Kinder Morgan Reaches FID for $1.4B Mississippi NatGas Pipeline

Kinder Morgan (KMI) reached a final investment decision (FID) Dec. 19 for its $1.4 billion Mississippi Crossing Project (MSX), as the company pushes forward with plans to move more natural gas to the Southeast.

MSX will be a 206-mile, 42- and 36-inch pipeline with an initial capacity of up to 1.5 Bcf/d of natural gas.

The project faces direct competition from two other pipelines, one of which reached FID earlier in December.

“The additional supply will help satisfy growing energy demand and lower energy costs, allowing power generators and other energy suppliers in the region to attract new residential, commercial and industrial opportunities,” Sital Mody, Kinder Morgan’s president of natural gas pipelines, said in a press release.

The project will start near Greenville, Mississippi, and terminate near Butler, Alabama, with connections to KMI’s existing network and some third-party pipelines, the company said. Kinder Morgan is planning for an in-service date in November 2028.

Customers have secured all capacity on the line with long-term, binding agreements, KMI said.

Analysts have said the MSX pipeline will “directly compete” with the Boardwalk Pipeline’s Kosciusko Junction project, which reached FID on Dec. 11. Boardwalk’s pipeline is designed to transport natural gas from the Haynesville, Fayetteville and Appalachian shales to southeastern markets.

Boardwalk’s project has an in-service date just after KMI’s in the first half of 2029. Energy Transfer also has plans for the region and is progressing on its South Mississippi Project, which has not yet reached FID.

Kinder Morgan, with an eye on LNG and gas-fired power demand, has developed a strategy for a growing economy in the South. During the company’s third-quarter earnings call in October, KMI executives said MSX was one of two projects designed to feed growing southeast markets.

“We've been saying for a while that we've got a need for more molecules to move from west to east,” Mody said.

The other project, the Trident Intrastate Pipeline held an open season in October. The line would take natural gas in Texas from the Katy area to the Port Arthur region, where several LNG export projects are under development.

Kinder Morgan CEO Kim Dang added that with the MSX project, "KMI has sanctioned approximately $3.1 billion (KMI share) in expansion capital between the SNG South System 4 Expansion and TGP’s Mississippi Crossing Project. We expect to announce additional projects in the coming months.”