KINDER MORGAN, INC.

Beginnings

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) was founded in 1997 when a group of investors acquired the general partner of a small, publicly traded pipeline limited partnership (Enron Liquids Pipeline, L.P.) later renamed Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. Its cofounder Rich Kinder had been the president of Enron. After Kinder was denied an expected promotion to replace Kenneth Lay as chief executive officer, he departed the company, purchasing its interest in ELP for $40 million. Later that year, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners acquired Santa Fe Pacific Pipeline Partners.

In 1999, Kinder Morgan conducted a reverse merger with KN Energy, a utility and pipeline company. Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America (NGPL), which serves the Chicago market, was acquired through this deal. KN Energy became Kinder Morgan's second publicly traded company, Kinder Morgan, Inc. (KMI).

In 2001, Kinder Morgan's third publicly traded company, Kinder Morgan Management, LLC (KMR) was formed to facilitate institutional ownership of KMP equity.

Leveraged buyout

On August 28, 2006, Kinder Morgan announced that it would be taken private in a management-led leveraged buyout totaling approximately $22 billion. Outside participants in the transaction include Fayez Sarofim, Goldman Sachs Alternatives and Highstar Capital (then owned by AIG ). In 2007, Kinder Morgan sold KN Energy to General Electric Co. and Alinda Capital Partners, which renamed the company SourceGas.

KMI began trading again on the NYSE on February 11, 2011, following the largest private-equity backed IPO offering in US history.

Subsequent events

In October 2011, Kinder Morgan Inc. agreed to buy El Paso Corp. for $21.1 billion and gave the combined company 67,000 miles (108,000 km) of gas lines, eclipsing Enterprise Products Partners LP as the biggest US pipeline operator. The transaction was paid for with shares of Kinder Morgan, Kinder Morgan warrants, and a cash portion of $11.5 billion through Barclays borrowing.

On August 10, 2014, Kinder announced it was moving to full ownership of its partially owned subsidiaries Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, Kinder Morgan Management, and El Paso Pipeline Partners in a deal worth $71 billion. The transaction closed on November 26, 2014. Prior to November 26, 2014, the Kinder Morgan group publicly traded companies included Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE: KMI), Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: KMP), Kinder Morgan Management, LLC (NYSE: KMR) and El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. (NYSE: EPB); a merger transaction combined all under Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE: KMI), on November 26, 2014.

American Petroleum Tankers

On December 23, 2013, Kinder Morgan announced that, through its Kinder Morgan Energy partner subsidiary, it would acquire the US oil tanker operator American Petroleum Tankers and its affiliated company SCT (State Class Tankers) from the US private equity investment firms Blackstone Group and Cerberus Capital Management. APT operates a fleet of five US-flagged MR 50,000 tons—330,000 barrels—oil tankers and has four other similar tankers on order from the General Dynamics shipbuilding company NASSCO in California. This acquisition appears to be the first case whereby a pipeline operator will also be able to offer marine transportation.

This acquisition would facilitate the export of US natural resources to overseas markets, and Kinder Morgan had lined up several LNG export customers by July 2014.

Winter Storm Uri

During the 2021 Texas power crisis, Kinder Morgan posted a nearly $1 billion one-time net profit after the company voluntarily cut back on its own power (saving $116 million) and sold natural gas to electric utility companies at high prevailing prices (gaining $880 million). An analyst at Mizuho Securities said Kinder Morgan "was not really on anyone’s list of potential winners from Winter Storm Uri. Shame on us [for not seeing it]." Most of the extra gas Kinder Morgan sold went to electric utility companies whose usual non-Kinder suppliers had shut down or blacked out as the catastrophe intensified. Possible long-term ramifications of the storm may be that utilities pay more to guarantee uninterrupted gas deliveries from Kinder Morgan instead.