Williams Cos. Inc. (NYSE: WMB) sweetened a proposal to merge two pipeline partnerships it controls as the company expands its natural gas pipeline and processing network to handle booming North American output, Bloomberg said Oct. 27.

A revised agreement boosts the per-unit value to holders of Access Midstream Partners LP by about $1.02, the companies said in a joint statement Oct. 26. The agreement calls for 0.86672 Access units to be exchanged for each publicly held unit in Williams Partners LP. Williams had proposed an exchange of 0.85 Access units, plus 81 cents each to be paid by Access.

In June, Williams said it was seeking to acquire all of the partnership after buying control of it and half of its publicly traded units from Global Infrastructure Partners II for $6 billion. Williams has called a surge in domestic production and demand for new pipelines an “ongoing energy infrastructure super-cycle.”

“Creeping anxiety over the terms had been on the rise given commodity volatility of late,” Carl Kirst, a Houston-based analyst for BMO Capital Markets, said in a note to clients Oct. 27 referring to slumping oil and gas prices.

The deal will create a company with 2015 adjusted EBITDA of about $5 billion and should be completed in early 2015, according to the statement. Williams fell 1.4% to $52.50 at 9:48 a.m. in New York. Williams Partners gained 0.3%,and Access, 0.9%.

“This is another big step toward our goal of becoming the leading natural gas infrastructure provider in North America,” Alan Armstrong, CEO of Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams, said in the Oct. 26 statement.

UBS AG (NYSE: UBS), Barclays Plc (NYSE: BCS), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP advised Williams. Robert W. Baird & Co. and Baker Botts LLP advised the conflicts committee of Williams Partners. Evercore Partners Inc. (NYSE: EVR), Richards, Layton & Finger PA advised the Access conflicts committee, and Latham & Watkins LLP advised Access.