This fireside chat recap is from the virtual summit Evolve: The Next Evolution of Oil & Gas, presented by Digital Wildcatters and FreightWaves.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: The Dakota Access Pipeline and the next evolution of energy transportation.
DETAILS: With the Biden administration having shut down construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, activists now are pushing to close pipelines that are operating. The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) has long been a target and its fate is in the courts. Will the pipeline’s developers be able to work out a deal that enables the operation to continue?
SPEAKER and INTERVIEWER: Chip Moldenhauer, founder and CEO of Arbo, and Trish Curtis, president and CEO of PetroNerds.
BIOS: Moldenhauer is a practicing energy regulatory attorney. He founded LawIQ, now known as Arbo, a leading provider of energy industry regulatory, legal and market analytics software and advisory services. Curtis leads PetroNerds, a Denver-based oil and gas advisory firm.
KEY QUOTES FROM MOLDENHAUER:
“We get the question all the time. Is another long-haul, major midstream transportation project going to be built?”
On an earlier court-ordered shutdown of DAPL, which has not yet closed the line: “DAPL was the first shot to drop in regards to a circumstance where you had a pipeline that was built, a pipeline that was flowing and the risk that there was in fact no finality.”
“I think there’s ways the industry can be more transparent with their datasets and development metrics in line with the [nongovernmental organizations].”
KEY QUOTE FROM CURTIS:
“I personally think that the possibility that this pipeline is going to be emptied is much, much higher than it was before this administration was in office. If XL was a symbolic gesture, this could be another very large symbolic gesture.”