While all eyes have been on the possible hostile takeover of midstream giant Williams by another midstream giant, Energy Transfer Equity (see Williams Continues to Resist ET Offer, Talks with Other Suitors), another midstream (i.e. pipeline company) merger was quietly being arranged that has rocked the midstream world. Yesterday MarkWest Energy, with major operations in the Marcellus/Utica–MDN would call it the premier midstream company in the northeast–announced it is selling itself to Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s midstream division MPLX, a master limited partnership or MLP. The “merger” (i.e. sale of MarkWest to Marathon) will create the fourth largest MLP in the United States–worth $21 billion in market capitalization. MarkWest is twice the size of MPLX, which makes this an interesting story and truly big news for the Marcellus/Utica…
