…Clueless, wordless… about where to even begin to talk about this work — “The Pipeliner’s Dream.” The feature is the telling of the buildout of America’s energy infrastructure through the eyes of Energy Transfer’s chairman Kelcy Warren and as chief executive officer at Energy Transfer Partners. It is a legendary Texas entrepreneurial tale. It reflects his drive, since a Q&A of 2014, in building out the dream and my dot-connecting of the shale revolution.
Read “The Pipeliner’s Dream” in November D CEO
As the lifetime achievement award winner, an event paying tribute to Dallas’ Kelcy Warren and recognizing the other energy award winners was held October 25th.
Kelcy Warren, lifetime achievement and chairman of Energy Transfer, and the writer
In preparing for the tribute and awards event, the publisher produced a video. Specifically, I was given a few questions the night before the shoot. I had reviewed for some days and hours previously, and I decided to rehearse. It’s one thing to write and another to verbalize the meaning. The specific article happened over the course of six months, but the conception occurred across one decade-plus —the work of the twin U.S. shale booms (with some busts) and the relationships formed with American leaders.
On the right is the one-minute video about the feature, produced by D Publishers. And left is a behind-the-scenes look, recalling and collecting my thoughts for the production day. It really describes it all in a much broader way, sort of unvarnished thoughts and reflection.
click for full view
Editor’s Post 11/22/23 with Awards Event Pictures and Story link
A few first draft excerpts follow from the story…
In 2014, when the Permian’s oil boom finally hit mainstream media, Warren spoke about the directional change of hydrocarbon flows from imports in the U.S. South to the North, feeding energy to households, business, and industry. Pipelines would need to be re-directed, re-flowed from the North’s Appalachian gas of the Marcellus to the Gulf Coast. He said then “that’s a pipeliner’s dream.” Where others saw a problem, Warren saw an opportunity.
Furthermore, Warren very much recognizes the impetus for the shale revolution, the oil and gas drillers, the exploration and production companies. Without their drive and perseverance, none of this would have happened. He has a deep sense of humility about them.
The U.S. is now the globe’s top producer of natural gas and crude oil. That happened as a result of shale oil and gas developments, driven by the creativity, sweat and grit of drillers. And some many hundreds of billions of capital.
“The brightest people in the whole industry are the explorers, the risk takers and wildcatters,” Warren testifies. He paraphrases shale godfather George Mitchell: “’People think we were innovators. I was drilling the shale formation we thought could work, and finally I realized if I cut back on sand that I could save money and maybe stay in the game.’” He continues, with soft-spoken reverence, “That was brilliant, to do what they now call slickwater fracs, which Mitchell relayed with such humility; I love that with anyone—'I kinda stumbled on it.’ I don’t think that’s right.” Warren offers, “That’s what happens in my industry. You try and fail —and learn more from failures than successes.”
