Williams

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Would Williams Sell Its “Crown Jewel” (Transco)? You Bet Your Shoes!
January 5, 2017January 5, 2017

To say that it was a roller coaster ride for Williams in 2016 doesn’t even come close to reality. The company received no less than two takeover/merger attempts. Energy Transfer Equity’s (ETE) billionaire CEO Kelsy Warren propositioned Williams for over six months before going public with his overtures last year (see Energy Transfer Makes “Indecent Proposal” to Buy Williams for $48B). Williams resisted, but eventually they caved and agreed to the deal, although the deal price went down by $10 billion (see Williams Accepts ETE’s “Indecent Proposal” – Price Went Down $10B). Warren claims he got snookered and got cold feet, eventually bailing (see Dead as a Doornail: ETE Terminates Merger with Williams). The ink on the flurry of lawsuits filed hadn’t even dried and Enterprise Products Partners, another huge midstream company, began making overtures to Williams (see Here We Go Again: Enterprise Products Wants to Buy Williams). A month later Enterprise released a statement saying they’re finished with Williams, throwing in the towel, no longer interested (see Drama: Enterprise Bails on Williams Merger, No Longer Interested). What’s going on with all of this drama? At its core, Williams owns a “trophy asset,” what some call the “crown jewel.” That asset? The mighty, 10,500-mile Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co (Transco). Everyone wants Transco in part because of its geography in the Marcellus/Utica. So far Williams has resisted selling either Transco or the entire Williams company. But CEO Alan Armstrong–perhaps the guy most responsible for building the Transco–said this response to a question asking whether or not the company would ever sell the Transco: “I bring an extra pair of shoes to the office every day, just in case somebody offers me enough for the pair I’m wearing.” Meaning yes, if the price is right, he would sell it…
Read More “Would Williams Sell Its “Crown Jewel” (Transco)? You Bet Your Shoes!”
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Lebanon County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Williams

FERC Approves Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline! Cabot Grabs More Capacity
January 3, 2017January 4, 2017

1/4/17 Update: Williams finally issued its own press release about this, which we’ve included below.

On the last business day of 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a favorable final environmental impact statement (EIS) for one of the major pipeline projects in the Marcellus/Utica: the $3 billion Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project. The FERC EIS for Atlantic Sunrise (full copy embedded below) said that although there may be some adverse environmental effects from the project, those effects can be “reduced to less-than-significant levels” by Williams via the plans submitted. FERC considered five alternative routes and chose to stick with the preferred route proposed by Williams. However, FERC did ask Williams two make minor tweaks to four locations along the route of the pipeline. Cabot Oil & Gas, the main customer for the 1.7 billion cubic feet of capacity, was positively giddy with the announcement. Cabot released their own press release to say that although they previously gobbled up 850 million cubic feet (MMcf) of capacity along the new pipeline, they are adding another 150 MMcf to that number, giving the company a grand total of 1 billion cubic feet (out of 1.7 Bcf) of capacity along the pipe when it’s built. Holy moly! That will be 1 Bcf per day of Cabot’s gas going from Susquehanna County, PA to other states, outside the region. VERY smart move by Cabot. Below we have the news and feedback/analysis about the announcement…
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Energy Services | Williams

2 New Non-Corporate-Raider Board Members Join Williams
December 14, 2016December 14, 2016

It’s been a while since the last episode of As the (Midstream) World Turns. In our last episode, we left beleagured Williams conducting a board of directors “refreshment” program (i.e. purge)–to clean out the old and bring in some new blood. A brief history to catch you up in case you missed our previous episodes: Following an aborted merger with Energy Transfer Equity, six of Williams’ board members tried to engineer a palace coup to depose current CEO Alan Armstrong. The coup failed and the board members quit in July (see Half of Williams Board, Including 2 Corporate Raiders, Quit). One of the board members who quit was corporate raider Keith Mesiter, founder and managing partner of Corvex Management. Meister is a protege of Carl Ichan, hence we call him Mini-Me. After quitting, Mini-Me decided he wanted back on the board and began a proxy fight to take control of the company (see Corvex Raider Launches Hostile Takeover Attempt of Williams). In August, Williams appointed three new members of the board, all of them highly qualified (see Williams Appoints 3 New Board Members, Confounds Corp Raider). In September Williams continued with what it calls its “Board refreshment plan” by appointing two more new board members (see More Board Shakeups Coming to Williams). At that time Williams also announced three current board members who were on the board prior to the big shake-up (three who didn’t quit in July) will be gone by the annual meeting held Nov. 23. Those three are now gone, and yesterday Williams announced two new board members to replace them–heavy hitters! One of the new board members is the former CEO of Williams competitor Enterprise Products Partners…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide NY | Williams

