Pioneer Natural Resources Co. is pursuing the sale of its 50.1% share of the Eagle Ford Shale Midstream business (EFS Midstream) that it owns and operates with Reliance Holding USA Inc. (49.9%). “The sale of EFS Midstream would allow us to strategically redeploy capital to our core, oil-rich Spraberry/Wolfcamp assets in the Permian Basin of West Texas…” said Pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield. “We currently have no plans to divest our Eagle Ford Shale upstream assets.” The sale of EFS Midstream, he said, is not expected to impact the company’s ability to export processed Eagle Ford condensate (see Shale Daily, June 25). The joint venture was formed in 2010 and services are provided by operator Pioneer (46%), Reliance (45%) and Newpek LLC (9%), and for various third parties. The system consists of 10 central gathering plants and 460 miles of pipelines. Pioneer’s cash flow from EFS Midstream is forecasted to be more than $100 million in 2015. A data room is to be opened in December.

Appalachian pure-play Rice Energy Inc. has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the initial public offering (IPO) of a master limited partnership (MLP) for its midstream assets in southwest Pennsylvania. Rice did not say when it would launch Rice Midstream Partners LP, how many units it intends to offer or what each would be priced at, but it expects to raise at least $425 million, according to the statement. The MLP will handle production from Rice and third-party customers across 76,000 gross acres in Washington and Greene counties, PA. At the time the statement was filed, Rice Midstream’s assets consisted of 3.2 MMDth/d of dry gas gathering and compression capacity.