El Paso faces record $2.3 mln fine in US blast

WASHINGTON Dec 1 (Reuters) - El Paso Corp EP.N faces a record $2.3 million fine for a 2006 natural gas pipeline blast that killed a worker who struck the line with a bulldozer, the U.S. Department of Transportation said on Tuesday.

The department's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said El Paso and its subsidiary, the Colorado Interstate Gas Company, "did not comply with federal regulations covering the locating and marking of buried pipeline facilities."

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner)

((timothy.gardner@thomsonreuters.com; RM: timothy.gardner.reuters.com@reuters.net; 646-234-6058))

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