Tallgrass Energy is holding its second open season on the Pony Express Hub in 2024, this time for customers seeking to transport crude out of the Williston Basin in exchange for incentive tariff rates, the company said March 11.

Tallgrass operates the Pony Express Pipeline in conjunction with Bridger Pipeline. The operators announced a binding joint tariff open season for shipper commitments and production dedication for crude oil. The 30-day open season began on March 11.

In January, Tallgrass and Bridger launched an open season for a section of the line between Bridger’s Guernsey Hub in southeast Wyoming and the Pony Express’ Guernsey and Sterling origin terminals.

Prospective shippers can review details of the open season after signing a confidentiality agreement with Tallgrass. The Pony Express Pipeline is an 830-mile, 230,000 bbl/d network with a main line from Guernsey to Cushing, Oklahoma, with a secondary Northeast Colorado Lateral that delivers up to 90,000 bbl/d to Cushing.

Tallgrass System Map
(Source: Tallgrass Energy)

Former director fined

In an unrelated development, former Tallgrass board member Roy Cook settled insider trading charges leveled against him and his four friends by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Cook and the others involved agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle the charges without admitting or denying the allegations, the SEC said in a March 12 press release.

According to the SEC, in 2019 Cook learned that Blackstone Infrastructure Partners had offered to acquire Tallgrass and take the company private. Cook then tipped off his friends Jeffrey Natrop, Peter Renner, James Rudolph and Peter Williams, the SEC said.

All four purchased Tallgrass securities prior to an Aug. 27, 2019, announcement of Blackstone’s offer, according to the SEC.

The Blackstone deal was worth roughly $3 billion.

“As our complaint alleges, Roy Cook took advantage of his position as a Tallgrass director to repeatedly enrich himself and his friends,” said Mark Cave, associate director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “We will hold accountable board members and others who misuse inside information for their own benefit and violate the trust placed in them by shareholders.”

While the men did not admit or deny the allegations, each defendant consented to a permanent injunction prohibiting them from violating the antifraud provisions of the Securities Exchange Act.

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