Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America (NGPL) announced plansto build a new 47-mile, 24-inch diameter pipeline lateral into St.Louis to serve Illinois Power’s gas distribution system. The $35million project, which is anchored by a contract with IllinoisPower affiliate Dynegy Marketing and Trade, will add at least300,000 Dth/d of gas transportation capacity to the St. Louismarket.

“The pipeline project and related agreements ideally demonstrateour ongoing strategy to expand our natural gas pipeline servicesinto growing markets currently not connected to NGPL and toincrease throughput on our system by adding electric load to ourextensive pipeline network,” said Richard D. Kinder, CEO of KinderMorgan Inc., the parent company of NGPL.

The new lateral will extend from Centralia, IL, to a point onIllinois Power’s gas distribution system in the East St. Louismarket. The project is scheduled for completion in June of 2002.

NGPL and Dynegy entered into a number of long-term, gastransportation and storage contracts, including a 10-year agreementeffective June 1, 2002, which will provide Dynegy with 90,000 Dth/dof gas via the new pipeline. In addition, NGPL and Dynegy enteredinto various other firm transportation agreements totaling another98,000 Dth/d of gas sourced from NGPL’s Gulf Coast and Amarillolines beginning as early as Dec. 1, 2000.

The NGPL project effectively creates a new supplier for ageographical area that until now has been served by just onenatural gas transportation company [Mississippi RiverTransmission], according to Larry F. Altenbaumer, president ofIllinois Power. “This new connection to Illinois Power’s systemwill help open competitive opportunities to natural gas customersin the metro east area of St. Louis. It not only provides for a newdelivery point to service customers directly, but also to fuelelectric generation in the area.

“The 10-year agreement to provide firm transportation service toDynegy provides us a solid anchor customer for the pipelineproject,” said Deb Macdonald, president of NGPL. NGPL intends tosolicit expressions of interest from other shippers in December andJanuary. The results of the open season will determine the finalscope of the project.

“With Dynegy as our anchor customer, we will build the newlateral into the St. Louis market regardless of whether we receiveother expressions of interest,” said Macdonald. “We anticipate astrong response, however, given the size of the market and thepotential for additional gas-fired power generation.”

Interested shippers should contact Mark Menis, NGPL’s directorof business development, at (630) 691-3347.

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