Scalding Letter to EQT by Big Investor: Replace Top Mgmt Now
On Monday we told you about a letter written by investment firm D.E. Shaw, one of EQT’s largest shareholders (owns 4.5% of outstanding shares), to the EQT board (see WSJ Says EQT is “Failing”, DE Shaw Says EQT Mgmt “Not Up to Task”). At the time we hadn’t see a full copy of the letter–but we have now (copy below). The letter minces no words.
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This news is a bit dated, but still interesting and is new for us: Last October a group of landowners in Tioga County, NY filed a lawsuit to force the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to quit dragging its feet and set a date to consider the groups application to allow LPG (liquefied petroleum gas, i.e. propane) fracking for a shale well.
Three years ago lawsuits filed by some 200 West Virginia residents against Antero Resources were combined into a class action lawsuit (see
There are companies that will purchase landowners’ (rights owners) royalty payments–giving them a lump sum payment up front in return for signing over all future royalty payments to the company buying the rights. Peregrine Energy Partners is one such company and has just purchased an unspecified amount of royalty payments in Greene County, PA.

MARCELLUS/UTICA REGION: Supreme Court may consider challenge to MVP, Natural Gas Act; Gov. Tom Wolf comes out as Pennsylvania’s ‘Encourager-in-Chief’ in inaugural address; OTHER U.S. REGIONS: U.S. ethane company with Russian ties set to break into Chinese market from Texas; NATIONAL: EIA’s 2019 Henry Hub price forecast slips to $2.89; little relief seen in 2020; U.S. natgas output, demand seen rising to record highs in 2019; Williams Companies targets LNG upside via Transco expansions; Ex-Halliburton chairman Dave Lesar to start new oil-services company; INTERNATIONAL: Reports of OPEC’s demise have been greatly exaggerated; Yellow Vest protests in France, Canada.
Each week the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) Oil & Gas Resources division publishes the latest list of permits issued to drillers in the Utica (and/or the Marcellus) for the Buckeye State. Each month the same department issues updated maps for both the Utica and the Marcellus to show where drilling is (and by omission, is not) happening. We have the latest maps below.
The mystery is now solved. Last week we incorrectly (based on a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article) reported that FirstEnergy wants to drill a well under (not on) Linbrook Park, located in the Borough of Franklin Park in Allegheny County (
According to RBN Energy, “U.S. production of natural gas liquids is projected to increase by 17% this year, and by another 10% in 2020.” NGLs cover a variety of hydrocarbons. Two NGLs, propane and butane, are further classified as LPG–or liquefied petroleum gas. Of the four “smaller” LPG export facilities here in the U.S., two-thirds of all exported LPGs last year came from one–Energy Transfer’s Marcus Hook refinery near Philadelphia.
We’ve been tracking a story since November about a new, smallish (but very important) LNG export plant coming to Bradford County, PA, to Wyalusing (see
At the beginning of each new year the West Virginia legislature fires up its annual 60-day session. WV legislators are part-time and only meet for two months out of the year. (How we wish that were the case here in NY!) For a number of years running, the oil and gas industry’s legislative agenda has pushed certain new bills. This year is different.
Last June Diversified Gas & Oil burst on the Marcellus/Utica scene when they bought 2.5 million acres of leases with 11,350 mostly conventional gas (and oil) wells in Appalachia from EQT (see
Our friend Tom Shepstone (