The Williams Companies, Gearing Up to Spend Billions in the Energy Sector, an Advisory by Industrialinfo.com.

Business Editors & Energy Writers

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 18, 2001

The following is an advisory from Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources Inc.; Houston, Texas). The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) (Tulsa, OK) through Williams Gas Pipeline Company and Williams Energy Services and their subsidiaries is planning to capitalize on the increased price and demand for natural gas in the western, southern and eastern U.S. Natural gas demand is expected to continue increasing over the next decade mainly due to new construction of Merchant and Industrial Energy Producer (IEP) power plants and units throughout the country. Just a few years ago, natural gas lingered around $2 per 1,000 standard cubic feet and peaked last year above $8 per 1,000 standard cubic feet before settling into a $3 to $5 range. California has been the exception. Natural gas prices in the state peaked higher at $10 to $12 per 1,000 standard cubic feet.

According to Williams' 1999 & 2000 annual reports, the companies' total asset base has increased over the last two years by $22.5 billion with a $7.0 billion increase in Plant, Property & Equipment (PPE) alone. In short, Williams is in position for another round of PPE expansions in the near future.

Williams Gas Pipeline Company has over 15 major expansion projects on the horizon in various stages of development. "This project spending activity could total over $4 billion in assets and expand Williams' already daunting system by over 2,500 miles of pipeline, 6 billion standard cubic feet per day of transmission capacity and approximately 300,000 horsepower of compression. If completed, these projects will have various start up dates ranging from June 2002 to November 2003," as stated by Ed Weatherly, Transmission Group Manager with Industrialinfo.com.

According to Williams' financial reports, these projects when completed could greatly increase the company's pipeline mileage, which is presently at 29,300 miles of ownership interest and furthermore increase their 1,121% total shareholder return since 1991. Based on Department of Energy (DOE) statistics, these projects will put the Williams Companies in a fine position to take advantage of the predicted 4.4 percent increase in demand for natural gas in 2002 and 2.5 percent increase annually thereafter.

Established in 1983, Industrial Information Resources (Houston, Texas) in the year 2000 identified and reported 6,764 North American industrial projects worth an estimated $362 billion. Of the 6,764 projects identified, 537 projects worth an estimated $54.2 billion came from the Oil & Gas Transmission, Storage or Production Industries. IIR also maintains a comprehensive database of over 42,000 industrial process and manufacturing plants including over 1,300 natural gas compressor stations located in the U.S. and Canada.

For further information, visit us online at: http://www.industrialinfo.com or send inquiries to oil&[e-mail]