Local economic-development officials are scrambling in the wake of Kinder Morgan Inc.’s announced $21 billion deal for rival El Paso Corp. to keep El Paso’s regional office in downtown Colorado Springs that employs 440.
El Paso is “an important employer for us, and we will work with them to bring about what we hope will be a positive outcome for Colorado Springs,” said David White, executive vice president of marketing for the Colorado Springs Regional Economic Development Corp.
El Paso has operated a regional office in Colorado Springs for its Western Pipelines operation since it acquired Coastal Corp. in 2001. El Paso added 65 jobs in the city as part of a restructuring after the merger. Coastal’s Colorado Interstate Gas unit, which was merged into El Paso, had been in the Springs since 1928.
Kinder Morgan operates a regional office in Lakewood with 273 employees that traces its roots to KN Energy, which was acquired by Kinder Morgan in 1999 for $1.1 billion. KN provided natural-gas services to small communities and rural areas in Kansas and Nebraska.
Joe Hollier, a Kinder Morgan spokesman in Houston, said what happens to the two regional offices, which are 75 miles apart, will be determined “down the road by merger-transition teams.”
Kinder Morgan announced Sunday it had struck a $21 billion deal to buy El Paso and combine the two largest natural-gas-pipeline operators in North America in a huge bet on the fast-growing market for that fuel.
