Pipelines: Builders & Operators

⚠ Disclaimer: This section may contain incomplete, out of date, or inaccurate entries. It is AI-maintained on a best-effort basis. Do not rely on it as a sole source — verify claims independently using the source materials listed in individual entries.

Overview

Gas-fired generation, grid-connected or behind-the-meter (BTM), needs firm gas delivery, and that is what pipeline operators sell. This section separates operators (own and run pipelines: Kinder Morgan, Energy Transfer, ONEOK, Kinetik, Boardwalk, and Williams, covered in the Behind-the-Meter Power section) from builders (MasTec, Quanta) and from input suppliers in Pipeline Components & Input Suppliers. Generation equipment vendors are in Behind-the-Meter Power.

“KMP” is Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, merged into Kinder Morgan, Inc. (KMI) in 2014; the entry is Kinder Morgan.

Key Themes

  • Most disclosed “data center” pipeline work serves utilities and grid-connected plants, not BTM campuses. BTM-style disclosures: Energy Transfer’s CloudBurst (up to 450,000 MMBtu/d, up to about 1.2 GW BTM, subject to FID) and Nexus campus, and Williams’ projects. Kinder Morgan’s $9.6B backlog (Q2 2026) is more than 60% power generation and distribution, with the data center share unquantified.
  • Contract quality varies. Energy Transfer’s own slide mixes signed agreements, a letter of intent and counterparty-conditional deals; ONEOK’s 1 GW is undisclosed as to counterparty and appears only in call commentary, not its earnings release.
  • Demand is contested. In October 2026 the Southern Environmental Law Center sued over FERC’s approval of Kinder Morgan’s MSX and SSE4, citing a London Economics International report that the pipelines would carry over four times utilities’ forecast volumes, largely on speculative data centers. FERC found no basis to look behind contracts.
  • Builders and suppliers are the capacity read-through. MasTec’s pipeline backlog rose 35% sequentially to about $1.8B in Q2 2026; line pipe orders (Borusan Berg Pipe for Eiger Express; Welspun’s unnamed U.S. orders) lead construction.
  • People links: Kinetik’s CEO and chief accounting officer are Energy Transfer alumni; ONEOK’s Mark Roles is ex-Williams; Kinder Morgan’s chairman, president and tax chief share an Enron background. See each entry’s Key People.
  • Constraints: turbine and compression lead times; Waha takeaway limits in the Permian.

Companies

Public Companies

Ticker Company Mission
KMI Kinder Morgan — entry Largest U.S. natural gas pipeline operator; $9.6B backlog; MSX, SSE4, Permian Link.
ET Energy Transfer — entry Intrastate and interstate operator with Oracle, CloudBurst and Nexus data center supply.
OKE ONEOK — entry NGL and gas midstream; 1 GW power-plant supply deal; 25.5% of Eiger Express.
KNTK Kinetik — entry Permian gas processing and pipelines; 40 MW own-site BTM power.
WMB Williams — entry Power Innovation BTM projects; Blackstone $5.34B for 49% of five projects.
MTZ MasTec — entry Pipeline builder; pipeline backlog about $1.8B.
PWR Quanta Services — entry Electric, pipeline and generation builder; $53B backlog.

Incumbents

Ticker Company Mission
L Loews — parent of Boardwalk Pipelines Diversified holding company; Boardwalk is a wholly owned interstate gas pipeline subsidiary.

No startups are tracked in this subsection yet.

Supply Chain

Layer Key inputs / outputs Companies (entries) Concentration / risk notes
Steel plate / coil API-grade plate for line pipe Nucor (capability only) Which mills feed U.S. pipe makers was not identified
Line pipe Large-diameter welded pipe (42-inch for Eiger Express) Borusan Berg Pipe, Welspun Foreign parents (Turkey, India) with U.S. plants; Steel Market Update headlines mention higher anti-dumping duties on Turkish large-diameter welded pipe (not read)
Coatings FBE powder and plant applicators Axalta Nap-Gard, 3M Scotchkote, Dura-Bond, L.B. Foster No coating supplier tied to a named project
Valves Mainline ball and gate valves SLB Valves, Flowserve Pipeline fit unconfirmed for both; Emerson and others not yet covered
Compression / turbines Compressor-station drivers Baker Hughes; see also Behind-the-Meter Power Management cites lead-time pressure
Construction Right-of-way to commissioning MasTec, Quanta Customer-furnished vs contractor-furnished materials vary by contract
Operators Firm transportation KMI, ET, OKE, KNTK, Boardwalk, Williams Contracts mostly with utilities and power producers
Delivery Laterals to gas plants, grid-connected or BTM See operator entries BTM delivery only disclosed for a few projects

⚑ Shared supplier: none confirmed across operators yet; the only supplier-project tie is Borusan Berg Pipe and Eiger Express, in which ONEOK is an owner.

Sections

  • Pipeline Components & Input Suppliers — Upstream suppliers to gas pipeline builds (line pipe and steel, coatings such as fusion-bonded epoxy, valves, compression) and how to use their orders, filings and local news as early signals of pipeline demand. Sourced coverage so far: line pipe, steel, coatings, valves and compression suppliers.

Entries

  • Boardwalk Pipelines (Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP) — Loews-owned interstate gas pipeline operator (Texas Gas, Gulf South). Q2 2026 10-Q: $9.4B estimated revenue under executed agreements for growth projects; customers include power generators; no data center customers named in the excerpt reviewed.
  • Energy Transfer (ET) — Dallas-based midstream operator with the most explicit data center contracting among pipeline companies: about 900,000 Mcf/d supply to three Oracle data centers (first pipe in service), a Nexus behind-the-meter campus in Central Texas, CloudBurst, Fermi America and an Entergy Louisiana agreement (company-reported, May 2026); Hugh Brinson intrastate pipeline due Q4 2026.
  • Kinder Morgan (KMI; formerly Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, KMP) — Houston-based largest U.S. natural gas pipeline operator. $9.6B project backlog (Q2 2026), more than 60% tied to power generation and local distribution demand. FERC approved Mississippi Crossing (2.06 MMDth/d) and South System Expansion 4 (1.3 MMDth/d) on 2026-07-31; Southern Environmental Law Center sued in October 2026 arguing data center demand is speculative. KMP merged into KMI in 2014.
  • Kinetik Holdings (KNTK) — Permian Basin midstream company (Delaware Basin gas processing, Permian Highway and other pipelines). Q2 2026 adjusted EBITDA $280.8M; building a 40 MW behind-the-meter power project at its own cryo complex (Q2 2027). The release cites data centers as a demand driver but names no data center agreement.
  • MasTec (MTZ) — Pipeline and infrastructure contractor. Q2 2026: record $21.4B backlog; Pipeline Infrastructure backlog about $1.8B (+35% sequentially, 1.7x book-to-bill); pursuing hyperscaler projects over $1B; Superior Group acquisition closed July 2026.
  • ONEOK (OKE) — Tulsa-based midstream company (NGL, gas gathering/processing, refined products). Q2 2026: secured gas supply for 1 GW of power-plant demand and is in late-stage talks on more data center supply, each possibly over $100M of capital (call commentary via MarketBeat). Adjusted EBITDA guidance midpoint $8.35B.
  • Quanta Services (PWR) — Large infrastructure contractor (electric power, pipeline, communications). Q2 2026: record $53B backlog; technology/data center work about 15-20% of the business; pursues behind-the-meter and front-of-the-meter generation selectively.