Kinder Morgan on target for Texas pipeline construction

Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI) has started construction on Permian Highway Pipeline, a long-haul natural gas pipeline from the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast.

And despite a court case, the projected in-service date for the pipeline is still early 2021, said Dax Sanders, Kinder Morgan’s executive vice president and chief strategy officer. Sanders was speaking at Credit Suisse’s 25th Annual energy Summit on March 4.

The company had faced legal opposition when the city of Austin, city of San Marcos and others asked the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to stop Kinder Morgan from moving forward on the project. Opponents said in their initial complaint filed with the court that the project threatened the habitat of endangered species, including the golden cheek warbler.

The plaintiffs asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order on the project, but the court declined to do so on Feb. 14, according to court documents.

That cleared the way for Kinder Morgan to begin construction. Sanders is confident the project will proceed as expected. The company had already pushed back the start date for the asset from the fourth quarter of 2020 as of its third-quarter conference call with investors in 2019.

Although the company is moving forward on Permian Highway, it still has not yet secured customers for another pipeline project — Permian Pass — and it won’t make a commitment to do so until it has contractual support, Sanders said.

Kinder Morgan produced $13.21 billion in 2019 revenue, which translated to a net income of $2.24 billion. The company employed 11,086 people full time at the start of 2020, up slightly from 11,012 a year prior, according to Kinder Morgan’s two most recent annual financial reports.

By Joshua Mann – Senior Reporter

Courtesy of Houston Business Journal

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2020/03/05/kinder-morgan-on-target-for-texas-pipeline.html