Oil and gas pipeline firm Equitrans Midstream Corp. is in the early stages of considering a sale, Bloomberg News and Reuters reports.
The operator of natural gas pipelines across the USA, including the Mountain Valley Pipeline project, is working with an adviser as it weighs a range of strategic options, according to reports.
Equitrans would likely attract interest from industry peers should it opt to launch a sales process in early 2024.
Equitrans owns a 48.1% ownership interest in the Mountain Valley pipeline and will operate it once it is online – which is expected to be in the first quarter of 2024.
When the company started construction in February 2018, Equitrans estimated the 2.0 billion ft3/d project would cost about US$3.5 billion and enter service by late 2018. Now, the project stands to cost nearly US$7.2 billion, having faced numerous legal challenges and labour issues.
Bloomberg, citing Citi analyst Spiro Dounis, highlighted that with the pipeline close to being complete, exploring a potential sale would make sense.
Equitrans was spun out of the natural gas firm EQT Corp. in 2018, The pipeline operator has a market capitalisation of US$4 billion.
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