In news breaking today, Oct 18, Kinder Morgan announced it would cancel its Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline project. The disclosed at a presentation of its financial results for the third quarter.
The cancelled project was designed to move up to 430,000 barrels of natural gas liquid daily from the shale at Utica and Marcellus to the Gulf Coast Texas. Instead, Kinder Morgan stated it would spend its resources on the natural gas pipeline that moves gas from the Gulf coast to the northeast coast.
This isn’t the first abandoned project — earlier this year they backed out of the high-profile Trans Mountain pipeline expansion — but Kinder Morgan exceeded expectations for the third quarter, with a profile of US$693 million. Cash flow certainly isn’t an issue, rising to US$1.1 billion for Q3 2018 — up 4 percent over 2017. A quarterly dividend of 20 cents a share was also announced. This is significantly up from the same quarter of 2017, which came in with net US$334 million.
Trans Mountain Pipeline
The Trans Mountain Pipeline in Canada was previously sold — expected to bring in US$900 million — after the government of Canada would not guarantee the project would be approved. Numerous hurdles have hit the proposed pipeline, notably non-stop environmental protests, challenges in court, and disagreement between the province of British Columbia and the Federal Government. Their interest in the project was sold to the Canadian Government.
