Rice

Change seemed imminent earlier this month when CEO Toby Rice took the helm at EQT Corp., but under his management the company is drastically overhauling how it spends money and in the process redefining how active the nation’s largest natural gas producer will be going forward.

With an overwhelming majority of shareholders backing their plans to remake EQT Corp., the next step for Toby and Derek Rice is execution, financial analysts said Wednesday.

EQT Corp. said this week second quarter production would come in at the high end of the company’s 355-375 Bcfe guidance for the period, while 2019 capital expenditures are also expected to decline.

EQT Corp. dug in this week, rejecting nine board nominees put forward by Rice Energy co-founders Toby Rice and Derek Rice, calling the brothers’ campaign nothing more than an attempt to promote the family’s interests.

Appalachian pure-play EQT Corp. on Thursday increased 2019 guidance by 10 Bcfe, even after dropping three rigs during the first quarter to drill fewer wells this year, all at no expense as the company remains focused on improving results in the face of a shareholder revolt.

EQT Corp. said it made significant progress in the first quarter on a strategic plan initiated late last year to generate more value and stave off an attempt by shareholders Toby and Derek Rice to take over the company, now the nation’s largest gas producer.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has fined Rice Midstream Holdings LLC $1.5 million for pipeline violations in Greene County that resulted in sediment discharges into local waterways.

The proxy war that’s swirled in recent months around the largest natural gas producer in the Lower 48, EQT Corp., continued on Thursday as CEO Robert McNally dug in further and again dismissed Toby and Derek Rice’s latest assertions, saying their plans to take over the company are “based on flawed assumptions, selective data and an incomplete and misleading story.”

Toby and Derek Rice continued their quest for control of EQT Corp. on Tuesday, telling shareholders during a conference call that they could easily extract more value from the company’s massive Appalachian position because they’ve done it before. EQT again disagreed.