$6.7B deal to make EQT largest gas producer

Downtown-based firm to buy Rice Energy

The largest natural gas basin in the U.S. will be home to the largest natural gas producer when two of southwestern Pennsylvania’s biggest oil and gas drillers become one in a $6.7 billion acquisition.

EQT Corp., a Downtown-based firm, is buying Canonsburg-based Rice Energy Inc. in a deal that will put EQT ahead of ExxonMobil in gas production. It will also draw EQT’s focus even more to Washington and Greene counties, where much of Rice’s acreage zigzags EQT’s.

The deal includes all of Rice’s exploration and production assets, as well as its interest in midstream master limited partnerships, which operate natural gas gathering and compression assets and water pipelines.

It’s not clear yet what will happen to Rice’s 500 full-time employees, although layoffs are expected.

“As with any merger or acquisition, workforce reductions are often necessary in order to capture synergies,” said Linda Robertson, a spokeswoman for EQT.

In a public filing, Rice told its employees that many will be asked to join EQT, and for those who aren’t, the company has “negotiated certain protections.”

“For those of you whose Rice Energy journey ends alongside the Rice family, you should know that there is no better group of people with whom we would rather cross this finish line,” Daniel Rice IV, the company’s CEO, wrote.