Kinder Morgan saw its net income increase by more than 14% in the first quarter of 2019, from the same period a year ago, according to the company’s financial statement released on Wednesday.
North America's largest energy infrastructure company said its net income rose by 14.6% to $556 million in the January-March period of this year, from $485 million during the same period of 2018.
Revenue increased slightly by 0.3% during that time to reach $3.43 billion in the first three months of 2019, from $3.42 billion in the first quarter of last year.
"Contributions from our Natural Gas Pipelines segment were up substantially compared to the first quarter of 2018," Chief Executive Officer Steve Kean said in the statement.
"We continued to make progress on two projects critical to the development of resources in the Permian Basin: the Gulf Coast Express and Permian Highway Pipeline projects, as well as our Elba Liquefaction facility," he added.
Kinder Morgan started the construction of the $1.75 billion Gulf Coast Express Pipeline project in May 2018. With operations start expected as of October 2019, the pipeline will carry 2 billion cubic feet (56.6 million cubic meters) per day of natural gas from the Permian Basin in western Texas to the Agua Dulce located in southeast Texas.
The $2 billion Permian Highway Pipeline project will provide natural gas from the Permian Basin to the U.S.' Gulf Coast. Having 2.1 billion cubic feet (59.5 million cubic meters) per day (bcf/d) of capacity, it is expected to become operational in late 2020.
The Elba Liquefaction project will be constructed in two phases. Phase I will have six liquefaction units equal to an output capacity of 210 million cubic feet (5.95 million cubic meters) per day. Phase II will include four liquefaction units equal to an output capacity of 140 million cubic feet (3.96 million cubic meters) per day.
Initial liquefaction units in the $2 billion project went into service in mid-2018, while the final units will go online this year, according to Kinder Morgan.
By Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency