Kinder Morgan building $3.3B natural gas pipeline to New England market

Kinder Morgan announced Wednesday it is buying out Shell’s interest in  Elba Liquefaction Co. joint venture

Natural gas from northeastern shale fields will be moving to New England via a new $3.3 billion pipeline to be built and operated by Houston-based Kinder Morgan.

Steve Kean, Kinder Morgan COO.

Kinder Morgan Inc.’s board of directors approved the investment Thursday, which was first proposed in 2014,

The pipeline, about 91 per cent of which is located around existing utility corridors. will deliver up to 1.3 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas and begin service in November, 2018.

“The demand is there and it’s growing,” Chief Executive Steve Kean said recently.

The company had moved a portion of the project into its backlog, an indication it is feeling good about securing customer commitments and regulatory approval, according to the Dow Jones news service.

The pipeline project is “specifically targeted at serving the Northeast and New England’s identified future market needs,” said Kinder Morgan East Region Pipelines President Kimberly Watson.

Kinder Morgan announced this week it is buying out Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s 49 per cent interest in their proposed Elba Liquefaction Co. joint venture in Georgia.

“We are very pleased to purchase Shell’s equity interest in the joint venture and advance the project with Shell’s continued support and subscription to 100 per cent of the capacity of our world-class Elba Island terminal,” said Watson said Wednesday in a press release.

Shares of Kinder Morgan—which have fallen about 11% this year through Wednesday’s close—rose about 1% in premarket trading, according to Dow Jones.