Williams Partners Receives FERC Approval to Provide Additional Natural Gas Service to Northeast

TULSA, Okla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Williams Partners L.P. WPZ announced today that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved a proposal to expand its Transco natural gas pipeline to provide an additional 250,000 dekatherms of incremental firm natural gas transportation capacity to serve growing markets in the Northeast by November 2013.

The Northeast Supply Link project is designed to expand the Transco Leidy Line and Transco mainline in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to transport domestic supplies of natural gas to growing northeastern markets.

“The Northeast Supply Link Project leverages existing Transco pipeline infrastructure to provide robust Northeastern markets with access to abundant domestic natural gas supplies,” said Frank Ferazzi, vice president and general manager of Williams Partners' gas pipeline business, East region. “We appreciate the FERC's thorough review of this project and look forward to providing our customers with additional access to clean energy.”

The expansion project will primarily consist of approximately 12 miles of new pipe at various locations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, in addition to a new 25,000 horsepower compressor facility in Essex County, N.J., along with other facility modifications. The capital cost of the project is estimated to be $341 million.

The Northeast Supply Link expansion will provide incremental firm transportation capacity from receipt points on the Leidy Line to New York City and Transco's Station 210 in New Jersey. Most of the new pipe will be installed either entirely within or parallel to existing pipeline and utility rights-of-way. The new Essex County compressor facility will be constructed on land already owned by Williams. All other compression-related activities will be performed entirely within existing compressor station facilities.

Compressor station construction is scheduled to begin in November 2012 with pipeline construction following in the spring of 2013. The project is scheduled to be placed into service in November 2013.

Earlier this year, Williams Partners announced the proposed Leidy Southeast expansion project to provide firm transportation from various supply points along Transco's Leidy Line to delivery points in the Southeast, ultimately terminating at its Zone 4 Market Pool in Alabama. The target in-service date for that project is December 2015.

The Transco pipeline is a 10,200-mile pipeline system which transports natural gas to markets throughout the Northeastern and Southeastern United States. The current system capacity is approximately 9.7 million dekatherms per day.

About Williams Partners L.P. WPZ

Williams Partners L.P. is a leading diversified master limited partnership focused on natural gas transportation; gathering, treating, and processing; storage; natural gas liquid (NGL) fractionation; and oil transportation. The partnership owns interests in three major interstate natural gas pipelines that, combined, deliver 14 percent of the natural gas consumed in the United States. The partnership's gathering and processing assets include large-scale operations in the U.S. Rocky Mountains and both onshore and offshore along the Gulf of Mexico. Williams WMB owns approximately 70 percent of Williams Partners, including the general-partner interest. More information is available at www.williamslp.com, where the partnership routinely posts important information.

Portions of this document may constitute “forward-looking statements” as defined by federal law. Although the partnership believes any such statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there is no assurance that actual outcomes will not be materially different. Any such statements are made in reliance on the “safe harbor” protections provided under the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. Additional information about issues that could lead to material changes in performance is contained in the partnership's annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.