Citing negotiations regarding some planned asset sales, Williams rescheduled its third-quarter earnings report for November to coincide with its Nov. 14 deadline to file its 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Williams has been selling properties since early this year as it works to pay down debt and improve liquidity. Late Wednesday, it reported that “developments between now and Nov. 14 could have a material impact” on third-quarter earnings. It had previously announced its intent to release earnings for the quarter on Oct. 29.

“We are in active discussions involving transactions for portions of our petroleum services and energy marketing and risk management businesses,” said CEO Steve Malcolm. “At this point, we believe it would be premature to release earnings until we can ascertain the definitive terms of these potential sales.”

The assets involved could be those Williams announced were for sale in August, when it said it might sell its ownership interest in an olefins production plant in Geismar, LA, and an associated ethylene pipeline system in Louisiana, as well as a Baltic refinery. Williams said then that it had received unsolicited expressions of interest (see Daily GPI, Aug. 21). Williams owns 42% of the facilities. Other owners include BASF Corp. and GE Petrochemicals.

By the end of this year, Williams had projected asset sales totaling around $5 billion. Nearly $3 billion in sales had been completed in early August, and several sales have since been announced.

In September, Williams sold several pipelines, including its Central natural gas pipeline for $555 million. It also sold its interest in the Alliance Pipeline to Enbridge for C$270 million, and sold its Williams Gas Pipelines Central Inc. and Western Frontier Pipeline Co. LLC for $380 million plus the assumption of $175 million in debt (see Daily GPI, Sept. 17; Sept. 24).

Other large asset sales by Williams this year include its stake in Northern Border Partners, which owns the Northern Border pipeline system, to TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. for $12 million (see Daily GPI, Aug. 19 ). And in March, the company sold its Kern River Gas Transmission system for $960 million in cash and debt to a subsidiary of Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy Holdings (see Daily GPI, March 8).

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