 | |
 Kinder Morgan headquarters in Houston | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Oil and gas |
| Founded | 1997; 28 years ago (1997) |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | Houston, Texas, U.S. |
Area served | United States and Canada |
Key people |
|
| Services | |
| Revenue |  US$15.1 billion (2024)[1] |
 US$4.38 billion (2024)[1] | |
| US$2.61 billion (2024)[1] | |
| Total assets | US$71.4 billion (2024)[1] |
| Total equity | US$30.5 billion (2024)[1] |
Number of employees | 10,933 (2024)[1] |
| Website | kindermorgan |
Kinder Morgan, Inc. is one of the largestenergy infrastructurecompanies in North America.[2] The company specializes in owning and controllingoil andgas pipelines and terminals.[3]
Kinder Morgan owns an interest in or operates approximately 83,000 miles (134,000 km) of pipelines and 143 terminals.[1] The company's pipelines transport natural gas,liquefied natural gas,ethanol,biodiesel,hydrogen, refined petroleum products,crude oil,carbon dioxide, and more. Kinder Morgan also stores or handles a variety of products and materials at their terminals such as gasoline, jet fuel, ethanol, coal, petroleum coke, and steel.[4]
The company has approximately 72,000 miles (116,000 km) ofnatural gas pipelines[5] and is the largest natural gas pipeline operator in the United States, moving about 40 percent of the natural gas consumed in the country.[6][1][7] The company previously had built a major presence inCanada with theTrans Mountain pipeline, but that infrastructure is now publicly owned and operated.[8] The company's CO2division traditionally providescarbon dioxide (CO2) forenhanced oil recovery projects in North America, but also increasingly forcarbon sequestration efforts.[9][10]
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) was founded in 1997 when a group of investors acquired the general partner of a small, publicly traded pipeline limited partnership (Enron Liquids Pipeline, L.P.) later renamed Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P.[3] Its cofounder Rich Kinder had been the president ofEnron. After Kinder was denied an expected promotion to replaceKenneth Lay as chief executive officer, he departed the company, purchasing its interest in ELP for $40 million.[11] Later that year, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners acquired Santa Fe Pacific Pipeline Partners.[12]
In 1999, Kinder Morgan conducted a reverse merger with KN Energy, a utility and pipeline company.[13]Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America (NGPL), which serves theChicago market, was acquired through this deal. KN Energy became Kinder Morgan's second publicly traded company, Kinder Morgan, Inc. (KMI).[14]
In 2001, Kinder Morgan's third publicly traded company, Kinder Morgan Management, LLC (KMR) was formed to facilitate institutional ownership of KMP equity.[14]
On August 28, 2006, Kinder Morgan announced that it would be taken private in a management-ledleveraged buyout totaling approximately $22 billion. Outside participants in the transaction includeFayez Sarofim,Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Highstar Capital (then owned byAIG).[15] In 2007, Kinder Morgan sold KN Energy toGeneral Electric Co. and Alinda Capital Partners, which renamed the company SourceGas.[16]
KMI began trading again on theNYSE on February 11, 2011, following the largest private-equity backed IPO offering in US history.[14]
In October 2011, Kinder Morgan Inc. agreed to buyEl Paso Corp. for $21.1 billion and gave the combined company 67,000 miles (108,000 km) of gas lines, eclipsingEnterprise Products Partners LP as the biggest US pipeline operator. The transaction was paid for with shares of Kinder Morgan, Kinder Morgan warrants, and a cash portion of $11.5 billion throughBarclays borrowing.[17]
On August 10, 2014, Kinder announced it was moving to full ownership of its partially owned subsidiariesKinder Morgan Energy Partners, Kinder Morgan Management, and El Paso Pipeline Partners in a deal worth $71 billion.[18] The transaction closed on November 26, 2014.[19] Prior to November 26, 2014, the Kinder Morgan group publicly traded companies included Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE: KMI), Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: KMP), Kinder Morgan Management, LLC (NYSE: KMR) and El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. (NYSE: EPB); a merger transaction combined all under Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE: KMI), on November 26, 2014.[20]
On December 23, 2013, Kinder Morgan announced that, through its Kinder Morgan Energy partner subsidiary, it would acquire the US oil tanker operator American Petroleum Tankers and its affiliated company SCT (State Class Tankers) from the US private equity investment firmsBlackstone Group andCerberus Capital Management. APT operates a fleet of five US-flagged MR 50,000 tons—330,000 barrels—oil tankers and has four other similar tankers on order from theGeneral Dynamics shipbuilding companyNASSCO inCalifornia. This acquisition appears to be the first case whereby a pipeline operator will also be able to offer marine transportation.[21]
This acquisition would facilitate the export of US natural resources to overseas markets, and Kinder Morgan had lined up several LNG export customers by July 2014.[22]
During the2021 Texas power crisis, Kinder Morgan posted a nearly $1 billion one-time net profit after the company voluntarily cut back on its own power (saving $116 million) and sold natural gas to electric utility companies at high prevailing prices (gaining $880 million).[23] An analyst atMizuho Securities said Kinder Morgan "was not really on anyone’s list of potential winners fromWinter Storm Uri. Shame on us [for not seeing it]."[23] Most of the extra gas Kinder Morgan sold went to electric utility companies whose usual non-Kinder suppliers had shut down or blacked out as the catastrophe intensified.[23] Possible long-term ramifications of the storm may be that utilities pay more to guarantee uninterrupted gas deliveries from Kinder Morgan instead.[23]
El Paso Corporation was purchased in 2012 with subsidiaries:
Kinder Morgan owns or operates approximately 83,000 miles (134,000 km) of pipelines transporting primarilynatural gas,crude oil, and petroleum products.[27]
In Canada, Kinder Morgan operated (before being bought out byCanada's government) theTrans Mountain oil pipeline which linksAlberta withVancouver,British Columbia, as well as the Cochin pipeline betweenWestern Canada and theAmerican Midwest.
