'Big deal' & Cooking fracked leachate
JBL
From: Bob Donnan <donnanl...@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, Sep 7, 2022,
EQT to acquire West Virginia companies for $5.2 billion, expanding pipeline reach
Anya Litvak | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | September 6, 2022 - 7:10pm
Pittsburgh-based EQT Corp. announced a $5.2-billion deal to acquire oil and gas producer Tug Hill and pipeline company XcL Midstream with operations in West Virginia.
Both are portfolio companies of Quantum Energy Partners, whose founder and CEO, Wil VanLoh, will join EQT’s board of directors after the close of the transaction, which EQT expects to be in the fourth quarter.
Already the largest natural gas producer in the U.S., EQT’s expansion in Marshall and Wetzel counties would boost its daily gas volumes by about 15% if the deal closes as planned.
EQT’s CEO Toby Rice, speaking to analysts on Tuesday evening, said Tug Hill is “the largest private operator remaining in southern Appalachia.”
The acquisition also increases EQT’s exposure to natural gas liquids, which are plentiful in the so-called wet gas of some Marcellus and Utica Shale wells.
And, critically, it adds pipeline capacity to the company’s arsenal.
XcL’s 97 miles of pipelines connect to eight interstate pipelines, which would expand EQT’s access to markets outside of Appalachia, where gas trades at a discount to the benchmark price set at the Henry Hub in Louisiana.
“EQT is the face of the new energy paradigm,” Michael Radler, CEO of Tug Hill and XcL Midstream, said in a statement announcing the deal. He said Mr. Rice, since becoming CEO of EQT in a shareholder revolt in June 2019, “has systematically changed EQT, internally and externally.”
“I admire his ability to execute on the plan he has outlined, and I believe in his future goals,” Mr. Radler said, specifically calling out Mr. Rice’s advocacy of increasing natural gas exports through the construction of new pipelines and liquified natural gas facilities.
When asked how the acquisition would help advance those goals, Mr. Rice said: “We now have access to more pipelines. That’s helpful in allowing us to access more markets, including LNG markets.”
EQT said the deal would not alter its investment grade rating.
Payment will be split between $2.6 billion in cash and 55 million shares of EQT stock.
Its last major acquisition closed a year ago when EQT bought Alta Resources for $2.9 billion, a deal that brought EQT into the northeastern part of Pennsylvania.
EQT also announced on Tuesday that its board approved expanding EQT’s share buyback program to $2 billion.
COMMENT:
1st and 10
West Virginia has a severance tax on gas produced in the state, Pennsylvania needs one too, especially considering all this exported gas leaving untaxed.
Texas collects Billion$ of dollar$ each and every year from their severance tax and uses it for schools and highway projects. It could be the solution to funding Pennsylvania's bridge repairs! Tell your legislators, and if they're in the industry's pocket, vote them out.
Texas Rates
- Gas: 7.5 percent (.075) of market value of gas (10-01-1969 to date).
- Condensate Production Tax: 4.6 percent (.046) of market value of condensate (08-27-1953 to date).
- Regulatory Fee: For report periods September 2001 and later, .000667 per thousand cubic feet of gas produced.
- Oil severance tax = 4.6 percent of market value of oil produced.
Every last bit of oil and gas that comes out of Texas Land helps put money into the state budget. The state collects that revenue and splits it between the state rainy day fund, the state highway fund and the Foundation School Program. Texas expected to collect a combined $6.7 billion from oil and gas industry taxes for the upcoming 2018-19 budget cycle.
Compare that to the measly 'chump change' Pennsylvania municipalities get from the 'impact fee.' The 2022 distribution from Pa's impact fee was only $234 million and we definitely aren't that far behind them in gas production to only yield 3-1/2 percent as much revenue!
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