Merger

Less than six weeks after SandRidge Energy Inc. ditched plans to purchase Bonanza Creek Energy Inc., the Oklahoma City-based independent has a new suitor to consider: Midstates Petroleum Co. Inc.

The heads of Dominion Energy Inc. and Scana Corp. told South Carolina regulators that the state could either accept Dominion’s proposed $14.6 billion offer to buy Scana, or they could watch the troubled public utility potentially fall into bankruptcy.

U.S. onshore proppant stalwart Fairmount Santrol has agreed to a cash-and-stock takeover by Connecticut-based Unimin Corp. to create an energy and industrial supplier with an estimated 45 million tons/year of sand and mineral processing capacity.

SandRidge Energy Inc., in a tussle with activist hedge fund billionaire and majority shareholder Carl Icahn, on Monday urged shareholders to stay focused on the benefits of its planned merger with Bonanza Creek Energy Inc.

EQT Corp. on Thursday cleared the final hurdle to create the nation’s largest natural gas producer after receiving necessary shareholder approvals to acquire Rice Energy Inc.

American Midstream Partners LP (AMID) on Wednesday announced an estimated $3 billion merger with Southcross Holdings LP entities, a transformational tie-up that when completed would create an enterprise with 8,000 miles of onshore and offshore natural gas, crude and liquids pipelines, and substantial gas and liquids processing.

Proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS), Glass, Lewis & Co. and Egan-Jones Ratings Companyall recommend that EQT Corp.shareholders vote to approve the pending $8 billion acquisitionof Rice Energy Inc. ISS said the “proposed transaction has inherent industrial logic and appears to better position the company to resolve its long-standing sum-of-the-parts discount.” The reports come as EQT continues to contend with shareholders that want the merger scrappedin favor of separating the upstream and midstream businesses. Shareholders are scheduled to vote on the deal at a special meeting on Nov. 9; each board already has approved the merger.

With just two weeks before shareholders vote on the $8 billion acquisition of Rice Energy Inc., EQT Corp.’s management team Thursday continued to plug the merger’s benefits and what it could mean for the future of the company.

Houston’s Silver Run Acquisition Corp. II, helmed by former Anadarko Petroleum Corp. chief Jim Hackett, agreed late Wednesday to combine with Oklahoma-focused producer Alta Mesa Holdings LP and Kingfisher Midstream LLC.