Pipeline history
Kinder Morgan bids $21.1 billion for El Paso Energy in one of the biggest energydeals in history
- Rich Kinder
In what the The New York Times calls "one of the biggest energy deals in history," Houston-based Kinder Morgan announced plans Sunday to buy El Paso Corp. for $21.1 billion in cash and stock.
With 67,000 miles of pipeline across the North American continent, the merged operation will create the largest natural gas pipeline company in the nation. Kinder Morgan CEO Rich Kinder told the Times the deal was “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
With a surge in natural gas and oil production from shale and other rock formations, Kinder Morgan is betting that the demand for pipeline capacity will skyrocket, even though the current increase in output has produced a glut and caused prices to tumble.
The deal is expected to close by the middle of 2012. The combined company will keep the Kinder Morgan name.