Kinder Morgan Sells 49% Stake in Elba Island LNG to EIG for $555M

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Elba Island LNG facility

Kinder Morgan’s Elba Island, Georgia (near Savannah) LNG export facility received a green light from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last June (see KM’s Elba Island LNG Export Plant Approved by FERC). Kinder has since started construction at the site. In December, the U.S. Dept. of Energy granted Elba Island permission to export LNG to non-Free Trade Agreement countries (see Elba Island LNG Update: Non-FTA Exports Approved, Dump Truck City). What does the Georgia’s Elba LNG plant have to do with Marcellus/Utica? The Williams Transco pipeline runs through Georgia. Kinder owns and operates the 200-mile Elba Express pipeline, which connects the LNG facility to the Transco. Currently Elba Island imports LNG, getting it to market via the Transco. However, Williams has been on a mission to send Marcellus gas south–including to Georgia (see Marcellus Gas Heading to Georgia via Transco Pipeline). Marcellus Shale gas will, via the Transco, be at least some of, if not the primary, source for gas exported from the Elba Island facility. Although work continues at the facility, Kinder has decided they can use some money to help finish the project–so they’ve just sold a 49% stake in the project to investment firm EIG Global Energy Partners for $555 million. When the project is complete, Kinder says it will be worth $1.3 billion. So EIG got 49% of a $1.3 billion project (or $637 million worth of value) for $555 million. Sounds like EIG got a good deal, or perhaps Kinder was a tad desperate for the cash?…

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