Williams, Williams Partners Swing to Profit

Williams Cos. and the pipeline giant's Williams Partners LP both swung to a profit for the third quarter, boosted by higher olefin margins at the Geismar plant in Louisiana and lower costs.

Williams Partners also adjusted its 2017 capital spending plans, mostly related to previously disclosed timing changes for the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline—which will help connect Marcellus Shale natural-gas supplies with customers along the East Coast—to go into service. Williams now expects partial service to begin in the second half of 2017 with full service in mid-2018.

Over all, Williams reported a profit of $61 million, or 8 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $40 million, or 5 cents a share. Excluding losses related to the sale of its Canadian operations, year-earlier asset write-downs and other items, adjusted per-share earnings from continuing operations fell to 20 cents from 22 cents. Revenue increased 5.9% to $1.91 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share profit of 19 cents and revenue of $1.73 billion.

Over all, Williams Partners reported a profit of $326 million, or 42 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $194 million, or 32 cents a share. Revenue increased 6.4% to $1.91 billion.

Williams Partners now expects its 2017 capital and investment expenditures will reach between $2.1 billion and $2.8 billion, including $1.4 billion to $1.9 billion related to the expansion of the Transco natural gas pipeline system. Williams Partners previously expected 2017 capital and investment spending of $1.9 billion to $3.1 billion, including $1.3 billion to $2.4 billion related to Transco.

Williams has been focusing on its strategy to continue as a stand-alone company after a planned merger deal with Energy Transfer Equity LP fell through in June and after Enterprise Products Partners LP said it was no longer pursuing a potential combination with Williams.

Write to Tess Stynes at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 31, 2016 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)

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