Williams Companies has completed the acquisition of MountainWest Pipelines Holding from Southwest Gas Holdings for an enterprise value of $1.5bn.
The divestment is part of Southwest Gas’ plan to simplify its portfolio of businesses. The deal follows a months-long battle with activist investor Carl Icahn.
MountainWest business includes approximately 2,000 miles of interstate natural gas pipeline systems primarily located across Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado.
These pipeline systems have a transmission capacity of approximately eight billion cubic feet (bcf) per day.
The natural gas transmission and storage business also owns 56bcf of total storage capacity, including the Clay basin underground storage reservoir.
Southwest Gas plans to use proceeds from the sale to repay its term loan of nearly $1.07bn.
Southwest Gas president and CEO Karen S Haller said: “This is a significant step toward returning Southwest Gas to its core regulated utility business of providing reliable, sustainable, and affordable energy to meet the expectations of customers and communities while continuing to maximise its growth potential.
