Steel Reef acquires Summit Midstream’s Bison Gas gathering system in North Dakota for $40 million in cash as part of Houston-based Summit’s plans to streamline its portfolio. According to a release on September 19, with the sale of Bison Midstream, Summit’s focus in the Williston Basin will be on increasing its crude oil and produced water gathering systems mainly situated in Williams and Divide Counties, North Dakota. The Bison agreement follows the sale of Summit’s Lane gathering and processing system in the #PermianBasin to Matador Resources Co. in June for $75 million. The merger of the divestitures creates additional financial flexibility to reinvest in more strategic scale-building opportunities across Summit’s footprint. Summit Midstream is interested in the status of customer development activity in central Williams County and pro forma for the transaction and anticipates over 50 new wells behind our liquids system in 2023. Pro forma for the Bison transaction, Summit will have about $90 million drawn on its $400 million ABL credit facility, resulting in over $300 million of available liquidity, according to Deneke. The company continues to anticipate to trend toward the high end of our 2022 Adjusted EBITDA guidance range of $205 million to $220 million.

Antero Midstream Corp. bought Marcellus assets of Crestwood Equity Partners LP on September 12 for $205 million in cash, signing another sale of noncore assets by the Houston-based company. Crestwood has strategically enhanced its asset portfolio through a series of A&D transactions for the previous 18 months to create a competitive scale in the Williston, Delaware, and Power River basins. The strategy covered acquisitions of Oasis Midstream Partners, Sendero Midstream, and Crestwood Permian Basin Holdings LLC (CPJV), which was a 50:50 joint venture of Crestwood and First Reserve. The assets to be bought cover 72 miles of dry gas gathering pipelines and nine compressor stations with about 700 MMcf/d of compression capacity. The current throughput on the system is approximately 200 MMcf/d, resulting in important available capacity for increase without major capital investment. The deal includes almost 425 undeveloped drilling locations and 120,000 gross dedicated acres from Antero Resources mainly in Harrison County. The acquisition is also anticipated to raise Antero Midstream’s compression capacity by 20% and gathering pipeline mileage by 15%.

Houston-based company Momentum Midstream LLC on September 22 purchased Midcoast Energy LLC’s East Texas business from an affiliate of Arc Light Capital Partners LLC and Align Midstream LLC from Tailwater Capital and claimed that it establishes a leading presence in the Haynesville Shale. New Generation Gas Gathering or NG3 project will collect natural gas produced in the Haynesville Shale for re-delivery to premium Gulf Coast markets, including LNG export. Moreover, the NG3 project includes a carbon capture and sequestration component that will eliminate 100% of the CO₂ and accumulate it underground for a long time, creating a net negative carbon footprint. With the combined assets of Midcoast ETX and Align Midstream, Momentum is currently delivering volumes of more than 2 Bcf/d for a diverse customer base composed of producers, utilities, end-users, and LNG exporters. Momentum’s footprint in the Haynesville includes about 3,000 miles of gathering pipelines, 1.5 Bcf/d of treating capacity, 700 MMcf/d of processing capacity, 200,000 HP of compression, and 820 miles of pipelines transporting gas to the Gulf Coast markets in southeast Texas and the Carthage and Bethel markets in East Texas.

The completion of the merger between Centennial Resource Development Inc. and Colgate Energy Partners II LLC happened on Sept. 1, sealing the debut of Permian Resources Corp., which is considered the largest pure-play E&P company in the Delaware Basin. Permian Resources’ idea was to combine two successful E&P companies, creating a better, stronger, and more strategically compelling company. Centennial and Colgate announced an agreement to merge in May, denying rumors that Colgate, a privately held independent Midland-based company, had been seeking an IPO. The merger estimated Colgate at about $3.9 billion and consists of 269.3 million shares of Centennial stock, $525 million of cash, and the assumption of approximately $1.4 billion of Colgate’s outstanding net debt. Permian Resources, being the combined company, has a deep inventory of “high-quality” drilling locations on around 180,000 net acres the companies anticipate will provide more than $1 billion of free cash flow in 2023 at current strip prices, in accordance with the company release on Sept. 1.

