Press Release

Milbank Represents the Lenders in $278 Million Financing for the Cheyenne Plaines Gas Pipeline Project

Largest Gas Pipeline Non-Recourse Financing in the United States in Recent Years

NEW YORK, NY, May 11, 2005 - Cheyenne Plains Gas Pipeline Company L.L.C., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of El Paso Corporation, has closed a $278 million senior secured credit facility to finance construction of a 380 mile long interstate mainline natural gas pipeline. WestLB’s Investment Banking North America Unit acted as the sole lead arranger and bookrunner, as well as administrative agent, in structuring, arranging and syndicating the loan.

The international law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP represented WestLB and was led by partner Dan Bartfeld, associates Hilary Kao and Christina Anzel and regulatory specialist Steven Kramer.

Dan Bartfeld, partner in Milbank’s Global Project Finance group, commented, “Working closely with the teams at El Paso and WestLB, we successfully closed the Cheyenne Plains financing, the largest gas pipeline non-recourse financing in many years. The facility was very well received in the bank market, which shows there is currently a great deal of enthusiasm for pipeline financings with strong offtake agreements.” Bartfeld, a specialist in energy project financings, recently acted as lead attorney in the $822 million Cheniere Energy Sabine Pass LNG financing and in Petrobras’ $910 million PDET oil transport project, both of which have closed financing in 2005.

About the Cheyenne Plains Gas Pipeline Project and Financing
The Cheyenne Plains Gas Pipeline project was underwritten with long-term firm transportation contracts for the majority of the pipeline's capacity. Proceeds of the $278 million financing will be partially used to reimburse El Paso for certain of the construction costs of the pipeline.

Currently in operation, the project consists of a 36-inch pipeline extending 380 miles from the Cheyenne Hub just south of Cheyenne, Wyoming (near the Wyoming-Colorado border) to Greensburg, Kansas (in south-central Kansas.) Interconnects with other interstate natural gas pipelines will serve customers in Midwest markets.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) approved Cheyenne Plains Gas Pipeline Company’s project to construct and own a new interstate natural gas pipeline in March 2004, and construction began in July 2004. Operation of the pipeline, compression and treating facilities with a capacity of 560,000 decatherms of natural gas per day (MDth/d) commenced on January 31, 2005. The second phase of the project, which will increase the capacity by 170,000 MDth/d to 730,000 MDth/d, is expected to be completed by the end of 2005, with operation anticipated to commence in early 2006.

About the Company:
Houston based El Paso Corporation (NYSE: EP) is the leading provider of natural gas services and the largest pipeline company in North America. The company has core businesses in pipelines, production and midstream services. (www.elpaso.com). The Cheyenne Plains Pipeline is one of El Paso’s interstate natural gas pipelines in the western United States.

About Milbank:
Milbank’s Global Project Finance Department is one of the largest and most experienced among the world’s major law firms. Renowned for its leadership, Milbank has pioneered some of the most innovative project financing techniques, and consistently ranks among the top international law firms by industry trade publications such as Infrastructure Journal, Privatisation International, Project Finance International, The American Lawyer and Euromoney’s Project Finance Book of Lists. With more than 100 dedicated project finance attorneys in the firm’s offices worldwide, Milbank provides legal advice under both U.S. and English law. As the project finance marketplace has evolved, Milbank’s Global Project Finance attorneys have expanded the range of products and services by working in conjunction with attorneys from other practice areas to encompass restructuring, mergers & acquisitions, development and finance and regulation.

In 2004 Milbank closed $21 billion of project finance deals, a record eight of which were named Euromoney’s Project Finance magazine’s “DEALS OF THE YEAR”, and consistent with its global leadership, Milbank has also been named “INTERNATIONAL FIRM OF THE YEAR” by Legal Week, a leading legal industry publication.
Noteworthy deals closed in 2005 include:

• Sabine Pass LNG Project (U.S.): Milbank represented the lenders in the $822 million financing for Cheniere Energy, Inc.’s Sabine Pass LNG project in Louisiana, the largest LNG financing ever in the United States.
  
  

• PDET Oil Transport Project (Brazil): Milbank acted as lead counsel and represented the project sponsors and equity investors in the $910 million financing for Petrobras’ PDET oil transport project in the Campos Basin off Brazil. The PDET project is a landmark transaction for Brazil’s oil industry.
   

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP is a global law firm headquartered in New York, with offices in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Palo Alto, London, Frankfurt, Munich, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. Milbank is a recognized leader in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and corporate finance, project finance, acquisition finance and other major fields of legal practice. Milbank has English, German and U.S. law capabilities, and provides a full range of services to many of the world’s leading financial, industrial and commercial enterprises, as well as governments, institutions and individuals.