News
Details

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE: KMI) today announced its preliminary 2015 financial projections. KMI expects to declare dividends of $2.00 per share for 2015, an approximately 16 percent increase over the 2014 dividend budget of $1.72 per share.

Chairman and CEO Richard D. Kinder stated, “We believe the recently closed transaction merging the Kinder Morgan companies paves the way for superior growth at KMI for years to come. We anticipate strong growth in 2015 across our pipeline and storage businesses and currently have a backlog of approximately $18 billion in expansion projects and joint venture investments that have a high certainty of completion. We are generating strong growth even though we have revised our projected West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price to $70 per barrel. As our track record demonstrates, we own and operate a large, diversified portfolio of stable, primarily fee-based energy assets across North America which produce substantial cash flow in virtually all types of market conditions, regardless of commodity prices.”

KMI’s growth in 2015 is expected to be driven by continued high demand for North American energy infrastructure, including the transportation and storage of natural gas, natural gas liquids, crude oil and refined products. Additionally, growth is expected to be driven by contributions from our expansion projects across Kinder Morgan’s business units.

For 2015, KMI expects to:

• Generate approximately $8.2 billion in business segment earnings before DD&A (adding back KMI’s share of joint venture DD&A).
• Declare over $4.4 billion in dividends to its shareholders.
• Generate additional cash of over $500 million in excess of its dividend.
• Invest approximately $4.4 billion in expansions (including contributions to joint ventures) and small acquisitions.
• Finish the year with a Debt to EBITDA ratio of 5.6 times.

As noted above, KMI’s expectations assume an average WTI crude oil price of approximately $70 per barrel in 2015. The overwhelming majority of cash generated by KMI’s assets is fee based and is not sensitive to commodity prices. In its CO₂ segment, the company hedges the majority of its oil production, but does have exposure to unhedged volumes, a significant portion of which are natural gas liquids. For 2015, the company expects that every $1 change in the average WTI crude oil price per barrel will impact the CO₂ segment by approximately $7 million pre tax, or approximately 0.086 percent of KMI’s combined business segments’ anticipated segment earnings before DD&A.

The KMI board of directors will review and approve the 2015 budget at the January board meeting and the budgets will be discussed in detail during the company’s annual analyst meeting on Jan. 28, 2015, in Houston. Kinder Morgan remains committed to transparency and will continue to publish its budgets on the company’s web site, www.kindermorgan.com. The 2015 budget will be the standard by which KMI measures its performance next year, and will be a target for determining employee bonuses.

Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE: KMI) is the largest energy infrastructure company in North America. It owns an interest in or operates approximately 80,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals. The company’s pipelines transport natural gas, gasoline, crude oil, CO₂ and other products, and its terminals store petroleum products and chemicals, and handle bulk materials like coal and petroleum coke. Kinder Morgan is the largest midstream and third largest energy company in North America with an enterprise value of more than $125 billion. For more information please visit www.kindermorgan.com.

This news release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and are based on the beliefs and assumptions of management, based on information currently available to them. Although Kinder Morgan believes that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that such assumptions will materialize. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements herein include those enumerated in Kinder Morgan’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they were made, and except to the extent required by law, Kinder Morgan undertakes no obligation to update or review any forward-looking statement because of new information, future events or other factors. Because of these uncertainties, readers should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.