Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: KMP) today announced that it has successfully closed a binding open season for the Palmetto Project and received committed volumes from shippers sufficient to support the project. The Palmetto Project will provide shippers a new refined products pipeline service to move gasoline, diesel and ethanol from Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina to points in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The open season closed on Oct. 30.

“We are pleased that we received sufficient shipper commitments to proceed with the project, and we will be notifying shippers of awarded capacity in November,” said Ron McClain, president of Products Pipelines for KMP. “Contract terms will range from five to 10 years per shipper, and the project remains on track for an in-service date of July 2017, pending regulatory approvals.”

As previously announced, the approximately $1 billion Palmetto Project would provide pipeline shippers looking to move refined petroleum products from the Gulf Coast with access to new markets in the Southeast. The project has a design capacity of 167,000 barrels per day and would consist of a segment of expansion capacity on the Plantation pipeline that Palmetto would lease from Plantation Pipe Line Company between Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Belton, South Carolina. A new 360-mile pipeline from Belton, South Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida, would also be constructed as part of the project. KMP owns approximately 51 percent of Plantation.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. (NYSE: KMP) is a leading pipeline transportation and energy storage company and one of the largest publicly traded pipeline limited partnerships in America. It owns an interest in or operates approximately 54,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals. The general partner of KMP is owned by Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE: KMI). Kinder Morgan is the largest midstream and the third largest energy company in North America with a combined enterprise value of approximately $120 billion. It owns an interest in or operates approximately 80,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals. Its pipelines transport natural gas, gasoline, crude oil, CO2 and other products, and its terminals store petroleum products and chemicals and handle such products as ethanol, coal, petroleum coke and steel. KMI owns the general partner interests of KMP and El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. (NYSE: EPB), along with limited partner interests in KMP, Kinder Morgan Management, LLC (NYSE: KMR) and EPB. For more information please visit www.kindermorgan.com.

This news release includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and are based on the beliefs and assumptions of management, based on information currently available to them. Although Kinder Morgan believes that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that such assumptions will materialize. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements herein include those enumerated in Kinder Morgan’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they were made, and except to the extent required by law, Kinder Morgan undertakes no obligation to update or review any forward-looking statement because of new information, future events or other factors. Because of these uncertainties, readers should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.