Producer
NiSource Inc.
NiSource Inc. (Westfield, IN; NYSE: NI) operates regulated gas distribution utilities across seven states through its Columbia Gas subsidiary brands: Columbia Gas of Ohio, Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, Columbia Gas of Virginia, Columbia Gas of Kentucky, Columbia Gas of Maryland, and Bay State Gas (Massachusetts). NiSource's distribution utilities operate approximately 60 underground gas storage fields with a combined working gas capacity of approximately 630 Bcf — making NiSource one of the top three US underground storage operators by working gas capacity, though primarily as a regulated utility operator (not a merchant storage provider). NiSource's Ohio storage fields (Columbia Gas of Ohio) are critical to winter gas supply for the entire Great Lakes and Ohio Valley region. NiSource also controls the largest number of UGS fields of any single corporate entity in the US. In September 2018, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts caused fatal gas explosions in the Merrimack Valley (Lawrence, Andover, North Andover) due to over-pressurization of gas distribution mains, which ultimately led to the sale of Bay State Gas.
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Gas Distribution (Columbia Gas Ohio & Pennsylvania)
55%Underground Storage (Ohio Valley System)
30%Gas Distribution (Mid-Atlantic & New England)
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Origin2023
Columbia Gas — the dominant brand across NiSource's distribution utilities — traces to 1886 when Columbia Gas and Electric Company was founded to distribute natural gas in central Ohio, where Appalachian natural gas was being developed for the first time. Columbia Gas and Electric Corporation grew through the early 20th century into one of the nation's largest utility holding companies, eventually controlling gas utilities across Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Maryland. In 1935, Congress passed the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA), specifically targeting the complex pyramidal holding company structures that had accumulated utility assets and charged excessive rates during the 1920s; Columbia Gas and Electric was one of the major targets. PUHCA forced the breakup of Columbia's holding company structure, separating its gas utilities into state-regulated subsidiaries that could not be controlled by a single unregulated holding company. NiSource (formerly Northern Indiana Public Service Company) reassembled much of the Columbia Gas family in 2000 through acquisition — a 65-year reversal of the PUHCA breakup. The 1935 antitrust law that broke Columbia apart was itself repealed in 2005, at which point the recombined NiSource Columbia Gas system operated essentially the same geographic footprint as the 1934 Columbia holding company. A financial regulator broke up a utility empire in 1935; a Midwest gas company reassembled it by 2000; Congress repealed the prohibition in 2005.
NiSource Inc. ↗Incident2019
On September 13, 2018, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts (a NiSource subsidiary) over-pressurized gas distribution mains in the Merrimack Valley — Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover, Massachusetts — causing approximately 131 building fires and explosions, one death, 21 injuries, and leaving ~8,700 customers without gas service during cold weather for months. The NTSB investigation found that a NiSource contractor had disconnected a pressure monitoring line during construction without properly managing the pressure control, and that NiSource's management system lacked adequate safeguards. NiSource paid $143 million in criminal fines (the largest ever for a US gas utility) and sold the Columbia Gas of Massachusetts system (rebranded as Eversource Gas of Massachusetts) for $1.1 billion to Eversource Energy to settle liability. The incident demonstrated that aging underground gas distribution infrastructure — including the storage systems and distribution mains NiSource operates across seven states — carries systemic well-integrity and pressure management risks.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) ↗