Kinder Morgan, Inc. to invest more than $170M into Houston Ship Channel improvements
The Houston Ship Channel will benefit from more than $170 million of investment from Kinder Morgan, Inc., with capital funding to support efficiency, product liquidity, and blending capabilities on-site.
“These projects speak to Kinder Morgan’s continued commitment to excellence and to improving our already best-in-class facilities along the Houston Ship Channel,” John Schlosser, president of Terminals for KMI, said. “The announced improvements only serve to enhance our position as the market-leading refined petroleum products storage hub on the U.S. Gulf Coast. This offers our customers unmatched supply optionality and liquidity and modal efficiencies as they aim to maximize storage and blending economics and access domestic and global energy markets in the most cost-effective manner possible.”
The majority of funding — around $125 million — will go to enhancing KMI’s Pasadena Terminal and Jefferson Street Truck Rack. This will include improvements to flow rates on pipeline connections and dock lines, tanks, an expansion of the company’s methyl tert-butyl ether storage and blending platform and a new natural gas inbound connection. All these improvements should be completed by the second quarter of next year.
The remaining $45 million funds will go to development and construction of a butane-on-demand blending system for 25 tanks at KMI’s Galena Park Terminal. In all, a 30,000 barrel butane sphere will be constructed to support this, along with a new inbound C4 pipeline connection, tank and piping modifications, two ship docks and six cross-channel pipelines. All should be completed by the fourth quarter of 2020.
Presently, KMI’s liquids terminal platform in the Houston Ship Channel supports 10 ship docks, 10 ship docks, 38 barge spots, 20 inbound pipelines providing connectivity to 10 regional refineries and chemical plants, 15 outbound pipelines, 14 cross-channel lines and approximately 43 million barrels of storage.
