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ConnectionNORTHWEST
Spring 2015
Plymouth Update ............................. 2
Kalama Lateral Project .................... 2
Executive Profile – Walt Bennett ..... 3
Right on Target – Energy Insights
Customer Survey ............................. 4
Mastio Survey Results Are In .......... 4
Winter Recap ................................... 5
Mutual Assistance Agreement ......... 7
Safety Corner ................................... 7
Retirement News ............................. 8
Plymouth Update It has been over a year since the March 31, 2014, incident at the Plymouth Plant. Reconstruction of
the plant is progressing in phases in order to restore service as soon as possible while minimizing
impacts to Northwest’s customers.
Read the full story on page 2.
Kalama Lateral Project On October 27, 2014, Northwest Pipeline LLC (“Northwest”) filed a 7(c) application in Docket
No. CP15-8-000 with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) requesting a Certificate
of Public Convenience and Necessity to construct, operate and maintain the
Kalama Lateral Project.
Read the full story on page 2.
Executive Profile – Walt BennettAs of January 1, 2015, Walt Bennett has assumed the role of Senior Vice President of Williams’ West Operating Area.
Walt has relocated to the Salt Lake City area to oversee Northwest Pipeline and Williams’ gathering and processing
facilities in Colorado, Wyoming and the Four Corners. He succeeded Allison Bridges who retired after 33 years
with Williams.
Read the full story on page 3.
ContactMarketing Hotline801-584-7301
Scheduling Desk801-584-7229
Informational Links Williams Connect Newsletter
FERC Watch – Under Regulatory
NAESB News – Under Regulatory
Inside view of Tank 1 at the Plymouth Plant.
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Plymouth Update It has been over a year since the March 31,
2014, incident at the Plymouth Plant.
Reconstruction of the plant is progressing in
phases in order to restore service as soon
as possible while minimizing impacts to
Northwest’s customers.
During 2014, we repaired the damaged
pipeline and compression facilities at the
Plymouth compressor station; restored the
utility systems and safety systems at the LNG
plant; restored the boil-off gas system to
recycle the boil-off gas back into the Northwest
system; and restored vaporization capacity of
150,000 Dth/d of LNG into Northwest’s system.
In late November we received delivery of
the LNG 2 adsorbers, a component of the
liquefaction facilities for LNG 2. The adsorbers
and associated liquefaction facilities have been
installed, tested and commissioned. We will
liquefy gas into LNG Tank 2 (“Tank 2”) and
when filled, we’ll liquefy gas into LNG Tank 1
(“Tank 1”) when it is ready for service.
Once Tank 1 is in service, the plant will be
capable of vaporizing the full 305,300 Dth/d
into its mainline.
There are two LNG tanks at the Plymouth
facility, which each hold approximately 1.2 Bcf
of liquefied natural gas. The LNG tanks are
approximately 97 feet tall on the inside and
consist of an inner wall and an outer wall on
the outside of the tank. There is approximately
five feet of space between the inner wall and
the outer wall, which is filled with insulating
material (called perlite) and resilient blankets.
Tank 1 was hit with flying debris during the
incident; a large piece of metal approximately
2' x 5' pierced the outer wall of the tank and
lodged itself between the inner and outer walls.
In order to determine the integrity of Tank 1, we
prepared to enter the tank for inspection. LNG
was transferred from Tank 1 to Tank 2. Then
the tank was purged with nitrogen to warm up
the tank and then purged with air to allow for
access into the tank. The insulating materials
were removed from the space between
the inner and outer wall. Contractors and
employees were permitted to enter the tank
last November. Scaffolding was erected in the
inner tank to inspect the integrity of the wall.
The investigation of the tank provided favorable
results, and Tank 1 is in excellent shape. The
debris created a small dent in the inner tank
approximately 4" x 6", which did not require it
to be cut out and replaced. Additionally, two
minor anomalies were repaired. The hole in the
outer tank has been patched, and insulation
is being installed between the inner and outer
tank. Once the insulation is installed, the tank
will be sealed up, cooled down and placed
back in service. We estimate that Tank 1 will be
back in service by mid-May.
