America's pipeline wars
Public opposition and shrinking growth opportunities have put the midstream in a tough spot. Expect more deal-making
The business of building pipelines and other energy infrastructure in America used to be fairly quiet. That was before Keystone XL. In scuppering the project, environmental groups stumbled onto their most effective strategy for keeping oil and gas in the ground-cutting off access to markets. Now, nearly every major pipeline project in the US is a battleground between the industry and activists looking to derail Big Oil. The latest flare up came on the plains of North Dakota where a coalition of Native American and environmental groups halted work on the $3.8bn Energy Transfer Partners-backed Dakota Access Pipeline. The line would ship around 470,000 barrels a day of Bakken crude nearly 2,000
Also in this section
17 February 2026
The 25th WPC Energy Congress, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 26–30 April 2026, will bring together leaders from the political, industrial, financial and technology sectors under the unifying theme “Pathways to an Energy Future for All”
17 February 2026
Siemens Energy has been active in the Kingdom for nearly a century, evolving over that time from a project-based foreign supplier to a locally operating multi-national company with its own domestic supply chain and workforce
17 February 2026
Eni’s chief operating officer for global natural resources, Guido Brusco, takes stock of the company’s key achievements over the past year, and what differentiates its strategy from those of its peers in the LNG sector and beyond
16 February 2026
As the third wave of global LNG arrives, Wood Mackenzie’s director for Europe gas and LNG, Tom Marzec-Manser, discusses with Petroleum Economist the outlook for Europe’s gas market in 2026






