PITTSBURGH, April 14 /PRNewswire/ -- CNG Producing Company, acting alone
or with partners, was high bidder on 19 leases in two recent oil and gas lease
sales, Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 169 and the Texas Land Office Oil and
Gas Lease Sale.
    CNG's net share of the high bids exceeds $8 million.  CNG's participation
will add to its leases in its primary focus area, the Gulf of Mexico's federal
and state waters.
    At sale 169 on March 18 in New Orleans, CNG was high bidder on two
deepwater blocks and one block on the Continental Shelf.  The high bids will
be evaluated by the Minerals Management Service within the next 90 days.  If
the leases are awarded, it will bring CNG's total number of offshore leases to
107 on the Shelf and 27 in deep water.
    In the Texas sale on April 8 in Austin, CNG was high bidder on 16 of 17
bids submitted.  CNG now holds 55 leases in Texas state waters.
    CNG Producing Company is headquartered in New Orleans and explores for and
produces natural gas and oil throughout the United States and in Canada.  It
is a subsidiary of Pittsburgh-based Consolidated Natural Gas Company
(NYSE: CNG), one of the nation's largest producers, transporters, distributors
and marketers of natural gas.

    CNG's recent news releases are available 24 hours a day on the Internet,
by fax machine, or by voice recording.  On the Internet, use CNG's web site:
http://www.cng.com   For faxing, call 1-800-758-5804 on a touch-tone phone and enter
CNG's company extension, which is 203456.  From a menu, you will then be able
to select releases that will be faxed to you immediately without charge.  For
voice recordings, call 1-888-CNG-NEWS.  This line is toll-free.


Web site:  http://www.cng.com