Pipe dreams still alive for select few in US energy rout

New York

AN energy-market rout has ravaged fortunes from Texas to North Dakota and hit thousands of small investors, but some tycoons are still coining it in thanks to a piece of financial engineering that has tilted the playing field in their favour.

US pipeline billionaire Kelcy Warren, for example, has pocketed over US$300 million in cash payouts from his company Energy Transfer Equity since the price of oil started to crater in mid-2014, according to a Reuters analysis based on filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mr Warren is on course to receive over US$200 million this year, should the company not cut its distributions.

The private equity firms that back the general partner of Plains All American, another oil and gas pipeline behemoth, have …