LNG

Williams Companies, the North American pipeline natural gas and storage and gathering operator, plans to proceed with the Louisiana Energy Gateway (LEG) natural gas pipeline even in the face of an ongoing dispute.

The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company has notified the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that it intends to proceed as early as July 25 with construction of the pipeline to carry 1.8 billion cubic feet per day

The Louisiana Energy Gateway will transport Haynesville shale gas to the US Gulf Coast and is now scheduled to come on stream in the second half of 2025, though commissioning was originally planned for late 2024.

Williams currently has 33,000 miles of pipelines to move about one third of the nation’s natural gas.

Moving forward

The company has told FERC it was moving forward with work despite pending rulings, saying it recently “won victories in certain right-of-way litigation” with subsidiaries of Energy Transfer LP in Louisiana state courts involving proposed pipeline crossings for the LEG system.

The company said those victories, along with securing the necessary easements and FERC permits, would allow it to proceed with the work.

“Without the crossing litigation with Energy Transfer, construction of the system would already be well underway,” Williams stated.

The Energy Transfer legal counsel has countered by claiming that Williams was circumventing (FERC’s) Natural Gas Act authority to review jurisdiction of the Louisiana Energy Gateway project.

Energy Transfer, based in Dallas, Texas, has also pointed out “inconsistencies” between Williams’ testimony in a Louisiana state court that LEG had already begun construction.

The attorney’s letter to FERC ended with a suggestion that the Commission should clarify the rules soon on whether or not the Williams project was subject to FERC jurisdiction.

Appeals court

The Louisiana Second District Court of Appeals has already overturned a ruling that prevented DT Midstream Inc. from building a natural gas pipeline running beneath Energy Transfer’s Tiger pipeline system.

Williams had filed a brief on behalf of DT Midstream in that case.

Williams confirmed in its fourth-quarter earnings in February 2024 that it had received certificates for Transco's Commonwealth Energy Connectors, the Southside Reliability Enhancement and the Southeast Energy Connector as well as the Texas-to-Louisiana Energy Pathway.

The company has operations in four main business segments, Transmission & Gulf of Mexico, Northeast G&P, West operations and Gas & Natural Gas Liquids Marketing Services.

Williams has additionally acquired a portfolio of 115 Bcf of natural gas storage, positioning the company as the largest storage owner on the Gulf Coast as storage needs rise.

Tellurian Inc., the developer of the Driftwood LNG export project in Louisiana, has been the focus of attention at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas, with executives being asked whether they would consider a bid for the firm now put on the block by investment bank Lazards.

Williams Companies, the North American pipeline natural gas and storage and gathering operator, increased quarterly and annual earnings because of a litigation gain from US peer Energy Transfer as well as from positive returns from derivatives as it also pledged to supply additional feed-gas for LNG exports with multiple projects making regulatory progress.

Jan 3 (LNGJ) - Williams, a leading US natural gas pipelines operator with projects aimed at boosting feed-gas supplies for Gulf Coast LNG plants, has priced a public offering of 2.1 billion in Senior Notes, a type of bond that takes precedence over other debts. The offering of $1.1Bln of its 4.900 percent Senior Notes due 2029 was at a price of 99.839 percent of par and $1.0 Bln of its 5.150 percent Senior Notes due in 2034 were priced at 99.975 percent of par.

   “The expected settlement date for the offering is January 5, 2024, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions,” said Williams, which is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “Williams intends to use the net proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes, which may include the repayment of our outstanding commercial paper notes or other near-term debt maturities,” it added. The joint book-running managers of the offering were named as Barclays Capital, Citigroup Global Markets, Truist Securities and Wells Fargo Securities.

Williams Companies, a leading US natural gas pipelines operator with projects aimed at boosting feed-gas supplies for Gulf Coast LNG export plants, successfully closed two strategic transactions that now position the company as the third-largest gatherer in the Denver-Julesburg Basin.

Williams Companies, a leading US natural gas pipelines operator, reported strong third-quarter results and a 10 percent increase in net profits as projects progressed including the provision of feed-gas to Gulf Coast LNG export plants.

Williams Companies, a leading US natural gas pipelines operator, has outlined plans for supplying more feed-gas for liquefied natural gas export plants on the Gulf Coast and to meet the nation’s growing needs for gas-fired power.

Williams, the US pipelines company and growing LNG sector participant, reported a surge in first-quarter net profits and cash flow from record natural gas-gathering volumes and contracted capacity.

