Exhibit No. 99.1

PRESS RELEASE
January 20, 2004

               Piedmont Natural Gas Prices Common Equity Offering

CHARLOTTE, NC - Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE: PNY) announced today that it priced
a public offering of 4.25 million shares of common stock at a public offering
price of $42.50 per share. The company also has granted the underwriters a
30-day option to purchase up to an additional 637,500 shares of the company's
common stock to cover any over-allotments. The public offering of the shares is
expected to close on January 23, 2004.

The company will use the proceeds to repay a portion of the commercial paper
that was issued in connection with its purchase of North Carolina Natural Gas
(NCNG) on September 30, 2003, and for general corporate purposes.

"We were very pleased to see the strong investor interest and support for this
common equity offering," said Thomas E. Skains, Chairman, President and Chief
Executive Officer. "This complements the successful long-term debt financing
that was closed in December following the purchase of NCNG, and as promised,
returns our balance sheet to its historically strong position".

The securities will be issued under the company's existing effective shelf
registration statement. Merrill Lynch and Co. was the sole book runner and lead
manager for the offering. SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, BB&T Capital Markets a
division of Scott & Stringfellow, Inc., Davenport & Company, Edward Jones and
Janney Montgomery Scott served as co-managers.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an
offer to buy any securities. Any such offer will be made only by means of a
prospectus. Potential investors should read the prospectus and prospectus
supplement carefully before making any investment decision. A copy of the final
prospectus supplement relating to the offering may be obtained from the office
of the underwriter at Merrill Lynch & Co., 4 World Financial Center, New York,
NY 10080 or from one of the other underwriters. An electronic copy of the
prospectus supplement will be available from the Securities and Exchange
Commission's Web site at www.sec.gov.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are
based on management's current expectations and information currently available
and are believed to be reasonable and are made in good faith. However, the
forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the
statements. Factors that may make the actual results differ from anticipated
results include, but are not limited to, economic conditions; competition from
other providers of similar products; and other uncertainties, all of which are
difficult to predict and some of which are beyond our control. For these
reasons, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements when making
investment decisions. The words "expect," "believe," "project," "anticipate,"
"intend," "should," "could", "will" and variations of such words and similar
expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We do not
undertake any obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement,
either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. More
information about the risks and uncertainties relating to these forward-looking
statements may be found in Piedmont's filings with the SEC on Forms 10-K and
Forms 10-Q, which are available on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov.


ABOUT PIEDMONT NATURAL GAS
Piedmont Natural Gas is an energy services company primarily engaged in the
distribution of natural gas to 940,000 residential, commercial and industrial
utility customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, including
60,000 customers served by municipalities who are wholesale customers. Our
subsidiaries are invested in joint venture, energy-related businesses, including
unregulated retail natural gas marketing, interstate natural gas storage,
intrastate transportation and regulated natural gas distribution. More
information about Piedmont Natural Gas is available on the Internet at
www.piedmontng.com.





CONTACTS:
PIEDMONT NATURAL GAS
Corporate Communications, Steve Conner, Office: 704.731.4205, Cell: 704.607.4866