In 2013, Kinder Morgan filed its application to the CanadianNational Energy Board (NEB) for building a second pipeline roughly parallel to the existing Trans Mountain, for transportingdiluted bitumen betweenEdmonton,Alberta, andBurnaby,British Columbia. The new pipeline would nearly triple the transportation capacity from 300,000 to 850,000 barrels per day, for an estimated investment of $6.8 billion.[28] This expansion would enable the export of larger volumes of Alberta'sbituminous sands oil to the U.S. and to Asian countries.[29]
The expansion project had support from the energy industry but opposition fromFirst Nations among environmentalists and others. Protests started in 2014[30] and were continuing in the spring of 2018.[31] TheLiberal Party of Canada controlled Canadian government then purchased TransMountain from Kinder Morgan for C$4.5 billion to make it a government-runpublic works project in an effort to save the pipeline from environmental and political opposition.[8][32]
This high-pressure 30-inch (762 mm) gas transmission pipeline, proposed in 2014, was slated to pass fromWright,New York toDracut,Massachusetts, to help alleviateNew England’s high natural gas and electricity costs caused, in their estimation, by severely limited natural gas transportation capacity currently serving that region.[33] But in 2016, Kinder Morgan suspended its effort to build the 412-mile (663 km) NED pipeline, citing economic difficulties and lack of distribution commitments for the gas.[34]
Likewise, Kinder Morgan's proposed Palmetto Pipeline, designed to go from theGulf Coast to theSoutheast markets, was nixed. Its path would have taken it through 201 miles (323 km) of eastern andcoastal Georgia, and drew opposition from local residents and environmental groups. The company suspended work on the project after theGeorgia General Assembly passed a temporary moratorium on the use of eminent domain for pipeline construction, and commissioned a study to review the project.[35] The company filed an appeal.[36]
Kinder Morgan proposed a 13 miles (21 km) long 36-inch (914 mm) diameter high-pressure natural gas storage loop which would include a 4 miles (6.4 km) pipeline spur throughSandisfield, Massachusetts, crossing the Otis State Forest and using water from Spectacle Pond. The company invoked the U.S.Natural Gas Act to have the needed land condemned so they could seize it by eminent domain.[37] However, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts challenged Kinder Morgan in court, arguing that thestate constitution's Article 97, which protects designated conservation land, forbids construction of a pipeline through protected lands.[38]
_(51042795023).png)
In late summer 2019, Kinder Morgan, EagleClaw Midstream and Altus Midstream Processing launched construction on the Permian Highway Pipeline, a 430-mile pipeline that will carry up to 2.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas from the Waha Hub inPecos County,Texas, to the Gulf Coast.[39] The pipeline would create 2,500 construction jobs and 18 permanent jobs, raise $42 million in additional yearly tax revenues for state and local authorities, and was planned to enter operation in 2021.[39]
 | This"criticism" or "controversy" sectionmay compromise the article'sneutrality. Please helpintegrate negative information into other sections or removeundue focus on minor aspects throughdiscussion on thetalk page.(March 2025) |
In 2009, thePipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) cited Kinder Morgan for violating safety standards regarding the distance between a natural gas pipeline and a "high consequence area" such as a school or hospital; the pipeline was too close for safe operation in case of a leak.[40]
In 2011, PHMSA cited Kinder Morgan for failing to maintain update maps showing pipeline locations, test pipeline safety devices, maintain firefighting equipment, inspect its pipelines as required, and adequately monitor pipes’ corrosion levels.[41] Also in 2011, theU.S. Department of Transportation cited Kinder Morgan for violations including the company's failure to have and follow written startup and shutdown procedures, and failing to have or use other measures to detect abnormal operating conditions, and proposed a fine of $425,000.[42][43]
The 2013Wall Street Journal article "Is Kinder Morgan Scrimping on its Pipelines?" noted that one investment analyst claimed the company was deferring maintenance spending in order to return more cash to its investors.[44]
PHMSA's incident reports for Kinder Morgan's onshore gas transmission pipelines show that faulty infrastructure causes 45% of the significant leaks. Failure of the pipe, cracked welds, and faulty pipeline equipment together account for 28% of pipeline leaks, and corrosion of the pipe causes 17%.[45]
In Texas from 2003 to 2016, Kinder Morgan experienced at least 48 "significant incidents" resulting in fatalities or hospitalization, fires, explosions, or spills.[46] Throughout the U.S. from 2003 to 2016, Kinder Morgan and its subsidiaries' pipelines (of all kinds) were responsible for more than 400 incidents in 24 states, incurring more than 110 federal enforcement actions. Kinder Morgan's natural gas transmission pipeline accidents caused $224 million in property damage.[47]
In July 2007, a Kinder Morgan pipeline got ripped open by an excavator, spilling more than 250,000 liters of oil into a Burnaby neighborhood and 70,000 liters into nearby Burrard Inlet.[48] The crude oil utterly carpeted cars, houses, roads, and lawns. About 250 people had to be evacuated and the spill cost $15 million to clean.
A pipeline rupture on August 15, 2021, near Coolidge, Arizona left two dead and one severely burned.[49]