Ever hear the old saying, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush?” That seems to be the philosophy for EQT Corporation with respect to the compensation it will receive from Equitrans Midstream’s Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. Newer readers may not know this, but back in 2018 EQT spun off its pipeline division into a brand new, standalone company, renamed Equitrans Midstream (see It’s Here! EQT Midstream Division Now Split into Standalone Co.). So-called activist investors pressured EQT to split the company in two to “unlock value” in each company–the upstream/drilling company now called EQT, and the midstream/pipeline company now called Equitrans. As part of the split, EQT and Equitrans hammered out a deal to compensate EQT for the value that the previously jointly-owned MVP project will (when up and running) provide. EQT could either (a) take $250 million in discounts from MVP for transporting its natural gas over a two-year period, or (b) take a one-time cash payment of $196 million. EQT just selected option B.
Ever hear the old saying, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush?” That seems to be the philosophy for EQT Corporation with respect to the compensation it will receive from Equitrans Midstream’s Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project. Newer readers may not know this, but back in 2018 EQT spun off its pipeline division into a brand new, standalone company, renamed Equitrans Midstream (see 