OREANDA-NEWS. Williams Partners L.P. (NYSE:WPZ) announced today that it placed into service on Nov. 1 the remaining capacity of its Northeast Supply Link, after bringing half the capacity into service three months ahead of schedule in response to customer demands. The project marks the first major expansion of the Transco natural gas pipeline designed specifically to connect Marcellus natural gas supply with Northeastern markets.

The expansion provides 250,000 dekatherms of incremental firm natural gas transportation capacity from Marcellus supplies direct to nearby customers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. The total expansion is delivering enough natural gas to provide service to approximately 1 million homes.

"Northeast Supply Link is a good example of our focus on bringing large-scale infrastructure projects into service in a timely manner to meet our customer requirements," said Rory Miller, senior vice president of Williams Partners' Atlantic-Gulf business segment. "We are currently executing on approximately USD 1.5 billion in other natural gas transportation projects, including our interest in the Constitution interstate gas pipeline, to provide service to high-value demand centers in the northeastern United States and all along the eastern seaboard."

The USD 390 million Northeast Supply Link project involved the construction of about 13 miles of pipe in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, in addition to existing compressor facility modifications and a new 25,000 horsepower compressor station in Essex County, N.J. Half of the project's capacity was placed into service in August 2013 after Williams Partners received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for an early in-service date.

"We see tremendous appetite from a wide range of industry participants for additional firm transportation capacity, particularly along the Transco system as evidenced recently by the overwhelming response to our Atlantic Sunrise project open season," said Miller.

The Transco pipeline is a 10,200-mile system that provides natural gas transportation and storage services for markets throughout the Northeastern and Southeastern United States. Major markets include New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Charlotte and Atlanta. Transco's major customers are primarily power generators, local distribution companies and producers.

In the last decade, Williams Partners' Transco and Gulfstream have placed into service 21 growth projects totaling in excess of USD 2 billion of capital investment. With the Northeast Supply Link project now in service, Transco's current system capacity is approximately 10.15 million dekatherms per day, which is enough natural gas to serve the equivalent of more than 42 million homes.