Williams expands northwest Louisiana Haynesville Shale as data centers drive demand

BY LIZ SWAINE

https://www.shreveportbossieradvocate.com/business/williams-sees-op...

A company that already has a northwest Louisiana footprint in the Haynesville Shale is looking to expand to capture more data center dollars.

Williams Companies is purchasing Momentum Midstream based in Houston, a move that will bring additional reach, including 4,000 more miles of pipeline, as well as more customers, acreage and industrial end users.

Another key reason for the acquisition, said Williams CEO Chad Zamarin in their recent Q2 earnings call, is the coming data center demand for natural gas-powered electricity.

SWEPCO is currently converting two former coal-fueled power plants in East Texas to natural gas, and Entergy is planning to build or acquire ten additional plants to fuel the giant Richland Parish Meta data center. Other utilities throughout the country are also searching for additional power sources to fuel data centers and other large load industrial users.

“The amount of money flowing into data centers is just staggering,” said Shreveport mineral consultant Skip Peel. “And this is going to be an interesting play on how these data centers are powered over a longer period of time. Right now, natural gas is the only game in town.”

“The Haynesville is expected to grow by over 10 Bcf per day, and LNG exports are expected to double from where they are today,” said Zamarin.

Williams’ link in the natural gas chain

Williams sits right in the middle of that chain, transporting the natural gas via pipelines, processing and storing it. Companies like APEX, which is currently expanding drilling in the Haynesville Shale, Expand, Aethon/Mitsubishi and others are upstream companies. Downstream users are the large LNG facilities on the Gulf Coast, electric power plants, and other commercial and residential users. The pipelines connect them all.

Williams is paying $5.5 billion to acquire Momentum and will spend more on pipeline expansions. Those expansions include the Shelby Connector, which will be added to their giant Louisiana Energy Gateway pipeline network project, and the $1.5 B Delta Access, a new pipeline to the Gulf Coast.

The company is also working on non-pipeline projects serving hyperscale data centers. Williams' officials say the outlook for the rest of the decade is strong.

“Williams has made many, many major investments in the Haynesville Shale over the years. And they are one of the biggest pipeline companies in the world,” said Peel.

“Like many, not just midstream companies, but even upstream companies, operators, and all, everybody is betting big on LNG and demand from data centers.”