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Antero Midstream Picks Summit Midstream’s Final M-U Assets for $70M

Antero Midstream, a separate company from Antero Resources (at least on paper, although it is managed by the same people), issued a press release yesterday to announce it had purchased a bolt-on acquisition of gathering and compression assets in the Marcellus Shale for $70 million from Summit Midstream Partners. The assets acquired include two compressor stations and 48 miles of high-pressure gas-gathering pipelines located in West Virginia.
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Antero Midstream Wins $248M Lawsuit Against Veolia re WV Plant

Antero Midstream hired Veolia Water Technologies to build and operate a state-of-the-art frack wastewater recycling facility in Doddridge County, WV, which began operations in 2017 (see Antero’s $275M WV Wastewater Recycling Facility Ready to Launch). The Clearwater Treatment Facility can process up to 60,000 barrels of wastewater per day, separating water, salt, and radioactive particles. Less than two years after it began operation, Antero suddenly shuttered the plant (see Antero Idles WV Frack Wastewater Plant Launched 2 Years Ago). What we didn’t know until now is that a lawsuit ensued between Antero Midstream and Veolia over the shuttered plant.
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Antero Buying Crestwood’s WV Marcellus Gathering Pipeline System

Yesterday both Antero Midstream (the pipeline subsidiary of Antero Resources), and Crestwood Equity Partners announced a deal to sell Crestwood’s remaining Marcellus assets to Antero for $205 million. The assets include 72 miles of dry gas gathering pipelines and nine compressor stations with approximately 700 MMcf/d of compression capacity located in Doddridge County and Harrison County in West Virginia.
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2021 Midstream Outlook: Less Assoc Gas = Good News for M-U Pipe Cos.

Each year East Daley Capital publishes its Midstream Guidance Outlook which looks at themes and trends affecting the midstream (pipeline) sector in the coming year. The latest version of Daley’s report has just been released and draws some interesting conclusions about the midstream in 2021. Namely, associated gas growth in the Permian and elsewhere will go down and result in rising gas demand from the Marcellus/Utica and Haynesville gas plays. The big winners will be M-U pipeline companies, including Williams, Antero Midstream, and Equitrans (EQT Midstream).
Read More “2021 Midstream Outlook: Less Assoc Gas = Good News for M-U Pipe Cos.”

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Antero Resources Trims Another $150M Off 2020 Capex Budget

Antero Resources, one of the biggest (and best) Marcellus/Utica pure play drillers, is slicing another $150 million off its previously announced drilling budget, now reset at $1 billion for 2020. The news came via an investor presentation given at the Scotia Howard Weil energy conference on Tuesday.
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Antero Sheds MLP, Consolidates 2 Midstream Subsidiaries into One

Antero Resources, one of the biggest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica, is the latest in a string of companies to shed its master limited partnership (MLP) structure. Antero uses an MLP for two different pipeline subsidiaries. The company announced yesterday that one of the subsidiaries will buy out the other, and then convert the merged entity into a corporation. The move simplifies Antero’s midstream operations. Here’s the details.
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Antero’s $275M WV Wastewater Recycling Facility Ready to Launch

By our reckoning, Antero Resources’ $275 million wastewater recycling facility in Doddridge County, WV is either already operational, or will be within the next few days (sometime this week). In 2015 Antero hired Veolia Water Technologies Inc. to build a new shale wastewater recycling facility in Doddridge County (see Antero Building New 60K Bbl Wastewater Recycling Facility in WV). The facility, called the Clearwater Facility, will process 60,000 barrels of wastewater per day, separating water, salt and radioactive particles. The salt can be sold to municipalities for use as road salt–but frankly there’s not enough of a market to sell it all. And not all of it will be of sufficient quality to be sold that way. So Antero also spent $20 million to build a landfill next to the plant for the salt (see Update on Antero’s $275M Wastewater Facility in WV). According to the Clarksburg Exponent-Telegram, an Antero official recently said the Clearwater Facility is set to open in “the first part of November.” If you consider the first 15 days of the month the first part of the month, that leaves two days for the facility to be up and running. Hence our speculation it either already is open, or will be this week…
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Antero Taps Veolia to Handle TENORM Waste at WV Water Facility

In 2015 Antero Resources hired Veolia Water Technologies Inc. (subsidiary of France-based Veolia) to build a new shale wastewater recycling facility in Doddridge County, West Virginia (see Antero Building New 60K Bbl Wastewater Recycling Facility in WV). The new facility, which is slated to take two years to build and cost Antero $275 million, will process 60,000 barrels of wastewater per day. The facility is still under construction. The plant will separate water, salt and radioactive particles. The salt can be sold to municipalities for use as road salt–but frankly there’s not enough of a market to sell it all. And not all of it will be of sufficient quality to be sold that way. So Antero is also spending $20 million to build a landfill next to the plant (see Update on Antero’s $275M Wastewater Facility in WV). This week we also learned that Antero will spend another $70 million with Veolia–in addition to the $275M they’re paying Veolia to build the plant–paying Veolia $70M over 10 years to handle the “loading, packaging, transporting and proper disposal of water treatment sludge” the plant will produce. The sludge contains TENORM–technologically enhanced, naturally occurring radioactive materials. Veolia will ensure the TENORM sludge is carefully handled and properly disposed…
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Antero Looks to Expand Midstream Biz with $315M Unit Sale

