Growth Projects Help Increase Boardwalk Pipeline's Quarterly Income

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--On Monday, Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP (NYSE:BWP) (Houston, Texas) reported net income of $65.7 million for second quarter 2016, compared to $40.4 million for the same period of 2015. The company cited recently completed growth projects as part of the reason for the higher net earnings for the quarter. In a conference call regarding the company's second-quarter performance, President and Chief Executive Officer Stanley Horton discussed recently completed pipeline projects, as well currently ongoing capital growth projects. Industrial Info is tracking 21 projects of Boardwalk worth more than $710 million.

"Our Ohio-to-Louisiana access project commenced service on June 1," said Horton of a recently completed growth project tracked by Industrial Info since April 2015. "With this project, our Texas Gas system now truly is a bidirectional pipeline."

Horton also touched on projects currently under development. "In June, we obtained the birth certificate to build the Coastal Bend header project, which is the largest of our current growth projects," said Horton. The project refers to the construction of 66 miles of pipeline to transport approximately 1.54 billion cubic feet per day to serve the first two trains of the Freeport liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Texas. Construction of the plant began in late 2014 and is expected to be completed in 2018. Boardwalk's pipeline project serving the facility is expected to begin construction in the second quarter of 2017. "All of the firm transportation agreements associated with this project have been executed and preliminary construction activities are under way," said Horton.

"The Western Kentucky lateral, which serves a new natural gas power plant, is expected to commence service in the third quarter," said Horton. The Western Kentucky lateral refers to 22.5-mile, 24-inch diameter transmission pipeline to transport up to 230 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas from a compressor station in Bremen, Kentucky, to an interconnection with Tennessee Valley Authority's (NYSE:TVE) (Knoxville, Tennessee) combined-cycle natural gas-fired power plant located near Paradise, Kentucky.

The company did, however, report that it was scaling back on at least one project. "Construction of the Northern Supply Access project began in July," said Horton. The Northern Supply Access project is a natural gas pipeline project in Kentucky. "We have made the decision to defer the capital related to the 100,000 MMBtu [million British thermal units] a day that is currently unsold and at this time, and only construct for the current contracted volume of 284,000 MMBtu per day. As a result, we will reduce our capital estimates for this project from $310 million to $230 million."

While the company didn't give much specific guidance in regard to future growth projects, Horton seemed confident about the continued viability of new projects and their effect on the company's bottom line growth. "On our interstate pipelines, these are good, solid, regulated, rate-of-return type projects and will continue to be so. ...I'm pretty bullish that we're going to continue see these types of projects in the future."

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com/.