Blackstone to buy stakes in natgas producer EQT's pipelines for $3.5 bn

Natural gas producer EQT said on Monday that alternative asset manager Blackstone would buy minority stakes in some of its pipelines for $3.5 billion in cash through a joint venture.

 

The sale would help EQT, one of the top U.S. natgas producers, to reduce the debt pile it accumulated after the $14 billion purchase of pipeline operator Equitrans Midstream in July. 

Shares of EQT rose 3.9% in premarket trading. 

Blackstone and EQT would form the joint venture valued at about $8.8 billion and it would contain EQT's ownership interests in its regulated transmission and storage assets, the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the Hammerhead pipeline. 

EQT said that the JV, along with its recently announced asset sales in Pennsylvania , would help the company to exit 2024 with about $9 billion of net debt.

 

The Pittsburgh-based company had a net debt $13.6 billion as of Sept. 30. EQT said in July it planned to cut its debt load by $5 billion through cash it generated from operations and asset sales. 

Reuters had reported on the sale of the pipelines exclusively in October.

 

The Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 300-mile natural gas line running from West Virginia to Virginia, entered service in June after a years-long legal battle over its construction. 

EQT's stake in the entity that owns the pipeline is one of the prized assets within the portfolio being sold.

The Hammerhead pipeline has a capacity to carry 1.6 billion cubic feet per day from the production sites in Pennsylvania, EQT said. 

The transaction is expected to close in the current quarter.