By Mary de Wet

Kinder Morgan Inc. said its natural gas transport volumes fell 2% in the fourth quarter from a year ago.

The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in lower energy demand during the three months ended Dec. 31, the pipeline operator said.

On natural gas:

The company's natural gas pipelines segment experienced lower contributions from multiple gathering and processing assets due to sharply reduced natural gas production and from the sale of the U.S. Cochin Pipeline in December 2019, said KMI President Kim Dang.

"These reduced contributions were partially offset by greater contributions from the Texas Intrastate systems, Natural Gas Pipeline of America (NGPL), and Elba Island LNG."

Natural gas transport volumes were down 2% compared with the fourth quarter of 2019. Volume declined on the Colorado Interstate Gas Pipeline and the Wyoming Interstate Pipeline due to the production declines in the Rockies basin. El Paso Natural Gas saw volume fall due to increases in transportation alternatives for Permian Basin production, the company said.

"These declines were partially offset by: increased volumes on the Texas Intrastate systems, due primarily to increased Gulf Coast contract activity largely serving LNG and industrial markets; on Tennessee Gas Pipeline, driven by increased LNG and power plant deliveries sourced largely from the Appalachian region; and, on Elba Express, due to increased deliveries to Elba Island."

On crude and refined products:

"Continued low refined products demand and lower crude and condensate volumes during the fourth quarter reduced contributions from the Products Pipelines segment.

"Crude and condensate pipeline volumes were down 26% and total refined products volumes were down 13% compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.

"Gasoline volumes were below the comparable period last year by 10% and jet volumes were still very weak (down 47%) but diesel volumes were strong, 7% above the fourth quarter of 2019."

On terminals:

"Terminals segment earnings were essentially flat compared to the fourth quarter of 2019 after adjusting for the impact of the December 2019 KML sale. Refined product volumes that move through our terminals continued to reflect reduced demand due to the pandemic, though they recovered meaningfully during the second half of the year.

"Conversely, we saw historically high effective utilization across our network of nearly 80 million barrels of storage capacity due to term contracts entered into during the second quarter of 2020.

"Due to the structure of our contracts, a much more significant portion of our revenue comes from fixed monthly payments on tank leases versus the revenue we receive for moving product through our terminals."

On carbon dioxide:

"CO(2) segment earnings were down compared to the fourth quarter of 2019 due to lower CO(2) sales volumes and lower crude production, partially offset by lower operating expenditures and higher realized crude prices."

"Fourth-quarter 2020 combined oil production across all of our fields was down 16% compared to the same period in 2019 on a net to KMI basis, and CO(2) sales volumes were down 35%."

Write to Mary de Wet at mary.dewet@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-20-21 1741ET