SoCalGas history

The company was enjoying modest success until Thomas Edison introduced his electric light in 1879.

Domestic manufactured gas service was first introduced to the residents of Long Beach in 1900 by the United Electric Gas and Power Company, predecessor of the Southern California Edison Company of today.

In 1905, the population of Long Beach was only 15,000 and the available consumers were less than 4,000, yet a third gas company was chartered, the Inner Harbor Gas Electric Company.

The stars below the gas holder denote 5 years of service each starting from 1910 when our company was founded.

Through the early years, only manufactured gas was sold, but in 1912 outside gas was purchased from the Southern California Gas Company of Los Angeles.

The gas was a mixture of one-half manufactured gas and one-half natural gas. It wasn't until 1915 that straight natural gas was first introduced to the area.

Probably one of the first So Cal Gas crew trucks circa early 1920's.

In 1923 residents began to rally against what they considered unfair gas rates.

Soon the Southern Counties Gas Companies realized that they couldn't compete and in April 1924 agreed to a selling price of $2,170,000.

Broken gas services and devices caused seven of the 19 fires reported in Long Beach during the 1933 earthquake.

Circa 1935, this 3 dimensional metal wall plaque was commonplace in and on Southern California Gas Company offices and buildings.

Unknown payment office in the 1940's.

In 1941, the company introduced a new system to the Southwest United States: underground storage of natural gas.

Built in 1948 by El Paso Natural Gas Co., the 1,200-mile pipeline was the largest of its kind at the time, capable of delivering 175 million cubic feet of natural gas to Southern California each day.

Pacific Lighting moved its corporate headquarters from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 1967 and began diversifying beyond energy-related operations.

In 1970, the company merged its two remaining principal utilities, Southern California Gas and Southern Counties Gas companies, to form the nation's largest natural gas utility.

A couple of shots of The Gas Company in action during the 1971 San Fernando "Also known as Sylmar" earthquake.

In June 1986, the City was successful in obtaining an increase in its allocation of natural gas deliveries to Edison during negotiations with the Southern California Gas Company; our allocation went from 40 million cubic feet per day to 60 million cubic feet per day.

To reflect its increasing diversity, Pacific Lighting changed its name to Pacific Enterprises in 1988.

In 1998 – as part of the rapid consolidation in the electric and natural gas industries to lower costs and achieve economies of scale sparked by deregulation – Pacific Enterprises merged with Enova Corporation, the parent company of San Diego Gas & Co.

The Sempra Foundation was founded in 2007 as an organization dedicated to helping communities through grants, volunteering and employee giving.

In May 2008, Energía Costa Azul in Baja California began commercial operations, making it one of the first LNG receipt terminals on the West Coast.

In July 2009, the Cameron LNG receipt terminal near Lake Charles, Louisiana, successfully completed performance testing and began commercial operations.

In 2012, SoCalGas paid nearly $1 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it had failed to prevent gas from leaking from the site’s reservoir to the surface.

On May 7, 2014, Sempra’s stock price reached $100 for the first time, closing at $100.41.

In August 2017, IEnova signed long-term contracts with a subsidiary of Valero Energy Corp. for the storage capacity of the liquid fuels marine terminal to be constructed in Veracruz and two inland storage facilities to be constructed in Puebla and Mexico City.

The company exceeded the California Public Utilities Commission's (CPUC) goal for contracting purchases with women, minority, service-disabled veteran, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender-owned businesses for the 26th consecutive year in 2018.

LOS ANGELES, March 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) today announced that it achieved the highest level of spend with diverse business enterprises in the history of the company, spending more than $673 million dollars with 583 diverse suppliers last year.

Also in 2020, Energía Costa Azul’s liquefaction export project (ECA LNG) reached a final investment decision for the project in Baja California, Mexico.