Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI), an energy stocks has announced selling a 49 percent stake it holds in Elba Liquefaction Company LLC to EIG Global Energy Partners.
In the transaction, EIG Global Energy Partners will pay Kinder Morgan around $385 million in cash up front. This will consist of around $215 million that EIG Global Energy Partners’ initial capital expenditures and an additional $170 million appreciation interest that KMI has earned since the project was developed. The Washington, D.C and Houston based company will fund its portion of future capital expenditures.
In the deal, 10 liquefaction units in addition to ancillary equipment to be constructed as part of the ELC project at Elba Island LNG facility will be owned by ELC. Elba Island terminal is owned by Kinder Morgan’s Southern LNG Company LLC.
According to Kinder Morgan estimates, the project will cost approximately $1.3 billion excluding interest on capital assets. Construction of the project started on November 1st and the liquefaction units will operational in 2018 or early 2019. Cumulatively, the project will have an annual capacity of around 2.5 million tons of LNG for export. This amounts to about 350 million cubic feet daily production capacity of natural gas. The project is supported by a 20 year contract with Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A) based in Hague.
Before acquiring the additional and remaining 49 percent stake that Shell had in the Elba Island project, Kinder Morgan already owned 51% stake in the project. At that time KMI planned to invest an additional $630 million in the project adding its total investment in the project to about $2.1 billion.
The company in January 2016 announced its plans to dispose off stakes in Palmetto pipeline and ELC so as to create partnerships. In a presentation then, Kinder Morgan executives said it was of the assumption that it would share the project’s cost.
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After the project was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in June it had already been approved by the Department of Energy to export natural gas to countries with free trade agreements. The company was also granted approval to export to non-FTA countries.
