May 14/Kansas City/Associated Press -- Inergy Midstream L.P. announced it is acquiring U.S. Salt LLC from its parent company Inergy L.P. for $192.5 million.

U.S. Salt, located outside of Watkins Glen, N.Y., is one of five major solution mined salt manufacturers in the United States. It produces evaporated salt products for food, industrial, pharmaceutical and water conditioning.

Inergy Midstream said the deal complements its existing natural gas business as U.S. Salt's mining process creates salt caverns that can be developed into usable natural gas and natural gas liquids storage. U.S. Salt has approximately 10 billion cubic feet of available cavern space that could potentially be developed for natural gas storage.

Inergy Midstream, based in Kansas City, Mo., owns and operates natural gas storage facilities in the Northeast. Its parent company is a publicly traded limited partnership that is also located in Kansas City, Mo.

 From the May 15, 2012, Prepared Foods’ Daily News