Completing a deal announced last December, El Paso Energy Partners L.P. announced it has assumed control of El Paso Intrastate — Alabama Inc. (EPIA) for $26.4 million from its parent company, El Paso Energy Corp (see Daily GPI, Dec. 27).

EPIA owns and operates over 450 miles of pipelines and relatedcompression facilities and is the leading natural gas gatherer inthe Black Warrior Basin in western Alabama. The system has currentthroughput of 150 MMcf/d from 27 producers. El Paso Production Co.,another subsidiary of El Paso Energy Corp., is the largest produceron the system and is currently engaged in an aggressive coal seamdevelopment program.

“The characteristics of EPIA are identical to those we havetargeted for future growth; they are fee-based businesses with bothlong-lived economics and growth prospects,” said Robert G.Phillips, CEO of El Paso Energy Partners. “We will continue to lookfor investments of this kind, which fit the partnership profile andleverage off our general partners’ nationwide assets and aggressivegrowth strategy.”

The partnership plans to expand the EPIA system with 4,200 hp ofnew compression. This will increase system volume by 40 MMcf/dwithin the next two years. EPIA was acquired by El Paso Energythrough its October 1999 merger with Sonat Inc.

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