Senate adjourns, EQT buys Chevron Appalachian assets, and more

EQT Corp. announced on Tuesday that it is buying Chevron’s Appalachian assets for $735 million in a deal that will make the largest natural gas producer in the country an even bigger force.

Downtown-based EQT called the move “low risk” and a “strategic step,” having foreshadowed the industry’s consolidation during its earnings call last week. Chevron’s more than 500 producing wells that are part of the sales agreement, signed last week, will add about 11% to EQT’s production.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday motioned for the Senate to adjourn until November 9.

The move shuts down the Senate from doing any legislative business, including reaching a deal on additional coronavirus aid, until after voters have cast their ballots, and it comes on the heels of Monday's 52-48 vote to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court.

A decade ago, energy companies built a natural gas storage facility on Mexico’s Baja California coast to receive imported liquefied gas by ship and gasify it for distribution around northern Mexico.

That plan didn’t pan out, but under a new proposal backed by various Utah agencies, the plant known as Energia Costa Azul (which translates to Blue Coast Energy) would be “reverse engineered” into an export terminal that would liquefy gas piped south from Rocky Mountain states and load it onto special tanker ships bound for Asia.