Chevron Corp., the US major with large overseas liquefied natural gas interests, has signed an accord on US natural gas development for Gulf Coast LNG feed-gas pipeline volumes from the prolific Haynesville Basin as well as for oil and gas in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico with pipelines group Williams.

The agreement involves Williams providing natural gas gathering services to Chevron’s 26,000-acre Haynesville assets while Chevron has agreed to a long-term capacity commitment on the Louisiana Energy Gateway project led by Williams.

The Williams-led Louisiana Energy Gateway project is designed to gather gas in the Haynesville and connect to markets, including the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) and LNG exports.

The Gateway project is designed to gather “responsibly-sourced natural gas” produced in the Haynesville for growing industrial and LNG export demand along the Gulf Coast.

Additionally, Williams has agreed to use existing infrastructure to serve increased production from the Blind Faith platform, located 160 miles southeast of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico.

US and overseas

“This is a great example of Williams and Chevron working together to accelerate the development and delivery of natural gas to supply affordable, reliable, ever cleaner energy both here in the United States and overseas,” said Alan Armstrong, President and Chief Executive of Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams.

“We are proud to take another step in advancing the output potential of two of the most prolific production areas in North America,” stated Armstrong.

Chevron has a large overseas portfolio as well as its US natural gas interests, including operatorships of the Australian Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG export plants in Western Australia as well as the Angola plant in southwest Africa.

Williams handles one-third of natural gas supplies in the US with major positions in the main supply basins through its ownership of more than 32,000 miles of pipelines, including Transco, the nation’s largest-volume system.

As part of the Haynesville agreement, Williams said it planned to construct a greenfield gathering system in support of Chevron’s acreage with connectivity to the Williams Gateway project.

Gateway schedule

The Gateway project is expected to go into service in 2024 and is a key component of the Williams lower-carbon, wellhead-to-water strategy.

Williams noted that the Gateway project is ideally positioned to incorporate carbon-capture and storage as a further decarbonizing solution for natural gas production in the rapidly growing Haynesville basin.

In the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Chevron is developing the Ballymore tieback to the Blind Faith platform.

The project, which involves three production wells tied back via one flowline to the nearby Blind Faith facility, has a design capacity of 75,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Using existing connections to Blind Faith, Williams will provide offshore natural gas gathering and crude oil transportation services as well as onshore natural gas processing services for the production.

Chevron is the operator of the Ballymore project with a 60 percent working interest. The co-owner is French major TotalEnergies with a 40 percent working interest.

Williams, the US pipelines company and growing LNG sector participant, has closed the acquisition of MountainWest Pipelines Holding Company from Southwest Gas Holdings in a deal worth $1.5 billion and for a network covering three states.

Williams paid $1.07Bln in cash and $430 million of assumed debt for the MountainWest system

It comprises around 2,000-miles of interstate natural gas pipelines primarily located across Utah, Wyoming and Colorado.

The MountainWest pipelines carry 8 billion cubic feet per day of transmission capacity.

MountainWest also operates 56 Bcf of total storage capacity, including the Clay Basin underground storage reservoir, providing working gas to Western markets.

With the acquisition of MountainWest, Williams expands its infrastructure network and increases its business mix of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission-regulated natural gas transmission and storage.

Williams said the acquisition starts up the company’s services in the key Rockies gas markets, including natural gas delivery into Salt Lake City and other demand markets not previously served by Williams.

Natural gas focus

“Our natural gas focused strategy is anchored in having the right assets in the right places to serve our nation’s growing demand for clean, affordable and abundant natural gas,” said Alan Armstrong, the President and Chief Executive of Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams.

“This acquisition enhances our position in the Western US and is complementary to our current footprint, providing us with infrastructure for natural gas deliveries across key demand markets,” explained Armstrong.

“With the acquisition now complete, we look forward to welcoming MountainWest employees to Williams and bringing value to our shareholders by delivering safe and reliable services to both Williams and MountainWest customers as we increase the utilization of our existing large-scale platforms,” added the CEO.

Williams is also expanding its LNG activities and in mid-November 2022 said it had entered into a non-binding heads of agreement with Sempra Infrastructure, a subsidiary of California utility Sempra, to further connect the Haynesville shale basin to growing LNG export demand along the Gulf Coast .

The accord contemplates long-term gas sales of about 0.5 billion cubic feet per day delivered to near Gillis, Louisiana, and two LNG offtake agreements for around 3 million tonnes per annum in the aggregate from Sempra Infrastructure’s proposed Cameron LNG expansion and Port Arthur LNG project in Texas.

Williams said these proposed Sempra transactions complement the recently sanctioned low-carbon Louisiana Energy Gateway gathering project.