Kinder Morgan Energy Partners has announced it has purchased certain terminal assets from US Development and A&L Trucking in two separate transactions representing a total investment of about $63 million. The assets include two rail terminals and a dry-bulk storage and loading operation in southern California and the Texas Gulf Coast area.
“These strategically located terminals complement existing facilities that we own in the Los Angeles and Houston areas and will provide terminaling services to move growing supplies of ethanol into high-demand markets and handle bulk product imports,” says Jeff Armstrong, president of Houston-based KMP Terminals.
Included in the transaction is the purchase of USD’s Lomita rail terminal in Carson, Calif., which is the highest volume rail ethanol terminal on the West Coast. The terminal has the capability to receive and offload as many as 100 railcars within a 24-hour period, according to KMP; the quick turnaround time makes the facility especially valuable for refiners and producers working to meet California’s growing demand for ethanol.
KMP also purchased the USD rail facility located in Deer Park, Texas, which offers a variety of loading, storage and staging services for up to 900 cars at a time. In addition, the adjacent petcoke terminal that KMP purchased in 2005 gives the rail facility access to the Houston Ship Channel for the first time. In turn, the acquisition maximizes the value of the company’s existing deepwater terminal by providing customers with both rail and vessel transportation options for bulk products, KMP says.
As part of the A&L Trucking purchase, KMP acquired equipment and infrastructure for storing and loading bulk steel at a 30-acre site along the Houston Ship Channel leased through the Port of Houston. KMP says the facility provides its customers with another import location for their products and complements its nearby bulk facility purchased from General Stevedores in 2005, which accommodates domestically delivered steel products.
KMP is one of the largest publicly traded pipeline limited partnerships in America and owns or operates more than 27,000 miles of pipelines and about 145 terminals. The general partner of KMP is owned by Kinder Morgan, one of the largest energy transportation, storage and distribution companies in North America; combined, the two companies have an enterprise value of more than $35 billion.
