The sale, mandated in a consent order by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission as a condition of approving the merger between Chevron and Texaco, will significantly increase  DEFS’ midstream presence in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. The transaction is expected to close during second quarter 2002. Terms were not disclosed.

The Discovery assets, which were primarily constructed in 1997, extend from the deepwater offshore Louisiana to onshore delivery points approximately 30 miles south of New Orleans. Discovery owns and operates a 600-million-cubic-feet-a-day (MMcf/d) interstate pipeline, including a 30-inch mainline that extends to the edge of the outer continental shelf, a   condensate handling facility, a 600-MMcf/d, cryogenic gas processing plant, a 42,000-barrels-a-day fractionator, 400 MMcf/d of deepwater gathering laterals and a fixed-leg platform at Grand Isle 115 to host deepwater developments.

"Discovery is strategically positioned to serve both shallow and deepwater Eastern Gulf of Mexico producers, including some of the most prolific deepwater areas such as Green Canyon, Mississippi Canyon, Ewing Bank and Atwater Valley," said Mark Borer, senior vice president of DEFS. “Adding these assets will strengthen DEFS’ presence in the growing Eastern Gulf of Mexico.”

DEFS is a premier North American midstream company that leads or is among the nation’s leaders in the gathering and processing of natural gas and production, transportation and marketing of NGLs. Other services include the transportation, marketing and storage of natural gas. DEFS has 2,700 employees and operates in 16 states across the five largest natural gas producing regions in North America, extending from western Canada to the Gulf Coast. The Denver-based company owns and operates 64 plants, 57,000 miles of pipeline and had revenues of $10 billion and assets of $6 billion in 2001. Current handled volumes exceed 8,5 TBtu/d of natural gas and 400,000 Bbls/d of NGLs. DEFS also owns the general partner of TEPPCO Partners, L.P., a publicly traded master limited partnership.

DEFS was formed by combining the Duke Energy and Phillips Petroleum natural gas gathering and processing businesses. Duke Energy owns approximately 70 percent of the joint venture and Phillips Petroleum owns about 30 percent. More information is available about the company at www.defs.com.