Darth Vader Sells New England Pipe Carrying M-U Gas to Blackstone
Remember when “the evil BlackRock” (MDN’s words) bought the Portland Natural Gas Transmission System (PNGTS) back in 2024 (see Darth Vader (BlackRock) Buying New England Pipeline for $1.14B)? Darth Vader is cashing out. On Nov. 10, Blackstone Infrastructure said its funds signed a deal to buy PNGTS from funds run by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP, now part of BlackRock) and Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners. Nobody is saying what Blackstone is paying. Why should Marcellus/Utica folks care about a pipeline in Maine? Because Blackstone’s own press release says PNGTS carries gas from “Canadian and Appalachian supply basins.” Yes, some of our molecules ride this pipe. They just go the long way around, through Canada. Read More “Darth Vader Sells New England Pipe Carrying M-U Gas to Blackstone”
Remember back in May 2025 when NRG Energy agreed to buy 18 natural gas-fired power plants (13 GW) from LS Power for about $12 billion, including five plants in Pennsylvania (see 
When EQT announced on Oct. 26 that it would buy Range Resources (see 
Back in May, we told you that FTAI Infrastructure agreed to sell Long Ridge Energy & Power, the 505-megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired power plant and 1,600-acre former Ormet aluminum smelter site in Hannibal (Monroe County), Ohio, to bitcoin miner-turned-AI data center developer MARA Holdings for $1.52 billion (see 
Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR) just released its quarterly scorecard on oil and gas mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and the Marcellus/Utica is all over it. U.S. upstream deals (buying and selling wells, acreage, and whole drilling companies) totaled $12.6 billion in the third quarter, and October added another $18 billion, led by EQT’s $13.8 billion takeover of Range Resources. That pushes 2026’s total to $80.5 billion, and the year still has two months to go. That’s already more than all of 2025. The part that should get our readers’ attention is Enverus’s prediction that the Utica is the most likely place for the next big gas merger. 
Back in January, we told you that Vistra Corp. had agreed to buy Cogentrix Energy and its 10 natural gas-fired power plants from private equity firm Quantum Capital Group for about $4 billion (see 
On Monday, we brought you the news that EQT Corporation is swallowing Range Resources in an all-stock deal that values Range at roughly $12.8 billion and creates a combined company worth more than $50 billion, including debt (see 
Twenty-two years ago today, Range Resources’ Renz #1 well in Washington County, PA, unlocked the Marcellus Shale and kicked off the shale revolution here in the Northeast. This morning, on that very anniversary, Range agreed to sell itself to EQT Corporation in an all-stock deal that creates the largest natural gas producer in the country, period. MDN has been writing about the Marcellus/Utica since Jan. 2009, and we can’t think of a bigger piece of news to hit the region. The company that started it all is being folded into the company that turned it into an industrial powerhouse. Below we give you the deal numbers, then the best stuff from this morning’s 8 a.m. conference call with analysts—including what this means (for now) for landowners and the midstream. 
NextEra Energy, the largest electric power company in North America (and parent of Florida Power & Light), reported third-quarter 2026 results yesterday. Adjusted earnings came in at $2.592 billion ($1.24 per share), up 9.7% per share from a year ago. But the real news came during the Q&A with Wall Street analysts. Just two days earlier, Virginia regulators’ own staff recommended denying NextEra’s $67 billion takeover of Dominion Energy as proposed—and Gov. Abigail Spanberger demanded a six-year rate freeze. NextEra CEO John Ketchum didn’t blink, saying he looks forward to “prosecuting this case.” Meanwhile, NextEra keeps going deeper into natural gas: more than 18 gigawatts (GW) of its 20+ GW of data center power projects are gas-fired, including a giant gas plant in Fayette County, PA. And NextEra has spent more than $1 billion this year buying into shale wells. Not bad for a company that once said it was getting out of gas! 
So much for the charm offensive. Five weeks after NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy sweetened their $67 billion merger with bigger bill credits, 1,000 new jobs and a shiny new Richmond office tower (see 
Infinity Natural Resources, the Morgantown, WV-based driller that bought Antero Resources’ Ohio Utica assets for $1.2 billion earlier this year, isn’t done shopping. CEO Zack Arnold told Hart Energy at its SUPER DUG conference in Houston in September that Infinity is “actively looking for the next opportunity.” Arnold also dropped a few other nuggets worth your attention: Infinity has drilled its first deep dry gas Utica well in a Pennsylvania field that has only ever produced from the Marcellus; a “couple” of unnamed operators are starting to develop the Marcellus in eastern Ohio; and newly available state and federal lands in Ohio are a fresh source of drilling locations. 
Here’s a story you won’t read anywhere else. Strata Petroleum, LLC buys oil and gas mineral rights, and it has quietly sold its mineral interests in 116 producing Ohio Utica wells to Dallas-based Rising Phoenix Royalties. The deal closed effective October 5. Strata managing partner Justin Wainwright reached out to MDN with the news. He won’t disclose the exact price, but he told us it was “well into 7 figures.” The wells are operated by two of the biggest names in the Ohio Utica, EOG Resources and Ascent Resources, and they’re spread across six of the play’s core counties. Strata says it isn’t leaving the region. It plans to keep buying minerals across Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. 
One shoe has dropped. Yesterday (Oct. 8), Devon Energy announced it is selling its entire Eagle Ford position in South Texas to Houston-based Crescent Energy for $4.2 billion in cash. It’s Devon’s first big asset sale since it swallowed Coterra Energy in May. It’s also not the sale most of us expected a few months ago. The old Cabot Oil & Gas Marcellus position in Susquehanna County, which Devon now owns, stays put. For now. The question we keep hearing from Northeast PA landowners: Is the Marcellus next? Below we read the tea leaves.