UGI history

The company formed the United Electric Company of New Jersey in 1899.

In 1903, the company owned the majority of the stock of the Equitable Illuminating Gas Light Company, which operated the Philadelphia Gas Works.

Public Service Corporation of New Jersey took over United Electric in 1907.

Our businesses have thrived through the Great Depression, two World Wars and the major divestment of assets following the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935.

Most of UGI's customers were residential, with industrial sales accounting for only 15 percent of gas consumption in 1955.

Only 11 percent of all homeowners in the company's area of operation had gas heat in 1956, excluding the territory of the Philadelphia gas works, where most households were cooking and heating with manufactured gas.

In October 1964, Industrial Gases, Inc., of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, filed an antitrust suit in United States district court charging the company with attempting to eliminate competition in sales of bottled propane gas in Pittsburgh.

By 1973, Ugite had expanded its "bottled gas" service to 35 locations in eight states, including Kentucky and Tennessee.

Gas production began in 1977, and four drilling rigs were operating in 1980. It acquired oil and gas rights on 75,000 acres in western and central Pennsylvania and began exploratory drilling in 1974.

In 1977, additional propane distribution and storage facilities in New York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina brought sales up to approximately 78 million gallons of propane.

The company also expected other industrial gases to enjoy rapid growth in the upcoming years. It completed an air-separation plant in 1981 to produce nitrogen for oilwell stimulation and had begun construction on a second plant.

The company took a $45.7 million writedown of oil and gas assets and other investments in 1985 and reported a rare annual loss.

In 1987, as part of UGI's strategy of focused growth in propane, AmeriGas, through the AP Propane joint venture, acquired Cal Gas Corporation and instantly became the nation's fourth largest propane marketer.

In 1993, through its AmeriGas subsidiary, the company acquired Petrolane, which was in bankruptcy.

The natural gas utility was serving 14 counties in eastern and south-central Pennsylvania, with about 238,000 customers receiving natural gas in 1994 through a distribution system of 3,965 miles of gas mains.

In 1999, the company offered to acquire Unisource Worldwide, a distributor of office paper, but it was outbid by Georgia-Pacific.

On April 1, 2013, John Walsh succeeded Lon Greenberg as president and chief executive officer.

In May 2015, the company acquired Totalgaz S.A.'s liquefied petroleum gas distribution operations in France for €423 million.

In October 2017, the company acquired Totalgaz Italia, a liquefied petroleum gas distribution business.

In December 2018, the company acquired South Jersey Industries’s retail natural gas business.

On August 21, 2019, the company acquired the portion of AmeriGas that it did not already own.