An affiliate of billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathway Inc has struck a deal with US utility Dominion Energy to purchase substantially all of its gas transmission and storage segment assets, and an operating interest in the Cove Point LNG facility
Valued at US$9.7Bn, the transaction includes assumption of US$5.7Bn of existing debt and US$4Bn in cash.
Under the definitive agreement, Dominion Energy will sell gas transmission and storage assets – including 12,400 km of natural gas storage and transmission pipelines and about 900 Bn ft3 (bcf) of gas storage that the company currently operates – to an affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
Assets covered by the sale agreement include Dominion’s ownership interests in Dominion Energy Transmission, Questar Pipeline (including Overthrust and White River Hub), Carolina Gas Transmission, Iroquois Gas Transmission System (50% interest), legacy gathering and processing operations, farm out acreage, as well as a 25% operating interest in Cove Point. Dominion’s interest in the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is not included in the deal.
Due to close in Q4 2020, the transaction must get regulatory and US Department of Energy approvals.
Dominion Energy is aiming to become a net zero carbon power company by 2050. To make that happen, Dominion Energy chairman, president and chief executive Thomas F Farrell II, said, “Over the next 15 years we plan to invest up to $55Bn in emissions-reduction technologies including zero-carbon generation and energy storage, gas distribution line replacement, and renewable natural gas.” The company is also retiring 4 GW of coal- and oil-fired electric generation from its portfolio by 2025.
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