M&A

Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Marathon Petroleum | MarkWest Energy | NGLs | Pipelines

Marathon Hints MarkWest Merger Plan May Include NGLs to Gulf
September 11, 2015September 11, 2015

For years MarkWest Energy has been one of the most active midstream companies in the Marcellus/Utica region. MDN has often called MarkWest the premier midstream company in the northeast–with more pipelines and processing plants than any other company, except possibly the recently merged Williams/Access Midstream. Even though MarkWest has a huge portfolio of assets in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and continues to have a big and ambitious list of future projects, it wasn’t enough to stave off a takeover. Marathon Petroleum announced in July they are buying out MarkWest and adding it into their own operations (see Midstream Bombshell: MarkWest Sells Itself to Marathon Petroleum). It makes you wonder what the future holds for MarkWest and future midstream projects in the northeast. Wonder no more. Although he was light on specifics, Marathon Petroleum CEO Gary Heminger commented at an investors conference on Wednesday that the combined company is eyeing between $6-$9 billion of investment in new midstream projects…
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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Crestwood Midstream | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Eureka Midstream | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Summit Midstream

3 Potential Buyers Identified for Eureka Hunter Pipeline Deal
August 27, 2015August 27, 2015

Finally we know. In June Magnum Hunter Resources (MHR), majority owner of subsidiary pipeline company Eureka Hunter, said it was negotiating to sell all of its ownership of Eureka Hunter to an unnamed buyer for $600-$700 million (see Magnum Hunter Cuts Deal to Sell Eureka Hunter & 2 New JVs). Two weeks ago Magnum Hunter CEO Gary Evans continued to tease that the sale is imminent and will bring in around $550 million (see Magnum Hunter About to Close 2 Deals Worth $1 Billion Cash). Cash amounts and deadline dates seem to be “fluid,” shall we say, when it comes to MHR statements. We still haven’t heard who the potential buyer is. That is, until now. Bloomberg is reporting the potential buyer is…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Marathon Petroleum | MarkWest Energy

Federal Govt Approves Marathon Petroleum Buyout of MarkWest
August 26, 2015August 26, 2015

The proposed buyout of MarkWest Energy by Marathon Petroleum just took a giant step forward after the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Dept. of Justice last Friday signed off on the transaction by granting an “early termination” of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act (HSR Act). Such a notice means “you don’t have to wait the standard length of time for us to complete a review, we’ve completed it and we find nothing to object to.” Unitholders (the equivalent of stockholders) in MarkWest must still approve the buyout, but that doesn’t appear to be an issue…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Marathon Petroleum | MarkWest Energy

What Happened Behind the Curtains of the Marathon/MarkWest Deal?
August 20, 2015August 20, 2015

A couple of interesting tidbits have come to light regarding the impending buyout of MarkWest Energy by Marathon Petroleum, announced in July (see Midstream Bombshell: MarkWest Sells Itself to Marathon Petroleum). First interesting tidbit: As recently as February of this year, MarkWest rebuffed an informal offer from Marathon telling Marathon they prefer to be a standalone company. Then the continuing low price apocalypse deepened, changing everything. The second interesting tidbit: Two other companies were bidding to takeover MarkWest, starting in May. It appears that MarkWest didn’t want to be wedded to either of those companies and went running into the arms of Marathon instead…
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Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | M&A | Spectra Energy | Williams

More Suitors Line Up to Buy Williams – Spectra Energy Makes a Bid
August 19, 2015August 19, 2015

Early in the year, midstream giant Energy Transfer Equity began an attempt to woo another midstream giant Williams into a buyout. Williams resisted and the whole thing went public in June when ETE announced they would pursue a hostile takeover (see Energy Transfer Makes “Indecent Proposal” to Buy Williams for $48B). Williams has continued to spurn the overtures of ETE and has instead gone shopping for another suitor (see Williams Continues to Resist ET Offer, Talks with Other Suitors). We now know of one serious alternative suitor to ETE. Reuters published an exclusive, insider story revealing that Spectra Energy is now bidding to merge with/takeover Williams. Kinder Morgan is also interested and sniffing around, but at this point Spectra seems to be in the lead…
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Dominion Energy | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Iroquois Gas Transmission | M&A | Pipelines

Dominion Buys 26% of Iroquois Gas Transmission Pipeline
August 18, 2015August 18, 2015

