The Williams Companies, Inc. (Williams), an energy company, provides infrastructure that safely delivers natural gas products to reliably fuel the clean energy economy.
Williams has operations in various supply areas that provide natural gas gathering, processing, and transmission services; NGLs fractionation, transportation, and storage services; and marketing services to approximately 800 customers. The company owns an interest in and operates over 33,000 miles of pipelines in various states,...
The Williams Companies, Inc. (Williams), an energy company, provides infrastructure that safely delivers natural gas products to reliably fuel the clean energy economy.
Williams has operations in various supply areas that provide natural gas gathering, processing, and transmission services; NGLs fractionation, transportation, and storage services; and marketing services to approximately 800 customers. The company owns an interest in and operates over 33,000 miles of pipelines in various states, multiple natural gas processing facilities, some NGL fractionation facilities, approximately 25 million barrels of NGL storage capacity, and 417 Bcf(billion cubic feet of natural gas) of natural gas storage capacity, and delivers natural gas that is used every day for clean-power generation, heating, and industrial use.
Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC (Transco) and Northwest Pipeline LLC (NWP) are wholly owned subsidiaries of the company.
Transco owns and operates an approximately 9,700-mile natural gas pipeline system extending from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and the Gulf of America through Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey to the New York City metropolitan area. The system serves customers in Texas and some southeast and Atlantic seaboard states, including major metropolitan areas in Georgia, Washington D.C., Maryland, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Transco’s principal business is the interstate transportation of natural gas, which is regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
NWP owns and operates an approximately 3,900-mile natural gas pipeline system, extending from the San Juan basin in northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado through Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington to a point on the Canadian border near Sumas, Washington. The system serves customers in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, California, and Arizona, either directly or indirectly through interconnections with other pipelines. NWP’s principal business is the interstate transportation of natural gas, which is regulated by FERC.
Service Assets, Customers, and Contracts
Interstate Natural Gas Pipeline Assets
The company’s interstate natural gas pipelines, which are presented in the Transmission & Gulf of America, are subject to regulation by the FERC, and as such, rates and charges for the transportation of natural gas in interstate commerce are subject to regulation.
The company’s interstate natural gas pipelines transport and store natural gas for a broad mix of customers, including local natural gas distribution companies, public utilities, municipalities, direct industrial users, electric power generators, and natural gas marketers and producers. Most of the company’s interstate natural gas transmission businesses are fully contracted under long-term firm reservation contracts with high credit quality customers. These contracts have various expiration dates and account for the major portion of these regulated businesses. Additionally, the company offers storage services and interruptible transportation services under shorter-term agreements. The top ten customers of the interstate natural gas pipelines in 2024 accounted for approximately 45 percent of the company’s regulated interstate natural gas transportation and storage revenues.
Transco’s three largest customers in 2024 accounted for approximately 20 percent of Transco’s total operating revenues.
During 2024, NWP’s three largest customers were Puget Sound Energy, Inc., Cascade Natural Gas Corporation, and Northwest Natural Gas Company, which accounted for approximately 31 percent, 10 percent, and 11 percent, respectively, of NWP total operating revenues for the year ended December 31, 2024.
The company’s gathering systems receive natural gas from producers’ crude oil and natural gas wells and gather these volumes to gas processing, treating, or redelivery facilities. Typically, natural gas, in its raw form, is not acceptable for transportation in major interstate natural gas pipelines or for commercial use as a fuel. The company’s treating facilities remove water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other contaminants, and collect condensate. The company is generally paid a fee based on the volume of natural gas gathered and/or treated, generally measured in the Btu heating value.
In addition, natural gas contains various amounts of NGLs, which generally have a higher value when separated from the natural gas stream. The company’s processing plants extract the NGLs, which include ethane, primarily used in the petrochemical industry; propane, used for heating, fuel, and also in the petrochemical industry; and, normal butane, isobutane, and natural gasoline, primarily used by the refining industry.
