El Paso Corporation selects Virtual Geomatics VG4D Production Manager Suite of LiDAR software.

Austin, Texas, January 24, 2009 - El Paso Natural Gas, a subsidiary of El Paso Corporation, has selected Virtual Geomatics VG4D Production Manager Suite of LiDAR Software tools for rapid and cost effective management of pipeline mapping corridors. The company expects the VG4D software to allow it to easily manage its LiDAR data, perform filtering, visualization and contour generation for pipeline mapping operations. The VG4D tools deliver El Paso a new level of agility giving engineers and analysts full control over their own data, thereby positively impacting project production timetables and project costs for pipeline planning projects.

The VG4D Production Manager Suite is built on a decade of high-volume, high-quality award winning production experience. The software's key characteristics, accuracy, dependability, ease-of-use and efficiency, makes it a sure winner in a marketplace desperately needing a single-sourced, wholly integrated production management solution.

Utility transportation companies, such as El Paso Corporation, routinely see major and minor changes in their active projects. For example, an original proposed alignment for a pipeline route may need to be modified. Alternative alignments must be evaluated and a new alignment needs to be proposed and agreed upon often when a project is already under way and there is no time to lose.

When a proposed route must be changed, new mapping activities must take place to cover the new alignment quickly and efficiently. In the past, tools were complex and expensive, so subcontractors were more often used for the mapping data processing. This reliance on subcontractors often introduced costly delays and complicated regulatory restrictions. By using Virtual Geomatics new VG4D Production Manager software tools, geospatial analysts have complete control over all elements of the LiDAR data evaluation and processing and can avoid costly delays and compliance risks.

“By having this technology in-house, now we are quickly able to analyze our data to come up with alternative routes for proposed pipeline projects. We can handle changes in-house, thereby staying on schedule, without having to send out the new proposed alignments and wait for a third party to turn around the alternative routes and send them back to us before we can proceed with our engineering design work,” said Matt Simmons, Senior GIS Technician at El Paso.

About El Paso Corporation
El Paso Corporation provides natural gas and related energy products in a safe, efficient, and dependable manner. El Paso owns North America's largest interstate natural gas pipeline system and one of North America's largest independent natural gas producers. For more information, visit http://www.elpaso.com.

About Virtual Geomatics
Virtual Geomatics provides innovative customer-centric LiDAR software solutions for geospatial professionals and their customers. With over a decade of LiDAR production projects providing the foundation for our VG4D software suite, VG4D sets a new standard for end-to-end production software capability including project/data management, filtering, visualization, rigorous quality controls and exploitation capabilities for end-users. For more information, visit www.virtualgeomatics.com or contact sales@virtualgeomatics.com.