Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' corporate credit rating on Birmingham, Ala.-based Southern Natural Gas Co. (SNG) is currently linked to our rating on its parent, El Paso Pipeline Partners L.P. (EPB), which in turn is a subsidiary of El Paso Corp. Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI; BB/Stable/--) is purchasing El Paso for $38 billion. When the transaction closes, El Paso will be a wholly owned subsidiary of KMI, and KMI's management will have considerable influence over the company's financial and governance policies. Therefore, we will align El Paso's ratings with KMI's ratings. However, EPB's stand-alone credit profile is stronger relative to those of KMI and El Paso, in our view. We expect that our corporate credit rating on EPB to be,
