EQT Expands Marcellus Position in Nearly $3 Billion Acquisition

EQT Corp. is expanding in the Marcellus Shale, adding a new operating position in Pennsylvania through an acquisition worth nearly $3 billion.

The Pittsburgh-based company announced the acquisition, comprising the Marcellus assets of Alta Resources LLC, in a company release on May 6. In the release, EQT said it will acquire all of the membership interests in Alta’s upstream and midstream subsidiaries in the core of the northeast Marcellus Shale for approximately $2.925 billion in cash and stock.

EQT, which claims to be the largest producer of natural gas in the U.S., operates in the core of the Appalachian Basin’s Marcellus and Utica shale plays. With an already formidable footprint in southwest Marcellus that stretches across Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the company said its purchase from Alta will grow its acreage position to more than 1.6 million acres with the addition of Alta’s roughly 300,000 acreage position in the Northeast of the play.