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PA Utility Giant UGI Fires CEO, Board Chairman Named Interim CEO

A press release issued yesterday by UGI Corporation, a diversified energy company with midstream (pipeline) operations in the Marcellus and one of PA’s largest utility companies, opens this way: “UGI Corporation announced today that Mario Longhi, incoming Chair of the Board of Directors, has been named interim Chief Executive Officer. Roger Perreault has stepped down as President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board, effective immediately.” What the press release doesn’t mention, but we discovered in a company filing with the SEC, is that “The Board treated Mr. Perreault’s departure from the Company as an involuntary termination other than a Termination for Cause.”
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UGI Signals Looking to Sell or Spin-Off AmeriGas Propane Subsidiary

UGI, a diversified energy company with midstream (pipeline) operations in the Marcellus and one of PA’s largest utility companies, is looking to sell or spin off its propane subsidiary into a new company. UGI’s propane subsidiary is AmeriGas, the nation’s largest retail propane marketer, serving nearly 1.3 million customers in all 50 states from approximately 1,400 locations. This is pretty big news in our book.
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UGI Plans to Build LNG Storage Facility in Cumberland County, PA

UGI, a diversified energy company with midstream (pipeline) operations and one of PA’s largest utility companies, is planning to build a second LNG peak shaver. The peak shaver will be located in Middlesex Township in Cumberland County, PA. In November 2020, UGI launched the operation of a new 2 million gallon LNG peak shaver in Bethlehem, PA (see UGI Energy Launches LNG Peak Shaver in Bethlehem, PA). The new peak shaver planned for Middlesex will hold 3 million gallons of LNG. What is a peak shaver?
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UGI NatGas Supplies Largest UPS CNG Station – Near Harrisburg

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Shipping giant UPS recently opened its fourth-largest U.S. distribution hub (a “superhub”) outside of Middletown, PA, in Lower Swatara Township (Dauphin County, near Harrisburg). It is UPS’s largest natural gas fueling station in the country, and it is fed by a pipeline built by UGI for that purpose. While the press announcement says the gas is “renewable natural gas” (RNG), there is no doubt the actual molecules feeding the plant come from the Marcellus.
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Panda Hummel Power Plant Loses FERC Appeal re UGI Sunbury Pipeline

Here’s a challenge to a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) pipeline certificate we don’t fully comprehend. In 2018 the Panda Hummel Marcellus-fired power plant in Snyder County, PA roared to life (see Marcellus-Fired Panda Hummel Electric Plant Roars to Life in PA). Panda Hummel is one of the largest coal-to-gas conversion projects in the country, constructing a large 1,124-megawatt Marcellus gas-fired electric plant on the site of a retired coal-fired plant near Shamokin Dam in Snyder County. The plant is fed by a 34.4-mile pipeline built and maintained by UGI, called the Sunbury Pipeline (see UGI Ready to Begin Flowing Gas via $150M Sunbury Pipeline in PA). The Sunbury Pipeline was permitted under and is overseen by FERC. Yet now Panda Hummel is trying to rescind FERC’s authority over the pipeline, seeking to get the pipeline’s certificate to operate revoked. Why?
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Stonehenge Still Active in PA Following Midstream Sale to UGI

A month ago MDN brought you the news that UGI Corporation, one of Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas utility companies, had cut a deal to buy the Stonehenge Appalachia Midstream natural gas gathering system in Butler County, PA, for $190 million (see UGI Buys Stonehenge’s Marcellus Midstream Assets for $190M). The Stonehenge system includes more than 47 miles of pipeline and associated compression assets, and has a gathering capacity of 130 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d). The Stonehenge-to-UGI transaction closed yesterday. However, there is a “rest of the story”…
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UGI Buys Stonehenge’s Marcellus Midstream Assets for $190M

Last September UGI Corporation, one of Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas utility companies, completed a deal to buy Mountaineer Gas Company, one of West Virginia’s largest natural gas utility companies, for $540 million (see PA’s UGI Finally Completes Purchase of WV’s Mountaineer Gas Co.). UGI is on the hunt again. This time UGI is buying the Stonehenge Appalachia Midstream natural gas gathering system in Butler County, PA, for $190 million.
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Marcellus Cos. Donate Over $100,000 to Nonprofits During Christmas

Major drillers and pipeline companies operating in the Pennsylvania Marcellus have, once again, stepped up to offer donations of money, toys, and coats during the 2021 Christmas season. Companies giving generously include Coterra Energy, CNX Resources, Diversified Energy, Energy Transfer, Equitrans Midstream, EQT, JKLM Energy, People’s Gas, Range Resources, Seneca Resources, Southwestern Energy, and UGI have given, collectively well over $100,000.
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Tioga County Landowners Win UGI Takings Case at PA Supreme Court

