(Reuters) -U.S. pipeline and terminal operator Kinder Morgan on Wednesday missed Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit and revenue, weighed down by higher costs and weakness in its CO2 segment.
Shares of the company were down 3.8% in trading after the bell.
Kinder Morgan, which is the largest operator of carbon dioxide (CO2) pipelines in North America, said adjusted core profit from the transportation of CO2 fell about 6.3% to $164 million, from $175 million last year.
The segment earnings were impacted by lower crude and natural gas liquids volumes and CO2 sales, the company said.
The terminal operator’s quarterly revenue came in at $3.57 billion, well below analysts’ estimates of $4.13 billion, according to LSEG data.
Kinder Morgan said it has launched a binding open season on its proposed South System Expansion 4 project, designed to increase Southern Natural Gas (SNG) Pipeline’s South Line capacity by 1.2 billion cubic feet per day.
CEO Kimberly Dang said the open season is a part of the company’s efforts to meet significant new natural gas demand for electric generation associated with artificial intelligence operations, crypto-currency mining, data centers and industrial re-shoring.
The company said it continues to have a bullish outlook for natural gas due to demand from LNG export facilities and increased exports from Mexico. This comes at a time when natural gas prices have declined nearly 17.5% since the start of the year.
Adjusted core profit from Kinder’s natural gas pipeline segment rose nearly 2.5% to $1.23 billion, as higher transport and gathering volumes helped partially offset the impact of asset divestitures and lower commodity prices.
The Houston, Texas-based company posted an adjusted profit of 25 cents per share, in the three months ended June 30, narrowly missing analysts’ estimates of 26 cents per share.
(Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
