HOUSTON, TEXAS, October 8, 2001

El Paso Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE:EPN) announced today that it has entered into an agreement with TotalFinaElf E&P USA, Inc., the TotalFinaElf Group's U.S. exploration and production company, to provide a natural gas gathering service for TotalFinaElf's Matterhorn discovery, as well as its Camden Hills and Aconcagua discoveries located in the Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Trend.

Natural gas production from Matterhorn, located in Mississippi Canyon Block 243, will be delivered to EPN's 125-mile, 20-inch diameter Viosca Knoll Gathering System (VKGS) at Mississippi Canyon 64 via TotalFinaElf's 10-inch pipeline. First production from Matterhorn is anticipated in the third quarter of 2003. The portion of Camden Hills (Mississippi Canyon Block 348) and Aconcagua (Mississippi Canyon Block 305) volumes that are committed to VKGS will be delivered to VKGS via the TotalFinaElf-operated Canyon Express project, which will have a capacity of 500 million cubic feet of gas per day. First production from Camden Hills and Aconcagua is anticipated for the summer of 2002.

"The Viosca Knoll Gathering System will provide TotalFinaElf with maximum market flexibility through its connections to four downstream pipelines including El Paso Corporation's (NYSE:EPG) Tennessee Gas and Southern Natural Gas pipeline systems. EPN is continuing our tradition of providing services and infrastructure to complement the development of new energy supplies in the Deepwater Trend of the Gulf of Mexico," said Robert G. Phillips, chief executive officer of El Paso Energy Partners.

El Paso Energy Partners, L.P. is a publicly owned master limited partnership. The partnership owns and operates a diversified set of midstream assets including five offshore natural gas and oil pipelines and six production handling platforms located in the Gulf of Mexico, a strategically located salt dome storage facility with 7.2 billion cubic feet of current storage capacity in Mississippi, a 450-mile coal bed methane gathering system in Alabama, and more than 600 miles of natural gas liquids gathering and transportation pipelines and three fractionation plants located in south Texas. Visit El Paso Energy Partners on the Web at www.elpasopartners.com.