The House of Lords has today found in favour of the owners of the Central Area Transmission System (CATS) in the dispute between CATS and Teesside Gas Transportation Limited (TGTL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Enron. This overturns the Court of Appeal's July 1999 decision in favour of TGTL. BG Group has a 51.18 per cent interest in CATS.

TGTL is required to pay back to the CATS owners the money paid to TGTL following the Court of Appeal's decision plus interest.

BG's share of the payment will be approximately £34 million plus interest of approximately £17 million.

Notes:

BG Group has a 51.18 per cent interest in the CATS pipeline and terminal system that began transporting gas from the Everest and Lomond fields in the Central North Sea in 1993. It currently handles around 1.7 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas.

The owners of the CATS pipeline and terminal system, in addition to BG, are: BP (Operator) 29.53%; Amerada Hess 17.72%; Phillips 0.66%; TotalFinaElf 0.57%; and Agip 0.34%)