The Plymouth Team will spend the remainder
of 2015 engineering, designing and
constructing the liquefaction facilities for
Tank 1. We anticipate the Plymouth Plant will
be fully operational by April 2016.
Kalama Lateral ProjectOn October 27, 2014, Northwest Pipeline LLC
(“Northwest”) filed a 7(c) application in Docket
No. CP15-8-000 with the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) requesting
a Certificate of Public Convenience and
Necessity to construct, operate and maintain
the Kalama Lateral Project (“Project”).
The proposed project consists of installing
approximately 3.1 miles of 24-inch diameter
pipeline and a corresponding meter station.
The project will extend from Northwest’s
mainline at milepost 1,254 to a proposed
methanol production facility located within the
Port of Kalama, in Cowlitz County, Washington.
The project will provide up to 320,000
dekatherms per day of firm transportation from
Northwest’s mainline to the delivery meter at
the Port of Kalama.
Northwest Innovation Works, LLC (“NWIW”)
is the customer proposing to locate facilities
that will manufacture methanol from natural
Continued on page 3.
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Kalama Lateral Project (continued) gas at the Port of Kalama. The methanol will
be exported to Asia, where it will replace less
environmentally friendly processes (oil and
coal based) to produce a range of plastics and
materials contained in common household
goods. NWIW’s plans at the Port of Kalama are
part of a larger plan to locate multiple methanol
plants in the Pacific Northwest.
The FERC scoping period for the project
ended February 12, 2015. Since filing the
application for the project, we’ve responded to
two sets of data requests (dated December 23,
2014, and February 5, 2015) issued by FERC.
We expect FERC to issue a draft environmental
assessment for the project in the third quarter
of 2015. The overall project schedule is on
track for a late 2018 in-service date.
Executive Profile – Walt BennettAs of January 1, 2015, Walt Bennett has
assumed the role of Senior Vice President
of Williams’ West Operating Area. Walt has
relocated to the Salt Lake City area to oversee
Northwest Pipeline and Williams’ gathering
and processing facilities in Colorado, Wyoming
and the Four Corners. He succeeded Allison
Bridges, who retired after 33 years with Williams.
Walt has extensive industry experience. Before
assuming his new role, he served as Senior
Vice President – Western Operations at Access
Midstream, where he managed the Anadarko,
Mid-Continent, Niobrara, Barnett, Permian,
Eagle Ford and Haynesville Operating Areas.
Prior to that, he was Chief Operating Officer
of Chesapeake Midstream Development.
Before joining Chesapeake, Walt served as
Senior Vice President-Operations at Boardwalk
Pipeline Partners in Houston, Texas, and held a
variety of senior positions at Gulf South Pipeline
Company. He began his career at a subsidiary of
Koch Industries in Gary, Indiana. Walt earned a
Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering
from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in
1992 and a Master of Business Administration
from Louisiana State University in 2004.
Of all the places that Walt has lived, his favorite
so far is Utah! He is very excited to be here, close
to nice golf courses and great places to ride his
bike, hike and ski. His wife of 15 years, Sandy,
has been equally excited about moving to Utah
and setting up their residence in Park City.Walt Bennett – New Senior Vice President of Williams’ West Operating Area
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and forthright communication; and timely
and accurate responses on the Help Line/
Scheduling Desk. Northwest Passage and
Northwest’s website ratings increased by 7%,
reflecting the ongoing focus and hard work
spent on enhancing a user’s online experience
of Passage.
Some of the lowest-rated factors were:
1) building meter stations and pipeline
facilities on time and on budget; 2)
representatives that understand the needs
and challenges of your business; and 3)
representatives that use creative strategies
to meet your service requirements.
