Williams Reports Q3 With Its $1 Billion Northeast Pipeline Stuck in Court
The gas pipeline giant moves a third of US natural gas and pays a $2.10 dividend. Its courts keep erasing its Northeast expansions, while the money migrates to data-center country; Tuesday's call decides what replaces them.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
Williams reports Q3 with its biggest Northeast bet missing a permit
Williams−2.97% — Williams, down 2.97 percent today, the Tulsa energy company whose Transco network moves about a third of America's natural gas, reports third-quarter results after the market closes today, November 2 1. The report lands eleven days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied the company's bid to reconsider the ruling that erased the New Jersey water-quality certification for Northeast Supply Enhancement, an expansion equal to about 0.4 billion cubic feet of gas a day into New York Harbor 23.
A $2.10 dividend rides on projects courts keep erasing
More than $1 billion of capital sits under that project, and Transco's own rehearing petition told the court that losing the certification "will delay construction" and could jeopardize the November 1, 2027, in-service date and deliveries to utility National Grid+0.57% — National Grid, up 0.57 percent today for the 2027-28 heating season 3.
The board has since approved a quarterly dividend of $0.525 a share, $2.10 annualized, payable December 28 4, on top of second-quarter net income of $827 million 4. The dividend story leans on growth capital, so the courts are now squeezing the payout's funding logic, not just the projects.
The project page promises 2027; the court filing says maybe not
Williams' project page still promises fourth-quarter 2027 service 2. The company's own petition to the court is less certain 3. Meanwhile Washington is trying to force the second Northeast project through: the Energy Department said on October 19 it would direct up to $42 million, under Title III of the Defense Production Act, toward permitting and pre-construction work on Constitution, a 125-mile line from Pennsylvania that would carry up to 650,000 dekatherms a day, targeting service by the winter of 2028 5.
New York denied that project's water permit in 2016 and developers abandoned it in 2020 5; Williams has since asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reinstate the 2014 federal approval and waive the New York permit requirement 6.
The money is moving to data centers and LNG
While the Northeast litigates, the capital goes where permits are not the story. Williams closed the $5.5 billion Momentum Midstream acquisition on September 3 to connect Haynesville gas to Gulf Coast LNG and power demand 4.
Last week it filed at FERC for Silver Spur, an 88-mile line in Idaho and Nevada adding up to 275 million cubic feet a day by 2030, part of a Northwest plan approaching 1 billion cubic feet a day, where the demand argument is data centers 7. Quarterly capital spending has more than tripled since early 2024 and is closing on operating cash flow 8.
The projects chasing Williams' next billion cubic feet a day, ranked by capacity
- Estimate
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Northwest plan, total (estimate) | 1 |
| Constitution (estimate) | 0.65 |
| Northeast Supply Enhancement | 0.4 |
| Silver Spur (estimate) | 0.28 |
Quarterly capital spending has more than tripled since early 2024, closing on operating cash flow
- Capital spending
- Operating cash flow
Data
| Capital spending | Operating cash flow | |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 '24 | $0.54B | $1.23B |
| Q2 '24 | $0.61B | $1.28B |
| Q3 '24 | $0.73B | $1.24B |
| Q4 '24 | $0.8B | $1.22B |
| Q1 '25 | $1.01B | $1.43B |
| Q2 '25 | $1.01B | $1.45B |
| Q3 '25 | $0.99B | $1.44B |
| Q4 '25 | $1.98B | $1.58B |
| Q1 '26 | $0.99B | $1.6B |
| Q2 '26 | $1.86B | $1.38B |
The other side: New York's approval stands and the state regulator holds the pen
The bull case is intact on paper. A federal appeals court upheld NESE's New York certification in August, Pennsylvania approved its share, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection may now reissue, revise or reach a different result 3. Williams says the projects deliver reliable, affordable energy "while supporting economic growth and emissions reductions" 6. And winter makes the demand case: in January, oil briefly passed natural gas as New England's leading source of electricity during Winter Storm Fern 5.
What to listen for on Tuesday's call
Management speaks at 9:30 a.m 1. ET on Tuesday 1. Listen for a moved service date, deferred Northeast capex, and pace on the Northwest filings. Politics hang over it: Governor Hochul leads Republican Bruce Blakeman by 14 points in the latest Quinnipiac poll, and even her administration has approved a previously rejected pipeline and delayed a climate target 6. The project page promises gas by the winter of 2027; the company's own court filing is not so sure 6.
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