Turning nouns into verbs is a trend that seems to be catching on more and more, and the same is happening in oil and gas parlance relating to infrastructure. With plenty of assets to reconfigure—and aided by much industry ingenuity—the talk is about “repurposing” oil and gas infrastructure to meet the new needs of a fast-changing energy market.

What’s new is the pace and scale, rather than the concept of “repurposing.” Of late, repurposing examples appear to be around every infrastructure corner. If a pipeline is not being reversed, it’s being converted to a different product. If a product can’t be piped, it will be railed. Growing output in interior North American regions necessitates new infrastructure to reach markets previously served by imports.

Some assets are already facing a second conversion. Memories come back from the late 1990s, when the Pony Express pipeline, originally designed for crude oil, was converted to natural gas. The pipeline is now owned by Tallgrass Pipeline Partners, which sees growing Niobrara production from the Denver-Julesburg Basin as an opportunity for Pony Express to turn full circle and carry liquids once again. Plans call for converting about 430 miles of pipeline and the construction of a 60-mile D-J/Niobrara lateral.

With shale-gas supplies ramping first, it is not surprising that the accompanying natural gas liquids (NGLs) prompted some of the more innovative earlier moves. For example, Range Resources Corp.’s Mariner East project is designed to reverse the flow of butane and gasoline to inland markets in order to tap into export markets for ethane and propane. In addition, repurposing of infrastructure will allow Range to ship ethane via its Mariner West and ATEX projects to markets in Sarnia, Ontario, and Mont Belvieu, Texas.

Kinder Morgan’s project to reverse its Cochin pipeline aims to replace deteriorating regional market demand for propane, due to competing supplies from the Bakken and Marcellus, by tapping into rising Canadian demand for light condensate imports. Demand for condensate, for use as a diluent by Alberta oil-sands producers, is projected to grow to 500,000 barrels per day by 2020. Plans provide for the Cochin pipeline to be in service in mid-2014 with a capacity of 95,000 barrels per day, carrying condensate to Alberta that is sourced mainly from the Utica and Eagle Ford.

d Canadian production, of course, still needs export outlets amidst the improved—but still uncertain—outlook for the Keystone XL project. One recently announced joint venture between Enbridge Inc. and Energy Transfer calls for converting to crude oil service certain segments of Trunkline Gas Co. that now transport gas up to the Midwest. With a capacity of 420,000 to 660,000 barrels per day, the Trunkline conversion would provide western Canadian and Bakken producers with access to eastern Gulf Coast markets by connecting the Patoka, Illinois, hub with the St. James hub in Louisiana.

Other plans for greater access to eastern markets are also in motion at Enbridge with its Line 9B reversal, involving a 30-inch-diameter line currently carrying imported crudes west. Plans are to reverse a roughly 400-mile segment, running from Sarnia to Montreal, Quebec, allowing western Canadian crudes to access the Quebec refining market. Capacity of the 240,000-barrel-perday line would be simultaneously expanded to 300,000 barrels per day, with an anticipated in-service date in second-half 2014.

How much do these types of projects cumulatively come to? According to IHS, the pace and scale of projects designed to overcome infrastructure bottlenecks is unprecedented, requiring not only 9,500 miles of new pipelines, but an even larger amount—12,000 miles—of pipelines being recommissioned, aka repurposed. Looking at it another way, adding up all the new deliverability and reconfiguring of U.S. pipelines is projected to translate into 9.2 million barrels per day of “intra-regional improvements” through 2016, according to Greg Haas, manager of research at Hart Energy.

From a national viewpoint, what does this portend? For the U.S., the December 2012 trade deficit shrank by a striking 21%, helped by oil imports running at the lowest level since 1997. Is this a trend that can continue? An example from Terrence Higgins, executive director, refining and special studies at Hart Energy, suggests it can. He projects rail deliveries of Bakken oil accounting for 220,000 to 260,000 barrels per day of oil used by U.S. and Canadian East Coast refiners in 2015-2018. But they could absorb 800,000 to 1 million daily barrels with pipeline reversals and other infrastructure improvements.