David Schulte, president and CEO of CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust (NYSE: CORR), joined Nareit in New York for a video interview at REITweek: 2019 Investor Conference.
Schulte said the growth of U.S. energy production has led to an increased need for and demand of infrastructure assets.
“Our company is able to own all of those assets—storage facilities, pipelines, even off-shore assets—as real property,” Schulte said. “We [look for] up-stream companies that have a need to access those assets, but they don’t have to own them on their own balance sheet.”
Schulte said that since 2014, oil price volatility has had both positive and negative effects, giving companies “discipline.” While on the one hand, energy investors are uncomfortable with commodity price volatility, Schulte said it has been positive for CorEnergy because the REIT has been more careful about what assets it has to own.
Regarding acquisitions, Schulte said CorEnergy has found that negotiated transactions are the best approach for the REIT because they foster long-term relationships with operators.