Q4 2025 Kinder Morgan Inc Earnings Call

January 21, 2026

Want to listen only mode until the question and answer session of today's conference. At that time, you may press star followed by the number. 1 to ask a question, please unmute your phones and state, your name and prompted.

Today's conference is being recorded if you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time, it is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Rich Kinder executive, chairman of Kinder Morgan.

Speaker #1: At that time, you may press star, followed by the number one, to ask a question. Please unmute your phones and state your name when prompted.

Speaker #1: Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Rich Kinder, Executive Chairman.

I thank you Michelle, before we begin as usual, I'd like to remind you that kmi's earnings release today and this call include forward-looking statements within the meeting of the private Securities, litigation Reform, Act of 1995, and the Securities, and Exchange Act of 1934, as well as certain non-gaap Financial measures.

Speaker #1: of Kinder Morgan. thank

Speaker #2: Thank you, Michelle. Before we begin, as usual, I'd like to remind you that KMI’s earnings release today and this call include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as well as certain non-GAAP financial measures.

Operator: Before we begin, as usual, I'd like to remind you that KMI's earnings released today and this call include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as well as certain non-GAAP financial measures. Before making any investment decisions, we strongly encourage you to read our full disclosures on forward-looking statements and use of non-GAAP financial measures set forth at the end of our earnings release, as well as review our latest filings with the SEC for important material assumptions, expectations, and risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated and described in such forward-looking statements. I have only two comments before turning the call over to our CEO, Kim Dang, and the team.

For making any investment decisions. We strongly encourage you to read our full disclosures on forward-looking statements and use of non-gaap financial measures set forth. At the end of our earnings release, as well as review, our latest filings with the SEC for important material, assumptions, expectations and risk factors. That may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated and described in such forward-looking statements.

Q4 2025 Kinder Morgan Inc Earnings Call

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Kinder Morgan

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Q4 2025 Kinder Morgan Inc Earnings Call

KMI

Wednesday, January 21st, 2026 at 9:30 PM

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Operator: This astounding growth is enormously beneficial to the midstream sector, and especially to companies like Kinder Morgan that have extensive pipeline networks along the Texas, Louisiana Gulf Coast, which is the location of most of the export terminals present and future. Our throughput agreements for delivery of the feed gas are essentially take-or-pay in nature, which gives us great confidence in the resulting cash flow. My second comment is specific to Kinder Morgan. You will hear from Kim and the team that we finished 2025 very strong compared to 2024 and to our budget for 2025. And as you know from our earlier release of the budget for 2026, we expect more good performance this year. Once again, the chief driver of our success in both years is the extraordinary strength of our natural gas assets. And with that, I'll turn it over to Kim. Okay. Thanks, Rich.

Operator: As Rich said, we had a fantastic Q4, producing record results for the quarter and the year, much stronger than we anticipated when we announced our Q3 results. For the quarter, Adjusted EBITDA was up 10% compared to the Q4 of last year, and Adjusted EPS grew 22%. Those are big numbers for a stable midstream business like ours. The biggest driver of the outperformance was natural gas. It had an outstanding quarter and year. Our project backlog has increased by approximately $650 million to $10 billion. We added a little over $900 million in new projects, which was offset by $265 million of projects placed in service. The two most significant additions are Florida Gas Transmission projects, both supported by long-term shipper contracts. Our backlog multiple remains below 6x, which will drive very nice growth over the next few years.

Operator: In addition, we're working on greater than $10 billion in project opportunities beyond the backlog. While we won't be successful on all of those, it gives you a sense of the tremendous market opportunity. We believe we will continue to find attractive opportunities for years to come. Wood Mackenzie currently projects the US natural gas market will continue to grow over the longer term, with an incremental 20 Bcf a day of demand growth between 2030 and 2035. Now, a quick update on our three largest projects: MSX, South System 4, and Trident. We started construction on Trident last week. And for MSX and South System 4, we received our FERC scheduling order. The FERC anticipates issuing our final certificate by 31 July, which is a schedule we requested but ahead of our original expectation.