Dominion has just purchased themselves a bigger seat at the Marcellus/Utica midstream (pipeline) table with the purchase of 26% of the Iroquois Gas Transmission System. The Iroquois, you may recall, is one of two pipelines that will connect to the Constitution Pipeline to be built by Williams starting later this year. The Constitution will flow 650 million cubic feet (MMcf) per day of Marcellus Shale gas mostly from Cabot Oil & Gas wells in Susquehanna County, PA. The 125-mile Constitution will run from PA into New York and connect with the Iroquois (and the Tennessee Gas Pipeline) in Schoharie County, NY. The Iroquois is a 416-mile interstate natural gas pipeline running from the U.S.-Canadian border at Waddington, NY, through NY and western Connecticut to its terminus in Commack, NY, and from Huntington to the Bronx, NY. The Iroquois supplies clean-burning natural gas to local distribution companies (LDCs) an electric power generators in New England and the greater New York City area. Increasingly the Iroquois is flowing Marcellus Shale gas. It is that pipeline that Dominion has just purchased a major piece of…
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Baker Hughes | Energy Services | Halliburton | Industrywide Issues | M&A

Update on Halliburton/Baker Hughes Wedding Plans
August 5, 2015August 5, 2015

Whatever happened to the Halliburton merger/buyout (i.e. shotgun wedding) with Baker Hughes? As we told you in July, the two “love birds” have set a December 1st wedding date (see Halliburton & Baker Hughes Announce a December Wedding Date). In the meantime there’s a lot to do: caterers have to be contracted, a DJ, wedding photographer–you know the drill. Oh! And let’s not forget the Dept. of Justice. They have to be consulted too. It appears that (so far) everything is on track with both the DOJ here at home, and with the European Commission overseas. Both groups have to grant their permission for the two companies to wed. There may be one slight wrinkle (last minute nerves?): Notice in the latest Halliburton update below that the two love birds may decide to push off the wedding date until early 2016–but only if absolutely necessary (they’re just so in love)…
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CNX Resources | CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | M&A

CONSOL’s #1 Stockholder Says Spin Off CNX Gas…or Sell It
July 22, 2015July 22, 2015

The plot thickens. Last week MDN was the first, and until now the only, source reporting on rumors that CONSOL Energy may sell it’s CNX Gas division (see Rumors Circulate that CONSOL May Sell Itself to Noble Energy). We were roundly criticized (privately) for our speculation and reportage of gossip heard round the water cooler–even though we made it clear it’s just rumor and speculation. We told you on Monday that rumors continue to persist (see CONSOL Energy/Noble Energy Rumors Continue to Swirl). Indeed, the rumors of a CNX sale DO continue to persist–but now it’s not just some obscure industry blog like MDN doing the speculating. Now it’s none other than CONSOL Energy’s #1 investor–corporate raider Mason Hawkins–the guy who owns 21% of CONSOL’s stock. Yes, the same Mason Hawkins who conspired with villainous corporate raider Carl Icahn to oust Aubrey McClendon from Chesapeake Energy and has since caused Chessy to sell off many of its assets. According to an SEC filing on July 20, Hawkins is actively talking to CONSOL and to potential buyers of the CNX Gas division. Hawkins is telling CONSOL to either spin off CNX Gas into its own company–or sell it…
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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Noble Energy

Noble Energy Completes Buyout of Rosetta Resources
July 21, 2015July 21, 2015

Noble Energy, the company that with a 50/50 joint venture with CONSOL Energy in some 663,350 acres of Marcellus and Utica Shale leases in the northeast and rumored to be interested in either taking over all of the acreage (becoming the company of record on the acreage and doing the drilling on that acreage) or possibly buying the gas division of CONSOL Energy, one of America’s oldest and biggest coal companies, just closed on buying out Rosetta Resources Inc. Noble purchased Rosetta for its Eagle Ford and Permian Basin acreage–over 100,000 acres total (located in Texas). Here’s the details of that purchase…
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Marathon Petroleum | MarkWest Energy

Marathon Outlines Strategy for Buying MarkWest in PPT Presentation
July 21, 2015July 21, 2015

Seemingly out of the blue, last week Marathon Petroleum’s midstream division, MPLX, announced they had reached an agreement with arguably THE premier Marcellus/Utica midstream company, MarkWest Energy, to buy out MarkWest and make it a division of MPLX–essentially a division of Marathon Petroleum (see Midstream Bombshell: MarkWest Sells Itself to Marathon Petroleum). We speculated at the time that MarkWest didn’t want to become a Williams–the target of a hostile takeover by someone they don’t want to own them. So MarkWest went and found a suitable suitor and sold themselves. Marathon has provided a bit more of their thinking about why they think MarkWest will make a great addition to MPLX and how it all works in the organization chart by issuing a useful PowerPoint presentation of “supplemental information.” We have that PowerPoint for you below…
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CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Noble Energy

CONSOL Energy/Noble Energy Rumors Continue to Swirl
July 20, 2015July 20, 2015

Following up on our CONSOL Energy/Noble Energy rumor from last Friday, MDN now has a second source that delivers a bit more information about the rumor–refining it for us. We told you on Friday that a persistent rumor among those working for or with CONSOL Energy is that Noble Energy is lining up to buy the gas division, CNX (see Rumors Circulate that CONSOL May Sell Itself to Noble Energy). A new source tells MDN that a complete buyout of CNX is not necessarily in the cards–but that Noble Energy is “taking over” the joint venture acreage the two currently hold in a 50/50 deal in the Marcellus/Utica…
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Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Carrizo Oil & Gas | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Equinor/Statoil | Exxon Mobil | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Range Resources Corp | Research | Rice Energy

