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July 22 (Reuters) - U.S. pipeline operator Kinder Morgan beat Wall Street expectations for second-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by higher volumes of natural gas transported through its pipelines and rising power demand.
U.S. pipeline companies are gaining from booming oil and gas output in the Permian Basin and rising natural gas demand amid record LNG exports and surging electricity use from AI operations, cryptocurrency mining and data centers.
"Increasing LNG exports, rising power demand, and industrial expansion make our existing highly utilized assets more valuable and create significant opportunities for investment across our footprint," said Executive Chairman Richard D. Kinder.
Kinder Morgan, one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America operating about 79,000 miles of pipelines, said it now expects adjusted EBITDA to exceed budget by more than 5% and adjusted EPS by more than 12%.
The Houston, Texas-based firm posted adjusted profit of 37 cents per share for the three months ended June 30, higher than 28 cents per share a year earlier and above analysts' estimate of 32 cents per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The company said it transported about 47,886 billion British thermal units (Btu) of natural gas per day in the quarter, compared with 44,818 billion Btu per day in the year-ago period.
However, its total delivery volumes, which also include refined products such as jet fuel and diesel fuel, fell to 2.044 million barrels per day in the second quarter, from 2.213 million bpd a year ago.
Shares of the pipeline operator were up 0.7% after the bell.
(Reporting by Varun Sahay in Bengaluru; Editing by Diti Pujara)