Three action teams have been formed this
year to focus on those three areas. The team
focused on meter stations will implement
improvements to the communication process
with customers before, during and after
construction and will explore strategies for
cost reductions. The team focused on better
understanding the needs of customers will
On Dec. 2, Wayne Rechnitz of Energy Insights
gave Williams Northwest Pipeline the results
from its 2014 bi-annual customer satisfaction
survey. Williams received its highest
performance score of 8.9 (slightly higher than
in 2012) on a 10-point scale. While Williams
is proud of these results, the true value of
the survey is in identifying opportunities for
improvement. Energy Insights surveyed
63 participants from 28 different organizations.
The survey asked respondents to rate Williams
on 20 factors encompassed in the four
categories of: Quality of Service, Quality of
Communication, Quality of Operations and
Quality of Product-Related Services.
More than 86% of its customers find that
Northwest Pipeline provides better or much
better service than its competitors. The
highest-rated factors were in the area of
communication. Northwest continues to excel
in providing timely and accurate information
regarding: gas moved on its system; honest
Right on Target – Energy Insights Customer Survey
focus on training that provides “deep dives”
into the business needs of various customers,
as well as providing customized Passage
training with customers designed to meet their
specific business needs. The team focused
on developing creative strategies will be
developing written proposals in response to
customer requests that demonstrate creative
strategies. Northwest understands your time
is valuable and appreciates your efforts in
responding to the survey. We also appreciate
your frank comments on where we need
to focus our efforts. We are committed to
addressing your concerns through win-win
solutions for everyone. Thank you again for
your participation and continued support.
third place. Northwest also moved up to fourth
place among 41 pipelines in the Interstate
Customer Satisfactory Index.
Northwest Pipeline commissions this survey
every other year. This year, we didn’t have
access to the details that would allow us to
develop an action plan specific to this survey.
However, it does serve to validate the results
Mastio results are in! We’re proud to
announce that Northwest Pipeline has once
again exceeded the industry benchmark
for performance in relationship to its peers.
Northwest Pipeline retained second place in
the Mega pipeline category out of 16 pipelines.
In the Major Pipeline Category, Northwest
Pipeline advanced to second place out of 23
pipelines, which is a step up from last year’s
Mastio Survey Results Are Inof our Energy Insights survey. Thank you
to all of our customers who participated in
Mastio’s 2015 Natural Gas Pipeline Survey.
We appreciate your letting us know how we
compare with our peers.
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The 2014-15 winter season in the Pacific
Northwest was mild compared to average
seasonal temperatures, with the exception
of 2-3 weeks of below-normal temperatures
in November and December. Each of those
cold episodes was followed by extremely mild
temperatures. Northwest Pipeline did not
have to issue any entitlements or OFOs this
winter. Swings on Northwest’s Jackson Prairie
account were severe at times, but were always
followed by immediate swings in the opposite
direction, keeping Northwest’s account at
manageable levels. Below are highlights
spotlighting Jackson Prairie and weather, flow
patterns and prices from this past winter.
Jackson Prairie and Weather
November’s weather started warmer than
normal across the western part of the U.S.
Winter Recap
Continued on page 6.
The week of November 7 started a 10-day
cold snap. Customers withdrew 3.3 Bcf of gas
from storage during the cold spell. Immediately
following was a 9-day period of above-average
temperatures, and customers put 2.8 Bcf of
gas back into Jackson Prairie. Just before
the Thanksgiving holiday, the Jackson Prairie
facility was almost 100% full. Late November
and early December ended with a very brief
cold spell, in which almost 2.7 Bcf of gas was
again withdrawn from Jackson Prairie.
December was warmer than normal for most
of the month. Interestingly, for 23 days of
December, the facility was actually on net
injections! Almost 3 Bcf was injected back
into Jackson Prairie during this time. The
last cold blast of the winter came between
December 28 and January 4, when 3.7 Bcf
was withdrawn during those 8 days. The rest
of the winter temperatures were at normal or
above normal.
Flow Patterns
Another unique situation this past winter
was the flow patterns on Northwest Pipeline.
