Berkshire Hathaway said its energy unit will buy Dominion Energy natural gas transmission and storage network for 4 billion U.S. dollars, the deal totals almost 10 billion U.S. dollars including the assumption of debt.

It's the first major purchase from Berkshire since the coronavirus pandemic started and the U.S. economy devolved into recession following it. At his annual shareholder meeting in May, Buffett revealed that Berkshire had built up a record 137 billion U.S. dollars cash hoard as the financial market tanked, and that he hadn’t seen many favorable deals, despite the stock market's deep swoon.

The transaction announced on Sunday includes more than 7,700 miles (12,390 km) of natural gas transmission lines and 900 billion cubic feet of gas storage.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy is buying Dominion Energy Transmission, Questar Pipeline, Carolina Gas Transmission, 50 percent of the Iroquois Gas Transmission System, and 25 percent of the Cove Point liquefied natural gas facility in Maryland.

Dominion will retain 50 percent of Cove Point, Brookfield Asset Management owns 25 percent.

The Berkshire unit will also assume 5.7 billion U.S. dollars of debt, giving the transaction a 9.7 billion U.S. dollars enterprise value. It expects a fourth-quarter closing, pending regulatory approvals.

"We are very proud to be adding such a great portfolio of natural gas assets to our already strong energy business," Buffett said in a statement.

Dominion expects up to 90 percent of future operating earnings to come from utilities.

The company and Duke Energy separately announced on Sunday they would abandon their eight billion U.S. dollars Atlantic Coast Pipeline, running under the Appalachian Trail and through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.

Dominion and Duke cited delays and uncertain costs, despite a favorable U.S. Supreme Court decision last month.

Berkshire controls 91.1 percent of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, which owns the MidAmerican Energy, NV Energy and PacifiCorp utilities, natural gas pipelines, wind power assets and electricity businesses in Britain and Canada.

The unit accounted for 12 percent of Berkshire's 23.97 billion U.S. dollars of operating profit in 2019. Its chairman, Greg Abel, is also a Berkshire vice chairman.

Berkshire ended March with 137.2 billion U.S. dollars of cash, reflecting Buffett's four-year inability to find major acquisitions, even as the coronavirus pandemic took hold and stock prices plunged.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy declined additional comment.