LNG, AI drive natural gas infrastructure build-out By EPN Staff Kinder Morgan, one of the world’s largest pipeline companies, plans to build a 216-mile, $1.7 billion pipeline from Katy, Texas, to the liquid natural gas and industrial corridor near Port Arthur, the company recently announced. This Trident Interstate Project is one of several natural gas infrastructure projects fueled by surging energy demands, in part by data center and artificial intelligence power needs. Why it matters Natural gas is the nation’s leading energy source for electricity generation, and U.S. LNG is poised for major growth. Kinder Morgan executives were bullish on their industry’s future when they announced the project as part of the company’s most recent earnings call. The Trident project is one of several major expansions Kinder Morgan announced in recent months, with a cost to the company of about $5 billion: Expansion of the company’s GCX system out of the Permian Basin The South System Expansion 4 project crossing Georgia and Alabama The Mississippi Crossing Line The Trident Interstate Project Kinder Morgan Executive Chair Richard Kinder told shareholders the returns from these projects will be “significantly above our cost of capital” and that the company sees “other sizable opportunities to grow our business.” “In fact, this is the most exciting time to be in the midstream natural gas market that I've seen in my long decades in this business,” Kinder said during the company’s January earnings call. The bigger picture Company CEO Kimberly Allen Dang told analysts the company expects natural gas demand to grow substantially by 2030, with increased power demands from data centers helping to drive that growth. “I think that the encouragement that [President Donald Trump’s] administration has given on the data center development, their desire to see American energy do well, I think, all plays into a nice long-term trend for natural gas demand,” Dang said.
