EQT Urged by Major Investor to Merge with Either Range or Antero
A kerfuffle erupted yesterday when Chapter IV Investors, a Charlotte, NC-based investment firm with investments in EQT, Range Resources and Antero Resources, announced it had sent a letter to EQT urging the company to consider merging with either Range Resources or Antero Resources. Chapter IV, which is essentially two big-money investors (W. Barnes Hauptfuhrer, Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager, and Ryan J. Jack, Partner), does not own enough stock in any of the companies (less than 1% in each) to throw its weight around like a corporate raider. Rather, it appears to be two investors attempting to grab the attention of these companies and their shareholders by issuing a press release (full copy below) with a plan they say would create a new Marcellus/Utica driller worth more than $25 billion. Obviously the value of investments for Chapter IV would go up under such a scenario–so there is self-interest at work here. However, we don’t detect any kind of bullying on the part of Chapter IV, like that of a raider Carl Icahn (successful takeover of Chesapeake Energy & Cheniere Energy) or Keith “Mini-Me” Meister (unsuccessful attempt to takeover Williams). Rather, it appears to be a couple of investors who believe there is an honest and good case for a combination of EQT with another company, and were willing to spend $500 on a press release to make their case. Are they right?…
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Two members of Eclipse Resources’ top management team are playing musical chairs as part of the company’s plan to “accelerate growth” in 2017. Tom Liberatore, currently executive VP and COO is dropping the COO title and becoming executive VP of corporate development and geosciences. Meanwhile, Oleg Tolmachev, currently senior VP of drilling and completions is becoming executive VP and COO. Tolmachev’s star is clearly rising and he is now the man running the Utica/Marcellus drilling program for the company. In the same press release, the company said it has now completed and brought online five Utica wells in Monroe County, OH. The wells are the first dry gas Utica wells to use Eclipse’s new “Gen-3” completion design. What is Gen-3? And what does the musical chairs at Eclipse have to do with Gen-3?…
On Dec. 31, 2011, the Youngstown, OH area experienced a 4.0 earthquake that was later determined to be caused by a wastewater injection well (see 
In April 2015 the Obama administration’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) did a disservice to not only the drilling industry, but the wind industry, farmers and the construction industry. USFWS listed the northern long-eared bat as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (see 
As we reported in December, Ohio legislators sent Gov. John “foreigner hunter” Kasich a bill at the end of the year with provisions that clear up language regarding tax exemptions for the oil and gas industry (see 
Is it April Fool’s Day? Wait, no, it’s January 4th, not April 1st. But honestly, we thought it must be a joke to read that scientists doing “research” claim that living close to a fracking site will make you sick. Not from air pollution. Not from water pollution. But from noise pollution. Yep, loud noises nearby cause things like “stress” and “annoyance” and even diabetes (!) according to Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSEHE) and Michael McCawley, the interim chair of the Occupational and Environmental Health Department at West Virginia University. The study, titled “Public health implications of environmental noise associated with unconventional oil and gas development,” goes for the jugular–making a case for stricter regulations and larger setbacks (i.e. less drilling). Yet, the researchers don’t do any of their own in-the-field research! They rely on out-of-date research done by others. And they show no causal link between health impacts and shale drilling in the “study”…
In August 2015, MDN told you about a lawsuit brought by a group of left coast radicalized children who want to force the federal government to become communist and “force action” on mythical climate change (see 
A new study by researchers at the University of Chicago, Princeton University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) finds that the benefits of fracking outweigh the costs. You read that right. Three big lefty schools have released a study saying fracking benefits everyone. “The Local Economic and Welfare Consequences of Hydraulic Fracturing” (full copy below) looked at nine different shale basins. The authors say fracking activity yields $1,300 to $1,900 per year on average to each household in those basins. That’s a $64 billion yearly benefit–from fracking. So says the libs. Fracking benefits include, “a 7 percent increase in average income, driven by rises in wages and royalty payments, a 10 percent increase in employment, and a 6 percent increase in housing prices.” It is the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: NEXUS Pipeline route stays same in Wayne County; Muskingum U o&g program meets critical need; Atlantic Coast Pipe a huge win for WV; nagas prices drop like a rock in the forward market; natgas poised for “bigger things” in 2017; 5 biggest o&g acquisitions of 2016; new value add tech line for Carbo Ceramics; Basic Energy stock begins trading on NYSE again; Williams thesis for 2017; and more!