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I'm also energized to attend IMAGE '26 next week in Houston. AAPG has been my professional home for more than 40 years, and this is the premier meetup in geoscience that the organization hosts in partnership with SEG and SEPM. I always enjoy the talks and run into old colleagues and friends. I hope to see you there! You can register here if you'd like to attend.
Now, here are two pieces of industry news from the past week.
Shangyou Nie
Editor, Well Read
Pipeline Major Williams Acquires Momentum Midstream for $5.5 Billion
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Williams Companies, the biggest American pipeline company, announced that it will pay $5.5 billion to acquire a niche competitor, Momentum Midstream, expanding its footprint within the Haynesville gas basin. The company is riding on the wave of two growth themes in the natural gas business: LNG export and data centers.
Deal details:
During its recent Q2 results call, Williams announced plans to acquire Momentum Midstream from San Antonio-based private equity firm EnCap Flatrock Midstream.
The transaction will include $3.5 billion in cash and $2 billion in stock.
Through the acquisition, Williams will add 4,000 miles (6,000 kilometers) of gas pipelines, connecting the Haynesville area in Texas and Louisiana with power plants and LNG facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Williams will add more than 1 million acres and four key gathering areas.
The new pipeline will add 6 billion cubic feet of gas per day to Williams’ capacity.
About Williams:
Brothers Miller and David Williams founded Williams Brothers in 1908 in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Ten years later, it moved its headquarters to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
In the 1970s, the company changed its name to Williams Companies.
Williams (ticker symbol WMB on the NYSE) is the largest pipeline company in the United States, with a market cap of $86 billion. The second-largest company is Enterprise Products Partners ($82 billion); the third-largest is Kinder Morgan ($69 billion); and the fourth-largest is Energy Transfer ($69 billion).
Williams’ share price rose 16 percent YTD in 2026.
Williams operates more than 32,000 miles of pipeline in 24 states, delivering about 1/3 of the country’s gas.
During its Q2 results call, Williams announced two additional growth decisions in the Haynesville:
It will invest $1.5 billion to expand the Delta Access along the Transco corridor, adding 2.3 billion cubic feet per day to its transport capacity.
It will expand the Shelby Trough Connector system by 750 million cubic feet per day.
According to Williams, it is investing $9.6 billion for six gas power supply projects for data centers, with private equity firm Blackstone as the lead financial partner (four in Ohio, one in New York, and one in Utah).
Also called M6, it operates a set of gas infrastructure systems in east Texas and southwestern Louisiana, providing gas to 34 industrial end-users, 26 power plants, 16 city gates, and 10 LNG facilities.
Background:
The United States is the world’s largest LNG provider (111 million tonnes in 2025), surpassing Qatar (82 million tonnes) and Australia (80 million tonnes).
With ongoing sanctions in Russia and Iran, plus the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the United States has taken on an even more influential role as an LNG supplier—especially for Europe.
More pipelines will be needed to meet growing gas demand.
Despite the Trump Administration’s favorable policy framework for the oil and gas industry, it is still faster to acquire an existing pipeline company than to navigate the permitting and construction processes for new pipelines.
What they are saying:
“The sale of M6 is one of the most significant private midstream transactions in the United States, producing strong results for our investors,” said Billy Lemmons, founder of EnCap Flatrock.
“Natural gas is the most important energy resource,” and “We expect the natural gas market in the United States to grow from 110 billion cubic feet per day to 140 billion cubic feet per day in 10 years,” said Chad Zamarin, President and CEO of Williams, during a CNBC interview.
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Brazilian national company Petrobras announced it made a new gas discovery in Sandia-1 wildcat, offshore Colombia. This is the fifth exploration well Petrobras has drilled in offshore Colombia.
Petrobras is on its way to establishing its first overseas deepwater production outside of Brazil.
Discovery details:
According to Upstream, the Sandia-1 exploration well was drilled in the Gua-Off-0 Block, located at 1,251 meters of water depth and some 42 kilometers offshore Colombia in the Caribbean.
The well was spudded in mid-July, using the Noble Discoverer semi-submersible rig.
Petrobras has uncovered more than 6 trillion cubic feet of gas-in-place across the five wells it drilled in the area.
In addition to Sandia-1, wildcats Sirius-1, Sirius-2, and Copoazu-1 found gas.
Buena Suerte-1 was dry.
Petrobras is the operator and holds 44.4 percent equity in the block. Ecopetrol, Colombia’s national company, holds the remaining 55.6 percent.
Why it matters:
Colombia has a gas shortage due to the natural decline of its fields, with a relatively low gas reserve life of 18 years.
Colombia produced 910 million cubic feet of gas per day in 2025, a decline of 14.9 percent YOY.
Colombia’s gas production has declined for the past five years; the country produced 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas per day in 2019.
Previously discovered deepwater gas fields in Colombia were not big enough to commercialize.
Petrobras is widely recognized as one of the industry leaders for deepwater exploration and production, especially in its domestic basins, the Santos and Campos.
Petrobras has upstream investments in five overseas countries: Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina, South Africa, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
Colombia would become the first foreign country for Petrobras’ deepwater production if the offshore gas fields are brought on stream.
What to watch:
When will Petrobras take FID on the gas fields in offshore Colombia?
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