Operator: There's still a lot of work ahead, but all three projects are on budget and on or ahead of schedule. Another positive: last week, S&P upgraded KMI to BBB Plus. That shows our balance sheet is in great shape. On the management front, I want to take a moment to recognize Tom Martin, who will retire at the end of this month for his wise counsel and the value he has helped deliver to our shareholders over his 23 years with the company. As we have previously announced, Tom will continue to serve as an advisor to the OTC and the board, so we'll continue to benefit from his perspective. We're excited to have Dax, who many of you know from his long tenure at the company, step into the president's role. I'm looking forward to working with him closely as we continue to execute on our strategy.

Operator: To sum it up, we had a great quarter and year. We also strengthened our balance sheet and advanced key projects. With a $10 billion backlog and tremendous potential beyond that, we're set up for a very exciting future. With that, I'll turn it over to David. Oh, Tom. Thanks, Kim. I appreciate the kind words. Starting with the natural gas business unit, transport volumes were up 9% in the quarter versus the Q4 of 2024, primarily due to increased LNG feed gas deliveries on Tennessee Gas Pipeline. For the full year, transport volumes were up 5% over 2024. Natural gas gathering volumes were up 19% in the quarter from the Q4 of 2024 across all of our G&P assets, with the largest impact being from our Haynesville system. Sequentially, total gathering volumes were up 9%, and the full year 2025 gathering volumes were up 4% versus 2024.

Operator: We experienced a significant ramp-up from our producer customers during the quarter to meet the growing LNG demand. Our Haynesville gathering system, for example, sent a daily throughput record of 1.97 Bcf/d on 24 December. Looking forward, we continue to see significant incremental project opportunities across our natural gas pipeline network. For example, we are in various stages of development to potentially serve more than 10 Bcf/d of natural gas demand in the power generation sector. In our product pipeline segment, refined product volumes were down 2% in the quarter compared to the Q4 of 2024. For the full year 2025, refined product volumes were about equal to 24. Crude and condensate volumes were down 8% in the quarter compared to the Q4 of 2024.

Operator: More than all of that decline is driven by taking HH out of service for the NGL conversion project early in the Q3 2025. Excluding HH volumes in both periods, crude and condensate volumes were up 6% in the quarter compared to the Q4 2024. On 16 January 2026, KMI and Phillips 66 announced the start of a second open season on their proposed Western Gateway Pipeline System. The Western Gateway Pipeline will connect Midwest and other refinery supply to Phoenix and to California with connectivity to Las Vegas, Nevada via KMI's Calnev pipeline. The second open season, which concludes on 31 March 2026, is for the remaining pipeline capacity and adds new access to the Los Angeles market via a joint tariff supported by the planned reversal of one of KMI's existing SFPP lines between Watson and Colton, California.

Operator: In addition to expanding the offered destinations, the second open season adds additional origin points to enable supply diversification and optionality for our customers. We believe this project provides an attractive supply alternative for markets in Arizona and California. In our terminals business segment, our liquid lease capacity remains high at 93%. Market conditions continue to remain supportive of strong rates, and the utilization of tanks available for use is 99% at our key hubs on the Houston Ship Channel and at Carteret, New Jersey. Our Jones Act tanker fleet remains exceptionally well contracted, assuming likely options are exercised. Our fleet is 100% leased through 2026, 97% leased through 2027, and 80% leased through 2028. We have opportunistically chartered a significant percentage of our fleet at higher market rates and have an average length of firm contract commitments of more than three years.

