HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rockies Express Pipeline LLC., today announced that service began today on the portion of the Rockies Express-East (REX-East) pipeline from Audrain County, Mo., to the Lebanon Hub in Warren County, Ohio, with capacity up to 1.6 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas per day. This section of REX-East includes interconnects to NGPL, Ameren, Trunkline, Midwestern Gas Transmission, Panhandle Eastern, Texas Eastern, Dominion Transmission and Columbia Gas, with future interconnects to Texas Gas, ANR, Citizens and Vectren. The remainder of the 639-mile, 42-inch-diameter REX-East pipeline eastward to Clarington, Ohio, is expected to be in service by Nov. 1, 2009.

"We are delighted that the majority of REX-East is now in service, providing our shippers access to new markets," said Steve Kean, president of Kinder Morgan's Natural Gas Pipelines group. "We now look forward to bringing the final leg of the REX project to Clarington, Ohio, into service by Nov. 1."

When completed, the entire 1,679-mile REX pipeline will have a capacity of approximately 1.8 Bcf per day, virtually all of which has been contracted under long-term firm commitments from creditworthy shippers.

Rockies Express Pipeline LLC is a joint venture of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE:KMP - News), Sempra Pipelines and Storage, a unit of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE - News), and ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP - News), and is one of the largest natural gas pipelines to be constructed in North America. KMP is overseeing construction of the project and operates the pipeline.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners is a leading pipeline transportation and energy storage company in North America. KMP owns an interest in or operates more than 26,000 miles of pipelines and 170 terminals. Its pipelines transport natural gas, gasoline, crude oil, CO2 and other products, and its terminals store petroleum products and chemicals and handle bulk materials like coal and petroleum coke. KMP is also the leading provider of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery projects in North America. One of the largest publicly traded pipeline limited partnerships in America, KMP has an enterprise value of over $20 billion. The general partner of KMP is owned by Knight Inc. (formerly Kinder Morgan, Inc.), a private company.

Sempra Pipelines & Storage develops, builds and operates natural gas pipelines and storage facilities in Latin America and the United States. It also manages natural gas and electricity distribution in Argentina, Chili, Mexico and Peru. Sempra Energy, based in San Diego, is a Fortune 500 energy-services holding company with 2008 revenues of nearly $11 billion. The Sempra Energy companies' 13,600 employees serve more than 29 million consumers worldwide.

ConocoPhillips is an international, integrated energy company with interests around the world. Headquartered in Houston, the company has more than 30,000 employees and $143 billion of assets. For more information, go to www.conocophillips.com.

This news release includes forward-looking statements. Although Kinder Morgan believes that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that such assumptions will materialize. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements herein are enumerated in Kinder Morgan's Forms 10-K and 10-Q as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.