Several Kinder Morgan renewable diesel infrastructure projects to be in service this quarter

Kinder Morgan Inc. executives provided an overview and update on the energy-infrastructure company’s renewable fuel projects in its fourth-quarter earnings report Jan. 18. According to CEO Steve Kean, approximately 80 percent of Kinder Morgan’s project backlog is in lower-carbon energy services, including renewable diesel and feedstocks associated with renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

In Kinder Morgan’s products-pipelines segment, the company’s Southern California renewable diesel hub, which will connect marine and other delivered renewable diesel supplies in the Los Angeles harbor area to the Colton and San Diego areas by way of its Santa Fe Pacific Pipeline, remains on track to be in full service by the end of March.

“The San Diego modifications are mechanically complete, and construction of the necessary Colton modifications are progressing on track,” the company stated.

The Southern California renewable diesel hub will accommodate up to 840,000 gallons per day of blended diesel throughput across the two inland destination truck racks. The project, according to Kinder Morgan, is anchored by customer commitments.

Kinder Morgan’s Northern California renewable diesel hub, which will connect up to 882,000 gallons of renewable diesel supplies from the San Francisco Bay area to the Sacramento, San Jose and Fresno markets through its northern pipeline system, is also targeted for an in-service date this quarter.

“This Northern California renewable diesel hub will capitalize on existing infrastructure to allow for a first quarter in-service, with potential capacity expandability available in subsequent phases,” the company stated. “Kinder Morgan has secured the necessary customer commitments and is moving forward with completing the required system modifications.”

Kinder Morgan also continues construction work at its Carson Terminal to connect marine supplies of renewable diesel coming into its Los Angeles harbor hub to its truck rack for delivery of unblended renewable diesel to local markets. This project is on track to be in service by the end of this month.

In its terminal segment, Kinder Morgan stated that it is expanding its renewable diesel and SAF feedstock storage and logistics offering in its lower Mississippi River hub to serve the growing renewable fuels market.

The company expects a $52 million expansion project at its Geismar River Terminal in Geismar, Louisiana, to be in service by the fourth quarter of next year. The scope of work in Geismar includes construction of multiple tanks totaling approximately 10.5 million gallons of heated storage capacity as well as various marine, rail and pipeline infrastructure improvements. A new steam-traced and insulated outbound pipeline connection will strategically position Kinder Morgan’s facility “to meet the growing feedstock requirement of a customer’s nearby renewable diesel plant.”

Chevron Renewable Energy Group is expanding renewable diesel production in Geismar from 90 million gallons per year (mgy) to 340 mgy. The nearly $1 billion project broke ground in October 2021 and is expected to be mechanically complete by the end of this year, with full operation expected in 2024.

Kinder Morgan also shared that tank-conversion work is nearing completion on the initial phase of the renewable feedstock storage and logistics hub under development at its Harvey, Louisiana, facility. Upon completion, the facility will serve as a hub in the U.S. where Neste Corp. will store a variety of feedstocks such as used cooking oil. The $80 million project will “produce an attractive return,” Kinder Morgan stated, and is supported by a long-term commercial commitment from Neste. It remains on schedule and is expected to begin operations this quarter.

The Kinder Morgan-Neste arrangement was first announced in September 2021.