{"id":230937,"date":"2026-01-06T19:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/230937\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T19:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:36:09","slug":"texan-oil-pipeline-billionaire-behind-e30m-investment-in-waterford-airport-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/230937\/","title":{"rendered":"Texan oil pipeline billionaire behind \u20ac30m investment in Waterford airport \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Texan oil billionaire Kelcy Warren is behind a \u20ac30 million investment into Waterford Airport, according to sources with knowledge of the deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Waterford City and County Council approved the private investment in October following a long-running bid for public funding to lengthen the airport\u2019s runway to allow it attract commercial airlines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Local councillors were not informed of the identity of the investor in advance of a vote to approve the investment, which involved the council selling \u20ac2.3 million worth of public land to a then unnamed US businessman for just \u20ac50,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/10\/20\/council-approves-30-million-private-funding-bid-for-waterford-airport-from-mystery-us-investor\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mystery US investor\u2019s \u20ac30m private funding for Waterford Airport gets council approvalOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Warren is the chief executive and chairman of Energy Transfer, one of the largest oil and gas pipeline companies in the US. It had turnover of $82.7 billion (\u20ac70.7 billion) in 2024. The company owns the Dakota Access Pipeline and other US oil infrastructure. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Warren has a net worth of $7.1 billion according to Forbes, ranking him just outside the richest 500 people in the world. He is a long-time funder of Republican Party candidates, including Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"A runway extension would allow jet aircraft to operate from Waterford Airport. Photograph: Waterford Airport\/twitter\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/W2TAQX46ZZ2262ZTUQOP2SS75U.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"449\"\/>A runway extension would allow jet aircraft to operate from Waterford Airport. Photograph: Waterford Airport\/twitter <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It is understood the investment deal is now near completion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Warren also owns the Georgian Palladian mansion, Castletown Cox in Co Kilkenny through a company Rosebrack Limited, and is in the process of developing a whiskey distillery at the property. A Rosebrack subsidiary, The Willy Good Distillery Limited, was incorporated in March 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The identity of the bidder has not been officially named due to a non-disclosure agreement binding key shareholders and stakeholders. As Mr Warren is a non-EU resident, the deal has been subject to inward investment screening by the Department of Enterprise.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image audio_image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1754647931518-c07d65db-55b5-463e-ae51-976300c5837e.jpeg\"\/>Another huge corporate tax take to AI\u2019s next phase: What\u2019s in store for 2026?<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">For this week\u2019s episode, host Ciar\u00e1n Hancock Is joined by an expert panel to look forward to 2026. After another record-breaking year for corporate tax receipts, is there now a real threat of concentration risk in the Irish economy?A huge amount of money has been raised and spent on AI, but where is it at in terms of its development? When will investors start looking for a tangible return?And will Donald Trump turn his attention back to economic matters after moves to end the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine? Could more tariffs be on the way in 2026?The panel comprises CEO of the Sherry Fitzgerald Group, Marian Finnegan, tech entrepreneur and columnist at the Irish Times, Chris Horn, and Irish Times Economics Correspondent, Eoin Burke-Kennedy.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Warren\u2019s legal advisers, Mason Hayes and Curran, have been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Waterford council has helped to fund shortfalls at the airport since 2016 and will be forgiving a loan of \u20ac670,000 to enable the investment. The council also owns a small minority stake in the company. It will waive its shareholding and will dispose of an 84-hectare landholding to enable the development.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The land, which was valued at \u20ac2.295 million by independent estate agent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/avison-young\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/avison-young\/\" target=\"_blank\">Avison Young<\/a>, will be sold for \u20ac50,000. The sale conditions include a number of so-called anti-embarrassment clauses, such as restrictions on changing the use of the land and future sales.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The chief executive of the council, Sean McKeown, recommended councillors take the deal in light of the \u201cabsence of any viable alternative investment proposal, the imminent financial risk to the airport and the clear and measurable economic and social benefits\u201d of the investment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The agreement includes a clause that the sale of the land will only take effect once the full development works at the airport have been completed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The airport\u2019s single largest shareholder, the Bolster Group, had been in negotiations with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/department-of-transport\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/department-of-transport\/\" target=\"_blank\">Department of Transport<\/a> for public funding for a number of years, securing an \u201cexpression of support\u201d for a public-private funding agreement in 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">William Bolster of the Bolster Group described the approval as \u201cfantastic news\u201d at the time. He refused to comment on the identity of the investor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texan oil billionaire Kelcy Warren is behind a \u20ac30 million investment into Waterford Airport, according to sources with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,969,61,60,6513,41846],"class_list":["post-230937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-donald-trump","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-waterford","tag-waterford-city-and-county-council"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}