The company’s gas processing services generate revenues primarily from the following types of contracts:
Fee-Based: A portion of the company’s fee-based processing revenue includes a share of the margins on the NGLs produced. For the year ended December 31, 2024, approximately 95 percent of NGL production volumes were under fee-based contracts.
Noncash Commodity-Based: For a keep-whole arrangement, the company replaces the Btu content of the retained NGLs with natural gas purchases, also known as shrink replacement gas. For a percent-of-liquids arrangement, the company delivers an agreed-upon percentage of the extracted NGLs and retains the remainder. Retained NGLs, referred to as equity NGL production, are then sold. Per-unit NGL margins are calculated based on sales of these equity volumes at the processing plants. For the year ended December 31, 2024, approximately 5 percent of NGL production volumes were under noncash commodity-based contracts.
Generally, the company’s gathering and processing agreements are long-term agreements, with terms ranging from month-to-month to the life of the producing lease. Certain contracts include cost-of-service mechanisms that are designed to support a return on invested capital and allow gathering rates to be adjusted, subject to specified caps in certain cases, to account for variability in volume, capital expenditures, commodity price fluctuations, compression, and other expenses. The company also has certain gas gathering and processing agreements with MVC, whereby the customer is obligated to pay a contractually determined fee based on any shortfall between the actual gathered and processed volumes and the MVC for a stated period.
The company’s gathering, processing, and treating businesses do not have direct exposure to crude oil prices. The company’s on-shore natural gas gathering and processing businesses are substantially focused on gas-directed drilling basins rather than crude oil, with a broad diversity of basins and customers served.
During 2024, the company’s facilities gathered and processed gas for approximately 248 customers. The top ten customers accounted for approximately 59 percent of gathering and processing fee revenues and NGL margins from noncash commodity-based agreements.
Gas and NGL Marketing
The company’s natural gas and NGL marketing services are presented primarily within its Gas & NGL Marketing Services segment. The company markets natural gas and NGL products to a wide range of users in the energy and petrochemical industries. In 2024, the three largest natural gas marketing customers accounted for approximately 10 percent of the company’s gross natural gas marketing sales, and the three largest NGL marketing customers accounted for approximately 37 percent of the company’s NGL marketing sales.
The company’s gas marketing business markets natural gas and provides natural gas asset management and wholesale marketing, trading, storage, and transportation for a diverse set of natural gas and electric utilities, municipalities, power generators, and producers, including for the company’s upstream properties. Additionally, the company’s gas marketing business moves and optimizes natural gas to markets through transportation and storage agreements on the company’s own strategically positioned assets. The company’s gas and NGL marketing services provide customers with access to diverse sources of supply and to various natural gas demand markets, including the southeastern and Gulf Coast regions, which are the fastest growing natural gas demand regions in the United States.
The company’s NGL marketing business transports and markets equity NGLs from the production at the company’s processing plants, NGLs from the production at the company’s upstream properties, and also NGLs on behalf of third-party NGL producers, including some of the company’s fee-based processing customers.
The company is exposed to commodity price risk. To manage this volatility, various contracts are used in the marketing and trading activities that generally meet the definition of derivatives. The company enters into commodity-related derivatives to hedge exposures to natural gas and NGLs and retain exposure to price changes that can, in a volatile energy market, be material and can adversely affect results of operations.
Crude Oil Transportation and Production Handling Assets
The company’s crude oil transportation operations, which are primarily presented in the Transmission & Gulf of America. The company’s crude oil transportation business is supported mostly by major oil producers with long-cycle perspectives.
Standalone, Market-Based Rate Natural Gas Storage Assets
The company’s standalone, market-based rate natural gas storage assets are presented in the Transmission & Gulf of America, and include its North Texas Assets (NorTex) acquired in August 2022 and its Gulf Coast storage assets acquired in January 2024. These natural gas storage assets provide natural gas storage services in interstate commerce under the jurisdiction of the FERC pursuant to the Natural Gas Act or Section 311 of the Natural Gas Policy Act. The company is authorized to charge and collect market-based rates for all of the services that these natural gas storage assets provide.