Operator: The CO2 segment experienced 1% lower oil production volumes, 2% lower NGL volumes, and 2% lower CO2 volumes in the Q4 versus the Q4 of 2024. For the full year 2025, oil volumes are about 2% below 2024, but finished strong in the quarter to be slightly above our plan for the year. With that, I'll turn it over to David. Thank you, Tom. For the quarter, we're declaring a quarterly dividend of $0.2925 per share, which is $1.17 per share annualized, up 2% from 2024. For the Q4, we generated net income attributable to KMI of $996 million and EPS of $0.45, 49% and 50% above the Q4 of 2024. This quarter's results included a gain on an asset sale, which we treat as a certain item. Excluding certain items, our adjusted net income and adjusted EPS still grew very nicely, both 22% above the Q4 of 2024.

Operator: Our growth was driven by newly placed in service natural gas expansion projects, contributions from our Outrigger acquisition, and continued strong demand for natural gas transport, storage, and related services. For the full year 2025, we beat our budget by more than the contributions from our Outrigger acquisition. Outperformance came from our natural gas business, driven by greater value on transport capacity and ancillary services. Our terminals segment also generated better than budgeted contributions. We budgeted to grow Adjusted EBITDA by 4% and Adjusted EPS by 10% from 2024. We actually grew Adjusted EBITDA by 6% and Adjusted EPS by 13%. Our 2025 EBITDA and net income were all-time record levels for Kinder Morgan. Moving on to the balance sheet, as we continue to grow our cash flows and take a disciplined approach to capital allocation, our balance sheet continues to strengthen.

Operator: Our net debt-to-Adjusted EBITDA ratio improved to 3.8x, down from 3.9x last quarter and down from 4.1x at the end of the first quarter, which was immediately following the acquisition of Outrigger. Since the end of 2024, our net debt has decreased $9 million, despite nearly $3 billion of total investments in growth projects and the acquisition. So we'll go through a high-level reconciliation. We generated cash flow from operations of $5.92 billion. We've spent $2.6 billion in dividends. We invested $3.15 billion in total CapEx, including growth, sustaining, and contributions to joint ventures. We spent approximately $650 million on the Outrigger acquisition. We've received $380 million on divestitures, primarily the Eagle Hawk sale. And then we had all other items, a source of cash of about $100 million. That gets you close to the $9 million decrease in net debt for the year.

Operator: The rating agencies have recognized our strengthened financial profile. Last week, S&P upgraded us to BBB Positive. Fitch upgraded us to BBB Plus during the summer of 2025, and we're on positive outlook by Moody's. So, as has already been mentioned, but I'll mention it again, 2025 was an exceptionally strong year, a record-setting year, in fact. We beat our budget and delivered double-digit earnings growth. We grew our backlog from $8.1 billion to $10.0 billion despite placing $1.8 billion of projects into service, meaning we added $3.7 billion of projects to the backlog during the year. We improved our balance sheet. We achieved credit rating upgrades and expect meaningful cash flow benefits from tax reform, which will generate additional investment capacity. We have very positive momentum heading into 2026. And with that, I'll turn it back to Kim. Okay, Michels, if you'll come back on and we'll take questions.

Operator: But how do you think about that regionally in terms of further data points we should be seeing through the course of the year? And I've got a quick follow-up. Okay. I'm not exactly sure about the 70%, but if you look at our $10 billion backlog, about 60% of our backlog is associated with power projects. That's not just data center. That's anything associated with power. And if you think about the opportunities on the power side, I think a great example is if you look in the state of Georgia, where Georgia Power recently, I think the end of November, filed a revised IRP, and they're projecting 53 gigawatts of power demand between now and the early 2030s. And so, from a gas perspective, if that was 100% gas, that would be like 10 Bcf/d, roughly, depending on the conversion metrics you use.

