Williams reaches commercial agreements for revived NESE gas pipeline

Williams Cos. has concluded offtake agreements for a revived version of its 400-MMcfd Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) natural gas pipeline project. Chief executive officer Chad Zamarin said in the company’s second-quarter 2025 earnings call that he expects New York to issue a water permit for the project “in the next couple of months.”

Williams will also need the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to issue a new certificate for NESE. Zamarin mentioned during the call that FERC had already reinstated the project’s environmental study and that he expects the agency to act quickly regarding recertifying the project as well.  

NESE is an expansion of Williams’ existing 16-bcfd Transco pipeline, designed to provide additional gas to the New York City metropolitan area. It would run from Transco’s Compressor Station 195 in York County, Pa., to its offshore Rockaway Transfer Point, an existing interconnection between the Lower New York Bay Lateral and the Rockaway Delivery Lateral in New York State waters. The company is targeting a 2027 in-service date.

Williams is also seeking to revive the 650-MMcfd Constitution pipeline, scrapped in May 2020 after being unable to secure New York state water permits (OGJ Online Feb. 24, 2020).