EQT Corp., the largest natural-gas producer in the Appalachian Basin, agreed to create a fuel-processing joint venture with DCP Midstream Partners LP to fund facilities needed to accommodate rising output in the region.
Denver-based DCP will contribute about $200 million in cash for a 50 percent stake in the venture and will be the operator, according to a statement Thursday by Pittsburgh-based EQT and DCP. EQT will put assets in the venture, including a gas-processing plant and a related pipeline in southeastern Kentucky.
EQT has said it plans to spend about $900 million this year to drill wells in the Appalachian Basin, including the Marcellus and Huron shale formations. The Marcellus Shale, which stretches across Pennsylvania and neighboring states, may hold 262 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas, making it the biggest known deposit of the heating and power-plant fuel, according to a U.S. Energy Department estimate.
Edward Klump, Bloomberg News Service
