Which M-U Drillers are Likely Next Targets for Acquisition?
M&A, or mergers & acquisitions, is on everyone’s mind in the oil and gas industry. Particularly in the Marcellus/Utica region. EQT, under the leadership of Toby Rice, already the largest natural gas producer in the country, has been on the prowl. In the past eight months EQT has picked up all of Chevron’s M-U assets (see EQT Buys Chevron M-U Assets for $735M, Floats $350M in New Stock) and most recently, EQT picked up all of Alta Resources’ M-U assets (see EQT Buys Alta Res. PA Assets for $2.9B in “Transformative” Deal). EQT is still in the hunt (see Even After Chevron, EQT Still in Hunt to Buy CNX, Other Producers). Who’s next on the list to get acquired? We have some possibilities.
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Pipeline giant Williams released its 1Q21 update on Monday, but it wasn’t until a conference call with analysts yesterday that CEO Alan Armstrong shared the big news that Williams has purchased Southern Company’s natural gas energy trading unit Sequent Energy Management for $50 million. The deal vastly expands Williams’ capability to market natural gas (i.e. find new customers).
American Energy Partners, Inc. (AEPT), based in Allentown, PA, is a small but diversified company. They have their fingers in a number of different oil and gas pies, including subsidies in drilling, remediation, water, valuation services, and education. AEPT announced a new deal today to purchase three conventional oil and gas operators with assets in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia for $10.8 million. The three operators (unnamed) come with a collective 467 conventional wells and 1,250 MMcfe/d of natural gas production.
Dan Rice IV, former CEO of Rice Energy and a board member of EQT Corp. (where his younger brother is now the CEO), is making a big bet–we’d call it a gamble–of $1 billion on so-called renewable natural gas, mainly from landfills. Rice’s “blank-check” acquisition firm, called Rice Acquisition Corp., is acquiring and merging together Archaea Energy ($347 million) and Aria Energy ($680 million) into a single company focused on providing renewable natural gas (RNG) and “green” hydrogen.
We don’t write much about Alta Resources, a shale drilling company co-founded by the inventor of shale fracking, George Mitchell. But that doesn’t mean Alta doesn’t drill in the Marcellus. In 2020 Alta was in the Top 10 PA drillers list (see 
Yesterday we brought you the news that LOLA Energy continues to transform itself with the purchase of what was EdgeMarc Energy’s shale assets in Butler County, PA (see 
LOLA Energy (LOLA stands for 
In early February, Northern Oil and Gas, Inc., a company that invests in non-operated oil and gas assets (they let others do the drilling), announced it had purchased 64,000 net acres producing ~120 MMcfe/d (million cubic feet equivalent per day) in the Marcellus/Utica from Reliance Industries Limited (see 
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.
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.