Kinder Morgan to buy rival pipeline firm for US$3b

Houston

KINDER Morgan, the world's largest pipeline company by market value, agreed to buy Hiland Partners for about US$3 billion, including debt, to gain a foothold in the Bakken shale formation.

Kinder will buy the rival pipeline operator from founder and Continental Resources chief executive Harold Hamm and certain Hamm family trusts, the Houston-based suitor said in a statement on Wednesday. The company also reported a 63 per cent decline in fourth quarter net income after writing down the value of some oil and natural gas properties, and said chief operating officer Steven Kean will start as CEO on June 1.