TC Energy Corp. had reached a deal with a Mexican state utility to build a $4.5 billion natural gas pipeline, according to a company release on Aug. 4. The natural gas to Mexico's central and southeast regions will be furnished by the 1.3 bcfd offshore Southeast Gateway Pipeline, the Canadian pipeline operator said. Due to the most serious trade spat with #Mexico over the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, Canada and the United States made the deal with Comisión Federalde Electricidad (CFE). TC Energy and CFE in conjunction with the alliance also took the final investment decision (FID) on the 715-km Southeast Gateway. The pipeline will serve southeast Mexico, starting onshore in Tuxpan, Veracruz, then proceeding offshore, making landfall at Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, and Dos Bocas, Tabasco.

According to a press announcement on June 29, Baker Hughes got a contract to supply electric-powered Integrated Compressor Line (ICL) decarbonization technology and turbomachinery equipment for an upcoming natural gas transmission project by a subsidiary of Tellurian Inc. – Driftwood Pipeline LLC. Driftwood Pipeline decided that the projects of Lines 200 and 300 would be situated in Beauregard and Calcasieu Parishes in southwest Louisiana and it will be the first time when Baker Hughes installs its ICL technology for pipeline compression in North America. Joey Mahmoud, president of Tellurian Pipelines, says the company expects that the project will give upwards of 5.5 Bcf of natural gas every day, with virtually no emissions. As a part of the agreement, Tellurian makes the initial $240 million pipeline investment as part of the broader Driftwood Pipeline system, which will keep enhanced supply reliability to meet the area’s projected industrial enlargement in a purer, more sustainable way. Baker Hughes has installed over 50 ICL units across the different pipeline and offshore applications, mainly in Europe. The compressors exert a reduced environmental footprint because their hermetically sealed casing prevents emissions from obviating. It is important to mention, that they require minimal downtime as magnetic bearings are resulting in more efficient operations and low maintenance.

On 27 June, the analysts at Kpler spread the word that the exports of crude oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast could break a record 3.3 MMbbl/d this quarter as Europe has regard to U.S. crude which can outweigh sanctioned Russian oil. Due to Washington's decision to release 180 MMbbl of oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, U.S. exports have increased in the last three months, as it has flooded the domestic market. Exports to Europe are anticipated averaging approximately 1.4 MMbbl/d this quarter, about 30% higher than the year-ago quarter, meanwhile, export to Asia is set to decrease to less than 1 MMbbl/d. Despite that the U.S. has lost about 1 MMbbl/d of refining capacity since 2020, it also boosted exports thanks to the government’s intervention to back crude supplies which has had consequences in growth in exports. Throughput via the Port of Corpus Christi has grown by more than 150,000 bbl/d and has become 1.86 MMbbl/d. Nevertheless, Port of Houston exports also have been increasing since the third quarter of last year, they remain below pre-pandemic levels.

Earthstone Energy Inc., based in Texas, announced the transaction on June 28: the acquisition of Titus Oil&Gas which will raise production in the Delaware Basin by 26%. The $627 million acquisition fills the Permian Basin in Eddy and Lea counties, N.M. with 86 net locations on 7,900 net acres of leasehold, while it is not clear how much of the leasehold might be on federal acreage It is Earthstone’s seventh acquisition since 2021, a span that includes the closing of approximately $1.89 billion in acquisitions in the Permian Basin. The purchase of Titus Oil & Gas Production LLC and Titus Oil & Gas Production II LLC, privately held companies backed by NGP Energy Capital Management LLC, is estimated at $575 million in cash and it is the equivalent of $52 million in stock (3.9 million shares of its Class A common stock based on the June 24 closing price). Titus shared that its net production in June was 31,800 boe/d. The company had reserves of approximately 28.9 MMboe. Earthstone is sure its net production will increase, at the midpoint, by 20,500 boe/d (65% oil) in the fourth quarter.

