Welcome to the Business Journal Archives
Search for articles below, or continue to the all new BusinessJournalDaily.com now.
Search
$2.5 Billion Deal to Bring More Investment in Utica
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A $2.5 billion acquisition announced late today is poised to bring another huge investment to develop midstream infrastructure in the rich liquid gas fields of eastern Ohio’s Utica Shale.
Williams Partners, based in Tulsa, Okla., will pay $2.5 billion to acquire Caiman Energy’s wholly owned subsidiary, Caiman Eastern Midstream LLC.
In announcing the acquisition, Williams Partners said it intends to participate in a new joint venture with Caiman Energy to develop midstream infrastructure in the natural gas liquids areas of the Utia shale in Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania.
Caiman Eastern Midstream, based in Dallas, is an independent gathering and processing business located in northern West Virginia, southwest Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Its physical assets include a gathering system, two processing facilities and a fractionator. Expansions to the gathering system, processing facilities and fractionator are under construction. An ethane pipeline is also planned, the company said.
The Caiman Midstream assets are anchored by long-term contracted commitments, including 236,000 dedicated gathering acres from 10 producers in the three-state area, according to the announcement.
"These new assets, anchored by long-term agreements with a diverse set of customers, give us a major presence in the liquids-rich portion of the Marcellus Shale," said Alan Armstrong, CEO of Williams Partners, in a prepared statement. "We expect significant long-term growth potential because the liquids-rich gas makes this area the most economical and top-performing play for producers in North America.
"It's also just adjacent to the rich gas and oil-producing portions of the Utica Shale, where we're planning on developing new infrastructure with Caiman," Armstrong said.
Williams Partners reported unaudited 2011 net income of 41.38 billion, or $3.69 per common limited-partner unit, compare with 2010 net income of 41.10 billion, or $2.66 per common unit.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.