Williams completes spinoff of E&P business

Jan. 4, 2012
Williams Cos., Tulsa, has completed separating the company’s businesses into two stand-alone, publicly traded corporations.

Williams Cos., Tulsa, has completed separating the company’s businesses into two stand-alone, publicly traded corporations.

The company’s former exploration and production business, WPX Energy Inc., began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 3.

The spinoff was completed with the Dec. 31, 2011, distribution of one share of WPX Energy common stock for every three shares of Williams common stock.

Williams became an infrastructure company, and many of its pipeline assets are held through the master limited partnership Williams Partners LP.

In Canada, Williams owns a midstream and domestic olefins production business that processes the off-gas created by the oil sands production into 14,000 b/d of an NGL/olefins mixture. Expansion to the olefins plant is under way and a Canadian NGL pipeline is under construction.

Separately, William also is expanding its Geismar ethylene plant in Louisiana that currently produces 1.35 billion lb/year.