Houston, Texas, and Clarksburg, W. Virginia, July 19, 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 today the Atlantic Alliance Project to jointly offer seamless natural gas transportation service of up to 750,000 dekatherms per day from the Chicago market center and the Niagara Import Point into eastern markets.

The Atlantic Alliance will combine the use of existing facilities and rights-of-way with construction of limited incremental facilities to provide the new services. Construction will be in phases to correspond to customer service requests. However, the full 750,000 dekatherms per day could be available as early as November 1, 2001.

John Somerhalder, president of Tennessee Gas Pipeline, stated "With the Atlantic Alliance, Tennessee and CNG are able to capture operational efficiencies between their systems to offer a competitive service that can be phased in as the market evolves. With the uncertainties that exist in today's market, the Atlantic Alliance represents a rational way to address growth as it occurs."

The Atlantic Alliance will target developing markets in New York, Pennsylvania, and New England. It will include access to Transco and the proposed MarketLink Project at Leidy, Pa., and to Columbia and the proposed Millennium Project at Horseheads or Greenwood, N.Y. The Atlantic Alliance rate from Chicago to western New York or Pennsylvania will be approximately $0.47 per dekatherm. Because of the extensive use of existing facilities, the Atlantic Alliance will be able to offer service quickly, with 100,000 dekatherms per day available this winter.

Ron Adams, CNG senior vice president in charge of regulated business, said "We find the emerging power generation market to be an exciting opportunity for CNG and Tennessee. Together, we can offer this market highly competitive services timed to meet its needs while remaining sensitive to environmental and landowner issues."

An open season is planned for the Atlantic Alliance in August, with additional details available later this month.

With over $10 billion in assets, El Paso Energy Corporation provides energy solutions through five business units: Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, El Paso Natural Gas Company, El Paso Field Services Company, El Paso Energy Marketing Company, and El Paso Energy International Company. The company owns the nation's only integrated coast-to-coast natural gas pipeline system and has operations in interstate natural gas transmission, gas gathering and processing, energy marketing, power generation and international infrastructure development. On June 10, the stockholders of both El Paso Energy and Sonat Inc. overwhelmingly voted in favor of merging the two organizations. The merger is expected to close in the third or fourth quarter of this year, concurrent with the completion of regulatory reviews. 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 one of the nation's largest integrated energy companies, with 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.

CNG Media Relations Contacts

Robert Fulton, CNG Transmission
(304) 623-8200

Dan Donovan, CNG
(412) 690-1370

CNG Investor Relations Contact

Jim Garret
(412) 690-1485

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 companies make these statements and projections in good faith, neither the companies nor their managements can guarantee that the anticipated future results will be achieved. Reference should be made to the companies' (and their affiliates') Securities and Exchange Commission filings for additional important factors that may affect actual results.