Peabody Energy announced Tuesday that it has reached long-term agreements with Kinder Morgan Energy Partners which will help it expand export of Peabody’s Colorado, Powder River Basin and Illinois Basin coal.
The increased port facilities will increase Peabody’s Gulf Coast export capacity to approximately five million to seven million tons of coal per year between 2014 and 2020, said Peabody.
Under the multi-terminal agreements, Peabody will gain access to export coal at Kinder Morgan’s Deepwater Terminal and Houston Bulk Terminal near Houston, and its international Marine Terminal in Myrtle Grove, La. through 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Peabody also said it has reached a rail service agreement with Union Pacific Railroad to transport the company’s Colorado coal to Kinder Morgan’s Houston terminals.
The agreements, said Peabody, better enable it to serve its international customer base.
“Peabody is securing a large-volume, sustainable U.S. export platform to meet growing global seaborne coal demand,” said Gregory H. Boyce, chairman of Peabody. “These new throughput agreements further strengthen Peabody’s ongoing partnership with Kinder Morgan as we continue to expand our long-term Gulf Coast capacity in line with emerging export opportunities for our competitive and reliable coal products.”
Kinder Morgan will invest, including previously announced projects, approximately $400 million to expand its Gulf Coast terminal network.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939, hpankratz@denverpost.com or
