Dead as a Doornail: ETE Terminates Merger with Williams
As we previously reported, last Friday a Delaware court ruled that Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) has the right to terminate its merger agreement with Williams (see Court Says ETE Can Terminate Williams Merger; Williams Votes Today). But as we also said, at that time ETE had not officially announced they were terminating the merger. They now have. Yesterday ETE said they have filed the official paperwork to dump the merger/takeover of Williams. Williams is continuing to litigate to try and force ETE to do the deal by appealing the court’s decision (see Williams Shareholders Vote “For” ETE Merger; Appeal Court Ruling). This deal is as dead as a doornail and everyone knows it–including Williams. What’s going on is legal posturing so Williams can try and extract money from ETE over the now-abandoned takeover attempt. In some ways we don’t blame Williams–they resisted ETE’s overtures for nine months before caving and agreeing. Of course, Williams caved and agreed because there are evil corporate raiders on the board pressuring the company to do so. As we’ve maintained all along–no one comes out of this smelling pretty…
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Yesterday Eclipse Resources, a Marcellus/Utica pure play driller headquartered in State College, PA (but drilling mostly in Ohio) released a mid-year update on its drilling program. It’s good news, for a change! Earlier this year Eclipse said they would drill only one new well and that they were curtailing, or shutting in, production from some of their wells (see 
Three radicalized environmental groups–the Allegheny Defense Project, the Appalachian Mountain Advocates and Damascus Citizens for Sustainability–have filed a motion with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to challenge FERC’s approval of three tiny pipeline expansion projects in Pennsylvania. Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s 300 line is proposing to expand three different segments of the line, serving different customers, and rightfully asked FERC to consider the three projects as separate and to not commingle them together. The radicalized groups are insisting FERC evaluate all three bundled together, in an attempt to slow down and hopefully stop progress on the projects…
Maryland is a lot like New York–populated with lefty liberals who love to tell other people how to live their lives. Maryland is at least, and perhaps more, “progressive” than New York. So it’s no surprise to us to read how the Dem libs are having a cow over proposed regulations that would allow fracking to begin in the state starting in October 2017. Maryland went through a years-long process, just like New York, and eventually released what would likely be the strictest drilling regulations in the nation, in late 2014 (see 
If you watch the evening news, you cannot escape the story of devastating floods in West Virginia last week. The floods raged across several counties and killed at least 23 people. Very sad. It seems it is during our darkest hours and trials that sometimes the brightest light shines. A group of 21 Marcellus/Utica companies have stepped up and have donated a collective $350,000 to the Red Cross to aide in flood disaster relief. Put a gold star next to their names. Here’s the list of companies that stand out for doing the right thing…
The July 1st merger (buyout) of Columbia Pipeline Group by TransCanada barrels on. In March MDN reported that Canadian midstream giant TransCanada wants a bigger piece of the Marcellus/Utica pipeline pie and has decided to buy Columbia Pipeline Group for $10 billion (see 
The Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance (EEIA) is an association of associations. EEIA represents the shale energy supply chain. The groups that make up the EEIA represent more than 600,000 workers, employed in over 120,000 companies in 60 industries, annually contributing more than $170 billion to the U.S. economy, working in every state of the union. EEIA’s mission is “to mobilize and lead the supply chains voices to achieve policies at all levels of government that encourage full development of shale resources, while protecting the environment, health and safety; and to gain widespread public support for shale energy development.” So it is welcomed news that the EEIA has formed a special group called the Pipeline Support Network. The purpose of the group is to counter opposition from Big Green groups that are trying to stop pipeline projects. We sincerely hope the EEIA is effective!…
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Ohio has 10 Utica rigs working; Wolf won’t endorse PA House budget plan, wants more tax revenue; skilled labor needed for cracker plants; new CNG station in Pittsburgh; court rejects Sierra Club case against LNG exports; Chesapeake’s dilemma; the economics of a new gas pipeline; and more!