The company stores natural gas for a broad mix of customers, including local natural gas distribution companies, public utilities, municipalities, direct industrial users, electric power generators, and natural gas marketers and producers. Most of these natural gas storage businesses are fully contracted under long-term firm reservation contracts with high credit quality customers. The contracts have various expiration dates and account for the major portion of the entities’ businesses.
Business Segments
The company operates through Transmission & Gulf of America, Northeast G&P, West, and Gas & NGL Marketing Services.
Transmission & Gulf of America consists of the Transco, NWP, and MountainWest interstate natural gas pipelines, and their related natural gas storage facilities, as well as natural gas gathering and processing and crude oil production handling and transportation assets in the Gulf Coast region, including Discovery, a former 60 percent equity-method investment in which the company acquired the remaining ownership interest in August 2024, a 51 percent interest in Gulfstar One LLC (Gulfstar One), and a 50 percent equity-method investment in Gulfstream Natural Gas System, L.L.C. (Gulfstream). Transmission & Gulf of America also includes natural gas storage facilities and pipelines providing services in north Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
Northeast G&P consists of midstream gathering, processing, and fractionation businesses in the Marcellus Shale region primarily in Pennsylvania and New York, and the Utica Shale region of eastern Ohio, as well as a 65 percent interest in Ohio Valley Midstream LLC (Northeast JV), which operates in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, a 66 percent interest in Cardinal Gas Services, L.L.C. (Cardinal), which operates in Ohio, a 69 percent equity-method investment in Laurel Mountain Midstream, LLC (Laurel Mountain), a 50 percent equity-method investment in Blue Racer Midstream LLC (Blue Racer), and Appalachia Midstream Investments.
West consists of gas gathering, processing, and treating operations in the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado and Wyoming, the Barnett Shale region of north-central Texas, the Eagle Ford Shale region of south Texas, the Haynesville Shale region of east Texas and northwest Louisiana, the Mid-Continent region, which includes the Anadarko and Permian basins, and the DJ Basin of Colorado, which includes RMM, a former 50 percent equity-method investment in which the company acquired the remaining ownership interest in November 2023. This segment also includes NGL storage facilities, an undivided 50 percent interest in an NGL fractionator near Conway, Kansas, and a 50 percent equity-method investment in Overland Pass Pipeline Company LLC (OPPL).
Gas & NGL Marketing Services consists of NGL and natural gas marketing and trading operations, which includes risk management and transactions related to the storage and transportation of natural gas and NGLs on strategically positioned assets.
Transmission & Gulf of America
Interstate Natural Gas Pipeline Assets
Transco
As of December 31, 2024, Transco’s system had a design capacity totaling approximately 19.8 MMdth/d. During 2024, Transco began full service on the Regional Energy Access expansion project, which added approximately 0.4 MMdth/d of firm transportation capacity to its pipeline, partial early service on the Southside Reliability Enhancement expansion project, which added approximately 0.4 MMdth/d of firm transportation capacity, and full service on the Carolina Market Link expansion project, which added approximately 0.1 MMdth/d of firm transportation capacity. In addition, a reduction of approximately 0.1 MMdth/d of firm transportation capacity is attributable to unsubscribed capacity, as well as a reduction of approximately 0.1 MMdth/d of firm transportation capacity is attributable to termination of interim service related to the Regional Energy Access expansion project. Transco’s system includes 61 compressor stations, four underground storage fields, and one LNG storage facility. Compression facilities at sea level-rated capacity total approximately 2.6 million horsepower.