Undisclosed industry sources said that THQ Appalachia I LLC (Tug Hill and Quantum Energy) is seeking a sale of the U.S. natural gas producer for more than $5 billion, including debt. Mainly operating in the Marshall and Wetzel counties in West Virginia, THQ Appalachia has net production of around 760 MMcf/d. Despite volatility in commodity markets which has made the valuation of energy producers tougher, THQ Appalachia is anticipating more than $5 billion due to the worth of its existing production and the possible value of its undeveloped acreage, the sources said on June 17. Additionally to purchasing THQ Appalachia, possible bidders in the sale process also have the opportunity to buy XcL Midstream, the pipeline firm that moves the company’s gas to market and has the same CEO as in Tug Hill. If the same buyer chooses to purchase XcL, the deal consideration will increase further. However, the anonymous sources admitted that the sale depends on the market conditions and is not guaranteed since Tug Hill and Quantum could ultimately decide to retain some or all of THQ Appalachia and XcL’s assets. Tug Hill and Quantum refused to comment on these statements and XcL did not respond to a comment request.

A bolt-on acquisition of Woodland Midstream gathering and processing assets in the Permian Basin by DCP Midstream LP is under consideration and estimated at $160 million. According to a definitive agreement announced on June 14, DCP Midstream will get the James Lake System from Woodland Midstream II, a portfolio company of EIV Capital. DCP anticipates funding the bolt-on acquisition using cash on hand and borrowings under the company’s existing bank facilities. Since the James Lake System is situated within three miles of DCP’s Goldsmith processing facility in the Permian Basin, it provides the opportunity to maintain significant synergies and reduce the acquisition multiple over time. The System includes about 230 miles of gathering pipe and a 120 MMcf/d cryogenic processing facility, increasing DCP’s capacity and serving significant synergies with the company’s Goldsmith processing facility in Ector County, Texas. The James Lake System attends producers within the Permian’s Central Basin Platform in Ector, Andrews, and Winkler counties, Texas. It is expected that DCP also secures about 250,000 dedicated acres and the transaction itself is expected to be completed in the third quarter of the year. To ensure the fulfillment of this transaction: Holland & Hart LLP provides legal counsel to DCP; Intrepid Partners, LLC is a financial adviser and McDermott Will & Emery LLP is a legal advisor to Woodland Midstream II.

According to CheniereEnergy’s board of directors announcement on June 22, the company declared the further expansion of its CorpusChristi, Texas. Moreover, the LNG plant could come sooner than expected due to the announcement of a final investments decision (FID) related to Stage 3 Liquefaction Project work at the export facility. It will ensure the capacity to ship 10-plus million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from 7 midscale trains. Furthermore, TudorPickering, Holt & Co. (#TPH) declared on June 23, that the possible ultimate capacity of the facility could be in the 11-12 mtpa range given 10.7 mtpa of long-term contracts have been signed with companies such as CPC, PGNiG, Sinochem, Foran, ENGIE, Apache, EOG and ARX CN. Additionally, Cheniere announced two sale and purchase agreements (SPAs) with #ChevronCorp.: Firstly, Chevron will obtain 1 mtpa of LNG from Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC with deliveries considered to start in 2026. Deliveries will reach full capacity in 2027 and expire in mid-2042. Secondly, Chevron will obtain 1 mtpa of LNG from Cheniere Marketing LLC with deliveries considered to start in 2027 and continue for about 15 years. The purchase price for the LNG under both SPAs will be indexed to the Henry Hub price, plus a fixed liquefaction fee as Cheniere claimed. Since the expansion will have been completed, Cheniere’s aggregate nominal production capacity will be increased to more than 55 mtpa by the end of 2025 compared to 45 mtpa now. It will become a part of the industry-wide decarbonization movement away from coal and oil as this allows Cheniere to provide the global market with additional low-carbon fuels. First exports from the facility are anticipated in 2025.