El Paso 4Q Net More Than Doubles; El Paso Pipeline Earnings Up 24%

El Paso Corp.'s (EP) fourth-quarter earnings more than doubled as revenue jumped by a quarter, while the natural-gas and oil producer's El Paso Pipeline Partners LP (EPB) saw its earnings rise 24%.

El Paso, which operates a network of interstate natural-gas pipelines in North America, last year agreed to sell itself to Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) for $21 billion, a deal which is expected to close by the second quarter of this year.

For the latest period, El Paso posted a profit of $185 million, or 24 cents a share, up from $71 million, or 9 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 25% to $1.23 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 29 cents a share on $1.35 billion in revenue.

Meanwhile, El Paso Pipeline reported earnings of $126 million, or 51 cents a unit, up from $102 million, or 53 cents a unit a year earlier. Operating revenue rose 2.8% to $362 million. Analysts expected earnings of 60 cents a unit on revenue of $385 million.

El Paso Pipeline is a so-called master limited partnership, a tax-advantaged structure in which most of the company's earnings are paid out to shareholders in the form of dividend-like distributions. A separate "general partner," which is owned by El Paso, oversees day-to-day operations.

Shares and units of El Paso and El Paso Pipeline Partners were inactive in premarket trading, after closing Friday at $27.16 and $38.01, respectively.

-By Mia Lamar, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-3207; [e-mail]