Williams Partners (NYSE: WPZ) today announced its expanded Geismar plant is expected to begin manufacturing ethylene for sale in February after experiencing an unexpected delay in the final stages of commissioning.

The plant was taken down from its final ramp-up procedure after it was determined that a brazed aluminum heat exchanger became plugged requiring cleaning and maintenance. This additional and unanticipated work is complete, and the plant will be turned back over to operations today to resume start-up.

“We are focused on safely bringing the plant into sustainable operations, restoring the reliable supply of olefins to our customers,” said John Dearborn, senior vice president, Williams’ NGL & Petchem Services.

Capacity at the expanded Geismar plant is 1.95 billion pounds of ethylene per year. Williams Partners’ share of the total capacity of the expanded plant is approximately 1.7 billion pounds per year. Williams (NYSE: WMB) owns controlling interest in and is the general partner of Williams Partners. The partnership said it will provide an additional update on the status of the plant’s operations on or before a scheduled Feb. 19 investor conference call.

Williams Partners (NYSE: WPZ) is an industry-leading master limited partnership with operations across the natural gas value chain from transportation and processing to petchem production of ethylene, propylene and other olefins. With positions across top U.S. supply basins and also in Canada, Williams Partners owns and operates more than 33,000 miles of pipelines system wide – including the nation’s largest volume and fastest growing pipeline – moving approximately 20 percent of U.S. natural gas for clean-power generation, home heating and industrial use. In addition to gathering, processing, transportation and storage of natural gas and natural gas liquids, Williams Partners is positioned to connect abundant domestic supplies with international markets. Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams (NYSE: WMB), a premier provider of large-scale North American natural gas infrastructure, owns the general partner of and controlling interest in Williams Partners. www.williams.com

Portions of this document may constitute “forward-looking statements” as defined by federal law. Although the partnership believes any such statements are based on reasonable assumptions, there is no assurance that actual outcomes will not be materially different. Any such statements are made in reliance on the “safe harbor” protections provided under the Private Securities Reform Act of 1995. Additional information about issues that could lead to material changes in performance is contained in the partnership’s annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.