Williams' addition of gas marketer Sequent lifts midstream operator's LNG profile

Williams boosted its gas pipeline marketing footprint to more than 8 Bcf/d and increased its exposure to growing US LNG exports when it closed July 1 a deal to acquire Sequent Energy Management, North America's seventh-largest natural gas marketer.

The operator of Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line and other midstream infrastructure has been seeking to leverage its scale and relatively low capital requirements to maintain some of its assets.

It has also been focusing more heavily on its ties to natural gas and strong global economics, including wide price spreads, that are spurring robust deliveries of gas from the US Gulf Coast to Asia and Europe.

With Sequent, which moves gas through transportation and storage agreements on strategically located infrastructure, including Transco, Williams complements the geographic footprint of its core pipeline transportation and storage business. The addition also allows Williams to access new markets to reach incremental gas-fired power generation, in addition to LNG exports and future renewables opportunities.

Williams also sees additional ways with Sequent in the fold to source responsibly produced gas. Amid the global energy transition to greater use of cleaner-burning fuels, US shale faces an image problem, especially with climate-conscious buyers in Europe. Certifying gas as responsibly sourced, pursuing carbon capture and sequestration projects, and measuring and reporting the greenhouse gas intensity of emissions are ways US producers and midstream operators are increasingly responding to the challenge.

Williams' acquisition of Sequent from Southern Company included affiliate Sequent Energy Canada. Sequent focuses on asset management and the wholesale marketing, trading, storage, and transportation of natural gas for gas utilities and producers.

In the latest S&P Global Platts North American marketer rankings , Sequent placed No. 7, based on the 7.1 Bcf/d of volumes marketed during the first quarter. That was an increase of 3% from the same period a year earlier. BP continued to top the list, even as it decreased its volumes marketed by 20% compared with Q1 2020.

Exposure to rising LNG exports — and by extension strong feedgas demand driven by high utilization of US liquefaction facilities — has factored into changes in the gas marketing business in recent years, especially along the Gulf Coast.

Williams owns and/or operates the significant natural gas transmission, gathering, and processing assets around the Gulf Coast states, both onshore and offshore.

Over the final week of June, total feedgas deliveries to US liquefaction facilities averaged about 11 Bcf/d, implying utilization of about 90%, Platts Analytics data showed.