Normal winter operations see gas flowing north
all the way into the I-5 corridor, with Sumas
Moab Compressor Station
5,000,000 7,000,000 9,000,000 11,000,000 13,000,000 15,000,000 17,000,000 19,000,000 21,000,000 23,000,000 25,000,000
3-‐Mon
th12
10-‐M
onth12
17-‐M
onth12
24-‐M
onth12
31-‐M
onth12
7-‐Mon
th1
14-‐M
onth1
21-‐M
onth1
28-‐M
onth1
4-‐Mon
th2
11-‐M
onth2
18-‐M
onth2
25-‐M
onth2
3-‐Mon
th3
10-‐M
onth3
17-‐M
onth3
24-‐M
onth3
31-‐M
onth3
Winter 2014-‐15 JP ac:vity compared with 2013-‐14
Working Gas Balance JP 2014-‐15 Working Gas Balance JP 2013-‐14
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volumes in the 7–800,000 Dth/d average.
During the winter of 2013–14, Sumas averaged
745,000 Dth/d into Northwest. This year, that
average jumped to just slightly above 1Bcf/d.
Almost 45 Bcf more gas, or an average
of 267,000 Dth/d, flowed from Sumas into
Northwest this winter compared to last. Several
days brought constraints and allocations
through compressors such as Chehalis,
Washougal and as far south as Meacham.
Northwest had almost 50 days where the
volumes were south flow all the way through
the Kemmerer compressor station.
Prices Prices pretty much dictated the flow patterns
on Northwest Pipeline. The past 15 years
saw winter prices in the Rockies much lower
than Sumas, which resulted in constant
northbound flows and in most years, periodic
OFOs through Kemmerer, Plymouth South or
Roosevelt. This year, Sumas was the cheaper
supply location, resulting in southbound flows.
Average prices for the 2013–14 winter season
at Sumas were $5.15 and Rockies $4.76. This
winter, the average prices were $2.97 at Sumas
and $3.04 in the Rockies.
The takeaways from this winter are that
Northwest continues to provide customer
flexibility by managing and using its Jackson
Prairie account in a prudent manner. The
market is always changing, but Northwest is
able to handle these dynamic changes in flow
patterns. Future prices indicate a continued
slow flow pattern for at least the next year.
Winter Recap (continued)
-‐600,000
-‐400,000
-‐200,000
0
200,000
400,000
600,000
800,000
1-‐Month11 1-‐Month12 1-‐Month1 1-‐Month2 1-‐Month3
Volumes Through Roosevelt winter 2013-‐14 vs 2014-‐15
2014-‐15 2013-‐14 Increasing Capacity Decreasing Capacity
0
200,000
400,000
600,000
800,000
1,000,000
1,200,000
1,400,000
1-‐Month11 1-‐Month12 1-‐Month1 1-‐Month2 1-‐Month3
Volumes Through Sumas/Sipi winter 2013-‐14 vs 2014-‐15
2014-‐15 2013-‐14 Throughput Capacity
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The Northwest Mutual Assistance (NWMAA)
Agreement is alive and well. The NWMAA
consists of LDCs, pipelines, electric utilities
and industry groups in the Pacific Northwest
who own, operate or control natural gas assets
and have the ability and desire to assist in the
event of an emergency. The objective of the
NWMAA is to encourage its members to work
Mutual Assistance Agreementtogether in an emergency situation to mitigate
the impact of any disruption to the natural gas
supply in the Pacific Northwest.
The NWMAA has an electronic communication
platform that can easily and seamlessly share
a message via phone, text, email or fax. The
communication packages include a contact
list, which is updated annually. There is no limit
to the number of contacts a member company
can include on the list.
The NWMAA meets twice a year, including a
face-to-face meeting annually during the fall
that features a tabletop mock emergency and a
spring conference call to discuss recent winter
operations and NWMAA business issues.
Spectra Energy presented at the last tabletop
in October. They were able to develop a mock
emergency and coordinate with the attendees
to work toward a solution to the emergency.
Together, Jan Caldwell, Northwest Pipeline
Marketing Services Team Lead, and Clay
Riding, Puget Sound Energy Director of
Natural Gas Resources, chair the NWMAA.
Membership and participation in the NWMAA
is voluntary.
Do you have asthenopia?
