as someone mentioned here, kinder has stated that his projections were based on oil at$68, which is a bit confusing since this is not a commodity based company. in any case, the recent rise to near $74 seems more solid than previous upward moves. and the upward move of KMR in the last week certainly seems to be related to nothing else i can determine but the rise in oil price. the only other factor would be the imminent 10 day averaging period for the dividend share distribution. the higher the price the fewer the shares distributed. but since KMP has been moving up in tandem, so far contradicting my predictions that the discount would narrow as we approach x-dividend date, i believe most of the price rise is due to the upward moving oil price. of course, that is a reflection of a strengthening economy which would necessitate greater product movement through the pipelines plus greater use of all the various commodities KMP stores/distributes. all this, if it lasts, portends a greater increase in distribution rate for 2010. wouldn't it be nice if kinder decides based on the recent economic recovery and future prospects to jump ahead and boost the distribution this quarter? being the largest shareholder and deriving all KMP income from distributions has always made him very shareholder friendly.