Note to readers/viewers: Plainview’s primary focus is the oil market. However, we will publish content where we believe our crude analysis overlaps with other commodities (like NGLs) and can provide meaningful insights to the market.
Recent joint venture announcements from South Bow and Bridger Pipeline have answered a major midstream question: how Canadian crude oil from the newly proposed Prairie Connector and Bridger Expansion will find its way from Wyoming to Cushing, Oklahoma. By acquiring rights-of-way from the canceled Liberty Pipeline project, the partners plan to modify existing permits to build a larger 36-inch crude oil pipeline. This third leg of their broader network effectively solves the bottleneck, ensuring that up to 550,000 barrels per day of Canadian and Bakken crude can flow to Midcontinent with connectivity to Gulf Coast markets (see figure below).
However, this crude oil solution raises a fascinating secondary question regarding the physical remnants of the canceled Liberty project. Prior to its cancellation in 2021, the developers took delivery of a significant amount of 24-inch pipe. While some was used by Pony Express to bypass a local bottleneck from Guernsey, Wyoming, to Northern Colorado, thousands of joints of unused 24-inch pipe have been sitting in storage yards in places like Stratton, Colorado, since 2021 (see satellite and street view photos below). Local residents reported to Plainview that project representatives have discussed possible plans to lay two pipelines in the Liberty right-of-way: the new 36-inch crude line and a secondary project utilizing the idle 24-inch pipe for a completely different commodity.
Because crude oil supply dynamics do not justify two parallel oil pipelines from this area, the second line could carry another commodity like Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs). The timing aligns well with one recent NGL pipeline conversion: in early 2026, Kinder Morgan’s Hiland Express (formerly the Double H oil pipeline) was converted to NGL service, with the ability to flow approximately 100,000 barrels per day south from the Bakken. Currently, throughput on Hiland Express is likely a small fraction of this capacity because NGL egress options out of the Guernsey, Wyoming area are highly limited. Indeed, tariff information indicates Hiland Express currently relies on Phillips 66’s small, 16,000-barrel-per-day Powder River NGL pipeline to reach NGL egress lines in Colorado.
Kinder Morgan continues to hint in investor calls at expanding the scope of Hiland Express to bring even more NGL volumes south. Our analysis indicates they would need a higher-capacity egress solution out of the Wyoming area to achieve any meaningful volume increase. The idle 24-inch Liberty pipe could be deployed to bridge this gap. An NGL pipeline of this scale would allow Kinder Morgan to bypass the Wyoming bottleneck, link directly into expandable networks like Phillips 66’s Southern Hills pipeline in Oklahoma, and efficiently transport Rockies and Bakken NGLs straight to the Gulf Coast. While a joint venture between Kinder Morgan, Phillips 66, and whoever still owns the 24-inch Liberty pipeline remnants remains speculative, utilizing the leftover Liberty pipeline assets is a highly logical, market-moving play that could soon reshape NGL dynamics in Bakken and Rockies markets.