Have you been having dry eyes, blurry vision,
difficulty focusing your eyes, or headaches?
If you have, you may be suffering
from asthenopia.
Asthenopia, from the Greek word “ασθεν-ωπία” or eyestrain is an ophthalmological
condition that manifests itself through
nonspecific symptoms such as fatigue, pain in
or around the eyes, blurred vision, headache
and occasional double vision. On average,
more than six in 10 adults (60.8%) spend five
or more hours on digital devices each day.
Whether it’s for work or play, using computers,
smartphones, tablets and e-readers, TV
Safety Corneror video games can take a toll on the eyes
and lead to digital eyestrain. Here are a few
suggestions on ways you can alleviate digital
eye strain.
Where to start:
1. Get a comprehensive eye exam. Start by
visiting your medical provider to get an
evaluation of your base-line health. Keeping
up on routine comprehensive eye exams
is key to preventing and treating vision
problems. If you wear glasses, purchase
lenses with anti-reflective (AR) coating. AR
coating reduces glare because it minimizes
the amount of light reflected off the front and
back of surfaces of your lenses.
2. Modify your workstation. When you use
a computer, your ambient light should be
about half as bright as that typically found in
most offices. Purchase ergonomic furniture
Continued on page 8.
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to enable you to position your computer
screen 20 to 24 inches from your eyes. The
center of your screen should be about 10 to
15 degrees below your eyes for comfortable
positioning of your head and neck. Flat-
panel liquid crystal display (LCD) screens
are easier on the eyes and usually have an
anti-reflective surface. One of the easiest
ways to reduce eyestrain while working
on a computer is to adjust the display
settings. First, adjust the brightness of the
display so it’s approximately the same as
the brightness of the surrounding area.
As a point of reference, look at the white
background of a Web page. If it looks like a
light source, it’s too bright. If it seems dull
and gray, it may be too dark. Secondly,
adjust the text size and contrast for comfort.
If you feel like you’re squinting, make the
text bigger.
3. Blink more often. When working at a
computer, people forget to blink. This lack
of usual blinking causes dry eyes. To reduce
your risk of dry eyes, try this exercise:
Every 20 minutes, blink 10 times by closing
your eyes as if you were falling asleep
(very slowly). This will help rewet your eyes.
Another cause of computer eyestrain is
focusing fatigue. To reduce the risk of tiring
your eyes by constantly focusing on your
screen, look away from your computer at
least every 20 minutes and gaze at a distant
object (at least 20 feet away) for at least 20
seconds. Some eye doctors call this the
“20-20-20 rule.” This exercise reduces the
risk of your eyes’ focusing ability to “lock up”
after prolonged computer work.
For more information, visit http://vision.about.
com/od/sportsvision/a/Asthenopia.htm.
Safety Corner (continued)
Retirement News
Mary White has decided to retire after
41 years of service, effective May 1st. Mary has
had a long and successful career at Williams.
She started as a paralegal before joining the
marketing department where she has spent
the majority of her career. In addition to being
a critical member of the marketing team,
Mary has made numerous contributions to
the community during her tenure at Williams.
She has been the face of Williams in serving
the children at Mountain View Elementary for
more than 24 years. Mary has also assisted
in making Williams’ United Way Campaign a
success, especially as chairman of the Chile
Verde Cook-Off, her favorite United Way
fundraiser. She has served as chairman for
Chile Verde for over 13 years and has also
competed and won first place honors for a
year or two. Mary gets very emotional when
she speaks about Williams. She has been
and will always be one of Williams’ greatest
spokespersons.
Mike Rasmuson, Director, Marketing Services,
spoke on behalf of all of us when he stated that
“we will greatly miss Mary and the little things
that she does for us, like encouraging us to
eat healthy and sneaking in early and leaving
treats on our desk. We’re excited for her as
well. She has five grandchildren already and
will soon be a grandma to twin boys, who will
live just blocks from her. On behalf of everyone
at Williams, we wish Mary the best in
her retirement!”Mary White
One of the easiest ways to
reduce eyestrain while working
on a computer is to adjust the
display settings.
“
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