Kinder Morgan Energy Partners Increases Quarterly Distribution To $1.20 Per Unit

KMP’s expectations assume an average WTI crude oil price of approximately $93.75 per barrel in 2012, which approximated the forward curve at the time the budget was prepared. The overwhelming majority of cash generated by KMP’s assets is fee based and is not sensitive to commodity prices. In its CO ₂ 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 2012, the company expects that every $1 change in the average WTI crude oil price per barrel will impact the CO ₂ segment by approximately $6 million, or slightly over 0.1 percent of KMP’s combined business segments’ anticipated segment earnings before DD&A.

KMR also expects to declare distributions of $4.98 per share for 2012. The projections for KMP and KMR do not include any impact from the proposed acquisition of El Paso Corporation (NYSE: EP) by Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE: KMI), which is expected to close in late May this year.

Impact of El Paso Corporation Acquisition on KMP

KMI reached an agreement with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) staff to divest certain KMP assets as a necessary step in order to receive regulatory approval of the transaction. Subject to final FTC management and Commission approval, KMI has agreed to sell Kinder Morgan Interstate Gas Transmission, Trailblazer Pipeline Company, its Casper-Douglas natural gas processing and West Frenchie Draw treating facilities in Wyoming, and the company’s 50 percent interest in the Rockies Express Pipeline. As previously announced, KMI plans to offer (drop down) EP assets to KMP to replace the divested assets. The company expects to drop down all of Tennessee Gas Pipeline and a portion of El Paso Natural Gas contemporaneously with the close of KMP’s divestitures, which are expected to occur in the third quarter this year. It is expected that the combination of the divestitures and the dropdowns will be neutral to KMP’s distribution per unit in 2012 and accretive thereafter.

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