Williams “Firing on All Cylinders” with Record Highs in 2021
Pipeline and midstream giant Williams issued its quarterly and full-year update earlier this week. The company, which owns and operates the massive Transco pipeline system, reported new all-time highs for both gathering volumes (13.9 Bcf/d), and transmission volumes (23.8 Bcf/d). CEO Alan Armstrong said on a call with analysts, “We really continue to fire on all cylinders.” Indeed they do.
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The ace reporters at Reuters have sussed out another inside exclusive: Williams, the pipeline giant, has hired “two veteran executives” to help the company set up an LNG marketing operation. The operation will put Williams into direct competition with other big LNG marketers including Cheniere Energy, Shell, and QatarEnergy. The big question is this: How successful will this effort be if Williams doesn’t actually own an LNG export terminal of its own?
Midstream giant Williams’ chief operating officer, Michael Dunn, told an industry conference in Houston, TX yesterday that Joe Biden is “overlooking” the role natural gas can place in reducing emissions and decarbonizing the U.S. And that’s a big mistake. Dunn’s sentiment (in our words) is that the Bidenistas are unwilling to accept half-a-loaf now and instead prefer no loaf at all, which leads to more harmful emissions, not less.
In 2015 Kelsy Warren and his Energy Transfer Equity (now just Energy Transfer) company pursued Williams, wanting to merge Williams into its own operation. Williams initially fought ET tooth and nail, but in the end, caved and cut a deal (see 
In February 2020 pipeline giant Williams officially confirmed it was ending its years-long bid to build the Constitution Pipeline, a $683 million, 124-mile pipeline from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY to move Marcellus gas into NY and New England (see 
We suppose it takes a lot to surprise the CEO of one of the world’s biggest pipeline companies. Yet yesterday Williams CEO Alan Armstrong expressed his surprise that even with the dramatic increase in the price of natural gas during the third quarter, demand for natural gas was “inelastic” and remained high. Translation: Williams had all it could do to keep up with flowing natural gas through it’s extensive pipeline system, even with super-high prices. Much of the demand to flow gas came from the Marcellus/Utica.
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 
Yet another entrant in what is becoming a crowded field of programs aimed at reducing methane leaks from natural gas systems. A coalition of major U.S. natural gas operators, including Devon Energy, EQT, Sempra, Southern Company, and Williams, have signed on to something called the Veritas project, created by research firm GTI. How will Veritas reduce methane emissions and how is it different from Project Canary and other similar programs?
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.