A subsidiary of an Oklahoma-based gas pipeline company has
announced plans to build an extension of an existing line through the midstate
that would allow Marcellus Shale gas to reach markets in the South.
Williams Partners LP is proposing the Atlantic Sunrise Expansion
of the Transcontinental — or Transco — pipeline that would send new
infrastructure through Lancaster and Lebanon counties. Representatives from the
company met with the Lebanon County commissioners to discuss the line during a
work session Wednesday.
The Transco line now runs from the New York City area south
to the Gulf of Mexico, cutting through parts of Lancaster and York counties.
“What we’re looking at doing is extending that reach by
adding infrastructure that would allow customers to have greater access to that
supply (in the Marcellus Shale region),” said Chris Stockton, a Williams
spokesman.
The Atlantic Sunrise project is part of a phenomenon that
has been occurring over the past half-dozen years, Stockton said. Originally,
the Transco line was constructed to transport gas from the South to the North.
With Marcellus gas filling the market, Atlantic Sunrise is the latest in
proposed or existing projects that will move gas north to south.
The project is in the very preliminary stages, with the
company planning to prefile with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission soon,
Stockton said. Already the company has started contacting municipal officials
in affected areas and will begin on-the-ground surveying in the coming months.
Work also will involve modifications to existing compressor
stations and other infrastructure to allow gas to flow both south to north and
north to south.
Just today, Williams Partners announced it had received
binding commitments from nine shippers for 100 percent of the 1.7 million
dekatherms of firm transportation capacity under the Atlantic Sunrise project,
according to a news release. The project includes 15-year shipper commitments
from producers, local distribution companies and power generators.
Meanwhile, Tulsa-based parent company Williams, which owns
or has an interest in more than 10,000 miles of pipeline servicing about 14
percent of all gas consumed in the U.S., recently announced a nearly 50 percent
decrease in net earnings in its end-of-year financial report for 2013.
Williams reported unaudited net income of $430 million, or
$0.62 per diluted share, compared with net income of $859 million, or $1.37 per
diluted share for 2012, according to a news release.
In the fourth quarter, Williams reported a net loss of $14
million, or $.02 per diluted share, compared with net income of $149 million,
or $0.23 per share, for fourth-quarter 2012.
The company blamed the decline in net income for 2013 in
part on the six months of lost production at the Williams Partners’ Geismar,
La., olefins plant. An explosion at the ethylene production facility in June
killed two workers and injured 114 others, according to news reports. The
company hopes to have the plant online by April.
Also affecting the bottom line were lower natural-gas
liquids margins at Williams Partners, as well as the absence of $207 million of
income in first-quarter 2012 associated with the sale of some of the company’s
former Venezuela operations, of which $144 million was recorded within
discontinued operations, according to the news release. In addition, $99
million of tax expense on undistributed foreign earnings related to the planned
dropdown of its Canadian operations to Williams Partners, which is expected to
close by the end of this month.
Shares of Williams are traded on the New York Stock Exchange
under the ticker symbol WPZ.
Source: Central
Penn Business Journal
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