FERC Slaps NY AG; No Re-Hearing on Constitution Pipe Tree Clearing
November 29, 2016November 29, 2016

It’s now apparent that the fix has been in from the beginning–that New York’s corrupt Gov. Andrew Cuomo, colluding with New York’s corrupt Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, were on a mission to block the construction of the federally approved Constitution Pipeline, due to run from Susquehanna County, PA into Upstate New York (to Schoharie County). Before Cuomo decided to take the breathlessly lawsless act of blocking the pipeline by denying stream-crossing permits (being challenged in court), the Constitution asked for permission to begin clearing trees along the pipeline’s path. In January 2016, Schneiderman immediately objected (see NY AG Objects to Williams Tree Clearing for Constitution Pipeline). The Constitution never received permission and so did not clear any trees in New York State. Except–some trees did get cleared, by the landowners themselves. Landowners who wanted to realize the most money from trees that will eventually be cut were cutting the trees ON THEIR OWN, without the help, consent, assistance, or any form of aide from the Constitution. Schneiderman’s response? The Constitution should have known those stupid farmers would cut the trees and should have done something to stop it. So in May 2016, Schneiderman asked FERC to investigate the Constitution over the tree clearing matter, something called a “rehearing” (see NY Attorney General Asks FERC to Investigate Constitution Pipe and NY AG’s Allegation of Tree Cutting by Constitution Pipe a Fraud). FERC just got back to Schneiderman, and told him, NO…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide NY | Williams

Constitution Pipeline Case Goes to Court in 2 Weeks, Briefs Filed
November 2, 2016November 2, 2016

You may recall that in April, New York’s anti-drilling governor, Andrew Cuomo, decided he would cave to pressure from radical environmentalists once again and block the building of the federally-approved Constitution Pipeline (see NY Gov. Cuomo Refuses to Grant Permits for Constitution Pipeline). Cuomo’s toadies at the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) denied the Constitution the permits it needs to cross creeks and swamps. That was finally enough for Williams and the other partners in the project, who promptly sued NY in federal, NOT state, court (see Williams Sues NY Over Constitution Pipe – DEC May Lose Authority). The court venue is important, because in NY our court system at the highest level is corrupt–the governor appoints judges and those judges like their big-salary jobs and want to get reappointed–so they “decide” cases the way Andy wants them decided (see Shale Drilling in NY is Over – High Court Upholds Town Bans). We’ve predicted, repeatedly, that the NY DEC runs the very real risk of being removed from the decision process when it comes to federally-approved pipeline projects. If they lose the Constitution case, they will no longer have a role to play. Even the libs at Bloomberg think the DEC has a weak case (see Bloomberg Predicts Court Will Strip NY’s Right to Stop Constitution). We’re now two weeks away from the court hearing date and Williams has filed a couple of briefs blasting the DEC (copies below), and the DEC has filed a brief responding (copy below). It’s turning into a legal brawl. Warning to Williams: be prepared to fight like a New York street-fighter. Fortunately, the case sits in U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and not the NY Court of Appeals (NY’s highest court)…
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Energy Services | Williams

Williams 3Q16: Pendulum Swings Half a Billion $, Now in the Black
November 1, 2016November 1, 2016

Midstream giant Williams issued their third quarter 2016 update yesterday. According to Williams, the company had “strong” financial results in 3Q16. Indeed they did. The company swung from losing $194 million in 3Q15 to making $326 million in 3Q16–a net change of over half a billion dollars. Impressive! In the Marcellus/Utica, what Williams calls its Northeast G&P division, the company had revenue of $208 million, up from $189 million last year this time. On an investors phone call yesterday, CEO Alan Armstrong said the low prices in the Marcellus/Utica compared with other parts of the country will work themselves out, in time. That is, when more pipeline projects (like Williams Atlantic Sunrise and Constitution) go online to move the gas to other regions, the prices that gas fetches will go up and eventually gas prices in the northeast will be closer to the benchmark Henry Hub. Here’s the Williams 3Q16 update…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Williams

Williams Confirms Atlantic Sunrise Pipe Delayed Until Mid-2018
October 31, 2016October 31, 2016

On Friday, ahead of releasing its third quarter update, Williams issued a press release to confirm what we already know: Atlantic Sunrise will be delayed. Atlantic Sunrise is a $3 billion, 198-mile pipeline project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. Two weeks ago the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced a delay in the environmental review of the project (see FERC Delays Enviro Review of Atlantic Sunrise Pipe to Dec 30). Williams is now acknowledging the FERC delay will delay the final in-service date for the project–to “mid-2018″…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Antis Build Magic Tree House to Block Atlantic Sunrise Pipe
October 24, 2016January 13, 2017

