Natural gas pipeline company Williams purchased NorTex Midstream, a gas pipeline and storage operator in north Texas, for $423mn, from Tailwater Capital.
As part of that deal, which closed on 31 August, Williams gained 80 miles (129km) of gas transmission lines and 36 Bcf (1bn m³) of gas storage. Those assets in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area serve 4GW of gas-fired power generation.
The acquisition gives Williams key gas infrastructure in "one the fastest growing population centers in the United States" and can be integrated with the company's existing pipelines and storage assets, Alan Armstrong, Williams' chief executive said.
The NorTex assets will also allow Williams to store Permian gas headed to the US Gulf Coast and to US LNG export terminals, the company said. Pipeline companies like Williams and Kinder Morgan are expanding capacity to move gas away from producing areas such as the Permian basin and the Haynesville shale and to export sites and to industrial consumers along the US Gulf coast.
Williams in June decided to move forward with the $1.8bn Louisiana Energy Gateway project — which will ferry gas from the Haynesville shale in Louisiana to the US Gulf coast starting in 2024.
That project will take advantage of growing output from the Haynesville. Producers have scrambled to ramp up drilling in that field in the past year to take advantage of year-over-year increases in US gas prices and to gain exposure to even higher international prices through nearby LNG export terminals.
The pipeline will allow Williams to meet the demands of chemical plants and refineries. It will also deliver gas into Williams' Transcontinental pipeline, connecting the US Gulf coast to the northeast.