Transco has natural gas storage capacity in four underground storage fields located on or near its pipeline system or market areas and operates two of these storage fields. Transco also has storage capacity in an LNG storage facility that it owns and operates. The total usable gas storage capacity available to Transco and its customers in such underground storage fields and LNG storage facility and through storage service contracts is approximately 188 Bcf of natural gas. As of December 31, 2024, Transco’s customers had stored in its facilities approximately 137 Bcf of natural gas. Storage capacity permits Transco’s customers to inject gas into storage during the summer and off-peak periods for delivery during peak winter demand periods.
NWP
As of December 31, 2024, NWP’s system had a design capacity totaling approximately 3.8 MMdth/d. NWP’s system includes 42 transmission compressor stations having a combined sea level-rated capacity of approximately 476,000 horsepower.
NWP owns a one-third undivided interest in the Jackson Prairie underground storage facility in Washington. NWP also owns and operates an LNG storage facility in Washington. These storage facilities have an aggregate working natural gas storage capacity of approximately 10 Bcf. NWP also contracts for natural gas storage services for approximately 3 Bcf at the Clay basin underground storage reservoir with a company affiliate, MountainWest. These natural gas storage facilities, which are substantially utilized for third-party natural gas, enable NWP to balance daily receipts and deliveries and provide storage services to customers.
MountainWest Acquisition
On February 14, 2023, the company closed on the acquisition of 100 percent of MountainWest Pipelines Holding Company. MountainWest is an interstate natural gas transmission company that owns and operates an approximately 2,000-mile natural gas pipeline system, which is regulated by the FERC. As of December 31, 2024, MountainWest’s system has a design capacity totaling 8.0 MMdth/d. The system consists of MountainWest Pipeline, LLC; MountainWest Overthrust Pipeline, LLC; a 50 percent equity-method interest in White River Hub, LLC; and 64 Bcf of natural gas storage capacity, including the Clay basin underground storage reservoir in Utah. During 2024, MountainWest increased its natural gas storage capacity at the Clay basin underground storage reservoir by approximately 8 Bcf. MountainWest is located in the Rocky Mountains near six producing areas, including the Greater Green River basin in Wyoming, the Uinta basin in Utah, and the Piceance basin in Colorado.
Gulfstream
The company owns a 50 percent equity-method investment in Gulfstream, a 745-mile interstate natural gas pipeline system extending from the Mobile Bay area in Alabama to markets in Florida, which has a capacity to transport 1.4 Bcf/d. Operating responsibilities for Gulfstream are shared with the other 50 percent owner.
Standalone, Market-Based Rate Natural Gas Storage Assets
Gulf Coast Storage Acquisition
On January 3, 2024, the company closed on the Gulf Coast Storage Acquisition. As of December 31, 2024, these assets included a strategic portfolio of approximately 230 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines and six underground storage facilities with a capacity of approximately 118 Bcf of natural gas storage across Louisiana and Mississippi, and direct access to LNG export facilities and interstate pipelines. These assets expand the company’s natural gas storage footprint in the Gulf Coast region.
North Texas Assets (NorTex)
On August 31, 2022, the company purchased a group of assets in north Texas from NorTex Midstream Holdings, LLC. As of December 31, 2024, NorTex included approximately 94 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines and 37 Bcf of natural gas storage in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. In addition to providing gas supply to power generation in north Texas, these assets also provide storage services for Permian gas directed toward growing Gulf Coast LNG demand.
Crude Oil Transportation and Production Handling Assets
In addition to the company’s natural gas assets, the company owns and operates four deepwater crude oil pipelines and owns and operates production platforms serving the deepwater in the Gulf of America. The company’s offshore floating production platforms provide centralized services to deepwater producers, such as compression, separation, production handling, water removal, and pipeline landings.
Discovery Acquisition
On August 1, 2024, the company closed on the acquisition of the remaining 40 percent interest in Discovery, along with certain other assets. Discovery’s assets include a 600 MMcf/d cryogenic natural gas processing plant near Larose, Louisiana, a 35 Mbbls/d NGL fractionator plant near Paradis, Louisiana, and a 594-mile offshore natural gas gathering and transportation system in the Gulf of America. Discovery’s mainline has a gathering inlet capacity of 600 MMcf/d. Discovery’s assets also include a crude oil production handling platform with capacity of 10 Mbbls/d and gas handling and separation capacity of 75 MMcf/d.
