By Katha Kalia Jan 21 (Reuters) – U.S. pipeline operator Kinder Morgan said on Wednesday it remains bullish on long-term U.S. natural gas demand, citing rising electricity consumption from data centers, and beat Wall Street expectations for fourth-quarter profit. The company was helped by higher volumes of natural gas transported through its pipelines in the […]
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Kinder Morgan beats quarterly profit estimates, stays bullish on natgas demand
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By Katha Kalia
Jan 21 (Reuters) – U.S. pipeline operator Kinder Morgan said on Wednesday it remains bullish on long-term U.S. natural gas demand, citing rising electricity consumption from data centers, and beat Wall Street expectations for fourth-quarter profit.
The company was helped by higher volumes of natural gas transported through its pipelines in the quarter.
U.S. midstream companies such as Kinder Morgan are benefiting from strong oil and gas production in the Permian Basin, record liquefied natural gas exports and rising power demand from artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Shares rose 1.4% to $28.99 in extended trading.
The growth was driven by new natural gas expansion projects, contributions from the acquisition of a natural gas gathering and processing system from Outrigger Energy and strong demand from related services, Chief Financial Officer David Michels said on a call.
Kinder Morgan said it transported about 48.4 trillion British thermal units of natural gas per day during the quarter, up from 44.5 trillion Btu per day a year earlier.
The company, which transports roughly 40% of U.S. natural gas output, said its total project backlog rose to $10 billion from $9.3 billion in the previous quarter.
U.S. natural gas futures rose over 11% sequentially in the fourth quarter, snapping a falling streak that started in the second quarter.
Kinder Morgan also expects to begin its Hiland Express pipeline conversion project by the end of the first quarter of this year.
The Houston, Texas-based firm posted an adjusted profit of 39 cents per share for the three months ended December 31, compared with analysts’ estimate of 37 cents per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.
However, its total delivery volumes, which also include refined products such as jet fuel and diesel fuel, fell to 2,035 thousand barrels per day during the quarter, from 2,105 thousand bpd a year ago.
(Reporting by Katha Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)