News Release

Sept. 23, 2005

PNM Expects To Avoid Natural Gas Curtailment

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NEWS MEDIA CONTACT Susan Sponar Telephone: (505) 241-2768

Albuquerque: PNM continues to track Hurricane Rita and the storm's possible impact on a key processing facility that, if closed down, could affect the supply of natural gas to PNM customers and possibly lead to curtailment.

PNM first issued a news release advising of possible natural gas curtailments Thursday night, promising a follow up today. At this time, PNM continues to view curtailments of natural gas as a remote possibility. Most likely, company officials say, PNM customers will get through Hurricane Rita and its aftermath without service interruptions.

The facility in Rita's projected path, in Mont Belvieu, Texas, is a major natural gas liquids storage and processing plant. Natural gas processing plants remove liquid components from raw natural gas before it enters the PNM system. Most in New Mexico send their liquids to Mont Belvieu on a dedicated pipeline. At this time, that pipeline is still flowing.

"We are confident we will have no impact on our natural gas supply through Friday," said Tommy Sanders, PNM director of natural gas supply. "After landfall of the hurricane, conditions on the system could change. We will be monitoring and updating our customers once we know the impacts from the damage."

In the meantime, PNM is injecting natural gas into storage facilities and securing alternate natural gas supplies to prepare for this possible situation.

PNM will monitor the situation in the Gulf Coast carefully and provide an update after Hurricane Rita strikes and experts have been able to access the impacts.

PNM is the principal subsidiary of PNM Resources, an energy holding company based in Albuquerque, N.M. PNM provides electric utility service to 413,000 customers and natural gas service to 471,000 customers in New Mexico. The company also sells power on the wholesale market in the Western U.S. PNM Resources stock is traded primarily on the NYSE under the symbol PNM. For more information, see the company's Web site at PNM.com.