Kinder Morgan to expand Eagle Ford shale pipeline

By MELODIE WARNER

Kinder Morgan plans to spend about $107 million to extend its Kinder Morgan Crude & Condensate pipeline system deeper into the Eagle Ford Shale play in Karnes County, Texas.

Kinder Morgan said it intends to extend the 178-mile pipeline 31 miles from the KMCC DeWitt Station in DeWitt County, Texas, to ConocoPhillips's central delivery facility near Helena in Karnes County.

The expansion is supported by a long term contract with ConocoPhillips, and Kinder Morgan Energy expects to begin construction in July.

Kinder Morgan Energy said it canceled plans for the $2 billion Freedom oil pipeline, a conduit that would have brought direct stream of West Texas crude to refiners on the West Coast. The cancellation underscores the growing difficulty pipeline companies are having in selling new large-scale projects, as oil producers and refiners increasingly rely on railroads to ship crude oil.

The company said at the time it would switch its focus to crude by rail projects in Texas and California.

Kinder Morgan Energy's general partner is owned by Kinder Morgan Inc., one of the largest United States energy firms.