NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) June 2, 2011--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it assigned its 'BB' senior unsecured debt rating to natural gas transportation and storage company Southern Natural Gas Co.'s (SNG) and subsidiary's Southern Natural Issuing Corp.'s $300 million senior unsecured notes due 2021. At the same time, we assigned a recovery rating of '3' to this debt, indicating our expectation that creditors can expect meaningful (50% to 70%) recovery if a payment default occurs. SNG intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes. As of March 31, 2011, SNG had $910 million in balance sheet debt. SNG is a general partnership that is 85% owned by El Paso Pipeline Partners
