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Boosts From Trump Give Kelcy Warren Huge Pipeline Gain

Kelcy Warren’s pipeline business had a massive profit last year, thanks largely to President Donald Trump.

Boosts From Trump Give Kelcy Warren Huge Pipeline Gain
An oil pipeline runs from an on-shore tie-in facility, the production and metering facility. (Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Kelcy Warren’s pipeline business had a massive profit last year, thanks largely to President Donald Trump.

Approval of the controversial Dakota Access pipeline and gains from the U.S. tax overhaul helped the billionaire’s Energy Transfer Partners LP more than quadruple net income to $2.5 billion last year, according to an earnings report Wednesday.

Boosts From Trump Give Kelcy Warren Huge Pipeline Gain

Operating more than 70,000 miles of oil and gas pipelines, Energy Transfer is one of the heavyweights in the industry. Its pipeline shipping crude from the Bakken shale in North Dakota to Illinois went into service the second quarter of last year after spurring nationwide protests. The line, which had been halted by the Obama administration, added $247 million to earnings in the fourth quarter, the Dallas-based company said in a statement Wednesday.

As Energy Transfer progresses with projects that faced delays -- the Rover gas line was halted in Ohio and Mariner East 2 was stalled in Pennsylvania -- it’s eyeing more ways to take advantage of the shale surge. The company is considering a new project carrying crude from the Permian Basin to Nederland, Texas, in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, management said on a conference call Thursday. It “makes sense” given the robust output forecasts, the company said.

Shares jumped as much as 5.4 percent, the most intraday since Jan. 2, on Thursday. They were up 4.6 percent to $19.05 at 11:24 a.m. in New York.

Tax law benefits were the primary driver of net income in the quarter. Excluding one-time items, the per-share profit in the period was 57 cents, topping the highest analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg of 49 cents.

To contact the reporter on this story: Meenal Vamburkar in New York at mvamburkar@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net, Carlos Caminada

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