Note:  With Dynegy as anchor, NGPL is planning on building a lateral into St. 
Louis for the first time.  MRT (a Reliant pipeline)
has been the only pipeline into this market.  


NGPL Plans Lateral to Serve Illinois Power in St. Louis

Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America (NGPL) announced plans to build a new 
47-mile, 24-inch diameter pipeline lateral into St. Louis to serve Illinois 
Power's gas distribution system. The $35 million project, which is anchored 
by a contract with Illinois Power affiliate Dynegy Marketing and Trade, will 
add at least 300,000 Dth/d of gas transportation capacity to the St. Louis 
market. 

"The pipeline project and related agreements ideally demonstrate our ongoing 
strategy to expand our natural gas pipeline services into growing markets 
currently not connected to NGPL and to increase throughput on our system by 
adding electric load to our extensive pipeline network," said Richard D. 
Kinder, CEO of Kinder Morgan Inc., the parent company of NGPL. 

The new lateral will extend from Centralia, IL, to a point on Illinois 
Power's gas distribution system in the East St. Louis market. The project is 
scheduled for completion in June of 2002. 

NGPL and Dynegy entered into a number of long-term, gas transportation and 
storage contracts, including a 10-year agreement effective June 1, 2002, 
which will provide Dynegy with 90,000 Dth/d of gas via the new pipeline. In 
addition, NGPL and Dynegy entered into various other firm transportation 
agreements totaling another 98,000 Dth/d of gas sourced from NGPL's Gulf 
Coast and Amarillo lines beginning as early as Dec. 1, 2000. 

The NGPL project effectively creates a new supplier for a geographical area 
that until now has been served by just one natural gas transportation company 
[Mississippi River Transmission], according to Larry F. Altenbaumer, 
president of Illinois Power. "This new connection to Illinois Power's system 
will help open competitive opportunities to natural gas customers in the 
metro east area of St. Louis. It not only provides for a new delivery point 
to service customers directly, but also to fuel electric generation in the 
area. 

"The 10-year agreement to provide firm transportation service to Dynegy 
provides us a solid anchor customer for the pipeline project," said Deb 
Macdonald, president of NGPL. NGPL intends to solicit expressions of interest 
from other shippers in December and January. The results of the open season 
will determine the final scope of the project. 

"With Dynegy as our anchor customer, we will build the new lateral into the 
St. Louis market regardless of whether we receive other expressions of 
interest," said Macdonald. "We anticipate a strong response, however, given 
the size of the market and the potential for additional gas-fired power 
generation." 

Interested shippers should contact Mark Menis, NGPL's director of business 
development, at (630) 691-3347.