Tulsa-based Williams on Tuesday said Vastar Resources Inc. and Newfield Exploration Co., both of Houston, have selected units of Williams to gather, process, and transport about 75 MMcfd of natural gas from offshore wells along the Alabama coastline.
The agreements call for the Williams affiliates to gather offshore gas produced from the Main Pass Block 264 in the Gulf of Mexico. The gas will be transported for processing at Williams's 600 MMcfd plant in Coden, Ala.
Vastar and Newfield are jointly developing reserves in the Gulf of Mexico's Mobile Bay area, where Williams recently added 350 MMcfd of transportation capacity and the Coden plant. Williams is in the process of connecting the Vastar-Newfield production facility to its gathering lines and expects to begin receiving initial volumes by the end of May.
Williams has invested heavily in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, said Alan Armstrong, vice-president of gathering and processing in Williams's midstream unit. It added new transportation capacity on the Transco system in 1998 and put its Mobile Bay plant online in July 1999.
"Our plant is already running at or near capacity, and we're getting close to filling up our new pipeline capacity," Armstrong said.