EQT Sued for Securities Fraud in Rice Merger Some 3+ Yrs Later
Two subsidiaries of Connecticut hedge fund Kensico Capital Management filed a lawsuit against EQT on December 28 alleging EQT committed securities fraud during its $6.7 billion acquisition and merger with Rice Energy in 2017. The suit was filed by Saxena White PA on behalf of Kensico Associates and Kensico Offshore Fund Master Ltd. Kensico is not the first large investor to sue EQT over the 2017 merger (see Judge Allows Class Action Against EQT/Rice 2017 Merger to Proceed). What does the Kensico lawsuit allege?
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After going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and winning, PennEast Pipeline, a 120-mile, primarily 36-inch pipeline that would have cost $1 billion to build and run from Dallas, Luzerne County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, and terminate at Transco’s pipeline interconnection near Pennington, Mercer County, New Jersey, threw in the towel last September (see
In June 2020 the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), published final rules to allow LNG (liquefied natural gas) to be safely transported by special rail cars (see
In September MDN told you about an announcement by American Energy Partners, Inc. (AEPT), based in Allentown, PA, to buy an unnamed “privately held energy services company” located in the Marcellus/Utica region (see
Once again we return to the topic of pipelines in the Marcellus/Utica. Specifically, lack of pipeline capacity to handle all of the production we could be making were it not for constraints. Those constraints are because of vicious, anti-American leftists who oppose new pipeline projects by abusing our own court system. The M-U is forecasted to hit production of 42 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) by 2025–and there it will stay because no new pipelines will get built or completed after 2023. We will be stunted.
Baby, it’s cold outside! At least here in the northeastern U.S. Cold temps in the northeast are causing an increase in the use of natural gas for both heating and electricity production. That increase in demand is (you guessed it) causing an increase in prices, and the increase in prices is causing some natural gas flows to reverse course and head north instead of south out of the Marcellus/Utica.
Economists are still analyzing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic from 2020, let alone assessing impacts from 2021. Cleveland State University researchers have run the numbers and have discovered something interesting. Of Ohio’s 88 counties, only 18 grew their economies in 2020. Of those 18, two counties stood head and shoulders above the rest for increases in economic activity. Both counties have something in common: Utica Shale drilling.
Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) had laid 31 miles of pipeline and had cut trees for 222 miles along the 600-mile route before Dominion Energy, the builder, decided in 2020 it no longer wants to be in the interstate pipeline business, canceling ACP (see
Energy Transfer’s (ET) Revolution Pipeline in southwestern Pennsylvania runs through Bulter, Beaver, Allegheny, and Washington counties. The 24-inch gathering pipeline shifted and exploded in September 2018, just as it was entering service (see
Some really good (and expected) news to report. The West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection (WV DEP) issued a key permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to finish work crossing rivers and streams in the Mountain State. MVP, a 303-mile pipeline from West Virginia into southern Virginia, is currently 94% built and in the ground. There are several portions left to complete it, including crossing rivers and streams in both Virginia and West Virginia. The permits needed to do so come from three sources: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Virginia Water Control Board, and WV DEP.
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, caved and cut a deal (see
In early December the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) agreed to allow Energy Transfer to change the way it will install the Mariner East 2 (ME2) pipeline in the Marsh Creek Lake area in Chester County, PA (see
In November 2020 the town of Weymouth, Massachusetts dropped a legal fight to block an Enbridge compressor station under construction in the town (see