Washington (Platts)--21Mar2008

Boardwalk Pipeline Partners' planned natural gas pipeline to deliver up
to 1.73 Bcf/d from Texas and Oklahoma to the US Midwest, Northeast and
Southeast can be built with minimal environmental harm if mitigating measures
are taken, US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff said Friday.

Boardwalk in June asked FERC to approve its Gulf Crossing pipeline, which
would comprise about 355 miles of 42-inch-diameter pipeline from Sherman,
Texas, to a new interconnection with the company's Gulf South Pipeline at
Tallulah, Louisiana. The new line would be capable of moving production from
fields in the Barnett Shale, the Caney/Woodford Shale and other production
areas in Texas and Oklahoma.

FERC staff, in a final environmental impact statement on the project,
said they believed the pipeline would cause minimal environmental because,
among other things, the project would follow existing utility rights of way
for about 182 miles, or 51% of the proposed mainline route.

In addition, the EIS said the developer has agreed to compensate for all
unavoidable wetland impact and would implement an environmental inspection and
monitoring program.

FERC prepared the EIS in cooperation with the US Fish and Wildlife
Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Louisiana Department
of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The project must now be approved by the five-member commission.