Kelcy Warren has always framed pipeline conversions as a matter of finding the best purpose for existing infrastructure. That thinking produced one of the most closely watched projects of his career: the Bakken Pipeline system, commonly known as the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The project involved converting roughly 675 miles of the Trunkline pipeline, originally built to carry natural gas, over to oil service. It then connected to a 1,170 mile pipeline capable of moving up to 750,000 barrels of crude per day from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale, the second largest oilfield in the country at the time, to markets further east and south.
Solving a Market Problem
Before the pipeline existed, producers in the Bakken had to move crude by truck and rail, methods that Kelcy Warren has said never compete with pipeline transport on cost or efficiency. The region, he noted, simply had no market access otherwise.
The project drew heavy public attention and organized opposition during construction, particularly over its route through the Bakken and Three Forks production area in North Dakota into Illinois. Despite the controversy, the pipeline began commercial service in 2017 and has continued operating as a central piece of Energy Transfer‘s crude oil network.
Warren has pointed to the project as an example of his broader philosophy that pipelines can be reimagined rather than replaced when market conditions shift. What began as a gas line built for one purpose became, under his direction, a critical artery for crude oil, illustrating the repurposing approach that has defined much of Kelcy Warren’s three decades running Energy Transfer.
The Bakken conversion was one of about a dozen major repurposing projects Warren has overseen, a track record he attributes in part to his civil engineering training from the University of Texas at Arlington. Energy Transfer has applied similar thinking elsewhere, including converting import terminals built for natural gas into export facilities as U.S. production shifted from scarcity to surplus over the past two decades. Refer to this article for related information.
Find more information about Kelcy Warren on https://www.forbes.com/profile/kelcy-warren/