HOUSTON, TEXAS, March 24, 2004—El Paso Corporation (NYSE:EP) announced today that it has closed the previously announced sale of El Paso Oil & Gas Canada, Inc. to BG Group for approximately $352 million in cash. This sale supports El Paso's recently announced long-range plan to reduce the company's debt, net of cash, to approximately $15 billion by year-end 2005. To date, the company has announced or closed approximately $2.9 billion of the $3.3 to $3.9 billion of assets sales targeted under the plan. An asset sales tracker that shows all of the announced and completed assets sales is posted at www.elpaso.com in the Investor Resources section.

In addition, El Paso announced today that it has now received all subsequent waivers relating to its Revolving Credit Facility and other financing transactions that are required to address potential issues related to its recently announced reserve revisions. El Paso had previously announced that it had received waivers on its Revolving Credit Facility and two other transactions, but that it required waivers on other transactions within thirty days. These waivers address the expected delay in the company's Form 10-K filings and the impact of a potential restatement of previously reported financial results.

El Paso Corporation's purpose is to provide natural gas and related energy products in a safe, efficient, dependable manner. The company owns North America's largest natural gas pipeline system and one of North America's largest independent natural gas producers. For more information, visit www.elpaso.com.

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 company has 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, including, without limitation, the ability to implement and achieve our objectives in the long-range plan; the timing of the completion of the internal review of the reserve revisions, and the extent and time periods involved in any potential restatement of prior years' financial results; potential impact of any restatement of financial results on our access to capital (including borrowings under credit arrangements); changes in reserves estimates based upon internal and third party reserve analyses; the uncertainties associated with the outcome of governmental investigations; the outcome of litigation including shareholder derivative and class actions related to the reserve revision and potential restatement; and other factors described in the company's (and its affiliates') Securities and Exchange Commission filings. While the company makes these statements and projections in good faith, neither the company nor its management can guarantee that anticipated future results will be achieved. Reference must be made to those filings for additional important factors that may affect actual results. The company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements made herein or any other forward-looking statements made by the company, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.