Kinder Morgan Energy Partners Distributes $4.98

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P.

today increased its quarterly cash distribution per common unit to $1.29 ($5.16 annualized) payable on Feb. 14, 2013, to unitholders of record as of Jan. 31, 2013. This represents an 11 percent increase over the fourth quarter 2011 cash distribution per unit of $1.16 ($4.64 annualized) and is up from $1.26 per unit ($5.04 annualized) for the third quarter of 2012. KMP has increased the distribution 46 times since current management took over in February 1997. Chairman and CEO Richard D. Kinder said, “KMP had a strong fourth quarter and a very successful year overall. We will distribute our budget of $4.98 per unit for the full year, which represents an 8 percent increase over the 2011 distribution of $4.61 per unit. KMP also produced cash in excess of our distribution target of approximately $30 million. For 2012, all five of KMP's business segments recorded higher results than in the previous year and generated $4.384 billion in segment earnings before DD&A and certain items, a 20 percent increase from $3.639 billion in 2011. Highlights included contributions from the drop down of 100 percent of Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) and 50 percent of El Paso Natural Gas (EPNG), record export coal volumes in our Terminals business and strong oil production at SACROC in our CO2 segment. KMP invested $2.1 billion in expansions and acquisitions during 2012 (not including dropdowns), which exceeded our budget of $1.7 billion. We see exceptional growth opportunities across all of our business segments, as there is a need to build additional midstream infrastructure to move or store oil, gas and liquids from the prolific shale plays in the United States and the oilsands in Alberta, along with increasing demand for export coal and CO2. We currently have identified approximately $11 billion in expansion and joint venture investments at KMP that we have, or are confident that we will soon have, under contract and we are pursuing customer commitments for many more projects.” KMP reported fourth quarter distributable cash flow before certain items of $495 million, up 16 percent from $425 million for the comparable period in 2011. Distributable cash flow per unit before certain items was $1.35 compared to $1.27 for the fourth quarter last year. Fourth quarter net income before certain items was $669 million compared to $491 million for the same period in 2011. Including certain items, net income was $619 million compared to $479 million for the fourth quarter last year. Certain items for the fourth quarter totaled a net loss of approximately $50 million (the majority of which pertained to damage to KMP terminals in the Northeast from Hurricane Sandy) versus a net loss of $12 million for the same period last year. It is anticipated that the hurricane losses will largely be offset by insurance recoveries, which will be reported as a certain item gain when they are received. For the year, distributable cash flow before certain items was $1.78 billion, up 17 percent from $1.53 billion for 2011. Distributable cash flow per unit before certain items was $5.07 compared to $4.68 per unit for the same period last year. Net income before certain items was $2.24 billion compared to $1.76 billion for 2011. Including certain items, net income was $1.36 billion versus $1.27 billion last year. Certain items for the year totaled a net loss of $888 million versus a net loss of $491 million for the comparable period in 2011. The certain items in 2012 were primarily attributable to the loss on disposal and re-measurement of discontinued operations to fair value related to the KMP assets that were divested in order to obtain Federal Trade Commission approval for Kinder Morgan, Inc.'s

acquisition of El Paso Corporation.