El Paso Corporation says that its wholly owned subsidiary, El Paso Exploration & Production Company, and certain of its subsidiaries have obtained a 364-day borrowing base facility that is collateralized by an estimated 0.4 trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas and oil reserves.

The facility will be effective December 30, 2008. The facility is available for general corporate purposes. El Paso Exploration & Production Company has no current plans to draw upon it.

"The new facility provides El Paso with additional liquidity so that we can meet any potential future challenges during these turbulent times," said Mark Leland, chief financial officer of El Paso Corporation. Today's announcement follows a December 9, 2008 debt offering, which provided $438 million of net cash proceeds.

The floating rate facility is supported by a group of commercial banks, and has a borrowing cost of LIBOR plus 3.50 percent.

Tags: El Paso Corporation