23.10.15. Kinder Morgan’s terminals division produced third quarter earnings of US$263 million, up 6 percent on the same period in 2014. The terminals business is expected to be below its published annual budget of 20 percent growth.
“Approximately 21 percent of the growth in the third quarter 2015 was organic versus the same period in 2014, with the remainder coming from acquisitions,” said president and CEO Steve Kean.
The increase in third quarter earnings was led by strong performance at KM’s liquids terminals, driven by various expansions including incremental capacity at Edmonton South, as well as contributions from new operations at the Geismar Methanol terminal, Deer Park Rail terminal and the Edmonton Rail Terminal, a 50-50 joint venture with Imperial Oil.
The Jones Act tanker and Vopak terminals acquisitions also contributed significantly to growth in this sector. But earnings were affected by a softening of the domestic steel market and continued weakness in global coal markets which has led to a decline in coal export volumes of 50 percent in the third quarter.
For the third quarter, terminals and products pipelines combined handled 25.7 million barrels of ethanol, down from 27.9 million barrels for the same period last year. The decline reflects the company’s previously announced sale of certain smaller terminals to Watco Companies in exchange for an equity interest in Watco as well as the opportunistic conversion of storage from ethanol to gasoline service in certain markets. KMI currently handles approximately one-third of the ethanol used in the United States.