You know, we expect that a significant portion of that will be gassed. And that's just 1 utility and 1 State. And so, you know what, we're seeing across our Network, whether that's in Georgia, or South Carolina, or Louisiana or Arkansas, or Texas, or New Mexico Colorado. I mean, we are seeing similar stories just across our Network. Um, and, you know, the other thing is you look at, um, Power demand. We've got a higher, uh, Power demand growth between, uh, 2025 and 2030 would. Mac has re, you know, and their most recent estimates increase theirs. And if you look at would Mac between 2030 and 2035, they think the power growth at least in their projections is greater between 2030 and 2035 than it is in their projections between 25 and 30. So you know this is something um that you know is driving significant amount of of projects. It's uh also

Operator: It's also a significant driver of the potential opportunities that we have, and we think will last for a decade. Excellent. If I can just firm up a little bit more on the SSE 5 setup and timing, what are you looking to move forward on that? How are you thinking about timing? And then even more specifically, if you could speak to, are you thinking about this as being a compression-first or looping kind of project initially, and what level of signed utility load would unlock a more formal filing? Yeah, Julian, this is Sze. So look, in terms of timing, we see strong interest in the Southeast, and we continue to work with the customer base. In terms of what the final scope looks like, that all depends on final subscription. I do see it more than just compression. I think there could be some more brownfield looping.

Operator: But once again, it's early. We're working through the demand dynamics with our customer base. We do see opportunity there, and it is competitive. So we will continue to report as we go along, but ultimately, the signed deal is what drives the announcement. Excellent. Thank you, guys. Stay warm this weekend. Thank you. Thank you. Our next caller is Jackie Kalledis with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Hi. Thank you so much for the time this evening. First, I just wanted to start on the next steps on the Western Gateway following the second open season launched last week. How do you think about allocating capital towards this project versus natural gas opportunity set, and how do those returns compare? Yeah. I mean, on every project, we look at based on risk and return.

Operator: And so I think we have a middle-of-the-road return that we expect, and then we vary off that based on the stability, the duration, and the creditworthiness of the cash flows. And so if you've got stronger creditworthy parties and longer cash flows and take-or-pay, then you come off that return down from that return a little bit. And if you have those things are less, then you go above that return. All these returns are significantly above our cost of capital. And so I think if we proceed on Western Gateway, we will have long-term shipper contracts there, and I expect those shipper contracts will be largely from creditworthy counterparties. And if not, we would have some credit support. So we don't, at this point, have limited capital. I think we can easily fund this project and do all the natural gas projects that we're talking about.

Gateway. We will have long-term separate contracts there, and I expect the shipper contracts will be, uh, largely from creditworthy counterparties and if not, um, you know, we would have some credit support. So, um, I we don't at this point have, uh, you know, limited capital. I think, you know, we can uh, easily fund this project, um, and do all the natural gas projects that we're talking about another point. I I'd point out on Western Gateway, which is, we are contributing assets, um, to that and so our cash contribution, you know, will be less than, uh, you know, we're going to we're setting up a 50/50 joint venture with, uh, with p66. It would be less than half of the, uh, cost of the overall project because we're contributing value for, uh, contributing assets for part of our, uh, contribution.

Operator: Now, that won't be a perfect round $3 billion because you just have timing to spend, but roughly $3 billion a year. We have the ability to fund that 100% out of cash flow. The other thing I'd point out is that as our $10 billion backlog of projects come online, that our debt to EBITDA actually declines over time. So that creates more balance sheet capacity. For every 0.1x leverage, that's $850 million of capacity. I think we've got a ton of capacity even without leveraging up closer to the 4.5x. I don't think we have intention of getting close to that level. I think we've got plenty of capacity to accommodate the opportunities that we see out there. Great. Thank you so much for the time. Thank you. Our next caller is Teresa Chen with Barclays.

