Kinder Morgan profit tops expectations on higher gasoline, jet fuel volumes

(Reuters) -Kinder Morgan beat Wall Street expectations for fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday, as the U.S. pipeline operator transported higher volumes of gasoline and jet fuel with demand rising as people resumed travel and business activity picked up.

Global jet fuel demand, however, has again come under pressure with some countries reimposing border restrictions and other curbs to keep the Omicron coronavirus variant at bay, prompting travelers to reconsider their plans. (https://reut.rs/3nIz0qm)

“We saw a little bit more downside momentum on jet fuel due to omicron variant, but combined, we didn’t really see a meaningful impact as we exited the year,” senior executive Dax Sanders said in the earnings call.

Kinder Morgan reported a 48% jump in jet fuel volumes and 7% jump in gasoline, following a year of coronavirus-driven decline.

The company, which transports nearly 40% of the natural gas consumed in the United States, said its natural gas transport volumes were down 3% due to declines on Colorado Interstate Gas Pipeline as output from Rockies basins fell and El Paso pipeline outages.

Kinder Morgan said in December it expects part of its El Paso natural gas pipeline to remain out of service for “several months” following a blast in Arizona that killed two people in August.

Excluding items, the company earned 27 cents per share, beating Wall Street estimates of 26 cents per share, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

Adjusted profit rose 0.82% to $609 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, from $604 million a year earlier.

(Reporting by Rithika Krishna in Bengaluru;Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)