De Gruyter new pipeline coordinator

David De Gruyter has been appointed director of the State Pipeline Coordinator’s Office in the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, effective Feb. 24. He replaces Mike Thompson, who retired.

The department said that De Gruyter, a former Alaskan, has a wide breadth of experience in pipeline management in the United States and abroad, including significant knowledge and experience dealing with right-of-way issues on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline and North Slope pipeline operations.

De Gruyter returns to Alaska from Oklahoma, where he has been working for the past year as the Keystone XL Pipeline project manager responsible for U.S. Gulf Coast facilities construction. He previously played a leadership role in pipeline projects in Columbia, South America, Louisiana and Alaska.

De Gruyter worked on the TAPS Right-of-Way Renewal Project on behalf of the TAPS owners. Prior to that he was a business unit leader for BP Pipelines (Alaska), working on issues involving the company’s common carrier pipeline business.

De Gruyter received his master’s degree in Geology from Ohio State University.

—Petroleum News