Ruby Pipeline
Natural gas pipeline in the United States
The Ruby Pipeline is a 683-mile, 42-in. diameter natural gas pipeline running from Opal, Wyoming, to Malin, Oregon. The route crosses Northern Utah, and Northern Nevada. Ruby Pipeline, L.L.C., a child company of the El Paso Corporation, filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on January 27, 2009, authorizing the construction and operation of the Ruby Pipeline Project. On April 5, 2010, the FERC approved the application. Construction began on July 31, 2010, and the pipeline was placed in service on July 28, 2011. The pipe is 683 miles (1,099 km) long with an expected capacity of 1.5 billion cubic feet per day (42×10^6 m3/d). As of 2026, it is estimated to be at around 50% utilization.
The El Paso Corporation was acquired by Kinder Morgan for $38 billion on May 25, 2012.
On April 1, 2022, Ruby Pipeline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company received bankruptcy court approval for a $282 million sale of its assets to Tallgrass Energy Partners, a Blackstone Group company.
01Controversy
There is concern that the project crosses more than 1000 rivers and streams and, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, threatens some endangered fish species.
The Center for Biological Diversity and Summit Lake Paiute Tribe of Nevada petitioned the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for an emergency action blocking the pipeline. Despite not winning the injunction requests, the Court ultimately ruled in their favor, finding that environmental reviews for the pipeline's impacts to endangered fish species and sagebrush habitats did not comply with environmental laws.
02Proposed data center
In 2026, Utah's Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA), in collaboration with Canadian businessman Kevin O'Leary, announced the Stratos Project: a plan to construct a large data center campus in the Box Elder County of northern Utah, with energy infrastructure that would draw exclusively from the Ruby Pipeline. If completed, it is estimate the project could reach a capacity of 9 gigawatts generated by onsite natural gas power generation.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Ruby Pipeline”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Ruby Pipeline Natural Gas Pipeline.jpeg by BLM Bureau of Land Management, Public domain
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