quickly, the E&P division began operating many
of its leases, and in 1972, became a subsidiary of
CNG—CNG Producing Company.
In 2000, Consolidated Natural Gas merged
with Dominion Resources, Inc. CNG Producing
Company properties were integrated with
Dominion’s existing oil and gas properties
and the name was changed to Dominion
Exploration & Production, Inc.
Today Dominion Exploration & Production,
Inc. is one of the largest independent domestic
natural gas and oil exploration and production
companies in North America. With operations in
most major basins in the U.S. and Canada, assets
include more than six trillion cubic feet
equivalent of natural gas and oil reserves and 450
billion cubic feet equivalent of annual
production. The company has 1,110 employees
nationwide and in Canada, with more than 300
located in New Orleans. Dominion has
concentrated recently on onshore property
growth, but when its two large deepwater
discoveries, Devils Tower and Frontrunner, reach
peak production capacity in 2004, Dominion
E&P will be solidified as a leader among
independent operators in the Gulf of Mexico.
Dominion Exploration & Production plays a
significant civil and charitable role in New
Orleans and Louisiana. The Dominion Learning
Center and Intern program at the Audubon Zoo,
the New Orleans Ballet Association, and
Parkway Partners, and endowments in geology
and petroleum engineering at the University of
Louisiana, Lafayette are but a few of the
beneficiaries of Dominion’s philanthropy.
✧
Above: Ship Shoal 246 “A” and “E”
Platforms. Ship Shoal 246 “A” (on left)
was the first platform for the former
CNG Producing Company. It was installed
in 1973.
Bottom, left: Production foremen monitor
operations on offshore platforms in the Gulf
of Mexico.
Below: Neptune (Visoka Knoll 826) was
the world’s first production spar platform.
Installed in 1995 in two thousand feet of
water, it was CNGP’s second deepwater
venture. It has fourteen wells that are
supported on their own buoyancy cans with
dry trees at the surface.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
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