ONEOK Earnings Up, Trans Mountain Pipeline Progresses: Your Daily Energy News

News highlights gathered by Industrial Info and IIR Energy (Sugar Land, Texas) dealing with the energy markets.

PIPELINES
Trans Mountain Pushes Out Pipeline In-Service Date - Trans Mountain Corporation (Calgary, Alberta), the Canadian government-owned oil pipeline company, continues to target a second-quarter in-service date for its crude oil pipeline expansion and expects the project's cost to rise 10%. Trans Mountain said in a filing on Monday to the Canada Energy Regulator, however, that commencement for firm service contracts with shippers is May 1. That represents a one-month delay from its prior commencement date, RBC Capital Markets analysts said in a note. Cost estimates are now 10% higher than an estimate that Trans Mountain provided in May, but the company will provide another update to factor in actual costs after it is mechanically complete, it said. (Reuters)

CRUDE OIL
Tanker Backlog Grows in Venezuela - A bottleneck of vessels waiting to load crude oil and fuel in Venezuela has increased in recent weeks as state-run oil firm PDVSA struggles to deliver cargoes on time, according to people familiar with the matter, documents and shipping data. PDVSA has sought to ramp up shipments this month, the documents and data showed, following setbacks in January as outages at Venezuela's main port hit its exports. But the increase has been insufficient to ease the congestion. As of Monday, at least 19 supertankers were waiting to load near Venezuela's Jose and Amuay ports, where most exports are shipped from, up from about a dozen at the end of November. (Reuters)

EARNINGS REPORTS
Pipeline Operator ONEOK Lifts Quarterly Earnings - Pipeline operator ONEOK Incorporated (NYSE:OKE) (Tulsa, Oklahoma) reported a 42% jump in fourth-quarter profit on Monday, as it transported higher volumes of natural gas and natural gas liquids. ONEOK, which has about a 50,000-mile-long network of pipelines, said its Rocky Mountain region natural gas liquids raw feed throughput volumes rose by 20% compared with last year. The company said it also saw a 17% rise in natural gas volumes processed. ONEOK reported net income of $688 million for the three months ended December 31, compared with $485 million a year earlier. (Reuters)

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About Industrial Info
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).