The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has denied Kinder Morgan's two requests to purchase tariff-free steel from Borusan Mannesman, a Turkish manufacturer, to build the Gulf Coast Express Pipeline.
Kinder Morgan is building the 514-mile pipeline to move 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily from the Permian Basin of West Texas to the Agua Dulce hub near Corpus Christi. The project has a target service date of October 2019 at a cost of approximately $1.75 billion.
The waiver request included that the contract with Borusan pre-dated the 2018 imposed tariffs. The DOC determined that there is a reasonable amount of steel pipe available in the United States with "satisfactory quality" for the project.
Kinder Morgan also plans to build the $2.1 billion Permian Highway Pipeline to transport 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily from the Waha Hub to the Katy Hub near Houston by October 2020. The company is also under discussions to build a third pipeline project to move natural gas from the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast. The projects are expected to increase natural gas exports.