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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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…
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 
Yesterday 63% of Williams Companies shareholders voted in favor of a merger with Energy Transfer Equity at a specially called meeting at Williams’ HQ in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Specifically, they voted to approve the merger and receive their proceeds in all cash, thank you very much. Not that it makes a hill of beans worth of difference–because the deal is dead. Last Friday ETE won the right to walk away from the deal not owing Williams anything (see 
There was lots of cracker talk at the first Northeast U.S. & Canada Petrochemical Construction Conference & Exhibition in Pittsburgh yesterday. According to NGI’s ace reporter for Shale Daily, Jamison Cocklin, excitement over the Shell cracker announcement from a few weeks ago was “palpable” at yesterday’s event. There was plenty of talk about the Shell cracker–but the talk coming from the event that interests MDN is talk about both the PTT Global Chemical cracker planned for Ohio, AND the Braskem cracker planned for West Virginia. These other two world class cracker plants (similar in size and scope to Shell’s project) “remain on track.” Now that is news!…
It’s time to sue the nutjobs at the Sierra Club out of existence. The “non-profit” so-called environmental organization is a menace to all Americans. It’s a vipers nest of lawyers who exist solely to line their own pockets. The way they do it is to file lawsuits and “petitions” by the dump truck-load (generating work for lawyers). One of the projects they’re trying to stop is the much-needed Dominion Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a 550-mile, $5 billion project that will run from West Virginia into Virginia and on into North Carolina–benefiting the residents of all three states (see 
Apparently it’s just fine with the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) if a French company, like Technip, wants to buy an American company, like FMC Technologies. The DOJ and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have just given the green light for the two to merge to create a new $13 billion oilfield services company (see 
An update on Spectra Energy’s Texas Eastern Transmission’s (TETCO) “Delmont Line 27” which exploded in Westmoreland County, PA on April 29 (see 
In February, a Philadelphia judge for the Court of Common Pleas (low-level court in PA) ruled in favor of the anti-drilling Clean Air Council against Sunoco Logistics Partners and their Mariner East 2 pipeline (see 
Two major pipeline projects have just received a big red light from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), pending changes to their plans. Energy Transfer’s Rover pipeline, a $3.7 billion, 711-mile Marcellus/Utica natural gas pipeline that will run from PA, WV and eastern OH through OH into Michigan and eventually into Canada, along with Columbia Pipeline’s Leach XPress, running from Marshall County, WV through Ohio to Leach, KY, got word from FERC that a small section where the pipelines cross must be reworked or it’s a “no go” for both projects…