Well, I'd say the, you know, right now what we've said is we're going to spend uh, about 3 billion dollars per year in in capex, now, that won't be a perfect round 3 billion dollars, you know, because you just have timing a spin, but roughly 3 billion dollars a year and we have the ability to, to fund that, you know, 100% out of cash flow. The other thing I'd point out is that, um, as our, uh, 10 billion dollar backlog of projects, come online that our debt to Eva actually declines over time. Um, and so that creates more balance sheet capacity. So, for every Point 1 time of, uh, of Leverage, um, that's 850 million dollars of capacity. So I think we've got a ton of capacity even without leveraging up, uh, closer to the 4 and a half times. Um, and I don't think, you know, I don't think we have intention of of getting close to that level. Um, so I think we've got uh,

Operator: Maybe turning to a different portion of your liquids business, could you provide an update on the progress of the Double H conversion and in light of recent upstream developments in the Bakken and the increasingly challenged near-term outlook for the basin? How are you thinking about the expected NGL throughput and EBITDA contribution from this project? Sure. I mean, the project's going to come on probably late Q1, early Q2. And that's phase one. And then with respect to the future phases, that's something we continue to work on. Yeah. I mean, Teresa, broadly, though, I mean, we still, given the recent pullback, it's just a matter of time. I think our initial phase is well contracted. We see the volumes behind it. These are coming from our plants. And so we have visibility there.

Operator: It's also because they're going to continue to complete wells through August, and because they are just one of a number of customers we have up there. Okay. Great. That makes sense. Thanks for that. And then just wanted to ask, in light of the asset sale that you did here in late 2025, are there more non-core assets that you're actively looking to sell? And strategically, are there segments or areas of the business that you're more inclined to reduce your exposure to? Thanks. Okay. Yeah. Let me talk about the Eagle Hawk sale first. First of all, on that, that's not an asset that we were looking or planning to sell. Our partner approached us because they were selling at least a portion of their interest. And based on the price that we could achieve, it made sense to sell.

Yeah, let me let me talk about, um, the eaglehawk sale first. Um, you know, first of all on that. You know that's not an asset that we were looking for planning to sell. Um, you know, our partner, uh, approached us because they were selling at least a portion of their interests. Um, and you know, based on, uh, the price that we could achieve, um, it made sense to sell, you know, it's a, it's an 8 and a half times multiple on a non-operated minority interest and the GMP asset. And when we looked at the reinvestment opportunity, meaning if we, you know, were buying at the price that we proposed to sell and we look at the cash flows, you know, those were going to be below our cost of capital. So, you know, and, and, and that included taking into any, uh, into account, any tax impact for the, from the sale. So, we thought it made sense, um, it was a good economic decision to sell that asset and recycle that Capital. Um, and so,

Operator: It's 2/3 natural gas, and 26% is products, pipelines, and terminals, very similar pipeline and storage business. So similar. Then 7% is CO2, which is a little bit different, but we get great returns in that business. And we have an expertise that a lot of people don't have. So I think we're very comfortable with the suite of assets that we have, and this was just an opportunistic sale that made sense. Thank you, Kim. Thank you. Our next caller is Jeremy Tonet with J.P. Morgan. Your line is open. Hi. Good afternoon, Jeremy. I was just curious for your thoughts, I guess, industry at large and what opportunities it could present to you down the road. Just if we think about Waha egress, one, we have some pretty cold weather coming up. And during Uri, that presented opportunities for Kinder last go-around.

So, you know, that's generally, um, you know, the way that we have been approaching um, sales of assets, which has been more opportunistic as we say, you know, our assets are for sale every day at the right price. Um, and so uh, we want to make good economic decisions about that. We like the portfolio of assets that we have today. Um, you know, 60 is 2/3, natural gas, um, and, uh, 26% is product pipelines and terminals. Very similar, you know, Pipeline and and storage business. Um, so similar and then, you know, 7% is CO2, which is a little bit different, but we, uh, get great returns in that business. Um, and uh, and we have an expertise that a lot of people don't have. So I think we're very comfortable with the, uh, the suite of assets that we have, and this was just an opportunity to sell that, uh, that made sense.

