OREANDA-NEWS. Realignment Supports Growing Gathering and Processing Operations in the Marcellus and Utica Shale Regions.
Williams (NYSE: WMB) and Williams Partners (NYSE: WPZ) today announced the realignment of executive leadership responsibilities designed to further enhance their operating and commercial capabilities.

The realignment results in new leaders for the Northeast Gathering & Processing operating area and Williams' Corporate Strategic Development function. As a result, the following changes will become effective immediately:

Jim Scheel, 49, will serve as senior vice president of the Northeast Gathering & Processing operating area, with responsibility for gathering and processing business in the Marcellus and Utica shale regions.
Frank Billings, 51, will serve as senior vice president of Corporate Strategic Development, with responsibility for enterprise-level business development and customer relationship management. Billings most recently led the Northeast Gathering & Processing operating area.
Both Scheel and Billings will continue to report to Alan Armstrong, president and chief executive officer of Williams and chief executive officer of the general partner of Williams Partners.

"As the build-out of our gathering and processing business in the Marcellus-Utica advances, we're at a point where we realize the greatest value by having Northeast-region leadership with deep operational experience," said Alan Armstrong. "Jim, in his 25 years at Williams, has been instrumental in the operations and engineering on a number of complex, large-scale projects. I'm confident in his abilities to deliver in the Northeast, where we have approximately USD 3.3 billion in projects underway through 2015 to increase take-away volumes and processing capacity in the Marcellus and Utica.

"Frank's work developing customer relationships opened doors to this tremendous opportunity we have in the Northeast. We look forward to having his commercial expertise, as well as his experience and leadership in strategy development, applied across the entire enterprise," said Armstrong. "This leadership realignment represents an opportunity to realize the full value of Jim's and Frank's diverse experiences and bring new perspectives to these roles to further enhance our operating and commercial capabilities and support our One Williams vision."

Since joining Williams in 1988, Scheel has served in leadership roles that include operations, engineering and operational excellence; the company's natural gas liquids business; business and strategic development with more than USD 6 billion in transactions and business integrations; and management of international and joint-venture operations. In Lithuania, Scheel helped Williams negotiate the purchase of a distressed company and led the operational aspects of modernizing a refinery and completing an oil export terminal. Scheel earned his bachelor's degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Tulsa in 1986. Scheel serves on the boards of the general partners of Williams Partners L.P. and Access Midstream.

Billings' current tenure at Williams began in August 2010 as vice president of business development for the company's gathering and processing business. Prior to rejoining Williams, Billings was president of the privately owned Cumberland Plateau Pipeline Company. From July 2008 to June 2009, he served as the senior vice president – commercial for Crosstex Energy, Inc. and Crosstex Energy L.P. Billings worked for Williams from 1988 to 2008 in a variety of management roles across both the gathering and processing and natural gas liquids businesses, including development of the Overland Pass Pipeline business. Prior to the Williams – MAPCO merger in 1998, Billings spent 10 years with MAPCO in various management roles in the natural gas liquids business. Billings received his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Oklahoma State University and earned his M.B.A. from the University of Tulsa in 1992. He is a board member for the Natural Gas Supply Association and previously served on the Executive Board of the Marcellus Shale Coalition.