NISOURCE INC.

16. Business Segment Information

Our reportable segments reflect the manner in which our business is managed and our resources are allocated. Our operations are divided intotwo primary reportable segments, the Columbia Operations and the NIPSCO Operations segments. Columbia Operations aggregates the results of the fully regulated and wholly owned subsidiaries of NiSource Gas Distribution Group, Inc. (a holding company that owns Columbia of Kentucky, Columbia of Maryland, Columbia of Ohio, Columbia of Pennsylvania, and Columbia of Virginia). Each Columbia distribution company is an operating segment which we aggregate to form the Columbia Operations reportable segment. NIPSCO Operations includes the results of NIPSCO Holdings I and its majority-owned subsidiaries, including NIPSCO, which has fully regulated gas and electric operations in northern Indiana.

The remainder of our operations, which are not significant enough on a stand-alone basis to warrant treatment as a reportable segment, are presented as "Corporate and Other" and primarily are comprised of interest expense on holding company debt, and unallocated corporate costs and activities. Refer to Note 3, "Revenue Recognition," for additional information on our segments and their sources of revenues. The following table provides information about our reportable segments. We use operating income as the primary measurement of performance for each of the reportable segments and make decisions on financing, dividends and taxes at the corporate level on a consolidated basis. We provide this measure to our Chief Operating Decision Maker, the CEO, who utilizes it to assess performance and allocation resources at the operating segment level based on budget-to-actual and actual-to-actual variances. Segment revenues include intersegment sales to affiliated subsidiaries, which are eliminated in consolidation. Affiliated sales are recognized on the basis of prevailing market, regulated prices or at levels provided for under contractual agreements. Operating income is derived from revenues and expenses directly associated with each segment.

(1)Other segment items consists of Loss on Sale or Impairment of Assets and other segment income or expenses deemed insignificant which are used to reach our measurement of segment profit or loss, Operating Income.

The following table provides information about the assets of our reportable segments included in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet (unaudited):

To reconcile the segment tables above to consolidated NiSource: