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Field Services

Field Services gathers, compresses, treats, processes, transports, trades and markets, and stores natural gas; and produces, transports, trades and markets, and stores NGLs. It conducts operations primarily through DEFS, which is approximately 30% owned by ConocoPhillips and approximately 70% owned by Duke Energy. Field Services gathers natural gas from production wellheads in Western Canada and ten states in the U.S. Those systems serve major gas-producing regions in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, Rocky Mountain, Permian Basin, Mid-Continent and East Texas-Austin Chalk-North Louisiana areas, as well as onshore and offshore Gulf Coast areas. Field Services owns and operates approximately 58,000 miles of natural gas gathering systems with approximately 34,000 active receipt points.

Field Services' natural gas processing operations separate raw natural gas that has been gathered on its systems and third-party systems into condensate, NGLs and residue gas. Field Services processes the raw natural gas at the 56 natural gas processing facilities that it owns and operates and at ten third-party operated facilities in which it has an equity interest.

The NGLs separated from the raw natural gas are either sold and transported as NGL raw mix, or further separated through a fractionation process into their individual components (ethane, propane, butanes and natural gasoline) and then sold as components. Field Services fractionates NGL raw mix at ten processing facilities that it owns and operates and at four third-party-operated facilities in which it has an equity interest. In addition, Field Services operates a propane wholesale marketing business. Field Services sells NGLs to a variety of customers ranging from large, multinational petrochemical and refining companies to small regional retail propane distributors. Substantially all of its NGL sales are at market-based prices.

The residue gas separated from the raw natural gas is sold at market-based prices to marketers or end-users, including large industrial customers and natural gas and electric utilities serving individual consumers. Field Services markets residue gas directly or through its wholly owned gas marketing company and its affiliates. Field Services also stores residue gas at its 6 Bcf natural gas storage facility.

Field Services uses NGL trading and storage at the Mont Belvieu, Texas and Conway, Kansas NGL market centers to manage its price risk and to provide additional services to its customers. Asset based gas trading and marketing activities are supported by ownership of the Spindletop storage facility and various intrastate pipelines which provide access to market centers/hubs such as Waha, Texas; Katy, Texas and the Houston Ship Channel. Field Services undertakes these NGL and gas trading activities through the use of fixed forward sales, basis and spread trades, storage opportunities, put/call options, term contracts and spot marketing trading. Field Services believes there are additional opportunities to grow its services with its customer base.

The following map includes Field Services' natural gas gathering systems, intrastate pipelines, regional offices and supply areas. The map also shows Natural Gas Transmission's interstate pipeline systems.

Field Services also owns Texas Eastern Products Pipeline Company, LLC (TEPPCO), the general partner of TEPPCO Partners, L.P., a publicly traded limited partnership which owns one of the largest common carrier pipelines of refined petroleum products and liquefied petroleum gases in the U.S., as well as, natural gas gathering systems, petrochemical and natural gas liquid pipelines, and is engaged in crude oil transportation, storage, gathering and marketing. TEPPCO is responsible for the management and operations of TEPPCO Partners, L.P.

Field Services' operating results are significantly impacted by changes in average NGL prices, which increased approximately 39% in 2003 compared to 2002. (See "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Results of Operations and Financial Condition, Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk" for a discussion of Field Services' exposure to changes in commodity prices.)

Field Services' activities can fluctuate in response to seasonal demand for natural gas.

Competition

Field Services competes with major integrated oil companies, major interstate and intrastate pipelines, national and local natural gas gatherers, and brokers, marketers and distributors for natural gas supplies, in gathering and processing natural gas and in marketing and transporting natural gas and NGLs. Competition for natural gas supplies is based primarily on the reputation, efficiency and reliability of operations, the availability of gathering and transportation to high-demand markets, the pricing arrangement offered by the gatherer/processor and the ability of the gatherer/processor to obtain a satisfactory price for the producer's residue gas and extracted NGLs; whereas, competition for sales to customers is based primarily upon reliability, services offered, and price of delivered natural gas and NGLs.

Regulation

The intrastate pipelines owned by Field Services are subject to state regulation. To the extent they provide services under Section 311 of the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978, the pipelines are also subject to FERC regulation. However, most of Field Services' natural gas gathering activities are not subject to FERC regulation.

Field Services is subject to the jurisdiction of the EPA and state environmental agencies. (For more information, see "Environmental Matters" in this section.) Some of Field Services' operations are subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal and state transportation agencies.

Recently, the DOT has developed new regulations, effective February 14, 2004, that require gas transmission pipeline operators to develop and implement integrity management programs for gas transmission pipelines located where a leak or rupture could have the greatest impact to life and property in areas referred to as "high consequence areas." The regulations require gas pipeline transmission operators to perform ongoing assessments of pipeline integrity and to implement preventative and mitigative actions. Baseline integrity assessments are required to be completed by December 2012. Reassessments are to be conducted at prescribed intervals. Field Services is presently developing its implementation program to address these new DOT requirements, and is also evaluating the effects of complying with this new DOT regulatory program.

Field Services' Canadian assets are regulated by the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board and the NEB.