Page 9 - GLNG Week 40 2022
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GLNG AMERICAS GLNG
Kinder Morgan sells half
its stake in Elba Island LNG
TERMINALS KINDER Morgan announced on September 27 reduce its short-term debt and create additional
that it had closed the sale of a 25.5% interest in capacity for investments including “opportunis-
the Elba Liquefaction Co. (ELC) joint venture, tic” share repurchases.
which operates a liquefaction plant on Elba ELC delivers the LNG it produces to South-
Island in Georgia. The stake, which represents ern LNG (SLNG) for export. Kinder Morgan
half of Kinder Morgan’s interest in ELC, has also owns 100% of SLNG, which owns and
been sold to an undisclosed buyer for around operates the Elba Island LNG export terminal,
$565mn. including the LNG storage tanks and ship dock.
The price of the stake implies an enterprise The facility is supported by a 20-year contract
value of roughly $2.3bn for ELC, Kinder Mor- with Shell LNG, which is subscribed to 100% of
gan said, which it estimates is roughly 13 times Elba Island’s liquefaction capacity.
2022 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation The transaction comes as global demand for
and amortisation (EBITDA). Blackstone Credit LNG rises, with the trend accelerated by Europe’s
holds the remaining 49% interest in the joint scramble to wean itself off Russian pipeline gas
venture. imports.
The Elba Island LNG facility is small in scale “Recent geopolitical events have proven how
compared to the liquefaction megaprojects on critical liquefied natural gas infrastructure is to
the US Gulf Coast, with a capacity of 2.5mn meeting global energy demand,” stated Kinder
tonnes per year (tpy) of the super-chilled fuel. Morgan’s interstate natural gas president, Kim-
The ELC joint venture was formed in 2017 to berly Watson. “We believe this investment fur-
build the facility, which is comprised of 10 mod- ther shows the value of LNG and demonstrates
ular liquefaction units. the important role it will play for decades to
Kinder Morgan, which will continue to oper- come.”
ate the plant, said proceeds from the sale would
Week 40 07•October•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9
