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Will EQT Sell the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Crown Jewels?
Yesterday, EQT Corporation announced a deal to buy its former midstream division, now called Equitrans Midstream, for roughly $5.46 billion (see Stop Press! EQT Buying Equitrans Midstream in All-Stock Deal). Equitrans owns 1,200 miles of gathering pipelines (the main reason for the purchase) and another 940 miles of interstate pipelines. The crown jewels for Equitrans is the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which is due to be finished and online in the next few months. Would EQT sell off the crown jewels?
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On February 8, 2024, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a notice of violation (NOV) to Blackhill Energy for failing to prevent the migration of shale gas into groundwater that contaminated three nearby private water wells in Springfield Township (Bradford County) in June of 2022. Yes, the NOV took nearly two years to get issued. We’re not sure why it takes so long to issue an NOV (perhaps a full investigation takes that long?), but it does. Blackhill self-reported the issue back in 2022 and presumably has already corrected it.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan used a considerable amount of fossil energy and emitted tons of carbon dioxide to jet over to Dubai in December to participate in the COP28 confab, where he released a final rule that was “two years in the making” to force the U.S. oil and gas industry to cut methane emissions by using budget-busting new technologies and onerous (frequent) inspections (see 
NATIONAL: United States produces more crude oil than any country, ever; INTERNATIONAL: Shell gas and LNG veteran to leave the company; Visualizing natural gas reserves by country.
We’ll be darned. We’ve been writing the MDN blog/news site since 2009, and a LOT has happened over those years. One of the more noteworthy events was when so-called activist investors forced EQT Corporation to split itself into two companies, which ultimately became EQT Corporation and Equitrans Midstream in November 2018 (see 
In February, MDN brought readers the news that Tenaska, one of the largest privately operated companies in the U.S., is building a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) hub spanning tens of thousands of acres in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia (see 
Last week, the Baker Hughes rig count lost seven rigs after gaining three rigs the week before. The count went from 629 active rigs two weeks ago to 622 last week. The national count has consistently stayed between 620 and 625 (or one or two above or below that range) since last October until recently, when it went higher for a few weeks. But now it’s back in the same long-term range. The Marcellus/Utica remained the same last week with Pennsylvania at 24 rigs (the most since last June), Ohio with 12 rigs, and West Virginia with 8 rigs. The M-U combined is running 44 rigs, which it has run in four of the last five weeks.
Last year, University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) researchers released three studies commissioned by the State Dept. of Health supposedly investigating whether or not there is a connection between shale drilling and childhood diseases, including cancer (see 
There were 17 new permits issued to drill in the Marcellus/Utica during the week of Feb. 26 – Mar. 3, down 1 from 18 permits issued the prior week. Pennsylvania issued 8 new permits last week. Ohio issued 4 new permits. And West Virginia issued 5 new permits last week. Four companies tied for the top slot of receiving 3 permits each: Chesapeake Energy (Susquehanna County, PA), Seneca Resources (Tioga County, PA), Gulfport Energy (Harrison County, OH), and Antero Resources (Ritchie County, WV). Arsenal Resources received 2 permits (Taylor County, WV). Three companies received a single new permit: Laurel Mountain Energy (Butler County, PA), Campbell Oil & Gas (Westmoreland County, PA), and EOG Resources (Noble County, OH).
Ascent Resources, founded as American Energy Partners by gas legend Aubrey McClendon, is a privately held company focusing 100% on the Ohio Utica Shale. Ascent, headquartered in Oklahoma City, OK, is Ohio’s largest natural gas producer and the 8th largest natural gas producer in the U.S. The company issued its fourth quarter and full-year 2023 update yesterday. The update contains a statement by CEO Jeff Fisher that says we should look for a shift in the company’s strategy in 2024 for less gas production and more liquids production.
Last September, Dominion Energy and Enbridge co-announced that Dominion had agreed to sell the company’s remaining natural gas local distribution companies (LDCs) that Dominion owns to Enbridge for $14.0 billion, which includes $9.4 billion in cash plus the assumption of debt (see 
In 2019, the Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board waived a licensing requirement for a “temporary” LNG storage facility in Portsmouth to prevent another gas outage episode from happening again (see 
In January, we told you the State of Maine was actively considering a new law, L.D. 2077, that would prohibit natural gas companies from charging ratepayers for the construction and expansion of gas service mains and gas service lines beginning Feb. 1, 2025 (see