Williams to Expand Capacity on Transco Pipe by 423 MMcf/d in NC
Here’s one that slipped by under the radar. Last month pipeline giant Williams filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to beef up capacity along the mighty Transco pipeline by upgrading compressor stations and other infrastructure (no new pipeline) in order to flow an extra 423 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) to Piedmont Natural Gas and its customers located in eastern North Carolina. The Southside Reliability Enhancement Project, as it is called, is a partial replacement of volumes Piedmont had planned to purchase from Dominion Energy’s now-canceled Atlantic Coast Pipeline project.
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When a pipeline company considers whether or not to build a new pipeline, the company conducts an “open season”–a time when drillers (producers), traders, buyers, and others who want guaranteed capacity along that pipeline can sign long-term contracts. Such contracts guarantee pipeline companies will be able to make back the considerable amount of money they have to spend to build the pipeline. What happens when those 5-, 10-, and 20-year contracts expire?
Pipeline giant Williams issued its first quarter 2022 update earlier this week. Among the bits of news coming from the update is that Williams has reached an agreement on two new gathering expansions for the “rich” Utica and Marcellus regions. Also newsworthy: the company has signed customers on the dotted line for its Texas to Louisiana Energy Pathway Project, a 364 MMcf/d Transco expansion project to serve the growing LNG export market along the Gulf Coast.
In July 2020 Dominion Energy announced it was canceling the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP)–a 600-mile Marcellus/Utica pipeline project from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina (see 
Anecdotally in reading articles about electric power production in New England, we know that almost all electricity is produced in the region by natural gas (unless they run low, then they use fuel oil). We also know a majority of the electricity produced in the PJM region, including the M-U area, is also produced by natural gas. What we didn’t know (but do now) is that the vast majority of electricity in the southeastern U.S. is produced by natural gas. Most of the molecules feeding southeast gas plants come from the M-U.
In October 2020 the Sisters of the Corn (our name for a group of leftist nuns in Lancaster County, PA) filed yet another frivolous lawsuit against Williams over a pipeline that crosses their land–a pipeline (Atlantic Sunrise) that has been up and running safely for years (see 
Appearing on a Barclay’s energy conference webcast yesterday, Williams CEO Alan Armstrong said his company plans to keep spending around $1.2 billion per year through 2026 to keep growing and expanding. One of the prime drivers of growth and expansion for Williams in the coming years is LNG exports. Feedgas to LNG plants continues to increase. According to S&P Global Platts, U.S. LNG feedgas demand will increase from 10.9 Bcf/d this year to 14.9 Bcf/d in 2026. Williams intends to deliver much of that increased demand to the plants that use it.
On March 19 Williams petitioned the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to extend the time to build the FERC-approved Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project in the New York City area by an extra two years (see 
No doubt you heard about the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline, a pipeline that flows a significant amount of refined products (gasoline and diesel fuel) from the Gulf Coast where it’s refined as far north as New Jersey. Most of the gasoline supply for states like North and South Carolina comes from the Colonial Pipeline. When the pipeline went offline for over a week, most gas stations in NC ran out of gas. It was panic city across the state. The outage pointed out the weakness of having most of a state’s supply of fuel provided by a single pipeline. Top officials in NC are equally (perhaps more) concerned that most of the state’s natural gas supply comes from a single interstate pipeline: the mighty Williams Transco pipeline.
An important issue we don’t often think about is pipeline maintenance. Natural gas pipelines have to be inspected and sometimes repaired. When that happens, it takes a portion of the pipeline out of service. When pipelines are taken out of service, natural gas doesn’t have a way to get to the same markets it was flowing to, meaning it begins to pile up in the location where it’s extracted. Further meaning too much supply in a given location, which leads to lower prices. That’s what appears to be happening in northeastern Pennsylvania right now.