Two EQT Shareholders Sue Former Board, Executives re Rice Merger
Two EQT Corp. shareholders filed a lawsuit in Allegheny (PA) County Court earlier this week against former top EQT executives and former EQT board members (from 2017) alleging management and the board vastly exaggerated cost reductions and operating efficiencies that would result from a $6.7 billion takeover/merger of Rice Energy. The lawsuit says the former leaders of the company made false statements ahead of the merger, and now should pay.
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Northern Oil and Gas, Inc., a company that invests in non-operated oil and gas assets (they let others do the drilling), announced yesterday it has purchased 64,000 net acres producing ~120 MMcfe/d (million cubic feet equivalent per day) in the Marcellus/Utica from Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). The cash purchase price is $250 million.
Mansfield Energy Corp, with products and services that span fuels, natural gas, diesel exhaust fluid, data management, and price risk management tools, announced it is buying out and merging in eServices Energy Management, a natural gas marketing, logistics, and trading organization headquartered in Glen Allen, Virginia with a presence in Pittsburgh, PA and Houston, Texas. According to Mansfield, the deal expands the company’s reach to Marcellus and Utica shale producers.
Virtual pipeline company Xpress Natural Gas (XNG), which operates a major compression station/trucking facility not far from MDN headquarters, has agreed to sell itself to Basalt Infrastructure Partners, an investment firm located in London and New York City. The sale price was not disclosed.
Drillers and pipeline companies often need the services of environmental and engineering consultants as they plan their projects. There are a number of companies in this space operating in the Marcellus/Utica. Investment firm Round Table Capital (RTC) Partners recently purchased three companies and is merging them to create “a market leader in the Environmental Consulting and Engineering Services market.” RTC launched this new venture with the acquisition of Hull & Associates, LLC in July of 2020 (the foundation of their new “platform”) and has further expanded Hull with the acquisitions of Duffield Associates, LLC and HSW Consulting, LLC in December.
Yesterday CNX CEO Nick Deluliis was one of the keynote speakers at the annual DUG (Developing Unconventional Gas) East event, held virtually this year. Normally DUG is held at the Convention Center in Pittsburgh. Deluliis’ talk was wide-ranging, but much of it concentrated on mergers and acquisitions, particularly M&A in the Marcellus/Utica. Deluliis is not much interested in horizontal M&A for CNX, but he is intrigued by vertical M&A.
In June 2019 the Cambridge (Massachusetts) Retirement System sued EQT claiming EQT’s executives had made false and misleading statements about their 2017 purchase of Rice Energy–claims about cost efficiencies that never materialized, and claims about the location of Rice leases that were not as close to EQT’s acreage as claimed (see 
Yesterday Pittsburgh Business Times‘ ace reporter Paul Gough got EQT CEO Toby Rice to open up and talk about the company’s recently announced deal to buy Chevron’s considerable Marcellus/Utica assets (see 
After a shareholder vote scheduled for next Thursday, Nov. 12, Montage Resources will be no more. The company is selling itself to Southwestern Energy in an all-stock deal worth $857 million (see 
Southwestern Energy Company released its third-quarter 2020 update last Friday. The company previously announced it is buying out and merging in Marcellus/Utica driller Montage Resources. During the 3Q conference call, CEO Bill Way said the company expects to close on the deal immediately after Montage Resources shareholders vote on the deal November 12. Also from the 3Q update: Southwestern managed to reduce the cost of drilling for one of their PA Marcellus wells down to $491 per lateral foot!
Last week EQT Corporation announced a deal to buy Chevron’s considerable Marcellus/Utica assets (land and wells) for the lowball price of $735 million (see 
Bloomberg is reporting insider sources say EQT, already the biggest natural gas producer in the country (and pureplay driller in the Marcellus/Utica), has sent a takeover proposal to CNX Resources, another major Marcellus/Utica driller. Friendly? Hostile? Who knows. In September inside sources told Reuters that EQT had made a bid on Chevron’s extensive M-U acreage (see