Williams Energy Ventures

Fuel for the Future

Nestled in a cornfield, Williams Energy Ventures' ethanol plant at Aurora, Nebraska, went into service in November 1995. Ethanol, made from corn, is shipped by rail from the plant.

Williams Energy Ventures develops and operates non-regulated fuels-based businesses. It is the second largest producer and marketer of ethanol in the United States. This company's financial results are included on the Williams Pipe Line page.

Clear-burning fuels are important. That is why Williams Energy Ventures is committed to producing and marketing a domestically renewable fuel that is safer for the environment and wiser for the nation. Our ethanol plants at Pekin, Illinois, and Aurora, Nebraska, flank the Williams Pipe Line system, where ethanol is the gasoline blending agent of choice.

Key Points

• We performed in line with expectations, essentially breaking even in our startup year despite record high corn prices and unusually low ethanol prices.
• Acquired Pekin Energy Company, a 100-million-gallon-per-year ethanol plant in Pekin, Ill., for $167 million. We will invest $5 million in 1996 to expand its industrial-grade ethanol production to 35 million gallons per year from 7 million gallons.
• Built an ethanol plant, which came on line in fourth-quarter 1995, in Aurora, Neb. We own a two-thirds interest in and operate the 30-million-gallon facility. The Pekin and Aurora facilities strategically flank the Williams Pipe Line system, which blends ethanol into gasoline at 20 terminals in nine states.
• Acquired a liquid fuels truck-loading terminal in Phoenix, Ariz., and formed a joint venture to operate it and a similar terminal nearby. We will upgrade these facilities and expand their services in 1996 to serve this rapidly growing market.
• Provisions that would have prevented our company and others from taking advantage of the existing federal ethanol tax exemption were excluded from current legislation.
• High operating efficiencies at our Illinois and Nebraska ethanol plants should assure reasonable operating profit even in the face of record high corn prices and low ethanol prices. We expect federal farm programs in 1996 to begin encouraging greater corn production, which should help return corn prices to more traditional levels and thus improve our ethanol profitability.
• Ethanol production and marketing, our primary business, should improve substantially in 1996 - our first full year of operation. We will expand production and capitalize on opportunities in that arena, while evaluating and taking advantage of other fuel-based opportunities.