Williams Partners to acquire Caiman Energy unit for $2.5bn

US-based gas company Williams Partners has unveiled plans to acquire Caiman Energy’s subsidiary, Caiman Eastern Midstream for a total consideration of $2.5bn.

The company will pay $1.78bn in cash and 11.8 million common units valued at $720m to Caiman Energy.

The firm also intends to make an additional investment of around $1bn to facilitate the acquisition, which expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2012.

The deal will enable the company to access Caiman’s existing physical assets which include a gathering system in the sought after Marcellus shale, two processing facilities and a fractionator in northern West Virginia, which are currently under expansion.

The assets are anchored by long-term contracted commitments, including 236,000 dedicated gathering acres from 10 producers in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Williams Partners expects significant growth in gathering volumes and NGL production from these assets with an estimated 300 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in place within a 35-mile radius of the system.

The company believes that the Caiman system will gather more than 2 billion cubic feet per day and produce about 300,000 barrels per day of NGLs and condensate by 2020.

Williams Partners is looking to launch a new joint venture with Caiman Energy and its investors to develop midstream infrastructure in the oil-rich prospects of the Utica Shale, primarily in Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania.