Williams Cos Inc News

U.S. energy firms are scrambling to finish a slew of pipelines that will unleash rich reserves of shale gas in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio as the nation prepares to become one of the world’s top natural gas exporters. The pipelines are expected to boost output from shale fields in the three states by giving producers access to new domestic and international markets. Those states could supply about a third of all U.S. natural gas once the pipeline expansion is complete, up from about 25 percent now, according to projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Williams Cos Inc's Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co (Transco) unit on Tuesday announced an open season to gauge interest in natural gas firm storage capacity at its Eminence Storage Field in Covington County, Mississippi. The open season, which runs from June 3 to July 16, is for storage service for up to 8.7 billion cubic feet per day of withdrawal and 7.3 billion cubic feet per day of injection as 7 well as a storage capacity of 73.1 billion cubic feet. The capacity will become available on Aug. 1, 2014. According to a website posting, the Eminence salt cavern storage facility has a current operating capacity of nearly 12 billion cubic feet.