KM-Valero joint venture pipeline headquarters to locate in Covington, La.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners-Valero pipeline headquarters will be locating in the city of Covington, announced Covington Mayor Mike Cooper at the Covington city council meeting on Oct. 18.

The company will have about 20 professional positions, some hiring locally, some from their corporate offices elsewhere and will occupy about 7,000 square feet in 2000 Covington Centre.

Cooper said the company plans to become involved in local business organizations including the Covington Business Association, patronizing local restaurants and businesses in the course of the business day and plan on being here for two to three years.

The company is constructing a 136-mile, 16-inch pipeline to transport gasoline, jet fuel and diesel from refineries in Norco to an existing petroleum transportation hub in Collins, Miss. owned by Plantation Pipe Line Co., 51 percent of which is owned by Kinder Morgan. Kinder Morgan will operate the pipeline.

Kinder Morgan is partnering with Valero Energy Corp. that will own Parkway Pipeline LLC. The pipeline will have an initial capacity of 110,000 barrels per day with the ability to expand to more than 200,000 b/d, according to a news release.

Pending receipt of environmental and regulatory approvals, the approximately $220 million pipeline project is expected to be in service by mid-year 2013.

About $140 million of the construction cost will be spent in Louisiana and $80 million in Mississippi. Local property tax impact is estimated to be $3.3 million in Louisiana and $2.5 million in Mississippi, according to the news release.

According to the new release, "The economic impact of construction for a project of this size will be significant as workers will reside locally and rely upon local businesses, housing and support services during the construction period. Local businesses will benefit directly from servicing these workers and the project directly."

Kinder Morgan’s Plantation Pipe Line to ship biodiesel to Southeast

ATLANTA, Ga. – What is being described as a “technological breakthrough” in transporting biofuels soon will provide a new supply of bio-diesel to fuel distributors across metro Atlanta.
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners L.P. successfully tested last fall the movement of 20,000 bbls. of a biodiesel blend through the Plantation Pipeline system, which runs through northern Georgia on its way from Louisiana to Virginia, according to a report filed Jan. 21 with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Based on those results, the project could be in commercial operation on a limited basis within 30 to 60 days with full ramp-up late this year, said Mark Evans, the Houston-based company’s director of business development.
The biodiesel pipeline innovation comes on the heels of ethanol shipment by pipeline which Kinder Morgan has innovated in Florida.
The Tampa-to-Orlando ethanol project, which went on line in December, made the Central Florida Pipeline the first transmarket gasoline pipeline in the country to transport biofuel.
Until now, shipments of biofuels have been limited to trucks and trains because of problems running ethanol or biodiesel through pipelines. Evans said ethanol corrodes the pipes while biodiesel tends to contaminate other fuels that run through the system, particularly jet fuel.