Williams Partners L.P. (NYSE: WPZ) today announced its expanded Geismar, Louisiana olefins plant has begun manufacturing ethylene for sale.

“This is a significant milestone achievement in our effort to restore reliable operations at our plant for the benefit of our customers, employees, contractors and the community,” said John Dearborn, Williams’ senior vice president of NGL & Petchem Services.

The commissioning effort culminates the plant’s rebuild and expansion project.

“I want to once again recognize our Geismar team for their dedication and perseverance throughout this complex rebuild and expansion effort,” Dearborn said. “We will now turn our efforts to reaching full production rates on the base plant and shortly thereafter ramping up the plant to the expanded production capacity of 1.95 billion pounds of ethylene per year.”

Williams Partners’ share of the total capacity of the expanded plant will be approximately 1.7 billion pounds per year. Williams (NYSE: WMB) owns controlling interest in and is the general partner of Williams Partners.

“We look forward now to rebuilding our reputation as a safe and reliable supplier of olefins,” Dearborn said.

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.