Williams Planning Layoffs as Northeast Drillers Scale Back
Last week midstream giant Williams released its second quarter 2019 update. Although the company reported net income of $175 million, up 130% over the previous year’s 2Q, total revenue dipped a tad from $2.09 billion to $2.04 billion. Amidst a lot of good news, there was one cloud. Because northeast drillers are pulling in the production reigns (given super low prices), and because Williams has recently sold off a bunch of assets, the company has launched a “voluntary separation program” to reduce head count.
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Last December MDN brought you news of a new Transco pipeline expansion project, the Williams “Leidy South Project,” to expand Transco capacity in Pennsylvania (see 
The stories are beginning to appear in New York metro and now national media that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision to block the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project is having serious negative economic consequences–right now. For example, the owners of a New York City deli had planned to open a new burger restaurant in Brooklyn. National Grid is refusing to run gas service to the ready-to-go restaurant, and now the deli owners are left holding a $400,000 bag (of loans) to repay for work in getting the new restaurant ready.
When so-called protesters take the law into their own hands and illegally block a legal activity, like building a pipeline, they should be arrested and the maximum sentence should be enforced. If that doesn’t happen, people begin to disrespect and not trust our legal system. Such a miscarriage of justice happened yesterday in Lancaster County, PA. A group of seven radicalized anti-pipeline activists, including an 88-year-old grandma, were given a pass by a local judge for their illegal actions in blocking pipeline construction back in 2017. One more erosion of our legal system.
It’s time to smoke out irrational fossil fuel haters and use their own science against them. National Grid has just released a study (full copy below) commissioned with researchers from M.J. Bradley & Associates that shows there are FEWER so-called greenhouse gas emissions from using the proposed Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline to New York City than by using alternatives being pushed by New York State–alternatives like heat pumps. You read that right. LESS emissions by using a pipeline than the so-called “green” alternatives. If that doesn’t beat all.
It’s always better for an industry, like the oil and gas industry, to self-regulate rather than wait for the heavy hand of the government to do it. Case in point: There’s a coalition of upstream (drilling), midstream (pipeline) and downstream (utility) companies that formed an industry group called ONE Future, begun back in 2014. The aim of the group is lower methane emissions across all aspects of the natural gas infrastructure system nationwide to emit (lose into the atmosphere) no more than 1% by 2025. The group began with eight members and today has 17. Many of the members have major operations in the Marcellus/Utica. ONE Future’s newest member is pipeline giant Williams.
On May 15 New York’s Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), under the direction of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, denied a permit for the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) natural gas pipeline (see 
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected hearing a case appealed from a lower court by a group of Lancaster County landowners who claim Williams and their Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project abused eminent domain authority by building the pipeline before litigating (for years) how much money landowners should receive–landowners who refused to negotiate in good faith in the first place.
We recently brought you several stories about New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s predictable (and foolhardy) rejection of the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project to pipe more natural gas to a desperate New York City and Long Island (see 
Yesterday New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo dropped an economic atom bomb on New York City by rejecting a natural gas pipeline to bring more supplies of clean-burning natgas to NYC and Long Island (see 
Hey New York Islanders NHL team–you’re screwed. No new stadium because your governor, Andrew Cuomo has just directed his corrupt Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to deny a permit to build the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) natural gas pipeline, a pipeline your new stadium needs or won’t get built. You can thank Andy for blowing your billion dollar project. Oh, and residents in NYC’s tenement buildings who won’t have heat next winter because their landlords are being forced by the city to dump fuel oil and now have nothing to switch to? They can thank Andy too, as they huddle with their winter coats on in their freezing apartments.
Last Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a final approval for Williams’ Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project by a vote of 3-1 (full copy below). The only remaining regulatory hurdles are for both New York State and New Jersey to issue federal Clean Water Act 401 certificates to allow the project to cross bodies of water in their respective territorial waters. All eyes are now on NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo and what he will do. Will he approve the project, benefiting New York City and Long Island with much-needed gas? Or will he veto the project, harming millions of NY residents, simply to placate a small group of very vocal radical leftists who pretend to care about the environment? He has until May 16 to decide.
Williams, one of the biggest midstream (pipeline) companies in the U.S., issued its first quarter 2019 update yesterday. Williams is a gigantic company with operations in multiple regions, not just here in the northeast. It would be folly for us to try and summarize everything about the company and its many projects, so we’ll concentrate on projects in the Marcellus/Utica.