Operator: So just wondering if you could share any thoughts there. Well, look, as always here, when we look at the footprint, given our footprint, we're able to leverage basis dislocations that occurred. First and foremost, we want to serve our customers. And then to the extent that these opportunities present themselves, we've been taking a little more of a proprietary view on certain things in certain areas strategically, small amounts. And so to the extent that that presents itself, we'll be able to leverage that. Yeah. But I don't think this storm is not a Uri. It's not a Uri. I mean, it's much shorter in duration, and it's not going to be as significant, so. Understood. It seems like there might be another one on its heels. So we'll see what happens this winter, I guess. Yeah.

Operator: But generally, what I would say is that the gas transportation market is very tight. And so whenever you see dislocations in supply or demand in and around our assets, that is going to present opportunities for us. And that's part of what you saw in the fourth quarter of this year. Yeah. And then a key component of that is storage for us. And we have a significant storage portfolio that will allow us to leverage some of that to the extent that it presents itself. Got it. Thank you for that. And then just wanted to dial in on NGPL a little bit here, hearing more data center-driven opportunities in the Midwest, coal-to-gas switching as well, and some of the other natural gas pipeline operators. Seeing a lot of activity there. And just wondering if you could talk about what that could mean for Kinder, for NGPL. Yeah.

Operator: So look, there's quite a bit of significant discussions. You've been seeing some of the EBB postings we've been making out there. We've got interest along the pipeline in terms of not only just from power customers, but also from organic markets that are trying to grow. Still early on some of these projects. We've got some binding commitments that we're looking to convert into full-fledged FID projects as these develop. We'll bring them. But I mean, when you think about the corridor itself, we see a concentration up in the market area. We have some in the producing regions where folks are looking to site themselves. And so I think the opportunity sets there. It's just, once again, we're in this mode where folks are looking; it's a competitive landscape.

Operator: Generally, what we've seen on the LNG front is the returns haven't been where we needed them to be to make those investments. And it's not something that we are accustomed to building. We did a small one, obviously, at Elba, but that was a relatively small facility. And so I think, in general, what you should expect from us is that we are kind of sticking to our knitting. We're staying in our lane. We are serving that LNG demand through our pipelines. And right now, we serve 40% of that demand. As Rich said, that demand is expected to grow significantly. And we expect to get our fair share of that future demand. And that's driving very nice project opportunities for us. So I'm not saying we would never step out. It's just there hasn't been the opportunity where we thought the risk-return profile was appropriate.

Operator: We haven't wanted to build these on our own. I think another thing we like on a risk-return basis is the fact that both on the LNG terminal side for feed gas and on the service for electric generation purposes, we have, in general, take-or-pay contracts with utility-grade, investment-grade utilities. And that, we think, is a very good way to look at the risk that we are taking. And we think that minimizes any risk that we have as opposed to contracting directly with AI developers, for example. That makes sense. Thank you. Thank you. Our next caller is Keith Stanley with Wolfe Research. Your line is open, sir. Hi. Good afternoon. You updated the messaging on CapEx to at least $3 billion a year of growth CapEx for the next few years, up from $2.5 billion. Wanted to clarify, is that solely based on the sanctioned project backlog today?

Operator: So if you keep FIDing new projects and the backlog grows, CapEx could be above $3 billion a year for the next few years, or is that already reflecting your best estimate over the next few years? Let's see. It's largely based on the $10 billion approved project backlog. But there is some view—there is a small portion that is based on getting some of the $10 billion in the opportunity set. And look, I think that we updated it from $2.5 to $3 billion, given the $10 billion, given we continued to add to the backlog even after putting projects in service. So, this year, when we were putting all those projects in service, at the beginning of the year we thought it might come down. It's continued to increase. Natural gas demand, we continued to see it grow between 25 and 30, but also beyond that.

Operator: I would say that being early on the regulatory front does not directly translate into day-for-day on the in-service. It's going to depend on the project, because once you move back that regulatory—once you get sooner approval from a regulatory perspective, you have to think about when you're getting pipe and when you're getting compression. And so, for example, we haven't seen that translate into much of an earlier date on South System 4 at this point in time. So it's project by project. But if our customers don't want that capacity, it will be available for us to use during that time. And given the macro environment, Keith—I mean, when you just think about the demand profiles that are coming our way—you look at that as an opportunity to sell in the secondary markets. Right. Got it. Thank you. Thank you.