Back in June, MDN told you about a long-running lawsuit in Tioga County, PA by landowners who claim that UGI has taken their mineral rights as part of operating the Meeker Storage Field, an underground natural gas storage facility (see Tioga County Landowners Appeal UGI Takings Case to PA Supremes). The landowners lost the lawsuit in the Court of Common Pleas of Tioga County (trial court) in March 2019. The landowners appealed to Commonwealth Court and lost there too, in November 2020. The landowners appealed again, to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. On Monday, Nov. 29, the Supremes ruled in favor of the landowners. It pays to be persistent!
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UGI Sues Rockdale Investors Over “Brazen Scheme” to Break Pipe Contract

In September MDN broke the news that Rockdale Marcellus had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (see NEPA Driller Rockdale Marcellus Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy). In October Rockdale filed a lawsuit to break its pipeline contract with UGI (see Rockdale Bankruptcy Gets Messier – Sues UGI to Break Pipe Contract). Last Friday UGI fired back, filing its own lawsuit against Rockdale’s investors claiming their attempt to break the pipeline contract with UGI is a “brazen scheme” to acquire all the assets of Rockdale through a bankruptcy sale and either force UGI to grant them millions of dollars in concessions under the gathering agreement or, alternatively, eliminate the gathering agreement altogether so they can build their own pipeline.
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Rockdale Bankruptcy Gets Messier – Sues UGI to Break Pipe Contract

Yesterday we told you about a recent bankruptcy hearing for Pennsylvania shale driller Rockdale Marcellus, a hearing in which UGI Energy Services sought to gain access to details about Rockdale’s assets that are now up for sale (see Rockdale Marcellus Bankruptcy Hearing Erupts with Controversy). The controversy has grown. Rockdale filed a lawsuit to break its legally binding pipeline gathering contract with UGI, a pipeline system UGI spent over $80 million to build.
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Rockdale Marcellus Bankruptcy Hearing Erupts with Controversy

In September MDN broke the news that Rockdale Marcellus had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (see NEPA Driller Rockdale Marcellus Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy). The company, which owns and operates 66 producing wells on 42,897 net acres in three northeast PA counties (regional headquarters in Pittsburgh) plans to auction off all of its assets according to paperwork filed with the court. Yesterday the company attended a scheduled hearing with the judge in the case. The hearing got testy and heated.
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PA’s UGI Finally Completes Purchase of WV’s Mountaineer Gas Co.

In January MDN told you that UGI Corporation, one of Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas utility companies, wants to buy Mountaineer Gas Company, one of West Virginia’s largest natural gas utility companies, for $540 million (see PA’s UGI Corp. Deal to Buy WV’s Mountaineer Gas Company). UGI serves 700,000 customers across PA (and one county in Maryland). Mountaineer serves 215,000 customers across WV. Both companies are big buyers of Marcellus/Utica shale gas. Good news: The deal is now done and Mountaineer is officially a subsidiary of UGI.
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PA’s UGI Still Trying to Buy WV’s Mountaineer Gas Company

Back in January MDN told you that UGI Corporation, one of Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas utility companies, wants to buy Mountaineer Gas Company, one of West Virginia’s largest natural gas utility companies, for $540 million (see PA’s UGI Corp. Deal to Buy WV’s Mountaineer Gas Company). UGI serves 700,000 customers across PA (and one county in Maryland). Mountaineer serves 215,000 customers across WV. Both companies are big buyers of Marcellus/Utica shale gas.
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Tioga County Landowners Appeal UGI Takings Case to PA Supremes

Just coming to light for us now is a long-running lawsuit in Tioga County, PA by landowners who claim that UGI has taken their mineral rights as part of operating the Meeker Storage Field, an underground natural gas storage facility. The landowners lost the lawsuit in the Court of Common Pleas of Tioga County (trial court) in March 2019 (although the case began in 2016). The landowners appealed to Commonwealth Court and lost there too, in November 2020. The landowners appealed again, to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The Supremes have just accepted the case.
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PennEnergy Sells PA Pipe System to Energy Spectrum & UGI for $205M

Once you sort through all of the subsidiaries of subsidiaries of subsidiaries, you’ll find this news from a press release we spotted this morning: PennEnergy Resources has sold a gathering pipeline system in western Pennsylvania, called Pine Run Midstream, to a joint venture partnership between venture capital firm Energy Spectrum Partners (based in Texas) and utility/pipeline company UGI (based in Pennsylvania). Sale price: $205 million.
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