Inspired by the criminal actions of eco-terrorists in North Dakota (see Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters Turn Violent; Coming Here Next?), anti-pipeline zealots in Lancaster County, PA figured they would give some of the tactics from the Dakotas a try here. So they’ve constructed a shed on stilts right along the proposed path of the forthcoming Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline. The shed on stilts looks like a big tree house (without the tree), which makes sense as the protesters are the equivalent of seven year-old, petulant, spoiled children. Why not give themselves a magic tree house to hang out in and talk about the glory days of protesting Vietnam…er…ah…pipelines. The nutters have a Holy Cause–stop the use of all fossil fuels. This is the way they intend to enforce their dystopian vision on the rest of us, by illegal acts…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Williams

FERC Delays Enviro Review of Atlantic Sunrise Pipe to Dec 30
October 21, 2016October 21, 2016

Some more disappointing news for Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project, a $3 billion, 198-mile project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. One week ago MDN brought you the news that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced it is actively reviewing two alternative routes for the Central Penn Line (an important part of the Sunrise project), accepting public comments on the two alternative routes until Nov. 14 (see Cabot Issues Update on Atlantic Sunrise – Possible Route Change). Translation: a delay for the project. Yesterday the Atlantic Sunrise got another delay from FERC when the agency filed paperwork stating they will now not issue a final environmental impact statement (FIS) until Dec. 30th, meaning a final “go ahead and build it” decision won’t come now until March 30, 2017. Bummer…
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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide PA | Williams

Cabot Issues Update on Atlantic Sunrise – Possible Route Change
October 14, 2016October 14, 2016

We spotted a press release issued yesterday by Cabot Oil & Gas, providing an update for the Williams Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project. Which kind of surprised us. Why would Cabot issue an update on someone else’s pipeline? Is Cabot an investor in the project? We asked–the answer is “no.” However, Cabot is the major shipper that will use the Central Penn Line portion of the Atlantic Sunrise project. And that’s what the announcement was about. Cabot said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has announced it is actively reviewing two alternative routes for the Central Penn Line, accepting public comment until Nov. 14. OK, so that sometimes happens. Is it worth a press release? Then we read that this development means yet another delay for the Atlantic Sunrise project–and investors immediately punished the stock for both Williams and Cabot. Ah, now we understand! The press release is to reassure investors that Cabot believes FERC, while slowing things down a little, won’t delay things too long. THAT’S what the press release is really all about…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Williams

Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline – Supporters and Detractors in Southeast PA
October 12, 2016October 12, 2016

Click for larger version

MDN has written dozens of articles about Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project, a $3 billion, 198-mile project running through 10 Pennsylvania counties to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas from PA with the Williams’ Transco pipeline in southern Lancaster County. It is a much-needed pipeline to move more Marcellus gas south, to new markets (see a list of our Atlantic Sunrise articles here). What’s the current status? It’s going through a regulatory review with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Back in May the project received a favorable Environmental Impact Statement from FERC (see Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Gets Positive EIS from FERC). Williams expects final FERC approval later this year or early next year, despite negative feedback from the Obama EPA, Obama Dept. of Interior, and despite ongoing frivolous lawsuits from the likes of THE Delaware Riverkeeper. Mark our words: this project will get built. Below are a couple of bits of news about Atlantic Sunrise. One is about a recent debate, held in Lancaster Monday evening, among three candidates for the PA Senate. Predictably the Democrat is against Atlantic Sunrise, and the Republican is for it. Also below is news that the usual nutty suspects, including the Allegheny Defense Project, Appalachian Mountain Advocates, the Sierra Club (among others) have filed yet another request with FERC to block the project by changing the already-issued favorable EIS…
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Energy Services | Williams

More Drama with Williams Board of Directors – Coming and Going
October 7, 2016October 7, 2016

