Kinder Morgan Swings to Loss in Q4
U.S. pipeline giant Kinder Morgan Inc swung to a fourth-quarter loss as it moved lower volumes of oil and gas amid falling prices. The company said it does not expect to access the capital markets to fund growth projects in 2016 as it slashed dividend by 75 percent in December. The company said it cut its 2016 capital budget by about $900 million. The Houston-based company posted net loss available to shareholders of $637 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with profit of $126 million a year earlier. (Reporting by Anet Josline Pinto in Bengaluru; Editing by Don Sebastian)
Keystone Debate: Obama Rhetoric Rings Half True
President Barack Obama's sharpest criticism yet of Keystone XL this weekend included a controversial contention that the huge pipeline would be used to pump Canadian oil sands crude to global markets, not to U.S. refiners. TransCanada Corp., the pipeline giant that has been waiting six years for U.S. approval to build the $8 billion line, strongly denies it and says it is constructing the 1,179-mile (1,900-km) conduit only to serve import-dependant Gulf Coast refiners, weaning them away from supplies of heavy crude from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The truth, experts say, lies somewhere in between. The 830,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) pipeline helping link Canada's oil sands to the Gulf Coast was conceived six years ago to supply U.S. customers. Since then, however, the U.S.
