Summit Midstream Merges with Itself; Bob McNally Joins Board
Summit Midstream Partners, formed in 2009 and headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, operates natural gas, crude oil and produced water gathering (pipeline) systems in six unconventional resource basins, including the Marcellus and Utica. The company concentrates its time and money on four “core focus areas” including the Utica, the Williston (i.e. Bakken), the DJ Basin, and the Permian. The company announced yesterday it has completed the buyout of a subsidiary and merged it in. Hidden in the bowels of the press release we discovered Bob McNally, former (ousted) CEO of EQT Corporation, has joined the board of directors at Summit.
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LNG Limited (LNGL), based in Australia, has been working on a couple of North American LNG export projects over the past half-decade or more. One of them, Magnolia LNG, is located in Louisiana will potentially export M-U molecules. Magnolia has all of its permits and is ready to build–if someone has the money to build it. It won’t be LNGL. The company recently imploded and ended up in the hands of a bankruptcy administrator who is now selling off the assets.
LNG Limited (LNGL), based in Australia, has been working on a couple of North American LNG export projects over the past half-decade or more. One of them, called Bear Head, would be built in Nova Scotia, Canada and (potentially) export Marcellus/Utica molecules. The other, Magnolia LNG, would be located in Louisiana and yes, potentially export M-U molecules as well. LNGL was in the process of selling itself and its LNG projects to Singapore investor LNG9 PTE for $75 million. LNG9 has just canceled the deal, leaving the future both the Bear Head and Magnolia projects in question.
Reuters is reporting a disturbing allegation that Big Banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citigroup, are each in the process of setting up shell companies that can own shale oil and gas assets. Why? Because of a coming wave of bankruptcies. The banks, with big loans to a number of oil companies, plan to take ownership of the companies or their assets (foreclosure) as repayment of the loans owed. In other words, Big Banks are planning to get into the oil and gas business as a form of self-defense, so they don’t take a bath on the value of the assets they’ve helped underwrite.
The gloves are off. Today we’re calling out the American Petroleum Institute and the Big Oil supermajors that control the API for their selfishness and shortsightedness. Apparently the supermajors have long wanted American shale and the plethora of smaller independents to just go away–so they (Big Oil) could once again control the world market for oil. The result of that philosophy, whether intentional or not, will be to allow foreign countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia to buy up OUR American shale companies, for themselves (see U.S. in Danger of Losing Our Shale Oil Industry to Other Countries). The API hides under the covering of “don’t interfere in free markets” in advising President Trump to not do anything to help American shale. That’s bunkum.
America is in danger of losing ownership of our shale oil companies to bad actors including Saudi Arabia, Russia and other foreign countries. Those countries are actively, aggressively, purposely waging a price war against us, trying to drive American shale companies into bankruptcy. Why? So they can turn around and buy up our companies and once again control the world market for oil. It is a *hostile* action. President Trump, please don’t let it happen!
In 2015 Kelsy Warren and his Energy Transfer Equity (now just Energy Transfer) company pursued Williams, wanting to merge Williams into its own operation. Williams initially fought ET tooth and nail, but in the end, cut a deal (see 
Powerhouse consulting firm Deloitte released its “2020 Oil and Gas M&A Outlook” report yesterday (full copy below). In something of a surprise (for us), the experts at Deloitte found that the number of mergers and acquisitions in the oil and gas space went DOWN in 2019, although the value of the deals was up (due to big deals like Occidental’s $55 billion buyout of Anadarko). What’s ahead in 2020? More of the same, according to Deloitte. Wait–aren’t drillers dropping like flies, not able to turn a profit so they’re selling and merging? No, not really.
Corning Natural Gas (based in Corning, NY) has a 50% joint venture partnership in Leatherstocking Gas Company and Leatherstocking Pipeline Company with another Upstate NY-based company, Mirabito. Leatherstocking runs gas mains to residents and businesses in small, mainly rural communities–like Montrose, PA (see 
Empire Pipeline LLC, based in New Orleans, Louisiana, NOT to be confused with the National Fuel Gas Company subsidiary Empire Pipeline (in NY and PA), has purchased “an operational and financial interest” in TROO Clean Environmental LLC, based in Belmont County, Ohio. TROO provides recycling of Marcellus/Utica frack wastewater.