An energy market rout has ravaged fortunes from Texas to North Dakota and hit thousands of small investors, but some tycoons are still coining it in thanks to a piece of financial engineering that has tilted the playing field in their favor. U.S. pipeline billionaire Kelcy Warren, for example, has pocketed over $300 million in cash payouts from his company Energy Transfer Equity since the price of oil started to crater in mid-2014, according to a Reuters analysis based on filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Warren is on course to receive over $200 million this year, should the company not cut its distributions. The private equity firms that back the general partner of Plains All American, another oil and gas pipeline behemoth, have received hundreds of millions of dollars in payments. That was made possible by master limited partnerships (MLPs) – a tax-exempt corporate structure that helped […]