Antero Resources is back in the market looking to raise more money for their Antero Midstream subsidiary. It was only April that Antero floated an initial public offering (IPO) for Antero Midstream with hopes of raising $930 million (see Antero Midstream Launches IPO – Hopes to Raise $930M). In early May, when the IPO was complete, the company said it had only raised $875 million–falling $55 million short of the mark (see the Reuters story: Antero Midstream GP raises $875 million in U.S. IPO). A little more than three months later and the company is back, floating 10 million units (think shares of stock) at a price of $31.45, hoping to raise $315 million. The announcement does not say what Antero plans to use for money for–but they do have a number of irons in the midstream fire. Lots of projects underway and planned. Our guess is that the money will be used to fund some of those initiatives…
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Antero Midstream Launches IPO – Hopes to Raise $930M

We should have known. Last week MDN brought you the news that former MarkWest chief John Mollenkopf has just joined the board at Antero Midstream (see Former MarkWest Chief John Mollenkopf Joins Board of Antero Midstream). Mollenkopf helped architect the December 2015 Marathon Petroleum buyout of MarkWest. After the buyout, Mollenkopf was named executive vice president and chief operating officer for the new MarkWest unit–the guy running it. In August 2016, Marathon announced that Mollenkopf would ride off into the sunset as a very rich man (i.e. retiring), and that Gregory Floerke would take the reigns (see Senior Management Change at Marathon’s MarkWest Subsidiary). Last week we noted that Mollenkopf had joined the board of Antero Midstream (see Former MarkWest Chief John Mollenkopf Joins Board of Antero Midstream). Which makes sense. In February, Antero formed a joint venture with MarkWest in West Virginia (see Antero Forms JV with MarkWest to Service Combined 360K WV Acres). Mollenkopf has uncanny timing–turning up when there are “significant liquidity events.” So we should have known that Antero Midstream was about to launch an initial public offering. Yesterday, Antero Midstream announced an IPO of 37.2 million shares of stock, hoping to raise more than $900 million…
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Former MarkWest Chief John Mollenkopf Joins Board of Antero Midstream

John Mollenkopf

In December of 2015, one of the biggest and brightest stars in the midstream firmament for the Marcellus/Utica, MarkWest Energy, sold itself to Marathon Petroleum (see MarkWest Energy Investors/Unitholders Approve Merger with Marathon). As we pointed out at the time, the sale lined the pockets of investors and MarkWest’s top management (see Golden Parachutes Pop Open for MarkWest Top Management/Board). Two of the people in top management who benefited were John Mollenkopf, who was named executive vice president and chief operating officer for the new MarkWest unit (essentially taking over running MarkWest) and Gregory Floerke, who was named executive vice president and chief commercial officer of the new MarkWest unit. In August 2016, Marathon announced that Mollenkopf would ride off into the sunset as a very rich man (i.e. retiring), and that Floerke would take the reigns (see Senior Management Change at Marathon’s MarkWest Subsidiary). Apparently Mollenkopf is tired of twiddling his thumbs and wants back in the game–at least part-time. He’s just ridden back from the sunset to join the board of Antero Midstream…
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Antero Forms JV with MarkWest to Service Combined 360K WV Acres

Marathon Petroleum subsidiary MarkWest Energy and Antero Resources’ midstream subsidiary Antero Midstream have announced a 50/50 joint venture focused on gathering and processing natural gas and natural gas liquids in northern West Virginia (Tyler, Wetzel and Richie counties). Antero Midstream will contribute its gathering operations for 195,000 acres in WV, boosting MarkWest’s total WV Marcellus gathering operation to a huge 360,000 acres. In addition, the JV will add three new processing plants to MarkWest’s Sherwood Complex in Doddridge County, WV. And get this: the JV contemplates building another eight (!) processing plants at Sherwood and a new/second location. Antero expects to invest “up to $800 million” through 2020, and has already made an initial $155 million investment. We think it’s no coincidence that on the same day Antero Midstream announced the deal (yesterday), they also announced a new round of units (i.e. shares of stock) they hope to pedal to raise $198 million. Here’s the details on the JV deal between Antero and MarkWest…
Read More “Antero Forms JV with MarkWest to Service Combined 360K WV Acres”