Goldman: Cabot O&G, Range Resources Among Top Takeover Targets
July 20, 2015July 20, 2015

With all of this talk about CONSOL Energy and Noble Energy and mergers/acquisitions and workforce reductions, we came across an interesting story and analysis by SNL Financial summarizing a Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research report issued last Friday. The Goldman report evaluates 38 exploration and production (E&P) companies on their suitability and desirability as mergers and acquisitions candidates based on asset quality, potential upside returns to the buyer as oil and gas prices improve, and low break-even operations. That is, of all the E&Ps out there, which ones are most likely to be targeted for a takeover, and by whom? The surprising answer is that Cabot Oil & Gas and Range Resources, both huge Marcellus drillers, are among the takeover targets. And the super majors interested in doing the taking over? Exxon Mobil and Statoil…
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CONSOL Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | M&A | Noble Energy

Rumors Circulate that CONSOL May Sell Itself to Noble Energy
July 17, 2015July 17, 2015

MDN doesn’t do this (too) often, but we’re going to engage in a little Friday idle speculation. A tad bit of rumor mongering. So take this for what’s it worth. MDN has a contact in the Pittsburgh region that tells us that *all* of CONSOL Energy’s field engineers received an email at 3:30 am–this morning–requesting that they report to the center in Canonsburg, PA to discuss dismissal packages. Our contact says CONSOL’s plan is to lay down the rest of their active drilling rigs as soon as existing wells are completed and that they will not drill any new wells for the next 18 months. The really big bombshell is this: rumors are swirling that CONSOL’s CNX gas division is getting ready to sell itself to Noble Energy…
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Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Marathon Oil | Marathon Petroleum | MarkWest Energy | Pipelines | Processing Plants

Midstream Bombshell: MarkWest Sells Itself to Marathon Petroleum
July 14, 2015July 14, 2015

While all eyes have been on the possible hostile takeover of midstream giant Williams by another midstream giant, Energy Transfer Equity (see Williams Continues to Resist ET Offer, Talks with Other Suitors), another midstream (i.e. pipeline company) merger was quietly being arranged that has rocked the midstream world. Yesterday MarkWest Energy, with major operations in the Marcellus/Utica–MDN would call it the premier midstream company in the northeast–announced it is selling itself to Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s midstream division MPLX, a master limited partnership or MLP. The “merger” (i.e. sale of MarkWest to Marathon) will create the fourth largest MLP in the United States–worth $21 billion in market capitalization. MarkWest is twice the size of MPLX, which makes this an interesting story and truly big news for the Marcellus/Utica…
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Baker Hughes | Energy Services | Halliburton | Industrywide Issues | M&A

Halliburton & Baker Hughes Announce a December Wedding Date
July 13, 2015July 13, 2015

Whatever happened to the shotgun wedding between Halliburton and Baker Hughes–two of the largest oilfield services companies in the United States? After all, the boards for both companies approved the “blissful union” back in March (see Halliburton & Baker Hughes Vote to Approve Shotgun Wedding). What happened is, it’s complicated. Such large buyouts between competitors–when it removes competition from the marketplace–involve approvals from the federal government as well as from governments in other countries where the two companies operate. In the U.S. it is the Dept. of Justice that must approve the merger and the DOJ is a) taking it’s sweet time, and b) forcing Halliburton to sell off some of its assets before they will approve the merger (see Halliburton Shotgun Divorce – Forced to Sell Certain Divisions). In a brief update last week, Halliburton and Baker Hughes announced they’re still mired in getting approvals but hope to officially tie the knot on December 1st…
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Energy Services | Energy Transfer Partners | Industrywide Issues | M&A | Williams

Williams Continues to Resist ET Offer, Talks with Other Suitors
July 6, 2015July 6, 2015

An update on the potentially hostile takeover of Williams Companies by Energy Transfer Equity (see Energy Transfer Makes “Indecent Proposal” to Buy Williams for $48B). Williams is trying to get Energy Transfer CEO Kelcy Warren to sign a “standstill” clause before giving Warren access to Williams’ books. Such a clause would restrict Warren from buying shares of stock in Williams, lobbying investors and nominating his own candidates to the Williams board of directors–at least until a deal is cut. Warren is, so far, resisting and keeping up the pressure that he will move in a hostile manner to take over the company if they don’t cut a deal with him asap. This just in: Williams is now actively shopping itself and has “reached out” to more than 15 potential buyers, two of which have signed the standstill agreement and are, right now, poring over Williams’ books…
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