"This year has been a very good one for Kinder Morgan (KMI) and we expect to nicely exceed our budget. In 2019, with our market fundamentals remaining very strong, the Elba Liquefaction Project coming online and Gulf Coast Express entering service, we project continued growth," said Steve Kean, KMI chief executive officer.

"We expect to generate $5.0 billion of distributable cash flow which is approximately a 10 percent increase over our 2018 budgeted DCF. Our growth will continue to be supported by an approximately $6.5 billion backlog of high probability energy infrastructure expansion opportunities," continued Kean.

Below is a summary of KMI's expectations for 2019: Generate $2.20 DCF per share and $7.8 billion of Adjusted EBITDA, up 7 percent and 4 percent, respectively, compared to our 2018 budget, despite the sale of our Trans Mountain asset; return additional value to shareholders in 2019 through the previously announced dividend increase. As first stated in KMI's second quarter 2017 earnings release, KMI expects to increase the declared dividend per common share for 2019 to $1.00 per share, beginning with $0.25 per share for the Q1 2019 dividend, a 25 percent increase from the 2018 dividend and a 100 percent increase from the 2017 dividend. KMI also continues to expect to increase the dividend to $1.25 per share for 2020; invest $3.1 billion in expansion projects and contributions to joint ventures in 2019. KMI expects to use internally generated cash flow to fully fund its 2019 dividend payment as well as the vast majority of its 2019 discretionary spending, with no need to access equity markets; end 2019 with a Net Debt-to-Adjusted EBITDA ratio of 4.5 times. KMI's expectations assume average annual prices for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil and Henry Hub natural gas of $60.00 per barrel and $3.15 per MMBtu, respectively, consistent with forward pricing during the budget process. The vast majority of cash generated by KMI is fee-based and therefore is not directly exposed to commodity prices. The primary area where KMI has commodity price sensitivity is in its CO2 segment, where KMI hedges the majority of its next 12 months of oil production to minimize this sensitivity.

For 2019, the company estimates that every $1 per barrel change in the average WTI crude oil price impacts DCF by approximately $9 million and each $0.10 per MMBtu change in the price of natural gas impacts DCF by approximately $1 million.