The combined investment of approximately $170 million will include the purchase of 42 acres, construction of a new ship dock to handle ocean-going vessels and building 1.2 million barrels of liquids storage tanks.

KMP has entered into a letter of intent (LOI) with a major ship channel refiner to develop six 150,000-bbl tanks and four 75,000-bbl tanks with connectivity to its Galena Park Terminal and to the refiner’s location.

The property will be used to provide dock services for up to eight vessels a month for the refinery and four vessels a month for KMP’s terminal.

“This project will alleviate existing dock congestion among Kinder Morgan’s Houston Ship Channel terminals, provide additional export capacity value and be accretive to KMP unitholders upon completion,” said Jeff Armstrong, president of Kinder Morgan Terminals. Armstrong added that it will also be possible to add a second phase of storage tanks to the project in the future.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP is a pipeline transportation and energy storage company and one of the largest publicly traded pipeline limited partnerships in America.

It owns an interest in or operates approximately 46,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals. The general partner of KMP is owned by Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI).

Kinder Morgan is the largest midstream and the third-largest energy company in North America, with a combined enterprise value of approximately $100 billion.

It owns an interest in or operates approximately 75,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals. Its pipelines transport natural gas, gasoline, crude oil, CO2 and other products, and its terminals store petroleum products and chemicals and handle such products as ethanol, coal, petroleum coke and steel.

KMI owns the general partner interest of KMP and El Paso Pipeline Partners LP (EPB), along with limited partner interests in KMP and EPB and shares in Kinder Morgan Management LLC (KMR).