Sunoco

Sunoco Logistics Partners LP has agreed to acquire Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP) in an all-stock deal valued at nearly $20 billion in a tie-up that would create the nation’s second largest midstream master limited partnership by enterprise value.

Sunoco Logistics Partners LP has struck a $760 million deal to acquire Vitol Group’s Permian Basin crude oil system in West Texas that is set to close by the end of the year. The transaction includes a 2 million bbl crude oil terminal in Midland and an oil gathering and mainline pipeline system in the Midland sub-basin, which includes an acreage dedication from a Permian producer. Also included are Vitol’s oil purchasing and marketing business in West Texas. The acquisition also would provide Sunoco Logistics 100% of SunVit Pipeline LLC, a 50-50 joint venture with Vitol that connects the Midland terminal to the partnership’s Permian Express 2 pipeline. In connection with the acquisition, Energy Transfer Partners LP and Energy Transfer Equity LP, owners of the partnership’s general partner Sunoco Partners LLC, agreed to reduce incentive distributions by $60 million over a two-year period. The financial assistance “provides us with expected accretive economics for this strategic acquisition,” Sunoco Logistics CEO Michael J. Hennigan said.

In another legal victory for Sunoco Logistics Partners LP’s embattled Mariner East 2 (ME2) project, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled 5-2 Thursday to uphold the pipeline’s powers of eminent domain as granted under state authority.

Rex Energy Corp. said Monday that it has reached an agreement with INEOS Europe AG to sell the petrochemical company ethane, propane and butane for its overseas facilities, making it the latest Appalachian producer to sign a deal to send U.S. shale gas abroad.

Rex Energy Corp. said Monday that it has reached an agreement with INEOS Europe AG to sell the petrochemical company ethane, propane and butane for its overseas facilities, making it the latest Appalachian producer to sign a deal to send U.S. shale gas abroad.

Sunoco Logistics Partners LP’s Mariner East project won another small victory this week in Pennsylvania when the Huntingdon County Common Pleas Court ruled that the company could proceed with tree felling on three acres of land owned by a family that has challenged the Mariner East (ME) 2 pipeline project in court.

Marking another milestone this year for the U.S. shale industry, the first shipment of ethane gas produced in the Appalachian Basin set sail on Wednesday from Sunoco Logistics Partners LP’s Marcus Hook Industrial Complex for a 3,800-mile journey to Norway.

Legal challenges against Sunoco Logistics Partners LP’s proposed Mariner East (ME) pipelines are mounting, as Pennsylvania landowners and an environmental advocacy group are fighting against a subsidiary’s efforts to condemn property for the project’s path. The court battles could combine with the commodities downturn to delay the project further.

Another Pennsylvania court has handed Sunoco Logistics Partners LP a victory as it pushes forward with development of the Mariner East pipeline project to transport natural gas liquids (NGL).