Williams back in growth mode
9/12/2006

The energy giant is hiring in Tulsa and companywide to help accomplish its three-year business plan.
Williams Cos. Inc. is growing again, and it's looking for help. The Tulsa-based natural gas giant has 183 job openings, including 71 in Tulsa.

"We have experienced recruiters out there looking for engineers, accountants and finance folks," said Steve Beatie, manager of college relations for Williams.

Employment at Williams is up 9 percent this year. The company now employs 4,030 people, including 1,100 in Tulsa.

Williams is hiring more people so it can meet the goals of a three-year business plan, which calls for a $5 billion investment in Williams' natural gas businesses.

"The company is growing," Beatie said. "We have to prepare for that."

Williams hopes to increase its natural gas production to more than 1 billion cubic feet a day by the end of 2008. The company now produces 786 million cubic feet of gas each day.

In addition to clerical, accounting and finance support, the company is seeking mechanical, chemical, electrical, civil and petroleum engineers.

"We're always looking for engi neers," Beatie said. "The opportunities are very abundant in the energy industry because

you have some of that work force nearing the retirement age."

The company said it plans to invest more than $2 billion in its natural gas businesses this year, including up to $1.25 billion in exploration and production.

So far in 2006, Williams has hired 317 people companywide.

You know, I know a lot of people that had invested in Williams around the turn of the century (myself not included thankfully) simply because it was the hometown corporation that was doin' well. I would have to see it on something like Mad Money or recommended to me by someone at Charles Schwab before I would consider investing money in that company.

Williams must be making money-- The recently finished their streetscape project in Downtown

Rising U.S. natural gas supplies send prices to a 2-year low; oil eases in sympathy
AP - 9/14/2006 3:35 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Natural gas futures plunged 10 percent to a two-year low on Thursday after U.S. government data showed record supplies.

Industry officials said homeowners that depend on natural gas for heat should see lower bills this winter, assuming normal temperatures.

``It looks much better than last year for natural gas consumers,'' said Mark Stultz, a spokesman for the Natural Gas Supply Association.

Oil prices were weighed down by the sharp selloff in natural gas, which analysts attributed to the rising inventory of fuel, slack demand and receding fears about possible Gulf of Mexico supply disruptions during this year's waning Atlantic hurricane season.

October natural gas futures fell 55.7 cents to settle at $4.892 per 1,000 cubic feet on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The last time front-month natural gas futures settled below $5 was Sept. 16, 2004.

Residential and industrial consumers of natural gas will no doubt appreciate natural gas prices that are more than 50 percent lower than a year ago, but some industry officials warned against breathing too easily.

``We have fundamental supply problems,'' said Paul Cico, executive director of the Industrial Energy Consumers of America, a trade group that is lobbying Congress to open up more of the country's coastal waters to petroleum exploration and production. Hurricane season is not over, Cicio said, and if it turns out to be a colder-than-normal fall and winter, U.S. natural gas inventories could quickly contract.

``If you have any doubt about the supply uncertainty, look at what the December and January natural gas futures are priced at,'' Cicio said. Both December and January natural gas futures traded Thursday above $8 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In the short-term, natural gas futures are poised to fall as low as $4.50, said ABN Amro broker Gerry Saccente.

But Saccente cautioned that prices were likely to level off at the start of autumn, when traders typically begin to fret over wintertime demand. ``The psychology will change,'' he said.

Energy Department data showed U.S. inventories of natural gas climbing last week to 3.08 trillion cubic feet. That is 12.4 percent above the five-year average for this time of year and the earliest that natural gas storage levels have exceeded 3 trillion cubic since the Energy Department began tracking the data 12 years ago.

Stultz said his association is anticipating a record 3.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in storage by Nov. 1, the unofficial start of the home-heating season.

Some analysts have suggested the U.S. may actually run out of storage capacity, forcing producers to cap wells. ``People are watching the situation closely,'' Stultz said.

Natural gas supplies were already ample heading into the summer because a warm winter last year sapped home-heating demand and because most of the Gulf of Mexico output that was lost during last year's hurricanes had been restored.

And except for a heat wave or two, summertime demand for gas-fired electricity did not make a significant dent in that surplus. ``The hot weather fell apart a month ago,'' Saccente said.

Nymex oil futures, which have declined in eight of the last nine trading sessions and by more than 19 percent since a midsummer peak of $78.40, fell 75 cents to settle at $63.22 a barrel.

Falling oil prices are not uncommon at this time of year, when gasoline consumption traditionally tapers off and heating oil demand has yet to ramp up. The drop has been magnified by a perception among oil traders that threats to supplies _ ranging from Atlantic hurricanes to Middle East politics _ have eased.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 3.18 cents to settle at $1.7110 per gallon and gasoline futures settled negligibly lower at $1.5522 per gallon.

Asked my Uncle about this... He ha invested some money because it was a Hometown favorite... I don’t know if I would invest in it right now even.

I would invest in Oneok if I was choosing a home town favorite...