Williams Partners (WPZ)

[Timothy Smith]

Williams Partners (WPZ +7.8%) enjoys strong gains, as growing volumes of fuel and new pipelines sparked solid Q3 results despite shut-in production and weak fuel prices.

WPZ says EBITDA grew to $1.1B at the end of Q3, compared to $907M in the same period last year, as several new pipelines and processing facilities began operating, boosting both the amount of fuels Williams handled and the fees it received.

WPZ reported $754M in Q3 distributable cash flow, vs. $367M at the same time in 2014, which means the company can pay its dividend of $0.85/unit and still have money left over, a positive change for investors from the year-ago quarter when income covered only about two-thirds of the dividend.

WPZ says it brought online the Virginia Southside lateral, a branch of the Transco line that connects to the Atlantic region, during Q3, and  was able to pull early revenues from Lediy Southeast, another Transco expansion, although the full project has not yet come online.