EQT’s Toby Rice Discusses Chevron Deal, Ponders Pipe Assets
Yesterday Pittsburgh Business Times‘ ace reporter Paul Gough got EQT CEO Toby Rice to open up and talk about the company’s recently announced deal to buy Chevron’s considerable Marcellus/Utica assets (see EQT Buys Chevron M-U Assets for $735M, Floats $350M in New Stock). Rice said the Chevron deal fits like a glove and investors will love it. He offered some insight into the bidding process and his thoughts on the pipeline assets that are part of the deal.
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EQT CEO Toby Rice has been positively chatty lately. He gave a great interview to the Pittsburgh Business Times revealing his thinking with respect to the recently announced Chevron deal (see today’s lead story). He also spoke to Bloomberg reporters. Rice shared his views on further consolidation in the M-U sector. He indicated EQT is still in the hunt for a deal with CNX and possibly other M-U drillers.
On Tuesday, Talen Energy Corp., under extreme litigation pressure from the odious Sierra Club, announced it will eliminate the use of coal at all of the company’s wholly-owned facilities. Back in 2017 MDN brought you the news that Talen’s coal-fired Brunner Island Power Plant, located in York County, PA, is investing $100 million to retrofit the plant so it can burn 100% Marcellus Shale gas by 2028 (see 
Epsilon Energy concentrates most of its effort on the Marcellus in Susquehanna County, PA. Epsilon doesn’t actually do any of its own drilling. The company partners with (gives money to) other companies, like Chesapeake Energy, and the other company does the drilling. Epsilon, according to its website, owns ~4,000 net acres in the PA Marcellus. They also own assets in Oklahoma’s Anadarko Basin. On Tuesday Epsilon issued its third-quarter 2020 update, showing a bump up in revenue to $5.8 million in 3Q20 (vs. $5.2 million in 3Q19).
Eureka Resources, which operates three frack wastewater treatment facilities in the Marcellus Shale, is doing really cool stuff. In October 2019 the company began extracting lithium from Marcellus wastewater at one of its plants in Bradford County, PA (see 
According to the president and CEO of BP Energy, one of BP’s largest North American subsidiaries, “Demand for gas to be liquefied and exported from the US has recovered beyond pre-pandemic levels to nearly its maximum capacity.” Whoa, who knew? We are far from being over and done with the COVID-19 pandemic, yet LNG demand is already back and has exceeded demand from before the pandemic. This is seriously good news for the Marcellus/Utica and the export of our molecules.
Our worst fears have been realized. The federal EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is about to be overrun with Communists and leftists. On Tuesday the Harris/Biden campaign, even though it hasn’t actually won anything yet, announced various people to head up its “transition” (i.e. power grab). Biden has selected the radicalized Patrice Simms from Earthjustice to head up the EPA transition. A COMPLETE disaster. You don’t get any more radical. Still glad you voted for Biden? We’re praying the courts will honor Trump’s request to count only legal ballots and that he remains in power.
MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: FirstEnergy’s top lawyer, chief ethics officer are out, acting CEO gets $150,000 pay raise; Pennsylvania has prepared itself to safely and successfully build pipeline infrastructure; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: Sue-happy Louisiana sends people, jobs, and investments fleeing; NATIONAL: December natural gas futures rally for second consecutive day as cooler forecasts hold; U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions fell in 2019, mainly in electric generation; US E&Ps to keep cost-cutting, cautious approach in 2021 amid COVID-19 concerns; Oil operators get DUCs in a row, adding fracking crews to boost output; Election 2020 – the energy voter strikes back; Shell to push Biden for carbon pricing, more methane emissions rules; The coming energy shocks under a Biden administration; Pipeline opposition, hurdles sharpen focus on existing assets: Energy Transfer; How one firm drove influence campaigns nationwide for Big Oil; INTERNATIONAL: New blow for US LNG in Europe as Irish court quashes Shannon LNG consents; Cleaning up LNG becomes a target of EU in blow to U.S. exporters; New LNG-fueled ships and LNG bunkering infrastructure coming online; India could be the next breakout natural gas market.