Deepwater Whale Expansion Project
In August 2021, the company reached an agreement with two third parties to provide offshore natural gas gathering and crude oil transportation services, as well as onshore natural gas processing services. The project expanded the company’s existing Western Gulf of America offshore infrastructure via a 26-mile gas lateral pipeline from the Whale platform to the existing Perdido gas pipeline, and added a new 124-mile oil pipeline from the Whale platform to the company’s existing junction platform. This project was placed into service in January 2025.
Northeast G&P
Natural Gas Gathering and Processing Assets
This segment includes the company’s natural gas gathering, compression, processing, and NGL fractionation businesses in the Marcellus and Utica Shale regions in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, and Ohio.
Other NGL Operations
As part of its Northeast G&P business, the company owns and operates a 43 Mbbls/d NGL fractionation facility at Moundsville, West Virginia, nearby condensate stabilization facilities capable of handling approximately 17 Mbbls/d of field condensate, a de-ethanization facility at its Oak Grove processing plant, an ethane pipeline, and an NGL pipeline. The Oak Grove de-ethanizer is capable of handling up to approximately 80 Mbbls/d of mixed NGLs to extract up to approximately 40 Mbbls/d of ethane. The company also owns and operates a 135 Mbbls/d NGL fractionation facility and approximately 970,000 barrels of NGL storage capacity in Harrison County, Ohio, as well as 44 Mbbls/d of condensate stabilization capacity, and other ancillary assets, including loading and terminal facilities in Harrison, Carroll, and Columbiana Counties, Ohio.
NGLs are extracted from the natural gas stream in the company’s Oak Grove and Fort Beeler cryogenic processing plants. Ethane produced at the Oak Grove de-ethanizer is transported to markets via its 50-mile ethane pipeline to Houston, Pennsylvania. The remaining mixed NGL stream from the de-ethanizer is then transported via the company’s 50-mile NGL pipeline and fractionated at either its Moundsville or Harrison fractionation facility. The resulting products are then transported by truck, rail, or pipeline. Ohio Valley Midstream provides residue natural gas take-away options for customers with interconnections to three interstate transmission pipelines.
Certain Equity-Method Investments
Appalachia Midstream Investments
Through the Appalachia Midstream Investments, the company operates and owns an approximate average 66 percent interest in the Bradford Supply Hub gathering system and owns an approximate average 68 percent interest in the Marcellus South gathering system, together which consist of approximately 1,050 miles of gathering pipeline in the Marcellus Shale region, with the capacity to gather 5,700 MMcf/d of natural gas. The majority of the company’s volumes in the region are gathered from northern Pennsylvania, southwestern Pennsylvania, and the northwestern panhandle of West Virginia in core areas of the Marcellus Shale. The company operates the assets primarily under long-term, 100 percent fixed-fee gathering agreements that include significant acreage dedications. Additionally, some Marcellus South agreements have MVCs.
Laurel Mountain
The company operates and owns a 69 percent interest in a joint venture, Laurel Mountain, which includes a 1,147-mile gathering system in western Pennsylvania with the capacity to gather 0.9 Bcf/d of natural gas. Laurel Mountain has a long-term, dedicated, volumetric-based fee agreement, with exposure to natural gas prices, to gather the anchor customer’s production in the western Pennsylvania area of the Marcellus Shale. Additionally, certain Laurel Mountain agreements have MVCs.
