Albert (Al) Taylor brings to Pilko 39 years of energy industry experience.  Al retired from Williams as Vice President, Operations for Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company, one of the largest interstate natural gas pipeline systems in the continental United States, where he oversaw safe, efficient and reliable operations of approximately 10,000 miles of Transco’s natural gas transmission and gathering system. Operations and maintenance responsibilities included multi-diameter gathering and transmission pipelines (offshore and onshore), compression, underground storage, and LNG plant operations.  Al’s 5-year commitment to this role (2015-2019) was grounded with operational and safety discipline front and center, as the Transco’s geographically diverse system entered into a period of significant growth. During Al’s tenure as vice president, the Transco system committed in excess of $6 billion in contracted expansion projects which increased the Transco pipeline’s system capacity by approximately 40 percent.  Further, significant system design changes were implemented in preparation for bi-direction flow along Transco’s mainline between Rate Zones 6, 5, and 4 to Station 85.

During this 5 years of unparalleled growth, he designed & executed a significant leadership restructuring plan focused on the clarification of expectations, desired results, and a consistent management of accountability, which allowed the organization to reduce overall leadership and employee complement. The focus on every individual’s mindset to operate with discipline, allowed improvement of every major industry safety standard statistic measured (TRIR down by 70%, LTIR down by 58%, Lost Work Days down by 92%, MVA’s down by 19%). Additionally, the fundamentals of Process Safety were introduced to the entire transmission organization to further grow individual and organizational ownership of incidents and near misses, which were originally viewed by the majority as “out of their control”.

Opportunities leading up to these Transco successes included Al’s role as:

• Vice President & General Manager of Williams’ new Gulf East Operating Area in January 2013.  In this role he designed and oversaw the merger of Williams’ interstate natural gas pipeline facilities and midstream assets in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico.  This role was further highlighted by overseeing first oil/gas and the transfer to operations of Williams’ Gulfstar One – Tubular Bells  Deepwater Floating Production System in Mississippi Canyon Block 724.
• Director Operations and VP of partnership for Williams’ ownership in Gulfstream Natural Gas System, LLC in May 2001.  Responsible for the design of a team to commission & operate the longest offshore transmission pipeline within the continental United States, the 581-mile transmission pipeline originated in Mobile, AL, with landfall just south of Tampa, FL. Florida’s first major natural gas source to enter the state in over 40 years providing 1.1 BCFD of reliability to the state’s natural gas grid.  Oversaw four (4) additional expansion projects designed to deliver up to 2 BCFD to Florida.
• Williams’ Senior Operations Manager Mobile Bay, AL in March 1998.  Responsibilities included design and oversight of the operating organization for Williams’ new 600 MCFD gas processing plant and offshore gathering assets on the front-end of the plant. Plant tailgate assets included approximately 200 miles of interstate/intrastate natural gas liquids pipelines (Tri-States NGL Pipeline and Wilprise NGL Pipeline) and the management of Williams’ joint venture interests. In 1999, the asset area was expanded to include the newly acquired Union Texas Petrochemical liquid pipelines and storage facilities supporting the Geismar Olefins Plant in Geismar, LA.  Acquisition responsibilities included the merger and reorganization of the liquids pipeline and storage facility leadership team, technical operations and maintenance structure.

Prior to these senior leadership roles Al spent 14 years in first-line leadership and field engineering roles supporting liquid pipeline and terminal operations & maintenance, natural gas pipeline gathering & transmission, compressor and storage operations & maintenance, and proration & gas supply contracts.

Before joining Williams in 1983, Al held positions with Conoco, Inc., Getty Oil Company and Brown and Root, Inc.

A native of south Louisiana, Al completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering at Louisiana Tech University in 1982.