Houston, Texas, December 7, 1999-Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, a business unit of El Paso Energy Corporation (NYSE:EPG), and CNG Transmission Corporation, a subsidiary of Consolidated Natural Gas Company (NYSE:CNG), announced that the Atlantic Alliance Project open season closed on November 30, 1999. Tennessee and CNG are evaluating the results of the open season and will announce the resulting plans at a later date. To avoid potential confusion with Alliance Pipeline, which is not affiliated with Tennessee's and CNG's project, the name of this phase of the project and any future phases has been changed to the Atlantic Advantage Project. The Atlantic Advantage Project proposes to transport up to 750,000 dekatherms of natural gas per day from Chicago and the Niagara Import Point to developing markets in the northeast.

With over $15 billion in assets, El Paso Energy Corporation provides comprehensive energy solutions through its strategic business units: El Paso Natural Gas Company, Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, Southern Natural Gas Company, El Paso Field Services Company, El Paso Merchant Energy Company, El Paso Production Company, and El Paso Energy International Company. The company owns North America's largest natural gas pipeline system, both in terms of throughput and miles of pipeline, and has operations in natural gas transmission, gas gathering and processing, gas and oil production, power generation, merchant energy services, and international project development. Visit El Paso Energy's web site at www.epenergy.com.

CNG Transmission, headquartered in Clarksburg, W.Va., is the interstate natural gas transmission subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based Consolidated Natural Gas Company, a fully integrated natural gas company. CNG is in the process of merging with Dominion Resources, Inc., to become the nation's largest integrated natural gas and electricity company, with nearly 4 million customers, 20,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and more than 3 trillion cubic feet equivalent of oil and natural gas reserves. CNG Transmission provides gas transportation and storage services to other major pipelines and to markets in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast regions of the country.

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This release includes forward-looking statements and projections, made in reliance on the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The companies have made every reasonable effort to ensure that the information and assumptions on which these statements and projections are based are current, reasonable, and complete. However, a variety of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the projections, anticipated results or other expectations expressed in this release. While the company makes these statements and projections in good faith, neither the company nor its management can guarantee that the anticipated future results will be achieved. Reference should be made to the company's (and its affiliates') Securities and Exchange Commission filings for additional important factors that may affect actual results.