Under CEO And Co-Founder Kelcy L. Warren, Energy Transfer Goes International

Energy Transfer, co-founded by CEO Kelcy L. Warren, is expanding internationally.

The Dallas-based diversified energy company is opening an office in in Beijing, China—the firm’s first office outside the U.S.—to support the marketing and sales of energy products there, including liquefied natural gas, ethane, propane, butane, natural gasoline and crude oil. The effort is facilitated by Energy Transfer’s joint venture with China-based Satellite Petrochemical to facilitate the export of ethane to China, announced last year.

Within the U.S., Orbit Gulf Coast NGL Exports LLC is currently constructing a pipeline that will transport ethane from Energy Transfer’s Mont Belvieu, Texas fractionation and storage facilities to a new ethane terminal adjacent to Energy Transfer’s Nederland, Texas NGL facility. Once the pipeline is completed, roughly 150,000 barrels per day of ethane will be exported to Satellite’s ethane cracking facilities in China.

In addition, Energy Transfer has a 50/50 venture with Shell US LNG LLC to convert Energy Transfer’s LNG import and regasification terminal in Lake Charles, Louisiana to an LNG export facility. The project will give the facility a liquefaction capacity of 16.45 million tonnes per annum for export to customers in China and other global markets.

Warren is chairman and CEO Energy Transfer LP, a publicly traded limited partnership with core operations that include complementary natural gas midstream, intrastate and interstate transportation and storage assets; crude oil, natural gas liquids and refined product transportation and terminalling assets; NGL fractionation; and various acquisition and marketing assets.

The company, through its ownership of Energy Transfer Operating L.P., formerly known as Energy Transfer Partners L.P., also owns the general partner interests, the incentive distribution rights and 28.5 million common units of Sunoco LP and the general partner interests and 39.7 million common units of USA Compression Partners LP.

Prior to the combination of the operations of ETO and Heritage Propane in 2004, Warren co-founded the entities that acquired and operated the midstream assets that were contributed in the merger. From 1996 to 2000, he served as a director of Crosstex Energy Inc. and from 1993 to 1996, Warren served as president, chief operating officer and a director of Cornerstone Natural Gas Inc.

Warren was appointed to a six-year term on The University of Texas System Board of Regents by Governor Greg Abbott in March 2019. Recently, President Donald Trump appointed Warren to the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees.

He’s No. 59 on Chief Executive and RHR International’s CEO1000 Tracker, a ranking of the top 1,000 public/private companies

Headquarters: Dallas, TX

Age: 64

Education: B.A., University of Texas Arlington

First joined company: Founded it in 1996

Prior to joining Energy Transfer: Cornerstone Natural Gas

Named CEO: 1996