Blue Racer
The company operates and owns a 50 percent interest in Blue Racer. Blue Racer is a joint venture to own, operate, develop, and acquire midstream assets in the Utica Shale and certain adjacent areas in the Marcellus Shale. Blue Racer’s assets include 617 miles of gathering pipelines and the Natrium complex in Marshall County, West Virginia, with a cryogenic processing capacity of 800 MMcf/d and fractionation capacity of approximately 134 Mbbls/d. Blue Racer also owns the Berne complex in Monroe County, Ohio, with a cryogenic processing capacity of 400 MMcf/d, and 102 miles of NGL and condensate pipelines connecting Natrium to Berne. Blue Racer provides gathering, processing, and marketing services primarily under percent-of-liquids and fixed-fee agreements.
West
DJ Basin Acquisitions
On November 30, 2023, the company closed on the acquisition of 100 percent of Cureton Front Range, LLC and the acquisition of the remaining 50 percent interest in Rocky Mountain Midstream Holdings LLC, both of which operate midstream assets in Colorado’s DJ Basin. The Cureton Acquisition includes natural gas gathering pipelines and one in-service processing plant. The RMM Acquisition was the purchase of a partner’s 50 percent interest, resulting in 100 percent ownership by the company. RMM includes a natural gas gathering pipeline, an approximate 100-mile crude oil transportation pipeline, and natural gas processing assets in the DJ Basin. It also includes crude oil storage and compression assets.
Trace Acquisition
On April 29, 2022, the company closed on the acquisition of 100 percent of Gemini Arklatex, LLC, through which the gas gathering and related assets of Trace Midstream were acquired. The purpose of this acquisition was to expand the company’s footprint into the east Texas area of the Haynesville Shale region, increasing in-basin scale.
Other NGL Operations
The company owns interests in and/or operates NGL fractionation and storage assets in central Kansas near Conway. These assets include a 50 percent interest in an NGL fractionation facility with capacity of slightly more than 100 Mbbls/d, and also approximately 23 million barrels of NGL storage capacity. In addition, the company owns a 189-mile NGL pipeline from a fractionator near Conway, Kansas, to an interconnection with a third-party NGL pipeline system in Oklahoma.
Overland Pass Pipeline Equity-Method Investment
The company operates and owns a 50 percent interest in OPPL. OPPL is capable of transporting 245 Mbbls/d of NGLs and includes 1,035 miles of NGL pipeline extending from Opal, Wyoming, to the Mid-Continent NGL market center near Conway, Kansas, along with extensions into the Piceance and DJ basins in Colorado, and the Bakken Shale in the Williston basin in North Dakota. The equity NGL volumes from the company’s Wyoming plants, as well as certain Colorado plants, are dedicated for transport on OPPL under long-term transportation agreements.
Gas & NGL Marketing Services
The company’s natural gas marketing business provides asset management and the wholesale marketing, trading, storage, and transportation of natural gas for a diverse set of natural gas and electric utilities, municipalities, power generators, and producers, and markets natural gas from the production at its upstream properties. The company’s NGL marketing business transports and markets its equity NGLs from the production at its processing plants, NGLs from the production at its upstream properties, and NGLs on behalf of third-party NGL producers, including some of the company’s fee-based processing customers.
Other
Other includes upstream operations, certain new energy ventures, and minor business activities that are not reportable segments, as well as corporate operations.
Upstream Ventures
The company acquired certain crude oil and natural gas properties in the Wamsutter basin in February 2021. The company had an agreement regarding these properties in which it owned 75 percent of the venture’s undivided interest in each well’s working interest. In November 2024, the company closed on the acquisition of the third-party operator Crowheart Energy, LLC. After closing on the acquisition, the company is the operator and owns more than a 90 percent working interest in each well.
Certain natural gas properties in Louisiana were transferred to the company in November 2020 as part of a bankruptcy resolution with a customer. In the third quarter of 2021, the company sold 50 percent of the existing wells and wellbore rights in the South Mansfield area of the Haynesville Shale region to a third-party operator, in a strategic effort to develop the acreage, thereby enhancing the value of the company's midstream natural gas infrastructure. Under the agreement, the third party operates the upstream position and develops the undeveloped acreage. The third party’s interest in new wells increased to 75 percent in early 2023 when a certain drilling hurdle was met. The company retained ownership in the undeveloped acreage until a separate acreage earning hurdle was met in the fourth quarter of 2023, at which time the remaining undeveloped acreage was conveyed to the third party, resulting in the third party owning 75 percent and the company owning 25 percent.
