OREANDA-NEWS. Williams (NYSE: WMB) today announced third-quarter 2014 cash distributions from Williams Partners and Access Midstream Partners of USD 521 million, a USD 189 million, or 57 percent, increase from total cash distributions received for third-quarter 2013. The quarterly cash distributions discussed in this release are declared and received in the following quarter, as these distributions relate to the prior quarter's cash flow.

Year-to-date 2014, Williams reported cash distributions from Williams Partners and Access Midstream Partners of USD 1.485 billion, a USD 377 million, or 34 percent increase from the same period last year.

For third-quarter 2014, Williams reported USD 838 million in adjusted segment profit + DD&A, compared with USD 618 million in third-quarter 2013. The USD 220 million increase for the quarter was driven by a USD 238 million increase in adjusted segment profit + DD&A for Access Midstream Partners. This increase was primarily the result of Williams' acquisition of additional ownership interests on July 1, 2014. As a result of the acquisition of these additional ownership interests, the Access Midstream Partners segment includes the consolidated results of Access Midstream Partners for periods after July 1, 2014. Williams Partners' adjusted segment profit + DD&A for the quarter declined USD 20 million, driven by a USD 45 million decrease in natural gas liquids (NGL) and marketing margins, substantially offset by a USD 35 million increase in fee-based revenues. The Geismar plant was off-line for both periods; however, assumed business interruption insurance proceeds for the third quarter of 2013 totaled USD 15 million and were included in the calculation of adjusted segment profit + DD&A. The partnership estimates that adjusted segment profit + DD&A would have been approximately USD 200 million higher had the expanded Geismar plant been in operation during the third quarter. The partnership expects the expanded Geismar plant to be placed into service in November 2014.

Year-to-date adjusted segment profit + DD&A was USD 2.376 billion, compared with USD 1.961 billion year-to-date 2013. The USD 415 million, or 21 percent year-over-year growth in adjusted segment profit + DD&A was driven by a USD 246 million increase in adjusted segment profit + DD&A for Access Midstream Partners and a USD 167 million increase for Williams Partners. The Access Midstream Partners increase is primarily the result of the consolidation discussed with respect to the third quarter. The Williams Partners' increase includes USD 144 million, or 7 percent, growth in fee-based revenues compared with the year-to-date 2013 period, as well as USD 81 million in higher Geismar results, which include the favorable impacts of the assumed business interruption insurance proceeds.

Adjusted income from continuing operations for third-quarter 2014 was USD 110 million, or USD 0.15 per share, compared with USD 130 million, or USD 0.19 per share for third-quarter 2013. Year-to-date through Sept. 30, adjusted income from continuing operations was USD 458 million, or USD 0.64 per share, compared with USD 411 million, or USD 0.60 per share, for the first nine months of 2013.

The decrease in adjusted income for the quarter was driven by USD 86 million higher net interest expense, including interest associated with debt at Access Midstream Partners, and USD 28 million lower NGL margins, partially offset by the segment results of our now consolidated Access Midstream Partners business and growth in Williams Partners' fee-based revenues.

The increase in adjusted income for the year-to-date period was driven by USD 144 million higher Williams Partners fee-based revenues and the segment results of our now consolidated Access Midstream Partners business. Adjusted income for the year-to-date period was also driven by USD 86 million higher adjusted results from our Geismar plant reflecting the favorable impact of assumed business interruption insurance proceeds through the second quarter of 2014, partially offset by higher net interest expense, including interest associated with the debt at Access Midstream Partners, and lower NGL margins.

Adjusted income from continuing operations and adjusted segment profit + DD&A are non-GAAP measures and reflect the removal of items considered unrepresentative of ongoing operations and may include assumed business interruption insurance related to the Geismar plant. Reconciliations to the most relevant GAAP measures are attached to this news release.

Williams reported unaudited third-quarter 2014 net income attributable to Williams of USD 1.678 billion, or USD 2.22 per share on a diluted basis, compared with net income of USD 141 million, or USD 0.20 per share on a diluted basis, for third-quarter 2013.

The USD 1.537 billion increase in net income during third-quarter 2014 was primarily the result of a USD 2.522 billion pre-tax non-cash re-measurement gain related to the consolidation of our previous equity-method investment in Access Midstream Partners as of July 1, 2014. This gain has been adjusted out of the adjusted income from continuing operations measure previously discussed.

For the first nine months of 2014, Williams reported net income of USD 1.921 billion, or USD 2.68 per share on a diluted basis, compared with net income of USD 444 million, or USD 0.65 per share, for the same time period in 2013.

The increase in net income for the first nine months of 2014 was also primarily due to the non-cash gain related to the consolidation of Access Midstream Partners previously discussed.

CEO Comment

Alan Armstrong, Williams' president and chief executive officer, made the following comments:

"Williams' third quarter results continued to benefit from our increased ownership of Access Midstream Partners. During four consecutive weeks in September, ACMP achieved average gross daily gathering volumes in excess of 6 Bcf per day, a volume record that drove strong financial results. As expected, Williams Partners' lower results versus normal operations were due primarily to the Geismar outage and the first full-quarter without the assumed benefit of Geismar-related business interruption insurance proceeds.

"We expect dramatically higher results for Williams Partners in the fourth quarter and 2015. In November and December, we plan to place several major projects into service, including the expanded Geismar plant, the Gulfstar One facility and the Keathley Canyon Connector pipeline. All three of these large-scale projects are mechanically complete and are expected to generate nearly USD 1 billion in 2015 cash flows," Armstrong said.

"We recently received strong customer interest in new major natural gas infrastructure projects, Transco's Appalachian Connector and Diamond East pipelines. Both are designed to connect growing Transco markets to abundant, economically priced Marcellus and Utica supply. On the regulatory front, we achieved a key milestone with the FERC's issuance last week of its final environmental impact statement for the Constitution Pipeline project. We're pursuing the federal and state permits we need in an effort to begin construction as early as the first quarter of 2015. This schedule is critical to our ability to bring the Constitution Pipeline in service in time to meet the winter 2015-16 heating season in New York and New England.

"Earlier this week, we took another big step toward our goal of becoming the leading provider of large-scale natural gas infrastructure in North America when Williams Partners and Access Midstream agreed to merge. With the expected close of the merger in early 2015 and the planned dropdown of Williams' remaining businesses to Williams Partners, we will be a large-cap, pure-play general partner with planned industry-leading dividend growth of 15 percent annually through 2017, on top of our 32 percent increase in third-quarter 2014."