Georgia oil pipeline firm gets new CEO

Alpharetta-based Colonial Pipeline Co. named a new CEO and president on Friday, replacing Norm J. Szydlowski after just three years.

Tim Felt, 54, head of a pipeline company in Tulsa, Okla., will take over Jan. 18, according to a company announcement. It said Szydlowski, 57, is retiring and gave no other details on the timing of the move.

Mike Brenk, chairman of Colonial’s board, said in a statement: “We’re fortunate to have a leader of Mr. Felt’s stature to guide Colonial Pipeline.”

Felt has been president and CEO of Explorer Pipeline since 2000, and was vice president of Mobil Pipe Line Co. from 1995 to 2000. During that time, he was a Colonial board member.

Colonial is a private company owned by a consortium of five international oil companies and investment firms, including Koch Industries Inc., which also owns Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific. Revenues in 2007 were $824 million, according to Colonial.

The company, incorporated in 1962, transports about 70 percent of Georgia’s gasoline, jet fuel and other petroleum products from refineries on the Gulf Coast. It’s pipelines run through 14 states from Texas to the New York harbor.

Szydlowski was the company’s seventh chief executive. He spent much of his career at Chevron Corp., and had more recently served as a senior consultant to the Iraqi Oil Ministry at the request of the Pentagon.

The leadership change comes as Colonial is planning to build a third pipeline from the Gulf Coast to its tank farm in Austell, crossing Cobb, Paulding, Carroll and Haralson counties.

Colonial is seeking an environmental permit from the state of Georgia to build a third, 36-inch pipeline across Cobb, Paulding, Carroll and Haralson counties. The entire line would run 460 miles from oil refineries on the Gulf Coast to a tank farm in Austell.

If successful, the company would have the power to condemn properties, but does not expect to need it. Company representative Sam Whitehead has said negotiations with individual landowners would probably not start until 2010. Construction on the $3 billion pipeline is expected to begin in 2011 and be completed by the end of 2012.