New Energy Ventures
The company’s Other segment also includes investments in certain new energy ventures related to hydrogen, solar, renewable natural gas, and NextGen Gas. NextGen Gas is natural gas that has been independently certified as low emissions gas across all segments of the value chain.
Regulatory Matters
The company’s natural gas pipeline interstate transmission and storage activities, including activities of Transco and NWP, are subject to FERC regulation under the Natural Gas Act of 1938, as amended (NGA), and under the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978, as amended, and, as such, the rates and charges for the transportation of natural gas in interstate commerce, accounting, and the extension, enlargement, or abandonment of the jurisdictional facilities, among other things, are subject to regulation. Each of the company’s natural gas pipeline companies, including Transco and NWP, holds certificates of public convenience and necessity issued by the FERC authorizing ownership and operation of all pipelines, facilities, and properties for which certificates are required under the NGA.
The company also owns interests in and operates natural gas liquids pipelines that are regulated by various federal and state governmental agencies. Services provided on the interstate natural gas liquids pipelines are subject to regulation under the Interstate Commerce Act by the FERC, which has authority over the terms and conditions of service; rates, including depreciation and amortization policies; and initiation of service. The company’s intrastate natural gas liquids pipelines providing common carrier service are subject to regulation by various state regulatory agencies.
The company’s interstate natural gas pipelines, including Transco and NWP, are subject to the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968, as amended, the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002, the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Jobs Creation Act of 2011, and the Protecting Our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety Act of 2016 and 2020, which regulate safety requirements in the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of interstate natural gas transmission facilities. The United States Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) administers federal pipeline safety laws.
The company has an enterprise-wide Gas Integrity Management Plan, which includes Transco and NWP, that meets the PHMSA final rule issued pursuant to the requirements of the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002. To meet the PHMSA regulations, the company has identified all pipelines in high consequence areas (HCAs) and developed baseline assessment plans for all applicable pipelines. In response to the PHMSA Mega Rule, implemented in 2021, the company identified Moderate Consequence Areas, and integrated those segments into its integrity program along with Class 3 and 4 pipeline locations required by the rule.
The company also has an enterprise-wide Liquid Integrity Management Plan that meets PHMSA requirements, including HCA identification and a baseline assessment plan.
The company, including Transco and NWP, has established and received the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) approval for its Cybersecurity Implementation Plan and Cybersecurity Assessment Plan, and is compliant with the remaining requirements established in Security Directives 1D and 2E.
The Texas Railroad Commission has the authority to regulate the terms of service for the company’s intrastate natural gas gathering business in Texas.
The company has been actively implementing PHMSA’s 2021 Gas Gathering final rule that requires all onshore gas gathering lines to report incidents and file annual reports. The final rule also established a new Type C regulated gathering line and now requires Type C gathering lines to comply with specifically identified PHMSA regulations in 49 Code of Federal Regulations Part 192. Since the rule was published, the company has worked to understand the regulatory changes and modify its procedures as needed.
The company’s liquids pipelines are regulated by the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, the Texas Railroad Commission, and various other state and federal agencies. These pipelines are also subject to the liquid pipeline safety and integrity regulations discussed above since both Louisiana and Texas have adopted the integrity management regulations defined in PHMSA.
The company’s offshore gas and liquids pipelines located on the outer continental shelf, including Transco, are subject to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which provides in part that outer continental shelf pipelines ‘must provide open and nondiscriminatory access to both owner and non-owner shippers.’
History
The Williams Companies, Inc. was founded in 1908. The company was incorporated under the laws of the state of Nevada in 1949 and reincorporated under the laws of the state of Delaware in 1987.