Um it's a project by project analysis. In this case, uh the answer is uh know the customers don't have to take it at that point in time they can I mean they can elect to take it but they don't they don't have to and I would say that um you know uh being early on the regulatory front does not directly translate into day for day on the inservice. You know it's going to depend on the project because you know once you move back that regulatory once you get sooner uh approval from a regulatory perspective, you know, you have to think about when you're getting pipe and when you're getting compression. Um and so you know for example we haven't seen that translate into much of an earlier date on South system for at this point in time. Um so it's project by project um but if our customers don't want that capacity it will be available for you know, us to use during that time.

Operator: Our next caller is Manav Gupta with UBS. Your line is open, sir. Firstly, congrats on all the upgrades from rating agencies. It reflects the strong quality of the management and execution. I wanted to ask you about the Florida Gas Transmission projects, both the projects. How did these come about? Can you give us more details? And in the last one year, what we have seen is you announce a project and then end up upsizing it. So if you could talk about the possibility of some upsizing here for these projects. So Manav, this is Sze Lai. So just in terms of the project itself, as you know, we're not the operator. Energy Transfer is the operator. So we'll let them talk about how it came about on the call. We've been working with them closely. Thematically, it's the same themes we've been talking about in the Southeast.

Operator: For calling the conference center, at any time during this message, please enter your passcode followed by the pound sign. Your passcode has been confirmed. You will be joined in listen-only mode. Good afternoon, and thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Q4 2025 earnings results conference call. Your lines are in a listen-only mode until the question-and-answer session of today's conference. At that time, you may press star followed by the number one to ask a question. Please unmute your phones and state your name when prompted. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Rich Kinder, Executive Chairman of Kinder Morgan. Thank you, Michelle.

Rich Kinder: Before we begin, as usual, I'd like to remind you that KMI's earnings released today and this call include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as well as certain non-GAAP financial measures. Before making any investment decisions, we strongly encourage you to read our full disclosures on forward-looking statements and use of non-GAAP financial measures set forth at the end of our earnings release, as well as review our latest filings with the SEC for important material assumptions, expectations, and risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated and described in such forward-looking statements. I have only two comments before turning the call over to our CEO, Kim Dang, and the team.

This astounding growth is enormously beneficial to the midstream sector, and especially to companies like Kinder Morgan that have extensive pipeline networks along the Texas, Louisiana Gulf Coast, which is the location of most of the export terminals present and future. Our throughput agreements for delivery of the feed gas are essentially take-or-pay in nature, which gives us great confidence in the resulting cash flow. My second comment is specific to Kinder Morgan. You will hear from Kim and the team that we finished 2025 very strong compared to 2024 and to our budget for 2025. And as you know from our earlier release of the budget for 2026, we expect more good performance this year. Once again, the chief driver of our success in both years is the extraordinary strength of our natural gas assets. And with that, I'll turn it over to Kim.

As Rich said, we had a fantastic Q4, producing record results for the quarter and the year, much stronger than we anticipated when we announced our Q3 results. For the quarter, Adjusted EBITDA was up 10% compared to the Q4 of last year, and Adjusted EPS grew 22%. Those are big numbers for a stable midstream business like ours. The biggest driver of the outperformance was natural gas. It had an outstanding quarter and year. Our project backlog has increased by approximately $650 million to $10 billion. We added a little over $900 million in new projects, which was offset by $265 million of projects placed in service. The two most significant additions are Florida Gas Transmission projects, both supported by long-term shipper contracts. Our backlog multiple remains below 6x, which will drive very nice growth over the next few years.

