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Spectra Energy

Spectra Energy

Overview
Spectra Energy Corp is a S&P 500
S&P 500
The S&P 500 is a market free float-weighted index published since 1957 of the prices of 500 large-cap common stocks actively traded in the United States...

 company headquartered in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States and the largest city within the state of Texas. As of the 2008 U.S. Census estimate, the city has a population of 2.2 million within an area of 600 square miles . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of...

, that operates in three key areas of the natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills...

 industry: transmission and storage, distribution, and gathering and processing. Spectra was formed in late 2006 from the spin-off
Spin-off
A spin-off is a new organization or entity formed by a split from a larger one, such as television series based on a pre-existing one, or a new company formed from a university research group or business incubator...

 from Duke Energy
Duke Energy
Duke Energy , headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is an energy company with assets in the United States, Canada and Latin America. It was founded by James Buchanan Duke....

 . Spectra owns the Texas Eastern Pipeline
Texas Eastern Pipeline
Texas Eastern Pipeline is a major natural gas pipeline which brings gas from the Gulf of Mexico coast in Texas as Louisiana up through Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to deliver gas in the New York City area. It is one of the largest...

 (TETCo), a major natural gas pipeline which brings gas from the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United...

 coast in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...

 to the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...

 area. It is one of the largest pipeline systems in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

In 2002, Duke Energy acquired Westcoast Energy, a Canadian corporation, which owned Chatham, Ontario-based Union Gas, regulated under the 1998 Ontario Energy Board Act.

On December 29, 2006 Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's is a division of McGraw-Hill that publishes financial research and analysison stocks and bonds. It is well known for the stock market indexes, the US-based S&P 500, the Australian S&P/ASX 200, the Canadian S&P/TSX, the Italian S&P/MIB and India's S&P CNX Nifty.-Business...

 added Spectra Energy Corp. to its S&P 500 Index, replacing Parametric Technology Corp.
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Encyclopedia
Spectra Energy Corp is a S&P 500
S&P 500
The S&P 500 is a market free float-weighted index published since 1957 of the prices of 500 large-cap common stocks actively traded in the United States...

 company headquartered in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States and the largest city within the state of Texas. As of the 2008 U.S. Census estimate, the city has a population of 2.2 million within an area of 600 square miles . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of...

, that operates in three key areas of the natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills...

 industry: transmission and storage, distribution, and gathering and processing. Spectra was formed in late 2006 from the spin-off
Spin-off
A spin-off is a new organization or entity formed by a split from a larger one, such as television series based on a pre-existing one, or a new company formed from a university research group or business incubator...

 from Duke Energy
Duke Energy
Duke Energy , headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is an energy company with assets in the United States, Canada and Latin America. It was founded by James Buchanan Duke....

 . Spectra owns the Texas Eastern Pipeline
Texas Eastern Pipeline
Texas Eastern Pipeline is a major natural gas pipeline which brings gas from the Gulf of Mexico coast in Texas as Louisiana up through Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to deliver gas in the New York City area. It is one of the largest...

 (TETCo), a major natural gas pipeline which brings gas from the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United...

 coast in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...

 to the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...

 area. It is one of the largest pipeline systems in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

History


In 2002, Duke Energy acquired Westcoast Energy, a Canadian corporation, which owned Chatham, Ontario-based Union Gas, regulated under the 1998 Ontario Energy Board Act.

On December 29, 2006 Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's is a division of McGraw-Hill that publishes financial research and analysison stocks and bonds. It is well known for the stock market indexes, the US-based S&P 500, the Australian S&P/ASX 200, the Canadian S&P/TSX, the Italian S&P/MIB and India's S&P CNX Nifty.-Business...

 added Spectra Energy Corp. to its S&P 500 Index, replacing Parametric Technology Corp. , a software company, which then moved to the S&P MidCap 400 list instead. Spectra began trading on the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in lower Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. It is the largest stock exchange in the world by United States dollar value of its listed companies' securities...

 under the ticker symbol SE.

On January 3, 2007, Duke Energy completed the spin-off of its natural gas business, including Westcoast Energy and Union Gas, to form Spectra Energy. Duke Energy shareholders received 1 share of Spectra Energy for every 2 shares of Duke Energy.

Spectra Energy, through its subsidiaries and equity affiliates, owns and operates a large and diversified portfolio of complementary natural gas-related assets and is one of North America's leading natural gas infrastructure companies. Based in Houston, Texas, Spectra Energy provides transportation and storage of natural gas to customers in various regions of the Eastern and Southeastern United states, the Maritime Provinces in Canada and the Pacific Northwest in the United States and Canada, and in the province of Ontario in Canada. It also provides natural gas sales and distribution service to retail customers in Ontario, and natural gas gathering and processing services to customers in Western Canada. Spectra Energy also has a 50% ownership in DCP Midstream, LLC, one of the largest natural gas gatherers and processors in the United States.

Environmental Record


Spectra Energy may be considered the single largest private-sector source of greenhouse gases in British Columbia. Since it co-owned DCP Midstream Partner with ConocoPhillips, Spectra Energy was reported in 2005 to emit 19,746 tons of nitrogen oxides and 9,286 tons of volatile organic compounds per year.

Effective September 22, 2008, Spectra Energy Corp was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for North America (DJSI NA), which lists North America’s leading, sustainability-driven companies based on a measurement of overall financial, environmental and social performance . Launched in 1999, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices are the first to track financial performance of sustainability-driven companies on a worldwide basis. Corporate sustainability, as defined by the DJSI, is a business approach that seeks to create long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks derived from economic, environmental and social developments. In selecting the top performers in each business sector, DJSI reviews companies on both broad and industry-specific sustainability criteria, assessing performance in areas such as corporate governance, environmental standards, climate change policy, risk management, supply chain standards, labor practices and employee development. The index is reviewed annually by Dow Jones and the Zurich-based Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) Group.

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has named Spectra Energy to its US S&P500 Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI) for carbon-intensive industries. Companies selected for the CDLI have demonstrated superior transparency and accountability by publicly disclosing detailed climate change strategies.

External links