March 22, 2010 (FinancialWire) — Atmos Energy Corp. (NYSE: ATO) said that its subsidiaries, Atmos Pipeline and Storage, LLC and Fort Necessity Gas Storage, LLC, have entered into an option and acquisition agreement and related agreements with Delhi Gas Storage, LLC, a subsidiary of Icon NGS, LLC, to provide Delhi the exclusive option to develop the proposed Fort Necessity salt-dome natural gas storage project in Franklin Parish, Louisiana.

Atmos Energy had previously said that a development in connection with the project had occurred in February 2008.

Under the Agreement, Delhi has been granted the right to drill a brine disposal well on the site of the project and undertake certain tests in order to better define the characteristics of the brine disposal formation.

If Delhi completes the well and wishes to proceed with the development of the project, it has the right to exercise its option, contribute the brine well test results and acquire a controlling interest in Ft. Necessity, which will own all of the project assets.

APS will retain a capital position in Ft. Necessity and will share in a variable percentage of the profits, based on the amount of further investments by Delhi. Upon its exercise of the option, Delhi will have the sole responsibility and discretion for managing Ft. Necessity and will provide funding for all future development costs of the Project.

Further, Delhi will have the option to purchase APS’s interest in Ft. Necessity at varying stages of development at predetermined prices, depending on the stage of development at the time of purchase. Should the Project be developed, Atmos Energy Marketing, which is wholly-owned by Atmos Energy, has agreed to purchase firm storage service on commercially reasonable terms for a portion of the first cavern when it is placed into service.

Texas-based Atmos Energy is a natural-gas-only distributor serving more than three million natural gas distribution customers in more than 1,600 communities in 12 states from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the East to the Rocky Mountains in the West.

Atmos Energy also provides natural gas marketing and procurement services to industrial, commercial and municipal customers primarily in the Midwest and Southeast and manages company-owned natural gas pipeline and storage assets, including a natural gas pipeline system in Texas.

FinancialWire(tm) is committed to serving the financial community through true journalism and providing relevant resources to investors. Standards-based, independent equity research on numerous public companies is available through the Investrend Research Syndicate (http://www.investrend.com/reports) written by FIRST Research Consortium (http://www.investrend.com/FIRST) member-providers. Free annual reports and company filings for companies mentioned in the news are available through the Investrend Information Syndicate (at http://investrend.ar.wilink.com/?level=279). FinancialWire(tm), in cooperation with the Investrend Broadcast Syndicate, also provides complete, daily conference call and webcast schedules as a service to shareholders and investors via the FirstAlert(tm) Network’s “FirstAlert(tm) Daily” (http://www.financialwire.net/news-alerts/).

FinancialWire(tm) is a fully independent, proprietary news wire service. FinancialWire(tm) is not a press release service, and receives no compensation for its news, opinions or distributions. Further disclosure is at the FinancialWire(tm) website (http://www.financialwire.net/disclosures.php). Contact FinancialWire(tm) directly via inquiries@financialwire.net.

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.