Kinder Morgan, Inc. announced a series of projects, totaling over $170 million of capital investment, that will increase efficiency, add product liquidity, and enhance blending capabilities at its Pasadena and Galena Park terminals, part of its best-in-class refined products storage hub on the Houston Ship Channel.
In response to growing customer demand, KMI’s liquids terminal platform now boasts 10 ship docks, 38 barge spots, 20 inbound pipelines providing connectivity to 10 regional refineries and chemical plants, 15 outbound pipelines, 14 cross-channel lines, and approximately 43 million barrels of storage on the Houston Ship Channel, North America’s leading port for energy exports.
KMI will invest approximately $125 million on enhancements to its Pasadena Terminal and Jefferson Street Truck Rack, including:
- Increased flow rates on inbound pipeline connections and outbound dock lines, significantly reducing vessel load times and expanding effective dock capacity.
- Tank modifications that will provide for butane blending and vapor combustion capabilities on 10 storage tanks, with the option to extend those capabilities to an additional 25 tanks or more.
- Expansion of the current methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) storage and blending platform, including a dedicated cross-channel MTBE line serving vessels being loaded at Pasadena’s North Docks.
- A new, dedicated natural gasoline (C5) inbound connection, enhancing customers’ blendstock supply optionality and liquidity.
The improvements, which are expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2020, are supported by a long-term agreement with a major refiner for approximately 2.0 million barrels of refined petroleum products storage capacity at the terminal.
In addition to the enhancements at the Pasadena Terminal, KMI will also invest more than $45 million to develop and construct a butane-on-demand blending system for 25 tanks at its Galena Park Terminal. The project will include construction of a 30,000-barrel butane sphere, a new inbound C4 pipeline connection, as well as tank and piping modifications to extend butane blending capabilities to 25 tanks, two ship docks, and six cross-channel pipelines. The project is supported by a long-term agreement with an investment grade midstream company and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020.
“These projects speak to Kinder Morgan’s continued commitment to excellence and to improving our already best-in-class facilities along the Houston Ship Channel,” said John Schlosser, president of Terminals for KMI. “The announced improvements only serve to enhance our position as the market-leading refined petroleum products storage hub on the U.S. Gulf Coast. This offers our customers unmatched supply optionality and liquidity and modal efficiencies as they aim to maximize storage and blending economics and access domestic and global energy markets in the most cost effective manner possible.”
