THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 7, 1994 TAG: 9409070422
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
William A. Fox, an engineer who has spent much of his career managing gas pipelines, has been named president of Virginia Natural Gas Inc., the company announced Tuesday.
Fox, 44, most recently was senior vice president of the gas-transmission subsidiary of VNG's Pittsburgh-based parent, Consolidated Natural Gas Co.
In Norfolk-based VNG, he takes over the fastest-growing of Consolidated's six local distribution companies. Fox's predecessor, William F. Fritsche Jr., left VNG to run one of those sister companies, the much-larger East Ohio Gas Co. of Cleveland.
Fox said in an interview that he plans no major changes at VNG. ``The principal goals I have are to continue our growth and manage it successfully,'' he said.
At VNG, his experience in designing and operating pipelines and other distribution facilities will come in handy. The utility has spent more than $65 million on new facilities in the past several years, the most significant of which is a 135-mile gas pipeline fromNorthern Virginia to Williamsburg.
One major reason for the pipeline's construction was the location of a massive independent electricity-generating plant in Doswell, north of Richmond. That plant burns gas and has become VNG's single largest customer. VNG added more than 19,000 other customers since the start of 1992.
Its revenues and profits also have been growing. It posted a net income of $12.5 million in 1993, up 34 percent from $9.3 million the year before. Revenues climbed 22 percent, meanwhile, to $180.7 million last year.
Fox said he was attracted to the VNG job because it still has great growth potential in spite of its recent expansion. Before its sale to Consolidated in 1990, VNG had been a unit of Dominion Resources Inc., the parent of Virginia Power. It wasn't nearly as aggressive in developing facilities under Dominion Resources' wing.
VNG also is benefiting from the willingness of more and more industrial and commercial customers to turn to gas as the federal government continues loosening energy regulation.
The Doswell power plant, which sells the electricity generated by its gas turbines to Virginia Power, illustrates the change. An increasing number of such independent power producers, themselves offspring of energy deregulation, rely on gas.
VNG, which serves a 3,900-square-mile section of southeastern Virginia, also has been converting commercial customers like Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News and Norfolk International Airport to gas air conditioning. And it is trying to develop a business supplying gas-powered truck, bus and ferry fleets.
``Within five years, I think that will be a very competitive option'' for fleet owners, Fox said.
When he joined Consolidated 23 years ago after earning his engineering degree from West Virginia University - on a Consolidated scholarship - Fox said the gas industry was made up of ``pretty well-defined players with pretty well-defined roles . . . Everything was kind of quiet and fixed.''
As deregulation spreads, the industry has become more turbulent. Fox said he prefers it that way. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
William A. Fox most recently was senior vice president of the
gas-transmission subsidiary of VNG's Pittsburgh-based parent,
Consolidated Natural Gas Co.
by CNB