Mighty Transco Pipeline Delivers Highest-Ever Volumes Thx to M-U
The mighty Transco pipeline (Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line) is a 10,000-mile pipeline network with a mainline extending approximately 1,800 miles between South Texas and New York City. It is owned and operated by midstream giant Williams. Years ago Transco reversed much of its flow to send Marcellus/Utica gas southward. A good deal of M-U gas also flows into the NYC area via Transco as well. The Transco system recently added the Leidy South project in Pennsylvania to bump up Marcellus flows through the system. Those extra flows have led to an all-time high record flow rate on Transco of 17.15 million dekatherms (MMdt) on Jan. 3, 2022.
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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.
Pipeline giant Williams delivered its second quarter update yesterday. It was obvious from the chatter by company executives, including CEO Alan Armstrong, that the Marcellus/Utica continues to play a key and important role in the company’s future. However, Williams is also expanding its footprint in the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana. Armstrong announced a second joint venture in the Haynesville, with private producer GeoSouthern Energy Corp.
Yesterday pipeline giant Williams released its 2020 Sustainability Report, which is another name for ESG (environmental, social, and governance). The company says it will be net carbon zero by 2050, but in the meantime, they will meet other important targets long before that date. While it would be easy to dismiss this report as yet another 126-page manifesto in gobbledegook aimed at placating the global warming gods, when we began to dig into the report we found some interesting bits of information and statistics.
Sabal Trail is a $3.2 billion, 515-mile interstate natural gas pipeline in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama built to deliver (in part) Marcellus gas to the southeast. Sabal Trail connects to Williams’ Hillabee Expansion Project, which is a pipeline spur built off the huge Transco pipeline system. On June 15 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued orders extending the time for both projects to complete the final bits of their construction by another two years.
We simply don’t get it. Either through fear of regulatory and shareholder reprisals, exhaustion in fighting the good fight, or maybe even falling for the false God of Climate Change, big and important oil and gas companies like pipeline giant Williams are beginning to cave to the climate crazies, planning for an oil-less and gas-less future. We kid you not. Williams is IN the business of flowing hydrocarbon molecules (oil and gas) from point A to point B. Yet now they’ve signed a “memorandum of understanding” with Microsoft, a software company, to lecture and teach Williams how to dump fossil fuels and flow different molecules instead, like hydrogen. It’s the darnedest thing we’ve ever seen.