Unlike other diversified energy companies that believe in moving away from holding hard assets, <$iThe Williams Cos. > follows the opposite strategy, trying to balance high- and low-margin assets and short-term and long-term growth opportunities. "We are one of the most asset-intensive companies on the New York Stock Exchange," says Williams chairman and chief executive officer Keith Bailey, speaking to the Houston Producers Forum recently. "We invest $3 million per employee on tangible assets. We have concentrated on expanding our infrastructure and we believe the importance of that is more clearly understood by the government and the capital markets now." Since 1990 when the Tulsa-based diversified energy giant embarked on a new path, it has grown substantially. Then, it had only $4 billion in assets, but today following internal growth and some large acquisitions, Williams manages some $40.2 billion in assets. Revenues in 2000 reached $10 billion. Since 1995, the company's natural gas reserves have grown 500%. Its daily pipeline capacity has increased 1.7 billion cubic feet since 1999. Its energy-trading volume has grown 120% annually since its first full year of power trading in 1997. "We have aggressively used our balance sheet," said Bailey, "to acquire new assets and then build on them, expanding our geographic footprint and our capacity. Once you acquire them, it's just three yards and a cloud of dust-you work relentlessly to drive down costs." Earlier this year, the company won the bidding war against <$iShell Oil Co. > to acquire <$iBarrett Resources > of Denver. Now Williams boasts gas reserves of 3.3 trillion cubic feet and daily production of 560 million cubic feet, making it the 10th-largest gas producer in the U.S.

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