In addition, we're working on greater than $10 billion in project opportunities beyond the backlog. While we won't be successful on all of those, it gives you a sense of the tremendous market opportunity. We believe we will continue to find attractive opportunities for years to come. Wood Mackenzie currently projects the US natural gas market will continue to grow over the longer term, with an incremental 20 Bcf a day of demand growth between 2030 and 2035. Now, a quick update on our three largest projects: MSX, South System 4, and Trident. We started construction on Trident last week. And for MSX and South System 4, we received our FERC scheduling order. The FERC anticipates issuing our final certificate by 31 July, which is a schedule we requested but ahead of our original expectation.

There's still a lot of work ahead, but all three projects are on budget and on or ahead of schedule. Another positive: last week, S&P upgraded KMI to BBB Plus. That shows our balance sheet is in great shape. On the management front, I want to take a moment to recognize Tom Martin, who will retire at the end of this month for his wise counsel and the value he has helped deliver to our shareholders over his 23 years with the company. As we have previously announced, Tom will continue to serve as an advisor to the OTC and the board, so we'll continue to benefit from his perspective. We're excited to have Dax, who many of you know from his long tenure at the company, step into the president's role. I'm looking forward to working with him closely as we continue to execute on our strategy.

More than all of that decline is driven by taking HH out of service for the NGL conversion project early in the Q3 2025. Excluding HH volumes in both periods, crude and condensate volumes were up 6% in the quarter compared to the Q4 2024. On 16 January 2026, KMI and Phillips 66 announced the start of a second open season on their proposed Western Gateway Pipeline System. The Western Gateway Pipeline will connect Midwest and other refinery supply to Phoenix and to California with connectivity to Las Vegas, Nevada via KMI's Calnev pipeline. The second open season, which concludes on 31 March 2026, is for the remaining pipeline capacity and adds new access to the Los Angeles market via a joint tariff supported by the planned reversal of one of KMI's existing SFPP lines between Watson and Colton, California.

Our net debt-to-Adjusted EBITDA ratio improved to 3.8x, down from 3.9x last quarter and down from 4.1x at the end of the Q1, which was immediately following the acquisition of Outrigger. Since the end of 2024, our net debt has decreased $9 million, despite nearly $3 billion of total investments in growth projects and the acquisition. So we'll go through a high-level reconciliation. We generated cash flow from operations of $5.92 billion. We've spent $2.6 billion in dividends. We invested $3.15 billion in total CapEx, including growth, sustaining, and contributions to joint ventures. We spent approximately $650 million on the Outrigger acquisition. We've received $380 million on divestitures, primarily the Eagle Hawk sale. And then we had all other items, a source of cash of about $100 million. That gets you close to the $9 million decrease in net debt for the year.

And so I think we have a middle-of-the-road return that we expect, and then we vary off that based on the stability, the duration, and the creditworthiness of the cash flows. And so if you've got stronger creditworthy parties and longer cash flows and take-or-pay, then you come off that return down from that return a little bit. And if you have those things are less, then you go above that return. All these returns are significantly above our cost of capital. And so I think if we proceed on Western Gateway, we will have long-term shipper contracts there, and I expect those shipper contracts will be largely from creditworthy counterparties. And if not, we would have some credit support. So we don't, at this point, have limited capital. I think we can easily fund this project and do all the natural gas projects that we're talking about.

Generally, what we've seen on the LNG front is the returns haven't been where we needed them to be to make those investments. And it's not something that we are accustomed to building. We did a small one, obviously, at Elba, but that was a relatively small facility. And so I think, in general, what you should expect from us is that we are kind of sticking to our knitting. We're staying in our lane. We are serving that LNG demand through our pipelines. And right now, we serve 40% of that demand. As Rich said, that demand is expected to grow significantly. And we expect to get our fair share of that future demand. And that's driving very nice project opportunities for us. So I'm not saying we would never step out. It's just there hasn't been the opportunity where we thought the risk-return profile was appropriate.

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Q4 2025 Kinder Morgan Inc Earnings Call

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