Midstream giant Williams continues to be whipsawed by corporate raiders and pressure from investors to start performing better financially. The evidence for that bold statement comes from observing what’s happening with the board of directors. Following an aborted merger with Energy Transfer Equity, six of Williams’ board members tried to engineer a palace coup to depose current CEO Alan Armstrong. The coup failed and the board members quit in July (see Half of Williams Board, Including 2 Corporate Raiders, Quit). One of the board members who quit was corporate raider Keith Mesiter, founder and managing partner of Corvex Management. Meister is a protege of Carl Ichan, hence we call him Mini-Me. After quitting, Meister decided he wanted back on the board and began a proxy fight to take control of the company (see Corvex Raider Launches Hostile Takeover Attempt of Williams). In August, Williams appointed three new members of the board, all of them well-qualified (see Williams Appoints 3 New Board Members, Confounds Corp Raider). In September Williams continued with what it calls its “Board refreshment plan” by appointing two more new board members (see More Board Shakeups Coming to Williams). At that time Williams also announced three current board members who were on the board prior to the big shake-up (three who didn’t quit in July) will be gone by the next annual meeting on Nov. 23. Lost yet? All of these board gyrations are giving us a headache. Yesterday Williams felt the need to further expound on their board machinations by issuing a statement that says the three board members not standing for reelection are doing so “voluntarily”…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Pipelines | Statewide VA | Transco | Virginia | Williams

Construction Begins for Transco’s VA Southside Expansion Proj II
October 6, 2016October 6, 2016

In June Dominion began building Virginia’s largest natural gas-fired electric plant in Greensville County (see Dominion Begins Building Virginia’s Biggest NatGas Power Station). The $1.3 billion state-of-the-art natural gas-fired electric generating station will generate 1,600 megawatts of electricity. Dominion’s own 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (when built) will provide cheap, abundant, clean-burning Marcellus/Utica Shale gas to power it. However, the plant will get done before Dominion’s pipeline will, so how will they power it? Enter Williams’ Transco pipeline and the Virginia Southside Expansion Project II, which will add more capacity (and build a 4-mile pipeline) to provide abundant, clean-burning Marcellus/Utica Shale gas for the new plant. MDN told you in July that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) had approved the Southside Expansion Project II (see FERC Approves Transco Expansion Projects in NYC & Virginia). Now comes word that FERC has granted permission to Williams to begin moving earth around in Virginia as well as North and South Carolina as part of the project…
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Energy Services | Williams

Corporate Raider Mini-Me Meister Drops Proxy Fight with Williams
September 29, 2016September 29, 2016

It’s always drama with Williams. Nearly half of the Williams board (6 of 14 board members) were part of a cabal that tried to force the company to sell itself to Energy Transfer Equity–a deal that went horribly wrong. Following the aborted merger, six of Williams’ board members tried to engineer a palace coup to depose current CEO Alan Armstrong. The coup failed and the board members quit in July (see Half of Williams Board, Including 2 Corporate Raiders, Quit). One of the board members who quit was corporate raider Keith Mesiter, founder and managing partner of Corvex Management. Meister is a protege of Carl Ichan, hence we call him Mini-Me. After quitting, he decided he wanted back on the board and began a proxy fight to take control of the company (see Corvex Raider Launches Hostile Takeover Attempt of Williams). Williams appointed several new board members, the most recent two earlier this week (see More Board Shakeups Coming to Williams). Now, all of a sudden, Mini-Me has given up. Meister says he likes the most recent appointments and is using that as an excuse to drop his proxy fight to take over the company. What a loser…
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Energy Services | Williams

More Board Shakeups Coming to Williams
September 27, 2016September 27, 2016

Williams continues to face challenges with its board of directors–the people hired to oversee the company and the path it will chart into the future. Nearly half of the Williams board (6 of 14 board members) were part of a cabal that tried to force the company to sell itself to Energy Transfer Equity–a deal that went horribly wrong. Following the aborted merger, six of Williams’ board members tried to engineer a palace coup to depose current CEO Alan Armstrong. The coup failed and the board members quit in July (see Half of Williams Board, Including 2 Corporate Raiders, Quit). In August, Williams appointed three new members of the board, all of them well-qualified (see Williams Appoints 3 New Board Members, Confounds Corp Raider). Williams is continuing with what it calls its “Board refreshment plan.” The latest: the company has just appointed two more new board members, effective immediately. Williams also announced that three current board members who were on the board prior to the big shake-up (three who didn’t quit in July) will be gone by the next annual meeting on Nov. 23. Here’s the latest in our ongoing soap opera, As the (Midstream) World Turns…
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Energy Services | Williams

Williams Completes Sale of Canadian Assets for $1B
September 27, 2016September 27, 2016

In August, Williams announced a deal to sell its Canadian businesses and assets to Inter Pipeline for $1 billion (see Bold Move – Williams Selling Canadian Assets for $1B). Williams CEO Alan Armstrong has been under extreme pressure to step down following the aborted attempt by Energy Transfer Equity to buy his company. Armstrong wants to stick around and selling off the Canadian assets was his first big, bold move since the palace coup against him failed. Armstrong says the Canadian asset sale will help fund major capital projects in the second half of 2016. Good news: the deal is now done and Williams is $1B richer…
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