Williams has been selected in a “landmark transaction” toinstall the infrastructure, including gathering lines and onshoreprocessing, to service new deep water development in the Nansen andBoombang Fields in the East Breaks area of the Gulf of Mexico.

Williams was selected by operator Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas,Enterprise Oil Gulf of Mexico Inc. and Ocean Energy to gather andtransport oil and natural gas production from the two developmentsin 3,700 feet of water about 150 miles south of Houston. Toaccommodate production, Williams will install new offshorepipelines and build a 300 MMcf/d gas processing plant adjacent toits existing liquids separation facility near Markham, TX.

“This is a landmark transaction for Williams because itpositions us to be one of the largest independent service providersin the deepwater Gulf of Mexico,” said Alan Armstrong, vicepresident of gathering and processing for Williams’ midstreamoperations. “We’re also designing our infrastructure and logisticsto accommodate other prospects that may be developed in the EastBreaks corridor.”

Armstrong said that “from a bottom line perspective, we foreseeenough near-term activity in the deep water to more than double theoperating profit of the gathering and processing portion of ourmidstream business by 2005.”

Construction of the projects, which will cost more than $200million, is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2001.The gas processing plant connected to Williams’ Central TexasGathering System will be capable of extracting about 20,000 barrelsa day of natural gas liquids for ultimate delivery to Mont Belvieu,TX through a new pipeline lateral that will interconnect withSeminole Pipeline. Other construction projects will include thefollowing: