In addition, El Paso announced that a binding open season for the Ruby Pipeline project began Friday, February 15, and will conclude April 18. Related binding open seasons for Rockies capacity on the Wyoming Interstate Co., Ltd. (WIC) and Colorado Interstate Gas Co. (CIG) pipeline systems were also announced by El Paso. El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. owns a 100 percent interest in WIC and a 10 percent interest in CIG.

The open season for WIC capacity upstream of the Opal Hub in Wyoming -- which includes transportation paths from the Uinta Basin, the Piceance Basin, and the Cheyenne Hub -- began February 18 and will end March 21. The open season for CIG capacity from the Raton Basin to the Opal Hub will begin February 22 and end March 20.

"The open seasons for capacity on the WIC and CIG systems will afford shippers the opportunity to obtain capacity on those pipelines from key supply areas to the Opal Hub before the open season for the Ruby Pipeline project ends," said Tom Price, vice president, Marketing and Business Development, El Paso's Western Pipeline Group.

"We have two goals in these simultaneous open seasons," Price said. "First, we want to continue to alleviate constraints on moving Rocky Mountain natural gas to consumers, generally. Second, we want to provide shippers with a greater array of options to move gas supplies to Opal and then on to demand regions in the western United States via the Ruby Pipeline."

The proposed Ruby Pipeline project is a 680-mile, 42-inch interstate natural gas transmission pipeline that would begin at the Opal Hub in Wyoming and terminate at the Malin, Oregon, interconnect near California's northern border. It is expected that Ruby will have an initial design capacity of 1.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) and is expandable to 2 Bcf/d. Subject to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and other regulatory approvals, and after obtaining necessary customer commitments, the Ruby Pipeline is anticipated to be in service in the first quarter of 2011.

For more information on the Ruby project and open season, visit www.rubypipeline.com. For information on the WIC and CIG open seasons, go to www.elpaso.com, and click on Pipelines, Informational Postings, then select either WIC or CIG, and finally access Notices for each pipeline. The Notice will describe the open season and will provide further instructions on accessing the open season itself.

El Paso also said that public scoping meetings for Ruby are scheduled from Feb. 19 through March 5 at nine locations in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and Oregon.

Company representatives will be available to discuss the open seasons, and a meeting for interested parties has been scheduled from 9 a.m. through a 12 p.m. luncheon, Friday, February 22, at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. Advance reservations are required, and information packages will be forwarded to those making meeting reservations. The contact for the meeting is Carol Champion at (719) 520-4373.

El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P., a Delaware limited partnership formed by El Paso Corp. in 2007 to own and operate natural gas transportation pipelines and storage assets, owns Wyoming Interstate Co., Ltd., an interstate pipeline system serving the Rocky Mountain region, and a 10 percent interest in each of the Colorado Interstate Gas Co. and Southern Natural Gas Co. interstate pipelines, which operate in the Rocky Mountain and southeastern regions of the United States, respectively.

El Paso Corp. provides natural gas and related energy products in a safe, efficient, and dependable manner. The company owns North America's largest interstate natural gas pipeline system and one of North America's largest independent natural gas producers.

El Paso Corp. owns 56.2 million limited partner units and 1.7 million general partner units of El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P.